The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Zara’s POV

Mate.

The word struck me like a freight train.

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I stared at Gideon’s neck where it disappeared into the collar of his shirt. There was no mark there, not that I could see. But maybe it was hidden.

So it was Avery he’d been looking for all along. And now he knew.

Had they mated?

If they had, then this was even worse than I thought. A mated male would stop at nothing to protect his lover. Gideon might find Avery quicker than we anticipated.

It would ruin everything for me. Everything I had worked so carefully to build.

My castle would crumble before the concrete had set.

Gideon strode away, leaving me standing there with the random necklace I’d found sitting at the bottom of my jewelry box. I had hoped to convince him that it was hers, thus getting him to promise to give the bitch’s mother back to me in exchange for false information.

He’d seen right through my ruse, of course. Because he cared more for her than he let on. I didn’t think he would know what sort of jewelry Avery did and didn’t wear. I certainly didn’t even know myself.

I needed to give him the information, with or without the mother. Anything to keep him off Avery’s real trail.

“I’ll tell you the truth!” I called out, bursting into the dimly lit alley behind him.

Gideon didn’t stop walking. “You’re a liar, Zara, You always have been one. I never intended to listen to you, and I certainly don’t now.”

“You did, though. For a moment, you knew had the information you wanted.” Gideon stopped walking, and I went on, “I didn’t know you were mated.”

“What does it matter?”

“It matters that… That she might be cheating on you with the Rogue King as we speak.” I bit my lip, watching as his shoulders tensed. Cheating. That was one thing that a mated male would respond to. If their marks were fresh, his jealousy would be at an all time high. And clearly, his wolf was going mad now that Avery was “lost”

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Chapter 268

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again. I could make him do something rash. Something that would throw him off. Something that might even ruin him entirely.

Slowly, he turned to look at me. His eyes flashed yellow, and it had nothing to do with the amber glow of the streetlights.

“Where is she?”

I wanted to smile, but instead, I forced my expression into one of false pity.

“She met the Rogue King at a crossroads near his encampment. Give me your map, and I’ll mark it down for you.”

Avery’s POV

“The Rogue King wants you to come to his tent for breakfast.”

I had just barely roused myself from sleep when Deirdre burst into my tent. She was alone this time, holding a bundle of clothes in her arms. If one could even call them that. They looked more like rags, lightweight, thin, and tattered.

I sat up and pulled my fur blanket up to my chest. “I’m not hungry.”

“Too bad. You don’t have a choice in the matter.” Deirdre yanked the covers away and snapped her fingers. “Get up.”

My jaw clenched at her tone, but I obeyed, if only to avoid another incident like last night. I stood, and she roughly yanked my tank top off over my head, exposing my breasts. She gestured for me to pull my underwear down while she pulled out the clothes she’d brought,

I expected her to have clean underwear for me, but there were no undergarments. Just a thin dress that was so sheer I could see Deirdre’s smirk through it.

“I’m expected to wear that?” I asked.

Deirdre pulled the dress over my head. It didn’t even have arm holes; it was just a long strip of fabric with a hole cut for my neck. The flaps came down between my legs in the front and back, exposing the sides of my body completely. She fastened it with a rope belt around my waist, but it didn’t do much.

“It’s what the Rogue King wants for his slave.”

“I’m not a slave,” I repeated.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Deirdre was already shoving me toward the exit. I was

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