The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 427

Chapter 427

“Your dress really is pretty,” Gideon muttered, pinching a piece of the dark blue fabric between his fingers. “It suits you. You were always a nighttime person.” As he spoke, his hand rested on my knee through the layers of silk and tulle.

I pushed his hand away with my free one. “Don’t start, Gideon.”

He huffed. “Why are you so cold to me?”

I glanced at him. His eyes were still closed, and for a moment I thought he might be speaking gibberish again. But then he turned his face toward me slightly, and I could see he was actually looking at me, his eyes so heavily lidded that I almost hadn’t noticed they were open a slit.

I considered deflecting. It would have been easy. He was delirious enough that I could say just about anything and he probably. wouldn’t remember it come morning.

That was exactly why I didn’t deflect.

“Because I’m afraid of you,” I said.

“You’re… what? Why?” Gideon lifted his head a little, although it quickly fell back down onto the cushions. “I’ve never raised a hand to you.”

“Not like that,” I clarified. “I’m… afraid of what you represent.” I swallowed. “A prison.”

Gideon stared at me like I’d just slapped him. 1

I took the cloth away and soaked it again, wrung it out, then put it back. “The last time I was with you, I spent years waiting for you to love me. Actually love me, not just keep me around because I was useful.” I looked at his face. “You never said it. Not once. Not in private, not when it was just the two of us and there was no one around to perform for. And after a while, I started to think that you didn’t.”

Gideon’s brow creased. “Is that why you left? Because you didn’t think I loved you?”

My jaw tightened. Of course there was more to it than that, but he still didn’t know Bjorn was his child, and I didn’t want to get into that right now. 1

“I left because I couldn’t stay and keep pretending it didn’t bother me,” I said. “I couldn’t be your Luna, standing beside you, knowing that you had only picked me because I was your mate and not because you actually wanted me there. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life trapped in a gilded cage where my entire existence was putting on pretty dresses and pretending I was happy when I was married to a man who couldn’t even say he loved me.” I sat back. “I still can’t do that. I won’t.”

He opened his eyes fully then. They were still glassy, but there was something underneath the fog that looked like it actually

hurt.

“I did want you there,” he said.

“Well, then you had a strange way of showing it.”

“Avery-”

“Say it, then.” I looked at him straight on. “If I’m wrong, then say it.”

“I did say it,” he protested. “That day outside the restaurant, with Fiona there, I said-

“Just say it now, while it’s only the two of us in this room and there’s nothing to gain from it.”

Gideon looked at me.

The silence stretched out long enough that I had my answer. I stood, setting the cloth over the edge of the bowl. “Get some rest,” I said. “Tegan’s right outside.”

1/2

Chosen 437

It was when I went to pick up the bowl that his hand closed around my wrist.

I froze, turning to him. His grip was firm, not painful, but steady and not letting up.

“Avery,” he said, “I love you. I love you, Avery.” He took a breath. “I love you.”

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