Chapter 25

Celia

It has only been half a day from when Healer Anderson and I last spoke. Our conversation has left me feeling even more confused than resolute. If I truly were the missing Lycan princess, what would that mean for my future?

I slip through the closing hospital doors and run up the stairs to where Healer Anderson is known to have his rounds at this time of the day. I slip against the floor, immediately apologizing to the nurse I crash into, and walk down the hall, fixing my hair.

“Healer Anderson!” I call out his name from down the hall. I rush towards him, urgency laced in every step I take.

“Celia?” He asks with a perked up eyebrow. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it half an hour before your shift?”

“Yes, it is!” I breathe out, trying to catch my breath. “I’ve been thinking about what you said last night—”

“Let me stop you right there,” he holds a hand out. I blink at him, watching as he turns around and walks in the direction of his office.

My feet are quick to follow in his wake, keeping in step with him. Healer Anderson stops every so often to help a nurse or another low level Healer with a question. His answers are quick and to the point before he begins walking again.

We reach his office and he opens up the door, allowing me to walk inside first before closing it shut behind him. I take my seat in my usual spot and push my hair behind my ears, watching as he sits down in front of me.

“What do you know about my family?” I immediately ask him. He sighs and relaxes into the seat, shaking his head. “Please…I don’t know anything. I scoured my family’s house in the hopes that I would find something but I could not find anything.”

“Celia, dear, you need to calm down,” Healer Anderson gestures to my trembling hands.

I flatten my palms against my thighs, feeling the cotton material of the navy blue scrubs that I wear. Slowly inhaling and exhaling, my heartbeat slows and I am finally able to form a coherent thought in my brain.

“I don’t know anything, Healer Anderson,” I start all over again, “I don’t even know why I’m here with the werewolves when one of my parents was a Lycan.”

“The missing Lycan princess was born to the prince of the Lycans,” Healer Anderson begins, “but he disappeared one day. He ran away with a human woman. It is said that they eloped and had a child, hence the missing Lycan princess. Only a few people knew about their whereabouts but they never gave any information.”

I slowly nod as he speaks. I soak in every word that he says, slowly piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of my parents’ story. Maybe, just maybe, my mother and father left another notebook behind filled with all of the answers to the questions I have now.

If my mother left behind a journal entry for me to find, then she would have been smart enough to leave me behind their true story, yes? Not just a romanticized one?

“Nobody knows why they ran away from the Lycans, or why they found safety and solace with the Wereolve pack,” he continues. My eyes move back to him. “The only connecting piece of the puzzle is you, my dear.”

“Me?” I whisper. He nods. “But I don’t know anything, Healer Anderson.”

“You know more than you think,” his smile is kind and reassuring, putting some of my anxieties at ease, “you can rely on your wolf. She is young, yes, but she is very special. You may be the key that can help heal the Former Luna and the current Alpha King.”

My eyes go out of focus, my mind completely dissociating from the world around me.

How much responsibility now falls on my shoulders as the missing Lycan princess? It’s a heavy burden to have, with my wolf being special. How can it be that I can be the only one who can help cure Soren and his mother?

“Celia,” Healer Anderson’s voice cuts through the silence of the room. He stands in front of me and I tilt my chin to look up at him. “It is time for work now, okay?”

He helps me stand from my seat and guides me towards his office door. I open it and look back at him, a semblance of a smile forming on my lips.

“Thank you, Healer Anderson,” I quietly whisper to him from the busy hospital hallway.

“I will always be here to help you, Celia,” Healer Anderson says with a bow of his head. I bow my head back and turn around, facing the busy hospital. I sigh and walk away, heading towards the break room to meet with Lily before our shift.

“Where were you?” Lily asks as soon as I approach her in the hallway.

“I had to ask Healer Anderson a couple of things,” I say with a nonchalant shrug. It isn’t really a lie since I truly did need to as him questions, but it does feel so weird to hide something from Lily after we’ve been so close all of these years.

I suppose, though, that it is the same as me hiding my identity as Soren’s substitute lover for the past five years. My possible role as the missing Lycan princess will just have to be another thing that I withhold from our conversations.

“Oh! Look at you go, being the best mentee ever,” Lily beams.

From beside me, I can see that she looks up to watch new movement enter the room. I look away, staring at my reflection in a stainless steel plate filled with medical tools.

My eyes float up to the top of my head, imagining a dazzling tiara on the top of my head. I roll my eyes and turn to the open door of a hospital room where an injured Warrior lays inside.

“Celia,” Lily nudges into my side. I don’t look away from the room, “you should ask Ethan out!”

I look up at Ethan, who stands across the hallway in a conversation with another nurse. His eyes meet mine and I am quick to look away, turning back to Lily.

“No,” I shake my head, “we are already going to the engagement party with each other—”

“Exactly! You two should get to know each other,” she giggles into my ear. I roll my eyes and ignore her. “Fine! Be like that! I’ll go tell him to do it himself, then!”

Lily immediately leaves my side, linking her arm with Ethan’s. They apologize to the nurse as they walk away and come back to me.

“Hi, Celia,” Ethan’s smile is bright and his tone is so warm and sincere.

“Hi, Ethan,” I match his smile, pushing hair behind my ear.

“I forgot that we didn’t buy you jewelry for the engagement party. Why don’t we go out and find some for you this weekend? It’ll be my treat, of course,” Ethan steps to my side. He looks down at me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Sure, that sounds great,” I nod with a smile.

A snicker comes from the other side of the room. I look to the left and notice Bianca sitting at a table with a bejeweled mug in hand. She rolls her eyes at me and stands from her seat, placing her hands on her hips.

“A commoner like you doesn’t deserve jewels fit for someone like me,” Bianca’s tone is filled with patronization, taunting me.

She crosses the room and holds out her hand, wiggling her fingers. Diamond rings grace her fingers, each jewel bigger than the last. She turns her hands back to hers, admiring the pieces.

“My fiancé got them for me,” he graze sharpens on mine, “you would never understand what it feels like to wear such beautiful things.”

“Excuse me,” the Warrior from inside the room yells out, “can someone please help me?!”