The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 417

Avery’s POV

I couldn’t stand being in the greenhouse for another moment that night.

I cleaned up the broken glass, salvaged what I could of the experiment, and moved the whole operation to the kitchen table instead, where I worked until two in the morning and then fell asleep sitting up with my cheek on my notes.

That became the pattern for the next several days. I woke early and worked late and kept my mind on the Lycan Root and nothing else. I reworked the distillation process, adjusted the ratios, worked the aphrodisiac plant down into something that was barely recognizable from its original form by the time I was done combining it with the other herbs.

The resulting compound was a deep reddish-brown liquid that smelled faintly sweet and looked nothing like something that could cause the kind of chaos it had in its raw form.

I brought it to Aldric on the fourth day. He looked at it, then at me, then had the clinic nurse administer it to both children that afternoon.

We wouldn’t know if it worked right away. These things took time. But when I returned to Aldric’s pack the following day, the nurse said that the little girl’s fever had already come down slightly. Back home, the little boy had apparently opened his eyes for the first time in two weeks.

Sebastian was waiting in the kitchen when I got home from checking on the children. He had two cups of coffee on the table and pushed one toward me when I sat down. I took it gratefully even though it was probably too late in the day for caffeine.

He looked at me for a long moment. “You look terrible,” he said.

“Thank you, Sebastian.”

“I mean it. When did you last sleep properly?”

“I’ve been sleeping… Sort of.”

“At the kitchen table doesn’t count.” He wrapped both hands around his cup. “What’s going on with you? And don’t say it’s just the medicine, because you’ve been off for days.”

I looked at my coffee. The greenhouse incident sat at the back of my throat, begging me to just tell Sebastian about it, but I couldn’t. I wanted to swallow it and forget about it.

“Okay,” I said.

Sebastian turned around and looked mildly shocked that I hadn’t argued more. I stood, and on an impulse, I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

He went pink.

“Thank you, Sebastian,” I repeated. “You’re a good friend.”

He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, and then seemed to think better of it. “Have a nice night,” he said, and turned back to the sink.

I headed upstairs.

The bath was exactly what he’d promised. Hot enough to make my skin prick when I got in, wine waiting to be poured, the water smelling like eucalyptus from the salts. I sank in and sipped some wine and let out a breath that felt like it had been sitting in my chest all week.