The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 448

Chapter 448

Avery’s POV

The drive to Aldric’s pack was quiet, I had to give Sebastian that. He didn’t press me for an answer just yet regarding his proposal. I didn’t want to give him one.

When we arrived, I was unsurprised to see Gideon’s car sitting in the driveway. Sebastian’s fingers tightened a little around the steering wheel when he noticed it.

“I guess he heard the news, too,” he muttered.

I shot Sebastian a withering look, but I didn’t comment on it. We climbed out of the car and headed into the clinic, where Aldric, Gideon, and a couple of pack healers were standing outside a windowed room.

“She’s awake?” I asked, coming to stand beside Aldric.

The Alpha grinned at me and clapped his hand on my shoulder. “Your medicine worked, Avery. She woke up this morning.”

“It was really amazing,” one of the healers said. “She popped right up like nothing happened at all. Her body will need more time to recover, of course. But all of her cognitive faculties are fully intact, and she hasn’t stopped smiling.”

“I can see that.” I took a step closer to the window and peeked into the room. Through the slats in the blinds, I could see the little girl sitting up in bed, propped up against a small mountain of pillows. Her face was stretched into a wide grin, and the room was chock-full of flowers and balloons.

A woman was sitting on the edge of her bed, clasping the little girl’s hands in hers. They seemed to be speaking to each other. The little girl laughed at something the woman said, and the woman laughed too, albeit more wetly, her hand coming up to wipe tears from her eyes.

“Is that her mother?” I whispered, looking at Aldric.

He nodded once. “Yes. She visits every day-none of us expected today to be the day her little girl woke

up.”

I fell silent, watching as the little girl held her hands out toward her mother. Her mother, still half laughing, half crying, pulled the girl into her lap and held her close, rocking her a little. The girl buried her face in her mother’s hair, and I saw the woman’s shoulders shake with tears.

Something shot through my chest at the sight.

I should have been happy. And I was, truly; the medicine had worked, and one of our patients was already seeing improvements. At this rate, all of the sick kids very well might be cured.

But seeing that mother and child now, her daughter looking so small in that hospital bed, all I could think about was Bjorn being in the same position. Sick, potentially dying, with the one real cure feeling impossible and terrifying.

1/3

+25 Bonus

I turned away just as the tears started to spring to my eyes. “I’ll be right back,” I choked out, then hurried out the side door.

“Avery?” I heard Sebastian call after me, but for the second time that day, I didn’t look back.

The air outside had turned warm and humid, but the sky was still gray, indicating more rain coming later. The breeze had picked up, bringing with it the scent of damp earth and pine. I walked over to the oak tree behind the clinic, which was apparently becoming my go-to place of refuge whenever I came here, and leaned against the bark.

“Avery.”

I hadn’t been alone for more than five seconds when Gideon’s voice called out to me. Turning, I saw him walking across the lawn.

“You followed me,” I said.

He stopped a couple feet away and put his hands in his pockets. “Well, you sort of stormed off out of nowhere. Right in the middle of a happy moment, too.” Gideon tilted his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t lie to me,” Gideon said firmly, taking a step closer. “I know you, Avery. You think I can’t tell when something’s upsetting you?”

Gideon’s words alone made fresh tears prick at the backs of my eyes, hot and salty. I swallowed and leaned back against the tree. For a moment, I considered telling him to leave me alone, that the conversation we were about to have was well outside the confines of the arrangement we had just made, but then the words were coming out, and I couldn’t stop them.

“Bjorn’s sick,” I whispered.

Gideon pulled his head back. “What?”

“He’s…” A small sob escaped before I could stop it. “He’s sick, and I’m so-I don’t know what to do-”

Gideon exhaled sharply and closed the remaining distance between us. He pulled me into his arms, and I let him without hesitating. His scent washed over me, making my wolf bristle with contentment. I inhaled deeply, just once, letting the familiarity of his embrace soothe my frayed nerves.

Gideon didn’t speak or ask questions. He just held me, gently rubbing circles across my back with one hand. I let my forehead fall against his chest and shut my eyes.

“Bjorn’s been having these… health scares,” I said vaguely. “He needs to be formally accepted by an Alpha.”

Gideon’s hand stilled a little on my back. “That…”

“I don’t want to explain it right now,” I muttered.

I could tell that Gideon wasn’t satisfied by my response-or rather, the lack thereof. But he didn’t press

2.3

+25 Bonus

the matter, for now at least, and quietly resumed rubbing circles on my back.

Once I was able to breathe properly, I pulled back, wiping at my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I saw that little girl in that hospital bed, and all I could think about was Bjorn being in a similar position.”

“But that’s the thing,” Gideon said, looking at me. “That little girl is awake and smiling right now, reunited with her mother, because of your medicine. Yours, Avery. Whatever sickness Bjorn has, I’m sure you can find a solution. Without an Alpha claiming Bjorn.”

I looked up at Gideon and exhaled. He was right. I kept losing sight of that, but it was true; I had developed a compound to help sick children who hadn’t responded nearly as well to other treatments. Bjorn’s situation may have been different, but if there was one hting I had learned from ten years of living in the human lands, it was that there was always an alternative solution. And I had a multi-million dollar business at my back to help me develop the right medicine.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify