The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 429

“Gideon, I came as soon as I could,” I would say. “I saw Avery collecting aphrodisiac plants in the forest. I should have told you sooner—”

“Avery. I love you.”

I froze.

Silence fell inside the room. My hand, which had been reaching for the doorknob, hovered midair.

“You don’t mean that,” Avery whispered.

“I do.” Gideon’s voice sounded more certain now. “I love you, Avery. I always have. And I’m sorry that I didn’t make it clear enough before. I’m sorry that I pushed you away because I was too much of a coward to say it out loud.”

My heart cracked. My hand fell back to my side, and I took a step back, shaking my head. Avery and Gideon’s voices faded, or maybe that was just the blood rushing through my ears and blocking it out.

He loved her. And the way he said it…

He meant it.

In an instant, everything I’d planned in the last ten minutes turned to dust. I thought about Avery and Gideon together, locked in an embrace, their mate bond—the bond that had never gone away, not after ten years of pain and separation—bolstered by the light of the full moon like so many others in this place.

I thought about how, not once, had it ever occurred to me that maybe I had a mate out there somewhere. That maybe, just maybe, I could be like one of the guests at this banquet, dancing and laughing and hearing those words spoken to me instead of another.

I love you.

Eighteen years. I was eighteen years old with the whole world ahead of me, the typical age that most people found their mates and marked each other for life. For a woman like me, it should have been simple. A happily ever after to last the ages.

But ever since I was a child, I’d been told by my father that the most important thing, far more important than love or a mate, was marrying the right person. That my one and only duty in life was to ensure the future of our line by marrying an Alpha with prestige, money, and resources.

Nothing else mattered. Not humiliating another woman. Not humiliating myself. Even the guilt of luring a ten year old child into a hostile terrain before a storm paled in comparison to my duty.

But… did it?

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