Healer For Alpha

Truth Will Set You Free

{ Rio }

"What the hell?" I spit, running down the stairs and looking everywhere for Lunanci but the house is empty. Laurent and I finally decided to sneak out of his room after fighting for a while to peek in on the conversation, but there isn't even a conversation happening because they aren't here.

My heart goes crazy with worry... what if Oliver took her to my grandfather? To Uncle Daniel? That would be the end of everything.

I pick up my phone and try to call Lunanci, but the call is immediately forwarded.

"This is my dad’s fault," Laurie complains, "I knew this was a bad idea... we have to find them before my dad does something and everyone finds out about this shit."

Laurent calls his dad about fifty times for almost twenty minutes until he finally answers.

"Where are you? Where did you take the human?"

"I'm at Isabelle's house. She is a real healer. I need you to get Rio here as soon as possible, Isabelle is going to check the veracity of his bond," my uncle says and we both stop freaking out… at least about not knowing where Luna is.

I try to act like everything is normal as we’re driving to this Isabelle’s house, but I don't think I'm succeeding.

"So… we'll finally know for sure, huh?" Laurie murmurs, looking carefully at me because surely he can tell how anxious I feel, "Are you scared or excited?"

"I don't really know how I feel, to be honest. I don't know what kind of response I'd like to get either," I admit and take a big breath. Laurent doesn't make any rude comments and I know it's because of the conversation he had in the car with Lunanci, "I like being around her all the time and I really like her physically. Yesterday I... yesterday I finally lost my real virginity to her."

Laurie steps on the brake out of nowhere, sending me flying forward.

"Hey!" I groan.

"I thought I smelled s*x when you went out to eat dinner, but since it was your wolf I didn't dare say something about it, I thought it was the two of them," he replies, his eyes studying my face, "How was it? Did you like it?"

"Obviously, I liked it,” I roll my eyes, "It was good, but... she's my friend. Once it was over I felt really weird about the change. Everything between us has always been easy and fun and innocent, but all of a sudden she's talking about being mates and we're having s*x and... it's too much, too fast. I'm not loving the change and I don't know what to do about it."

"Well, we're close to fate pushing you to an answer," he mutters and starts the car again, "If she's really your mate, there's no choice but to be with her. But if she's not and you're not that comfortable with being intimate with her... I guess you just have to let her go."

"I thought you were friends now?"

"We are, that's why I'm going to let her go," he replies, shrugging, "But even if you're mad at me, I'm still your best friend and I know you better than anyone. If you're not sure, why force it? Let's be honest here... you want an omega. And you could get one in a heartbeat, half of King's friends only talk about how ‘handsome’ you are."

My ego is happy with hearing that, but it does nothing to change my problem. Still, I have to be honest, even if it feels like a betrayal to Luna: Laurie is not wrong.

If Lunanci were an omega... s**t, even a beta, I wouldn't be doubting this. I'd be all over her, chasing and begging her to be with me. But she's not, so I can't help but think about how hard it would be to actually be with her... To have to tell my parents that I've decided to be with a human, to have to explain to my friends, to people who know me, and to have to see their confused faces every time I explain.

I can't stop thinking about it until we arrive, but I get moving. I walk into the house next to Laurie.

Uncle Oliver is waiting for us and he doesn't even say anything, he just starts walking and we follow him. We follow him through the healer’s backyard, until we’re completely surrounded by the woods. We stop when we reach Lunanci.

Looking at her there, safe and sound, makes the tension in my body dissolve and I can finally breathe easy.

"What's going on?" I ask my uncle, pointing towards Lunanci and an older woman. Both are sitting on the floor holding hands in complete silence.

"I don't know, but they've been like this for almost an hour," he replies, "I think they're having a healer-to-healer conversation. Once they're done, Isabelle will do her thing and dig into both your heads to find out if you're really mates or not."

"Oh… okay," I reply, taking a deep breath and wiping my sweaty palms on my pants. My uncle continues to watch me deeply, "What?"

"I like Lunanci," he says, looking me up and down with a raised eyebrow, "I know your mother is an ogre, but you can't let her keep dictating in your life now that you're a grown Alpha. I know you don't like being at the academy, so tell your mom to f**k off. And let yourself fall in love with whomever... omega or not, wolf or not. At least stop worrying about her being a human because it doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters," Laurie says, "No one would accept them, Dad. Not just Aunt Lucinda. No one, in any clan."

"So? What do you care if a bunch of random people accept you or not?" He grumbles, rolling his eyes, "You can't let outside people have a say in your decisions. And, it's not that bad. I shouldn't say this, but... I had a human boyfriend and it wasn't that horrible. Everyone in the family knew him and even though they were vey rude, no one wanted to kill him... well, maybe Daniel. And Lucinda, but that's to be expected."

"What?!" Laurent exclaims and shoves me aside to stand in front of his dad, "That's not true."

"Laurie," Oliver takes a deep breath and looks up at his son, "You're a big, grown man now, aren't you? Or at least that’s what you said. Well, you need to know the truth, all the family secrets. When I lived in the human world with you, I had a boyfriend. And you liked him a lot. He was always perfectly respectable and kind to us... he got scared when he met the family and broke up with me, but he never did anything to betray me. Also, my roomie while living in Delton helped me as much as anyone can help a person, she helped feed me and you, too. Humans aren't evil, at least not all of them."

"What the f**k? What's all this information, Dad?" Laurie insists, losing all perception of his life, "If I already existed... where was my father? Why were you having another boyfriend?"

"Well, that's something you have to ask him so he can tell you in his words because if I do, I'll get mad again and no one wants that," he tells him and tries to pat his arm. Laurie doesn't accept that and continues to annoy him, but I stop paying attention because Lunanci and the older woman finally get up.

"Rio!" Luna shrieks as soon as she sees me and runs to crash into me, hard. I don't let her move me, I just take her attack and wrap my arms around her, squeezing her to me, "I AM a healer, real, officially, Isabelle told me so! She says I must have at least one drop of wolf blood, she said that! Can you believe it?! Laurent, hey, are you listening? I'm not a scammer! I might be a werewolf! A one-drop werewolf!”

"Yeah, yeah, congratulations," Laurie replies, before returning his attention to his dad and continuing to demand answers.

"Hey, you don't have to convince me, I always believed in your healing powers," I reply, tightening my arms around her excited body once again. She's so cute when she's happy, I can't help it. I love being the one to make her happy, “I am shocked about the one-drop thing, though.”

“Me too!” She squeaks.

"You need to read, learn more and work on your skills, but you have Mother's gift, just like me," Isabelle replies, looking at us but not moving, she raises a hand to me, "Come here, both of you. It's time to find out the truth."

Shit.

I swallow and force my arms off Lunanci to walk towards Isabelle.

I'm so scared, I still don't know what answer I would want.

If Lunanci is my mate... that means she'll be by my side forever. I'll always have her company, I'll always wake up next to her, I’ll always be able to get advantage of her smart brain... I'll always be able to touch her like I did last night, or even more. I will be her alpha, completely, man and wolf, both in love with the same woman.

As I look at her… her face lit by the sun and her big brown eyes on me, I can't help a flutter of illusion growing in my stomach.

Having her as my mate would be scary and too much of a commitment for me, but... it doesn't sound that bad.

If I have confirmation that she's my mate, I won't let anyone complain about her being a human, I won't let it happen. In fact, she's not. She's a healer with a drop of wolf blood, so everyone can f**k off.

Unless she’s not really my mate…

"Hey, regardless of the answer, you're the best friend I've ever had," I admit, Laurie snorts behind me, "No one compares to you, especially not that i***t Laurent."

"You're the best friend I've ever had too," she replies with a big smile, as if she's completely confident. She always seems to know everything, Laurie is right, but instead of causing me to distrust her, it makes me breathe a little easier. It gives me reassurance.

"Oliver, get ready with the maraca and give the other instrument to your son. Stay silent," Isabelle orders, "Now, you two, give me one hand and hold the other."

I do as she orders. I wonder how long and boring this will be, but when my uncle starts swinging a rattling maraca and I immediately start to feel drowsy, just like when I used to go to Lunanci's store to look at her work. And once again I feel that dip in my brain like when Lunanci intrudes without my permission, but I let it pass and before I know it, I'm sound asleep.

"Hey, hey," someone shakes me by the shoulders but I can’t wake up… so that person slaps the s**t out of me, "Hey, wake up."

"Ouch," I groan, raising a hand to rub on my cheek. Isabelle rolls her eyes as if she didn’t just slapped me and then she walks to my uncle and Laurie. Lunanci is still in front of me, but she's looking down at the floor and the sky is dark now.

I feel like I've just woken up from a long nap.

"Can you give me a few minutes to talk to them privately?" The healer asks my uncle. And apparently they leave because a few seconds later, she comes back to stand in front of me and Lunanci.

She smells like pity.

"What's going on?" I ask, raising a hand to my chest because now that I realize, my wolf feels horrible. He's miserable.

"I'm so sorry, Rio... there isn’t a fated bond between you," she says with a grimace, looking only at me. Lunanci hasn't looked up yet, her shoulders are slumped and she looks devastated.