Page 140 of Chased By My Grumpy Alpha
“I’m serious.” Her grip tightens. “The pack never appreciated you. With you gone, nobody ventures into the Wyvern Woods anymore. Our herb supplies are dwindling. They’re all scrambling now, realizing what they’ve lost.” A bitter smilecrosses her face. “They’re ungrateful, all of them. You risked your life for the herbs they needed, and they treated you like garbage.”
“I never understood why they hated me so much,” I say quietly. “I tried so hard to be useful, to prove my worth—”
An uncomfortable expression flickers across Daciana’s face so quickly, I almost miss it. She looks away, her jaw tensing up.
“Daciana? What is it?”
“Nothing.” She stands abruptly, smoothing down her dress. “Just...leave it in the past, Astra. All of it. Focus on your future. Be happy.”
She moves toward the door, but something in her voice, in the way she won’t meet my eyes, makes my stomach clench with unease.
“Daciana, wait—”
“I should go find my new quarters,” she says quickly. “The guard captain is expecting me for training tomorrow.”
She hugs me goodbye, but it feels forced, rushed. As the door closes behind her, I’m left staring at the empty room, her words echoing in my mind.
Why did she look so troubled? What was she hiding?
And why do I get the feeling that there was more to my treatment in the pack than I ever knew?
“Come with me,” Lucian says after lunch a few days later, taking my hand. “There’s something I want to show you.”
He leads me through corridors I haven’t explored yet, past tapestries and marble statues that probably cost more than entire villages. We go through a set of glass doors, and suddenly we’re outside in the palace gardens.
But he doesn’t stop at the manicured lawns and decorative flower beds. Instead, he guides me around the side of a building to a walled area I haven’t noticed before.
“What is this place?” I ask as he opens a heavy, wooden gate.
“See for yourself.”
I step through the entrance and freeze.
Before me stretches the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. Rows upon rows of herbs and medicinal plants, each one more prized than the last. I see moonbell and silverleaf, dragonfern and nightshade, others so uncommon I’ve only read about them in ancient texts. Everything is perfectly organized, with stone pathways winding between raised beds and a small greenhouse glinting in the afternoon sun.
“How did you…” I can barely speak past the tightness in my throat.
“I had my people search every corner of the kingdom,” Lucian tells me. “Every herb you’ve ever mentioned, every plant you’ve used in your remedies. Common and rare alike.”
Tears blur my vision as I walk deeper into the garden, recognizing dozens of species I thought I’d never see again. Some of these plants are worth more than what a lot of people make in a year, and he has given me an entire garden of them.
“Lucian”—I turn to face him, not caring that the tears are now streaming down my cheeks—“this is too much. I can’t—”
“It’s yours,” he says firmly. “All of it. Your own space to grow whatever you need, to create your remedies without depending on anyone else.”
I throw my arms around his neck, kissing him with all the gratitude and love I can’t put into words. “Thank you,” I whisper against his lips. “Thank you.”
“There is one condition,” he says, and something in his tone makes me pull back to look him in the eyes.
“What kind of condition?”
“You cannot test any poisons on yourself. Ever.”
I hesitate. Testing new antidotes on myself has always been the most efficient way to perfect them, but the expression on his face tells me this is non-negotiable.
“Astra,” he warns when I don’t respond immediately, “I’ll have this entire garden torn up and salted if you even think about it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
