The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 27

I was tending to Theo after we moved him to his own room next to mine, so that he would be more comfortable. The medics checked his vitals and concluded that there had been no physical harm caused, but since they found him unconscious, they instructed me to make him rest for a couple days. No training was to be permitted.

Theo was not happy about that. “Nothing bad even happened to me.”

“No, nothing bad happened,” I confirmed, not exactly telling the truth. In my book, this was my biggest nightmare. But I didn’t want to scare him. “That doesn’t mean you don’t have to rest.”

He made a face in protest. It was going to be hard to keep him inside. Maybe it was better to scare him into it.

“Buddy, why do you want to go back out there already?” I asked, running my fingers through his hair.

He looked at me as if I was handcuffing him down to a bed in a house fire. I saw the blazing desire in his eyes to get back out there immediately, as if nothing happened.

“I need to make Aldrich proud,” he demanded adamantly.

He did not call him Dad again—I don’t think he ever noticed his mistake, that’s how naturally the word came to him that day.

“You always make him proud,” I contested, sighing. Is this why he insisted on always being out there?

“I want to be just like him, so I have to train at all times, like he did,” Theo insisted, kicking his legs impatiently, “I have to go back.”

“Not for at least a couple days,” I snapped, my voice hardening with authority.

He nodded, looking away with a frustrated pout.

I looked out the window overlooking the back fields. The sun was setting, the golden remains of the daylight making the tops of the changing trees look gilded. It was beautiful, like a painting of an autumn wonderland, but I still feared it. The woods that were once my safe place felt like the entrance of a haunted cave now.

I softened my tone, questioning in a tentative whisper. “What do you remember happening out there, Theo?”

Theo didn’t seem afraid at all about whatever he recollected, because he nonchalantly shrugged. “Nothing crazy, mommy.”

I sat down on his bed by his side, moving my hand from his hair to his little hand. He wrapped it around my thumb.

“I don’t want you to be afraid to live your life, Theo,” I murmured, tracing hearts on his hand. “But you have to be cautious at all times. Never trust strangers or the woods.”

A line formed between his eyebrows. “But the woods are never dangerous. They’re home.”

“Our home is not safe right now,” I warned, still trying not to scare him, but wanting him to be alert, “now, what do you remember before you went to sleep?”

He thought about it for a moment before looking at me nervously. Not that he was anxious about the incident, but because I would reprimand him. He made a sheepish expression then looked away.

“I will not yell as long as you tell me,” I reminded him.

Theo nodded, then with a long breath in, he looked back at me. “I broke your number one rule, mommy. Please don’t be mad.”

I urged him on, nodding, “I won’t, honey, I promise.”

“Well, I was running by the woods. Alan told me to do a quick lap. But I got tired,” he said, shamefacedly peering up at me from under his lashes.

I stayed silent, rubbing his hand.

“There was a lady standing in the trees. She looked really nice and pretty,” he said, taking his hand back before folding it into the other. “She asked if I wanted a glass of water, and I was really tired, so I took it.”

Freezing in place, I clenched my jaw, sucking a short breath in my nose.

“You said you wouldn’t be mad,” he whined, looking at me pointedly.

“Go on,” was all I responded.

Discouraged, he looked down at his hands. “Since she was a nice lady, I trusted her. After I drank the water, she even smiled at me and laughed. That was the last thing I remember.”

“Please promise me you will not speak to another stranger, Theo. No matter if it’s a woman or a man,” I softly admonished, not wanting to make him regret telling me the truth.

He nodded like a bobblehead, the way he does that I love. It did not cheer me up. “I promise, mama.”

“I will let you rest,” I added, standing from his bed. I needed to be alone for a moment. “Come into my room if you need anything.”

I briskly walked back into my quarters, my lips pressed together tightly. As I crossed the grand room, I plucked a book from one of my shelves. In a fit, I thrust my arm back and hurled it with all my strength, the book launching across the room and causing the contents of my desktop to scatter to the floor.

What woman had the nerve to touch my son? If it was a man, I’d be slightly threatened, but now that it would be an equal quarrel, I felt nothing but rage. Was it a woman shooting arrows the entire time, a woman wounding my friend’s leg and taping an arrow to Theo’s back? Whoever it was, she wanted me to know that she could’ve taken that arrow and plunged it right through his spine.

She did not kill him because she’d rather me be fearing than grieving.

I was already grieving, little did she know. I was grieving the calm and cool version of myself that died once I moved into this estate.

It was then Danika peeked her head around the corner. She looked flushed, her cheeks glowing. She first noticed Theo lying in his bed next door and decided not to enter; she quietly gestured me over to her, adamant about something.

I glanced down at an already sleeping Theo and then stepped over the threshold to greet her, following her into a corridor’s corner away from his room.

Her hair was disheveled, a nest of blonde hair that looked like tangled cornsilk. Her cheeks were a bright red, her eyes widened with liveliness. She appeared as if she was just in the throes of passion.

“I have bad news and good news,” Danika whispered, grabbing my arm. I examined her with concern, noticing that there was a rip in her sleeve.

Raising my eyebrows, I asked, “What the hell happened?”

“The good news is, I slapped her for threatening you,” she exclaimed, and then her enthusiasm drained from her voice as she said, “the bad news is, it was a maidservant telling me to warn you to leave the estate for your own good, and that you would never be good as Emily.”