The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 32

Aldrich

“Nothing!” Cathy peeped, propelling over to me before delicately snatching the piece of paper from my hand.

I looked at her incredulously. She took the note and buried it deep in the pocket of her trousers, where she sheathed her dagger. “It’s a personal note from my sister,” she said, and the polite buoyancy in her tone indicated she was lying. When she was overly kind, she was lying, as if she was guilty to be doing so. If it actually was a note from her sister, she would be nasty that I was picking it up.

I only stared at her, my jaw tightening. The hurt at her surreptitious, nervous behavior settled into my bones. After being away for so long, I predicted a warmer welcome. And especially less secrets between us.

“What is going on?” I demanded, raising my tone. She merely raised an eyebrow at me, annoyed at my volume. It was a habit I used as authority over my soldiers, and forgot it was not a tactic for her.

“I guess you didn’t hear me right,” she sneered, crossing her arms. But there was an anxious gleam in her eyes. “It’s a note from Danika.”

Instead of answering, I continued to stare. She had lost a substantial amount of weight; her cheekbones were more prominent, her skin faded to a pale ivory. Her green eyes were dim, shadowed by purple in the hollow bags beneath them, and her mouth kept twitching, like she was chewing on her lips. I saw her bouncing her knee, her foot tapping on the wood. Her hair was in knots, looking more like bleached yarn than the usual silk.

My eyes then fell on the dagger in her pocket, something she had never felt the need to use before.

The thing I noticed the most was the fact she had a completely different essence to her. She was always so calm that it was chilling, beautiful and nonchalant in any scenario. Now, she perpetuated an aura that oozed in stress and anxiety, her usual smoothness now rough and dry. Like a rope that was tightly braided debilitating through time to become a mess of thread.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes.

I stormed up to her, stepping in closer. She flinched at the close proximity. “I’m going to ask one more time, and that’s it,” I growled lightly, my eyes daggering into hers, “is there anything going on that I should know about?”

“No,” she said with finality, holding her chin up.

“Swear on the Moon Goddess then,” I challenged with a sneer.

Cathy shut her mouth and I saw a muscle in her jaw tense. She did not say anything.

With that, I cast her a glare before storming past her into the corridor.

***

“I’m so happy you’re back,” Theo said to me as descended the rolling hills to the field.

Since his mother has decided that I still do not deserve to know her secrets nor why she is suffering, I decided I’d accompany the version of her that actually appreciated me. I set up a target for him to show off his new skills.

“Me too, buddy,” I encouraged, “your mom tells me you’ve been working real hard.”

“Every day!” he confirmed, and I chuckled at the scene of him walking with the bow. It was almost bigger than him.

“So what have you learned?” I asked, and after we set up, he began to show me a series of skills that he had learned.

He learned how to hit the target with one eye closed, hit it while running in wolf form, and even learned a fighting technique where the target was to his back until he pivoted around and shot at it flawlessly.

“Your running has improved,” I noted, admiring how fast he has learned to run

“Alan has me do a bunch,” he said, shrugging, “it’s tiring but I do it! It even got me in trouble once.”

I chuckled, plucking out the arrows from the target board. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, mommy got real mad! I broke her number one rule,” he said matter-of-factly, looking sheepish.

“What number one rule?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Never talk to strangers.”

“What stranger did you talk to?” I pressed, slightly concerned.

“A dangerous one,” he whispered, then giggled at his own mischief. My stomach twisted.

“Theo, what are you talking about?” I demanded. He seemed surprised at my tone, not accustomed to me playing any kind of authoritative figure, as if I was a friend he was gossiping too.

A bit cautiously, he looked up at me. “Well,” he drew out, “This lady in the woods offered me water and I took it and when I did I went to sleep.”

Outraged and puzzled, I knelt down in front of him. “Is that all that happened?”

He shook his head slowly. “No…I had an arrow taped to my back. Mommy wasn’t happy.”

I sucked in a breath, staring at him with growing anger. “Mommy knew about all of this?”

He nodded like a bobblehead. “She got really, really mad.”

Rage threatened to spill out of me, and I quickly straightened up. It took everything in me not to storm into that mansion and rip apart her bedroom.

“Are you mad?” he asked wearily with a pout.

“No, Theo,” I lied, patting his head. I didn’t need both of us to be upset. “Let’s continue after lunch, alright?”

As if he was relieved to be expunged from any form of punishment from me, he nodded with enthusiasm again, not daring to protest.

I stormed up the hill.

***

Cathy

I found Alan as soon as Aldrich retreated outside with Theo. He was in his chamber, and very relieved to replace me without Aldrich in tow.

“You’re alone,” he breathed out in relief, stalking toward me, “we need to talk.”

“I can’t keep everything from him any longer,” I admitted, hating the way he looked at me. I felt as if the note was burning a hole in my pocket. “He knows something is up.”

“We will tell him everything. We just have to figure out an excuse as to why we haven’t,” he specified, his autumn colored hair falling in his face. He nervously swept it back.

I nodded, sighing. “I don’t know how we’re going to do this without making him immensely angry.”

“What is going on in here?” a voice boomed from the door. We both gasped in unison and whirled toward his bedroom entrance, discovering an Aldrich standing there. He looked like he was containing a storm.

“Nothing!” I said too quickly, just like Alan did before. Great. We both looked guilty.

“Is this why you two have been strange since I’ve arrived?” he drawled, creeping into the room slowly like a predator, “having secret meetings?’

We shared a look of disbelief before shaking our heads. I frowned, looking at Aldrich in disgust. “Not in the way you’re implying.”

“Then why?” he demanded, his voice coming out like a hard slap.

So much for discussing how we were going to reveal everything to him. We both hesitated.

“I was going to give you one last chance to tell me,” he growled, his eyes blazing, “but I guess not. Your son has cared to inform me before either of you.”

I froze. Shit, I thought, a stream of putrid curse words stabbing my brain. I didn’t get the chance to tell Theo not to talk about his incident. Aldrich must have known that a child would blab anything happening.

He was smarter than me this time.

“How dare you not tell me that my own son was targeted?” he roared, causing both of us to flinch.

Alan cleared his throat. “This seems like a personal matter between the two of you,” he said before beelining for the door. “I will just–”

“I’m not done with you. We will discuss later,” Aldrich growled at him, and Alan looked like he wanted to die right then and there. He nodded solemnly before slinking out of the room.

“I didn’t feel the need to tell you,” I said quietly, as if too scared to talk any louder.

“When are you finally going to admit that he’s my son?” he demanded, closing in on me. He stepped a little too close, and spoke a little too loudly for my comfort. I decided he was not going to threaten me by looming over me like this, like I was some soldier.

I slapped him across the face.