Page 161 of His Fated Luna

During my moments of indecision, Aiden came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Lexia is calling you,” I stated flatly, handing over the cellphone to Aiden. Despite the gravity of the situation, I took a moment to openly admire Aiden's sculpted chest.

Aiden sighed, picking up the phone in front of me. His face became solemn. I could hear Lexia's frantic cries, but I couldn’t make out exactly what Lexia was saying.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Lexia. At least you had more time with her. Rose and I will stop by when we get back from New York to pay our condolences.”

My eyebrows furrowed together. What was going on?

“No, Lexia, we can’t come to the funeral. We’re in New York right now, we won't make it back in time since you’re having it within the week. But as soon as we’re back in town, we’ll come over. OK...hang in there, Lexia. I know you’re a strong girl.” And with that Aiden shut the phone, gazing at me sadly. “Mrs. Evans passed away.”

I brought a hand to my mouth in shock. I couldn’t believe it. Mrs. Evans had been such a nice lady. We stood there in silence for a few minutes, absorbing the sad news.

Aiden broke the silence after what seemed like an eternity. “Dr. Danvers had already told the family the day after admitting her into the clinic that she wouldn’t make it past a few days. She had cancer that had spread throughout her body.”

“She had cancer?” I gasped. Out of all the diseases werewolves were immune too, cancer wasn’t one of them.

“Mrs. Evans' illness was a secret, but I find it more and more distasteful to keep even a single thing from you. You’re an extension of me and people around me should live with the fact that anything I know would automatically be known to you by default,” Aiden said softly.

“Is that why you were at Lexia's place the next day after she visited our place?” I queried. “I felt your presence there,” I admitted.

Aiden nodded grimly. “Lexia was a mess. The least I could do was be there for her.”

I sighed. I had to tell Aiden the truth. We were in this together and I wasn’t going to hide things from him anymore no matter how trivial they seemed. “I’m not saying this to discredit her. She’s going through a tough time but, Aiden, despite being a mess, she had the time to give your book back to Jake and make it seem like you left it there after spending the entire night with her.”

Aiden was brought out of his glum stupor in an instant. His neck snapped to look at me.

“What?”

I nodded. “If you don’t believe me, you can view my memories. I’m not telling you this for any other reason except that you should know what’s going on.” I bit my lip hesitantly before proceeding. “I really am sorry to hear about Mrs. Evans. She was the only person I sincerely liked in that entire family. Lexia is probably broken right now and trying to figure out how to get you back because she lost one of the most important people in her life. I can understand how her grief is making her frantically try to grasp onto the relationships that have always mattered to her. However, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t meet her alone for a while. I don’t want her spreading any more rumors.”

“I was never hers to try and get back to begin with,” Aiden said grimly. Aiden looked at me apologetically. “I wish you’d told me this sooner.”

“Well, I get the feeling she was doing all this just to get to me, so we’d end up having problems. She did it so I wouldn’t trust you. But I didn’t let it get to me,” I added the last part proudly before adding in a sober voice, “But Jake was so angry.” I shuddered at the memory. “I don’t want any more problems between you two. He’s my friend, and he’s your cousin. You guys should really make an attempt to get along.”

Aiden nodded ruefully. “For you, Princess.” Then Aiden sucked in a breath when I teasingly ran my palms down his bare chest, dipping under his towel to grip his hardening member. “We’ll be late for your appointment,” Aiden groaned as I hooked a finger into his towel, pulling it so it fell to the floor.

“We don’t have to be there for another hour.” I nibbled on his ear.

“It takes thirty minutes to get there,” Aiden breathed the words out in a voice that clearly wanted me to keep going.

“It takes you about twenty minutes to get ready. So you’ve got about ten minutes to make me fall apart in your arms.” My hand trailed down his waist, fingers softly grazing over his skin. Aiden hissed. “You’re not up for the challenge?” I asked innocently, standing up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his mouth.

The gauntlet had been thrown.

Aiden looked at me mutinously, grabbing my wrists.

“I’ll show you and I’ll do it in less than ten minutes babe,” he glowered, pinning me to the wall and sending me into a spiraling frenzy within two minutes flat. I came after five. And then again after another five minutes.

I loved the campus, I enjoyed meeting with my academic counselor, and I almost squealed in delight when Aiden started asking about family accommodations. It meant he might be considering moving up here with me. That would be wonderful. They were willing to accept me on a scholarship too! I almostthought my ears deceived me when Aiden inquired about doing his masters in one of the nearby universities.

"I could take a semester off,” Aiden suggested as we sat in a small cafe eating lunch. "Concentrate on getting things lined up in the pack while you train with Dr. Danvers for your certificate. Then I could come up here with you and finish up the remaining three semesters for my masters while you do med-school. We could go down home to check on things during holidays and summer vacations. Long weekends. New York is only a three hour plane ride from here. It’s totally doable.”

I leaned back in my chair, looking at him appraisingly. "You'd do that for me? What about the pack?"

Aiden gave me a small smile. "I'd go back a few times in a month to make sure everything was in order. If Dylan co-rules with me, he'd be able to handle a lot of alpha duties in my absence. It would work out for the best. I'd have a masters from a university in New York and I'd get to live with you." He gave me a fond smile. "We'd have to still attend regional meetings and go down to the pack to keep things running smoothly, but it would be manageable. And it's not forever. Just for a while."

Aiden almost dropped his sandwich when I launched myself at him, throwing my arms around him in a fierce hug. The fact that he was considering leaving his precious pack in someone else's hands all to be near me was startlingly clear to me. Because no matter how much he said he'd benefit from it, the fact was he never would have entertained the idea if it hadn't been for me. Why did this all seem too good to be true?