The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 65

Chapter 65

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Chapter 65

Avery’s POV

The next few days I spent learning Gideon’s schedule.

The first day, I showed up at 9am to find he’d already been in the office for hours.

The next day I came at 8am and still didn’t beat him in.

The day after that, I showed up at 6am and managed to look busy when he walked in at 7:30am. Secretly I was grateful, I was starting to miss sleeping in.

I also learned how he liked his coffee (black), what he ate for breakfast (a bagel), and what the first thing he did in the office was (check his mail).

I tried to lean into the secretary role. I showed up in a pencil skirt with my glasses on. I wrote down notes on yellow pads of legal paper. On the fourth day, I showed up with coffee for both of us.

Gideon took it from me gratefully, and I started to feel like maybe I was becoming useful.

It wasn’t all boring office duties, though he did have me organizing some old files for a while. He started having me set up our meetings with other pack leaders, and the primary tradesfolk that worked with Nightwolf.

There were a lot of laws that governed what the packs were able to do within the kingdom. Here in the north, most of the civilized towns were werewolf packs, but to the south there were human settlements as well.

The humans had their own kings and treaties with the wolfpacks that mandated who could be where, and why. Nightwolf had control over the forests and game in our territory, for example, but outside of Nightwolf lands, it was illegal to hunt livestock without a written permit.

Each pack had to keep a census of members, and the werewolf council used this to determine votes when it came to inter-pack business. The more members, the more votes.

The packs themselves were often shifting, as Alphas rose and fell. About once a week there would be news of So- and-so elevated to Alpha, or of members of pack hierarchies that had stepped down, been deposed, or died.

Working with the pack records reminded me that I wanted to continue to work on my herbalism skills. There was a coven of witches that traded with the packs that would provide reagents and supplies, so I put in an order for materials to set up a still room.

In the afternoons, I was excused to work in the garden with Madelyn while Gideon met with his Beta, Tegar talk military strategy.

Madelyn and I had gotten more friendly over the week we’d worked together. She would catch me up on the gossip and I mostly just listened. I didn’t have any information to give in trade. I didn’t really socialize with

anyone.

We were working on starting flats of cucumbers and beans that would go in the ground once it warmed up a bit more when Madelyn looked up and gasped.

“Gideon and Tegan are walking this way!” She shoved my elbow to get my attention. “Oh my god.”

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Chapter 65

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Sure enough, Gideon and his Beta were walking down the garden path towards our potting tables.

“Ladies.” Tega bowed.

“Luna.” Gideon greeted me, pointedly disregarding Madelyn.

“Alpha.” We both curtsied.

“Did you need me?” I asked, confused as to why Gideon was here. I had checked with him whether he needed anything before I left the office earlier.

“Actually, we’re here to see if you need us.” Tegan said. “We had a free hour before dinner and I thought it might be nice for, uh, us to get some fresh air.”

I looked at Gideon curiously. Had he really come to help me? He gave me a curt nod.

“Well…” I quickly showed Tegan how we were preparing the seedling flats.

“Madelyn came up with a really great trellis system we’re going to use to create some arches across the garden.” I said brightly, “She’s been a great help.”

I looked at Tegan and smiled as I said it, while Madelyn blushed at the compliment. I remembered that Tegan was her crush, so I played up some other comments about how hard she’d been working.

I wasn’t making it all up either, it truly had been great to have an assistant in the garden who I could trust to get things done when I was busy with other duties.

“Thank you.” Madelyn whispered gratefully as we passed each other on the way to the bags of potting soil. “I didn’t expect you to say such nice things about me.”

“Anytime!” I winked. Then I caught Gideon staring at me and hurried over to him.

“You’re laying it on a bit thick.” He commented dryly, as I walked with him across the yard to show where I wanted to build a raised keyhole garden bed. “That wolf,” he indicated Madelyn, “has a ways to go before she’s back in my good graces. You should think so too.”

I shrugged, “It’s not that I don’t believe in her punishment, but she also could be performing these tasks with a lot less heart than she is. I appreciate the good attitude, and besides, I want to make her look good in front of Tegan.”

“Oh?” Gideon raised an eyebrow. “I see.”

The light started to fade and the four of us headed to the kitchen to wash up. Anna had set a high trench ta with a simple rustic dinner and we all dug in with relish. It was nice to sit, just the four of us, and chat abo simple things.

Tegan told a hysterical story about a misunderstanding with the night watch, while Madelyn mostly sat quie and blushed. To my surprise, Gideon disappeared for a moment and returned with a box of cupcakes for desse

“I didn’t think you liked sweets.” I remarked, remembering when he’d tossed my cake. Tegan covered a laugh with a cough into his hand while Gideon frowned.

“I noticed you admiring the baked goods in the window of the bakery in town, and thought you might like

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Chapter 65

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these.” He said, stiffly.

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