Chapter 240
Avery’s POV
I need an escape plan.
The words kept running through my head the whole drive back to Nightwolf pack. A drive that felt like going backwards. A regression towards a state of being I had rejected.
At least I had gotten my mother away. Gideon might still hunt for her, but now that he had me back, I was hopeful he would let her go.
When we got back to the village he marched me from the car up to my rooms and followed me in.
“Avery, we need to talk,” he was standing by the door, arms crossed. I was seated on the bed. I was so tired. Our escape and return had taken all night.
I didn’t want to answer his questions. I wanted to put my head down and sleep. I was emotionally drained from fighting Gideon, and from fighting myself.
Every time we were in the same room, it took all my willpower to stay away from him. The bond between us was a steady pull that meant he was always the center of my focus. When I wasn’t concentrating on fighting it, I would drift towards him instinctually.
When we were in the car, my hands crept across the seat towards his hand on the shifter.
Fighting my own body, my own emotions, was fatiguing enough, but something else was wearying me as well.
The thing I had seen in the mirror.
When we had stood on that silver path, Gideon hadn’t realized what we were looking at, but I had.
The crossroads had been a marker of our point in time, each path that branched outwards a step towards a possibility. A multitude of futures.
I had seen the detail he hadn’t in our reflections. Gideon had seen the man and woman, he and I, on each path.
I had seen a man, woman, and child.
It was still early, and perhaps I was wrong, but there was something about the magic that had given me certainty in my mind.
I was carrying Gideon’s pup.
The aftermath of our mating ceremony had been so distracting, with the revelation of my mark, and that we were fated mates. It had overshadowed the act we had performed, and the fact that there was a solid possibility that mating under the Full Mating Moon could result in a pup.
My heat had come on so strong, I hadn’t truly considered the ramifications. Now I felt a mix of emotions.
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Chapter 240
+25 Bonus
Joy at the possibility of a child. Concern that I could not provide for them adequately. Fear that when Gideon found out, he would not be pleased. (1)
There was no doubt that he was the father, now. He had admitted to being my mystery lover from the Alpha Ball, and the man who had first mated with me when my heat came on at the beginning. That meant he was the only man I had slept with.
“Avery,” he was kneeling in front of me now. When had he moved? I had been drifting with my thoughts, and I blinked at him in a daze, “are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said slowly, shaking my head. I gave him a small smile, “just tired.”
“Sleep,” he ordered, pointing at the bed. Obediently, I climbed under the blankets. Gideon stepped to the door and turned off the lights. I saw his silhouette in the doorframe, illuminated by the lights in the hallway, as he stared in at me for a long moment.
Then he was gone, and I slept.
In the morning, I fixed one thought in my mind. I needed to put Gideon at ease so that I could escape. However, when I went to leave my room, I found a complication.
Gideon had assigned his guards to stand outside my room, and when I went down to breakfast, his sister announced that she would be keeping me company as well.
Assigning Camila to keep an eye on me was overkill, and I glared at Gideon over my breakfast, but he ignored me. Ultimately, I had to spend the next few days with a shadow, Camila trailed me as I performed my Luna duties, and would sit in my office with me while I worked. My only consolation was that I was pretty sure I drove her as crazy as she drove me.
Also, I was pretty sure she was starting to catch on to the fact that I was pregnant. If she hadn’t, the incessant bathroom trips would give it away soon enough. I felt like I couldn’t drink enough water, and my bladder was working overtime as a result.
That and the morning nausea were painting a pretty obvious picture to anyone paying attention. After a week of feeling like I was under a microscope, I appeared in Gideon’s office.
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