Page 151 of His Fated Luna

“Oh…um…well, things changed.” I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair before casting a glance at Aiden who was eyeing me as if seeing me for the first time.

There was an awkward silence for a bit and then,

“I can take you, if you want to go have a look.” Aiden spoke carefully, calculatingly.

I gave it a start. What? Was this one of those trick questions?

Clasping my hands in my lap, I looked at my soup, throat clicking as I swallowed audibly.

“It’s a four-year program,” Tony volunteered the information.

I wished he would shut up.

“And when were you going to tell me about this?” Aiden finally asked, his eyes flashing.

“I…I…” I stuttered and then I squared my shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. “I thought you’d be happy to have me gone,” I admitted.

“Or is it you that would be happy to have been gone?” Aiden challenged.

I opened my mouth for a beat and then closed it again. I knew he would get angry.

“I won’t go,” I finally settled on saying. “Not...not anymore.” My voice was soft.

“So you can end up hating me for holding you back?” Aiden retorted grimly. He took the final bite of his garlic bread and pushed his soup aside. “We’ll go have a look. OK? We can do the ceremony later. If you want to go next weekend, I’ll go with you. I’ll even reach out to someone working in the program so we can get some inside information.”

I let out a breath I'd been holding. He didn’t explode, didn’t rage at me. Instead, he was being helpful.

How…odd. I watched as Tony followed his older brother out and they both went into Aiden's study.

Trying to stand up, I winced again as my thighs trembled. You’d think that being a werewolf would give a girl some powerful glutes but apparently, sex required a different set of muscles altogether.

“Try taking a warm bath with Epsom salts, dear,” Lorraine said gently as I walked woodenly into the kitchen with the dishes.

Lorraine grabbed the dishes from me. “I’ll clean up. You go rest. Oh, and Rose?” she called to my retreating back. I turned around, my face beet red. “It’s common if a man is...umm…how should I put this…well endowed” —my face turned even redder— “for you to be a little sore down there, especially after your first time…and if it’s done...multiple times.” Lorraine tripped over the words, trying to be as factual as possible. She paused a beat before speaking again. “It might be uncomfortable if you try again too soon,” Lorraine clarified.

I turned even more red, gave a jerky nod, and began walking up the stairs jerkily. Did everyone know about my sex life?

Aiden’s POV

“What’re you playing at, Tony?” I bit out. “Why’d you tell me all of this now…about Rose...over dinner…?” I knew Tony could smell me on Rose.

She was marked and mated now. My smell was all over her. Now every wolf who came near her would know she was mine just from being able to smell her.

“I thought it was better for you to find out sooner rather than later. And...” Tony hesitated before plowing forward. “I had a feeling Rose might be having second thoughts about the program. Now that you guys are mated, she might not want to be apart from you. But she can’t throw her ambitions away. I knew that if you found out, you wouldn’t let her back out,” Tony ended.

I gave a heavy sigh. Damn, my brother was right. I wouldn’t hold Rose back. But being the good guy in this scenario really sucked.

“You guys will make it work,” Tony assured. “It’s only a couple of years. She can transfer down here later for her residency.”

“I just mated with my luna. The last thing I want to think about is being apart from her,” I muttered, furrowing my eyebrows.

Tony gave me a grin.

“Time to walk the talk brother. You always said you liked females with high aspirations. Well, you’ve got one. Question is, which head are you going to think with now?”

I threw the cap of my pen at Tony.

“What if she gets pregnant?” I retorted. Having a baby could really put a wrench in Rose’s plans.