Healer For Alpha

Man Down

{ Rio }

All of this is weird. It's very weird, isn't it? The whole atmosphere smelled of confrontation and lies... but for some reason Lunanci looked completely happy and Laurie was the one who looked a little... scared? Dazed?

I know it doesn't make any sense, but I'm still confused by my sudden blackout. One second I was at the door and the next second I was in the living room with Lunanci in front of me. That damn wolf is completely blocking me out again. And I thought we were getting along better.

I try to connect with him and ask him what the hell happened, but he just ignores me. He's here, very awake in my mind, lying there in complete tranquility, simply and very clearly ignoring me.

‘f**k you, Wolf’

‘f**k you more’ he answers.

Oh, god.

I start pacing back and forth in front of the door considering going out to see what the hell is going on outside, but the door opens before I can do so and Lunanci walks in with a smile, as if nothing happened.

"What the hell, Luna? If my cousin is threatening you or something, tell me and I'll do something about it," I blurt out, looking her up and down inspecting her to make sure she's okay. I don't know what I'll do to Laurent but I'll at least punch him in the face because he totally deserves it.

"No! I told you, we were settling our differences. He said he'll stop threatening to kill me and… actually he said he won't kill me at all," she says with a way-too-happy smile. I don't think I've ever seen her this happy.

"Huh? How the hell did you convince him?" I ask, trying to ignore my anxiety, but this whole situation feels weird.

"I don't know, I just told him a little more about me. Now he totally believes I'm a healer, so he said he’ll let me live," she explains, "I would make a connection with him to prove it even more, but I don't want to piss King off."

"Yeah, don't," I warn, remembering how King is a f*****g psycho when it comes to Laurie. He was like that even before they were an official couple, "Kingsley is possessive and I don't think he cares that you're a human girl, if you do anything to piss him off he'll probably beat the s**t out of you."

"Oh," she blurts out, blinking, "Okay. I won't...”

“So, can you explain a little more?”

“I will, but I'm really, really hungry,” she says with a little pout, “Can we go eat lunch?"

"Okay, let’s go. I have to tell you what happened with my grandpa and I want to hear this conversation you had with Laurie."

Lunanci nods and we both leave to find a place to eat. I keep thinking something is off, but I'm waiting for Luna to answer all my questions.

"So, everything went perfectly fine," I start to tell Luna with a big smile once we have finished ordering, she looks at me with big excited eyes, waiting for me to continue, "My grandfather agreed to give me everything I need to open my bakery... he's going to open an account in my name, but I have to justify all the expenses. Still, all profits will be mine alone."

"Really? Just like that?" She asks, taking a sip of her drink, "It must be fun to be this rich... congratulations, Rio. I want to help you in every step of the way, we need to think of a name and everything.”

"Yeah, it'll be fun," I mutter, "The business details were boring, my grandpa said we need to discuss everything deeper once I actually have a plan. I needed to think whether to open it in Fallonmore or here, but now with this thing going on with Laurie... with him deciding he's not going to kill you, I guess I'm going to open the bakery here and, you know, settle down here.”

For some reason I start to feel incredibly anxious once again, maybe because that decision of Laurie's changes everything. Absolutely everything. And I wasn’t ready to think about that yet.

"That’s awesome, although... I'd like to get to know Fallonmore, too. Do you think we could go?"

"Uh... yeah," I answer, but I'm not so sure, "But you'd have to hide, you know."

"Yeah, that doesn't matter," she says easily. She’s still super happy, "What else did your grandfather tell you?"

"He wants me to make up with my mom and he made me feel like s**t for ignoring my dad," I mumble, remembering that I still have to call him. Or maybe go straight to Fallonmore to see him. Maybe I can drop Lunanci off at the hotel while I do that, "He also wants me to tell everyone the truth about what I want to do with my life and drop out of the academy if I don't like it, but... I don't know if I can do that, you know, because of whatever Laurie's doing."

Lunanci's eyes go wide and she gets nervous all of a sudden.

"Maybe you should give that a little more time, tell them you want to finish the semester or something," she mumbles, looking down at the table. She’s acting weird again, "Now that we spoke, I think Laurie has an important reason for that lie, you know?”

"Oh yeah?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest and looking at her with narrowed eyes, "You're on his side now? You're best friends all of a sudden?"

"Of course not," she rolls her eyes with a laugh and returns her eyes to mine before reaching out a hand to touch my arm. I don't know why she decided to sit across from me this time, it's harder to touch each other like this, "I just think his secret is not as bad as we thought. He feels really bad that he's hiding something from you. Give him a break. He'll tell you in time."

"Hmm," I blurt out, not too happy about this. I don't like how she seems to be on his side now, "So what, he really apologized to you? I find that hard to believe.”

"Not really, he thinks I'm scamming you out of money," she starts and I roll my eyes hard. As if anyone could scam me, "But I can read between the lines. I realized that he loves you and cares about you and I made him understand that I care about you too and that I'm only here because I love your culture, not because I’m scamming you.”

And he just accepted it? I still think there's something else going on here, but with Lunanci's touch on my arm, my anxiety disappeared completely... although, now I'm starting to worry once again because this means something I don't really like.

I thought we had more time.

"Luna," I begin, swallowing and looking deeply at her. She's so pretty... everything inside me is begging me to make her sit next to me like always so I can hold her, "Do you realize what this means?"

"Uh, no,” she answers, a little confused, “What?”

"That if Laurie decided he won't kill you... our problem is over, so... you're free now," I blurt out, not knowing exactly how to put it. Lunanci frowns, "You were my prisoner, remember? But this means you're not anymore. So... you can... leave."

Lunanci moves back, still with that frown on her pretty face and pulls her hand away from my arm, making me miss her touch immediately.

"You want me to leave?" she repeats in a small voice.

"I don't want to, but Laurie was our problem. No one else knows about you, no one wants to kill you now, I want to keep it that way," I make it clear to her, trying to move closer to her to touch her again, but the table won't let me, "You know I trust you completely, you can just go. Go back to Toronto, you loved it there, didn't you? I'm not going back on my word, I'm going to give you money so you can find a place to live and work. Now more than ever. I mean, I finally have real money again, I can just fake something and my grandfather will never know.”

"But... but..." she looks at me with sad eyes that crush my heart and now I can't take it anymore. I get up to sit next to her and try to hug her, but Lunanci won't let me, "I don't want to leave. I love being here."

"Luna, you have to. This is not your place. Anyone could realize you're not a wolf at any time and create a new problem we don't need," I try to explain and hug her again, but she still won't let me do it, "You don't have to die! Isn't that great?"

"No! I was ready to die of it meant I got to stay here longer. I just want to stay here," she repeats, still looking sad, “We can just stretch it out. If anyone finds out, let them kill me.”

“Are you insane?” I laugh, but she looks serious, “I can’t let that happen.”

Lunanci growls under her breath, all her happiness gone now. I hate that I’m making her feel like this, but i think she’s not thinking rationally.

“I.... I... there's something I haven't told you,” she says, “And I think I need to tell you now before you try to send me away."

"Okay? What is it?"

Lunanci swallows and stays silent for a while, so long that the waitress comes and gives us our food, but I'm just eagerly waiting for whatever Luna has to tell me, it seems important.

"You know how your wolf sometimes blocks you out?" She starts with a shaky voice, I just stare at her not knowing where she's going with this, "Well, it's because..."

"Because?" I push her when she goes silent.

"Because he's... he's in love with me," she whispers, "He’s hiding that from you. Every night when you go to sleep we talk. He calls me his mate."

Everything inside me stops and suddenly I feel dazed, as if someone has hit me over the head with a rock.

"Luna, what are you saying?" I ask, my hands starting to shake, "That's not something you can joke about."

'Do not doubt her. She is not a liar. She is my mate' my wolf growls inside of me, 'It's about time you found out.’