The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 451

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.

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.”

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