Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 121 Possibilities

CAS SANDRA

I'd never been down to the palace dungeon before, and as we descended the
staircase, a putrid odor reached my nose and I shivered from the cold. Back
when my father had been imprisoned in this very same dungeon, I hadn't even
had an opportunity to visit because he’d made me swear not to. My father had
encouraged me to stay away, thinking I might be incriminated if I went to visit
him.

At the time, it seemed like sound logic, but it was one of my biggest regrets. I
hadn't gotten to say goodbye or tell him I loved him, and now... it was too late.
My heart pounded against my chest as we walked through the corridors, and
when we arrived at the cells and I saw the man behind the iron bars, my temples
pulsed. It would be a lite to say I wasn't afraid. Facing the man who had nearly
taken my life was both intimidating and frightening, and part of me wanted to turn
around and run away. But I managed to stay calm.

“Well, who do we have here?” the imposter remarked as his eyes trailed over me.
“I'm surprised to see that I have visitors.”

“This isn’t a social visit, Spi ke” Asher growled. “We're here to talk about
something important.”

“Then, by all means, go ahead,” the imposter replied with a raised eyebrow.
forced back a gulp and then stepped forward and approached the cell. I har ed
the imposter the papers through the bars, and he accepted them with a confused
look.

“I need you to read these,” I said cautiously. “And then tell us if you think this
person died from poison.”

Spi ke stared at me for a moment and then nodded.

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His dark eyebrows creased together as he read the report, and the entire room
grew deadly silent. He took his time examining the papers, and once he reached
the third page, his lips parted in surprise. He raised his head up and looked at
me.

“Where did you find the body?” he asked.

“You don’t need to know,” Asher retorted sternly.

Sp ik e sighed. His expression was incredibly serious.

“I'm good at poison and sorcery, but I'm not excellent,” he admitted. “In this
report, I can see that something found in the corpse of the deceased shares the
same elements with the poisons created by the Ewonmiams, but there are subtle
differences. I can’t figure it out with absolute certainty just by reading the report. I
need to know more.”

His tone told me he was indicating something.

“Do you mean that this person died from a poison just like Udosyn?” I asked him
directly.

Spi k e shrugged.

“It's possible,” he said. “Though I'm not sure. If you want me to determine it for
sure, I need something more.”

“What else do you need to know?” I asked calmly.

Sp ik e's eyes scanned the report.

“This seems to be a chronic sort of poison,” he mused. “Which is much more.
difficult to recreate than Udosyn. If I'm correct, the one who created this poison
wouldn't have just used it on one wolf. He would have to test it out on different
werewolves in order to be certain of its efficacy. There must be others who have.
the same symptoms.”

His sharp eyes shot over to us, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

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Spi k e was onto something, I just knew it.

The disease and the poison were related.

“If 'm on the right track, I would need more devices to carry out a test,” he
continued. “And I would need blood samples from those who had the same
symptoms as the deceased. I would need samples daily to be able to track their
changes.”

I quickly thought of the possibility of bringing a patient from Wild Crawler to
Anemond for this, but I didn’t know if it could possibly be done. I would have to
discuss the idea with Asher later.

For now, I had another question for Spi ke.

“Did anything like this ever happen in Dark Abyss?” I wondered, and when Sp ik
e and Asher stared at me in confusion, I continued. “I'm only curious because if
this poison was subtle and difficult to create, it must have been crafted by an
excellent sorcerer. But ever since the war with Yurene, Dark Abyss has been in
the shadows. I guess I'm just wondering the timeline of all of this.”

Really, I wanted to know if there was a chance that Kaleb’s father had gotten the
disease during the war with Dark Abyss. Had this illness stemmed from their war
and then spread down to Wegalla?

Spi ke considered the idea for a moment.

“Dark Abyss had quite a few talented sorcerors before the war,” he said. “Some
of them not only recreated the spellwork of the Ewonmiams but also made their
ow creations. I heard that they were powerful and horrible, but ultimately, their sc
cery had led to the war. Yurene wanted their power for themselves, obviously
think it’s possible that this poison was created long ago to combat them, but it's ju
a hunch. I can't be certain.”

I considered what Kaleb had told me and assumed that given this new
information, this was why his father had gotten the disease.

The only thing I didn’t understand was why it had appeared in Wild Crawler

I

[e)

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after all of these years.

After we finished our conversation with Spi ke, Asher and I returned to his

study.

“If Spi ke needs to do the test, we need to bring a patient from Wild Crawler to
Anemond,” I announced the moment the door was closed. “We can use their
blood

for our research and hopefully figure out the correlation between the poison and
the

disease.”

Asher considered the idea for a moment and then shook his head. “That wou
cause too much attention. I let Alpha Gareth keep the disease that prevailed in
Wil Cralwer a secret. I can't let anyone in Anemond know about it, or else we
could

cause mass hysteria.”

“I suppose that's fair,” I murmured.

“Do you believe Spi ke?” Asher wondered.

“l don't know,” I admitted. “Bu I don’t want to lose the chance to find out the truth.
Spi ke might help us find the answers we need.”

The Alpha King nodded, and after a moment of silence, he cleared his throat.

“If we need a patient, he can take my blood,” he declared.

My eyes widened. “Asher, that would be way too dangerous-"

“I know it is,” he cut me off. “But it's the best way for us to keep a low pr Giving
Sp i ke the necessary devices and allowing him to carry out a test is ri enough.
We don't need to draw extra attention to it all. If Spi ke uses my blooL could stay
between us.”

Though I understood his logic, I wasn't a fan of this plan. This was too risky. I was
about to open my mouth to protest, but Asher stopped me. He took my hand and
pulled it to his chest.

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“I just want to get this resolved quickly,” he said gently. “So that we could move
on to the next thing. What's going on between us.”

When he smiled at me, I could feel my cheeks begin to flush. A sigh rose up from
my chest.

“Okay,” I decided. “But we have to take extra care to make sure S pike doesn't try
anything dangerous. We won't tell him it's your blood, but we need to be careful
anyway. He might be cooperating with us now, but he’s still a criminal.”

“Of course,” Asher said.. “We'll take every precaution, Cas sandra.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, and I smiled at him.

“He leaned forward and kissed my forehead gently. “Let's solve this together so
that we can move on. All I want is for you to be by my side. I don’t care about
anything else.”

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