The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 25

Nothing left behind–1

(Caius)

I sent for Sera before the pack had fully cleared the hall.

Not the Ashcrest healer who’d treated Isla’s ankle earlier. That woman had done what was asked of her and nothing more and I’d noted the careful blankness she’d maintained throughout, the face of someone who had seen Isla before and had chosen to keep that knowledge to herself. I wasn’t going to put Isla in her hands again for anything beyond what had already been done.

Sera was my healer. She’d traveled with us from Wraithbone, the way she always traveled with me on pack visits, because eight years of ruling had taught me that having your own healer present was never a waste. She was waiting in the rooms my warriors had been given in the east wing and she came immediately when Zeron knocked on her door.

I met her in the corridor outside the room where Isla was resting.

“I need you to examine her fully,” I said. “Not just the ankle. Everything. I want to know the full picture before we travel.”

Sera looked at me with the particular expression she used when she was assessing whether to ask questions or simply proceed. She’d worked with me long enough to read when questions were welcome and when they weren’t.

“How old is she?” she said.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Young.”

Sera nodded and went in.

I stayed outside.

I could’ve gone in. There was no practical reason not to. But something in me understood that Isla had spent five years having very little control over who was in her space and what they did there and adding my presence to a medical examination she hadn’t asked for felt like one more thing being done to her without her choosing it. Sera would handle it. I trusted Sera completely and that was enough.

I stood in the corridor and I waited.

Zeron came and stood beside me after a few minutes. He didn’t say anything. He’d been doing that all day, appearing when I needed someone present and staying quiet when quiet was what the moment required. It was one of the things that made him valuable beyond his

Nothing left behind–1

rank.

“The investigation materials are being compiled,” he said eventually. “Pryor will have

everything sorted by morning.”

“Good,” I said.

We were quiet again.

+25 Points

I was listening through the door without meaning to. Not to words, Sera was too professional for anything to carry through clearly, just the general sound of the room. Movement. The occasional quiet instruction. Isla’s voice once, short and low, answering something.

Eleven minutes after she went in Sera came back out.

I looked at her face.

That was all I needed. Whatever I’d been holding in check since the moment I pushed open that shack door pulled hard against its cord because Sera’s face, which I’d seen receive the worst kinds of news over eight years without fully breaking, was not where it usually was. She’d put it back together before she opened the door. She was professional enough for that. But I’d known her long enough to see the effort it was costing her and the effort told me everything the words hadn’t said yet.

She pulled the door closed behind her.

“Tell me,” I said.

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