Page 139 of His Fated Luna

“How would you know?” I shot back.

Layla gave me a wry smile. “I know because I know our alpha. Just like I know our beta has probably slept with every female in a twenty-mile radius,” Layla scoffed. “You’ve attended a couple of training sessions to learn self-defense, so you know that we all train together. Aiden, Tony…the pack warriors. After we finishtraining, sometimes we all hang out.” Layla shrugged. “All the guys talk and I’m like one of the guys, so they don’t really censor their dialogue around me. I know these things. And I know for a fact that the only one for Aiden right now is you. His eyes never stray, Rose. We have female warriors in our pack, a lot of them do their best to…get to him. They rub up against him while training, wear low cut tops so their boobs are practically falling out in a bid to attract him, but it doesn’t work.”

The pen in my hand snapped into two. Taken aback by the magnitude of my pent-up anger over hearing all of this, I looked down at the broken pen as if I couldn’t exactly comprehend how it had happened. I looked up sharply. “I’ve never seen any of the she-wolves do that when I’ve attended training.”

Layla laughed. “Of course you haven’t. You’re the luna. You think they want their heads cut off by you? They behave around you and they’ll start behaving behind your back after you guys fully mate. Once your scents merge after sleeping together, and you’ve completed the entire mating process, they’ll back off. Aiden doesn’t even glance their way. He lets Tony handle their instruction and Tony, well, he’s more than glad to do that.” Layla gave a disapproving snort as she mentioned Tony.

The thought of a bunch of sweaty she-wolves trying to attract my mate didn't sit well with me at all.

“Why don’t any of them ever think about waiting for their mates?” I shook my head morosely.

“Most of us expect to find our mates when we turn eighteen,” Layla reminded me gently. “If, after a few years, we still haven’t found them, it’s highly probable that our mate may have died or has marked and mated with someone else, thereby severing our own mate bond. So by then, we usually give up and try to find our own happiness. You really can’t fault Alpha Aiden for that, Rose. He had no idea you existed. No one had told him. He just assumed he didn’t have a mate. So when he got with Lexia,it really wasn’t because he was rejecting you. It was because he didn’t know about you. Then by the time he found out about you, he already felt obligated to stay with her. It wasn’t like he could turn off his feelings with a switch of a button. Lexia really helped him through a rough time in his life. He was a mess after Alpha Austin passed away. She helped him overcome his issues and take up responsibility of being the pack alpha.”

I nodded as things began to click into place. The cruel boy from when I was eighteen compared to the gentle Aiden of today was hard to reconcile.

“He was still angry and bitter when he came to meet me back then,” I reasoned. “He was still recovering from his father’s death and the sudden responsibility of being the pack alpha.” I expelled a breath in sad understanding. “He was lashing out at me, another responsibility he hadn’t foreseen.”

It was quite similar to how I'd lashed out at the people around me when I'd felt like my life was spinning out of control. When they’d all moved me into the alpha mansion without my consent.

“He was lashing out at everyone back then, Rose,” Layla volunteered the supplementary information. “Not just you. He made Ezra retire early because they clashed so much. Lexia brought him out of his dark, brooding state but she had a really bad influence on him in other ways. She made him pretty judgmental and opinionated.”

There was a brief silence as I pondered over how Aiden used to be compared to how he was now.

“But he’s not like that anymore. He doesn’t jump to conclusions anymore,” Layla went on to say. “I’ve seen it in the way he always wants to hear both sides of the story when solving disputes. He’s cooled down considerably. We all think it has a lot to do with you.” Layla smiled, her cheeks dimpling.

I sat back, considering everything before sighing heavily. It was getting late. I was tired and wanted to go home. Home toAiden. I looked down at my screen saver. Aiden had his arm around my waist and my head was resting against his shoulder. Both of us smiled up at the camera. For the second time that day, I felt my body become flooded with comforting warmth at the knowledge that he was mine.

When I got home, Aiden was there in the TV lounge. He patted the spot next to him on the couch. I sat down, and Aiden folded me into him after I kicked off my heels and took off my blazer. I vaguely wondered if it was OK for me to lay nestled up against him, his hand slipping under my silk shirt to caress my stomach. His younger siblings could show up any minute and it wouldn't look right, would it?

"Where is everyone?" I asked, my eyes drooping closed. I was about to fall asleep nestled into his side with my head resting on his shoulder. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night and today had been a busy day.

"Out,” was Aiden's vague reply, his hand inching higher up my stomach, splaying over my ribs. My shirt followed his hand inching ever higher, exposing my mid-section to the cool, late October air.

I yawned. Aiden's fingers skimmed over my breast and I started a little at the contact just as the front door of the house opened. Josie and the kids were home. Aiden retreated his hand to rest on my hip, but he kept holding me tightly against his side.

Tanya bounded into the TV room, scrambling to come sit beside me. Kyle made a beeline for the remote in Aiden's hand.

"So how'd it go?" Aiden asked his mom once Josie entered the TV lounge.

"It's done,” Josie said with a nod and a kind, albeit tired, smile in my direction. I wondered what they were talking about but Tanya distracted me with a card she'd made.

The next day, the meeting of the allied packs took place and Alistair Evans was in attendance without his luna or daughter intow. He seemed to be treating me with much less hostility than before. I suspected Aiden had had a word with him about it. For my part, I made every effort to be a wonderful hostess and manage things appropriately. Once the meeting was successfully concluded, I stayed back to gather the working documents and notes made by the meeting attendees. Afterwards, Layla cajoled me into having lunch together.

It wasn’t until early evening that I came home. I was met with boxes upon boxes being lugged out of the mansion. A moving truck stood in their driveway.

“What’s going on?” I asked confusedly, entering the house.

Aiden had arrived home a few hours before me, and I was surprised when I found him lugging a suitcase down the steps. He hadn't mentioned anything about moving to me...

“Are we moving?” I asked uncertainly.

“Don’t be silly,” Josie said airily, appearing behind Aiden with another suitcase. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re our luna.”

“Then what’s all this?” I motioned around her to the movers taking the last of the boxes out of the house.

“We’re moving into the residence for the alpha’s widow.” Josie smiled as I yelped in protest.

“You can’t move. This is your home!” I exclaimed. I turned to Aiden pleadingly. “Tell her to stop. The kids grew up here!”