Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 1 32 Secret of her husband

CAS SANDRA

I suddenly felt as if it were hard to breathe. The air felt heavy, and a strong wave
of emotion engulfed me as I thought about the fact that Asher had ventured

into the inferno to find me.

The burn marks that covered his back made sense and answered the questions
that hid in the back of my mind for so much time. He'd plunged right into the
blaze and searched for me.

As my thoughts swirled around my mind like a hurricane, I felt almost sick.

I couldn't help but think about what life could have been like had he found me
after all. What if he'd arrived in time to save me? Would I have retained my old
face, my old form? We wouldn't have been separated all of these years.

But as tempting as it was to consider what could have been, there was no room
for regret. Had Asher saved me in time, I wouldn't have become a healer.
Finnick’s life would have been in immediate danger since he was Asher’s son,
and I was nothing more than an exiled, foolish girl in love.

Everything happened for a reason.

What mattered now was that Asher and I were together again.

“Cas sandra, I need to ask you something,” Asher brought me back into reality
with a simple question, and his expression softened. “I need to know... why do
you look different now? Why is your face no longer the same as it was, and what
happened to your wolf? I couldn't recognize you when you first got here because.
you were so different. What happened?”

“My appearance had been significantly altered by the burns from the inferno,” I
explained. “My entire body sustained major injuries. It was so bad that Emmett
had to perform multiple surgeries to treat the burns. Once my body healed... I
wasn't the

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more beautiful now.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. “I would be lying if I said I wasn't self-conscious. It's
hard to go through a transformation like that. Sometimes I find myself staring at
my reflection, especially when I wake up in the morning. 1 still look like a
stranger.”

“That has to be hard,” he said quietly. “'m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It's okay,” I replied. “I'm alive, at least. Besides, my change in appearance was
necessary. Once I recovered from the burns, I knew I needed to seek out a new
life. I couldn’t be Cora Felix anymore. She died in the inferno.”

Asher nodded thoughtfully.

I wasn’t sure how to word my next statement, but since we were being honest
with one another, I had to just say it.

“After the inferno, I never thought about turning back or returning to Anemond,” I
revealed. “In fact, if it weren't for the accident Marco had suffered in Wild Crawler,
we probably wouldn't have crossed paths again.”

Asher remained silent. The pain on his face was unmistakable, though he tried to
hide it.

“I know it's hard to hear,” I admitted. “But Anemond was too dangerous to come
back to. After everything I'd been through, all I had wanted was a stable life with
Finnick”

The Alpha King nodded, and his serious gray eyes fell to the ground as he
considered my words. I hadn't said them to wound him in any way. I just wanted
to provide clarity as he had with me.

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“As for my wolf, I don’t know why it’s gone,” I continued. “Even Emmett couldn’t
figure out why my wolf soul had disappeared. I suppose it could be due to the
poison I had ingested.”

“Poison?” Asher repeated back, and his eyebrows knitted together as his eyes
met mine.

When I nodded, his lips parted in surprise, and he leaned forward.

“One of the soldiers had forced a liquid down my throat,” I explained as Asher’s
hands formed into fists at his side. “It burned at once, so I knew it was some kind
of poison. It was probably meant to kill me, but for some reason, it didn’t. I'd tried
to beg them not to do it, but it was no use. He grabbed me and made me drink it.
It made me delirious and my vision was altered. It was awful, probably the worst
thing I've been through.”

Asher’s eyes began to tear up.

“Cas sandra,” he whispered. “Cas sandra, I'm... I'm so sorry.”

“It's okay,” I assured him. “I'm okay now.”

We sat in silence for a moment, and I let Asher collect himself. Surely, this wasn't
easy for him to hear. The Alpha King wasn’t weak by any means, but this
information had brought out another side of him, one that rarely saw the light of
day.

He held me close for a while, and once I was sure he was alright, I finished my
story.

“When Emmett got me back to Wild Crawler, he was able to detect a very tiny
amount of poison in my blood, but he was unable to identify it.”

“Was Emmett skilled with poisons?” Asher suddenly blurted out.

I blinked, completely taken aback. “What do you mean, Asher?”

“Was he skilled with poisons?” he repeated back.

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I considered the idea for a moment.

“As bad as it sounds, I didn’t know much about Emmett, to be honest,” I
admitted. “Our relationship was purely out of benefit to Finnick’s wellbeing, as
well as my own. Our marriage was more of a formality than anything. He also
preferred to be alone when working or studying something. He had a few
notebooks that related to common wolf poisons. Other than that, I couldn't tell
you what he knew.”

mind.

Asher remained silent for a moment, but it was clear he had something on his
“Lancel gathered some intel about Emmett Keller,” he revealed. “A little while
back. I know this isn’t going to sound great on my part, but I wanted to know
more about him. Emmett was born in Wild Crawler territory with his family, and
then his parents were killed when he was young. Their murderer kidnapped
Emmett too and when he never returned, the rest of the Pack thought he was
dead.”

I gasped. “What?”

Asher nodded. “Yes. He came back to Wild Crawler when he was sixteen.
Everyone was surprised by his return since they thought he was dead. When he
came back, he was suddenly a self-taught healer.”

I had never heard anything about this. Emmett hardly mentioned anything about
himself or his past. But there was one thing Asher had been right about- Emmett
was an outstanding healer, probably better than most of the royal healt Anemond.
But where had he learned it all from?

Was there something more here that needed to be discovered?

Did Emmett have a dark past that I knew nothing about?

Then, Asher asked a question that completely took me by surprise.

“Cas sandra,” he said. “Is there any possibility that Emmett could be a sorcerer or
related to the Dark Abyss?”

I