Page 164 of His Fated Luna

"I think I like this better than our dates,” Rose said with a shy laugh as I picked the pineapples off her pizza, popping them into my mouth.

"I like anytime I get to spend with you,” I admitted a bit ruefully. "I think next, you need to let me have some dessert."

My smile was positively wolfish.

"We have some brownies,” Rose muttered vaguely, taking a bite of her pizza. Her thighs were thrown over my lap as she sat facing me.

"My definition of dessert and your definition of dessert vary greatly, Princess." My gaze dropped meaningfully to her chest.

"You really are a complete glutton for sex,” Rose admonished, but she ended up scooting closer, settling into my lap, the remaining pizza entirely forgotten and left to cool on paper plates.

"Not for sex,” I corrected, taking her in my arms. "For you."

Chapter 50

“You only need one man to love you. But him to love you free like a wildfire, crazy like the moon, always like tomorrow, sudden like an inhale and overcoming like the tides. Only one man and all of this.” ? C. JoyBell C.

Rose's POV

I sat checking my email on my laptop. I couldn't help but think about the wonderful tour of the med-school campus in New York. Aiden told me that he had made inquiries about housing for us. He was seriously considering living with me and getting his own courses transferred to New York University. He also told me that after the ritual, Dylan could help take over alpha duties leaving Aiden with enough time to live in New York with me and come down to the pack every alternate week to makesure everything was running smoothly. It would be a little hectic and tough in terms of pack related activities, but it would be a workable solution so we could live with each other.

Everything was slowly falling into place and Aiden was being completely supportive. I leaned back with a soft smile as I recalled how amazing Aiden was. He’d blown my mind. Who would have thought that we'd end up here? Like this? Surely not me. Never in a million years had I imagined a life like this. I thought back to a time where even running my hands across his soft locks was something I could only dream about. And now it was a regular occurrence, done every night before I fell asleep in what was now becoming our bed since Aiden refused to let me sleep in my own room anymore.

And it was then that I heard a roar reverberate throughout the entire house, shaking even the windows. My brows furrowed. What the hell was going on?

Aiden's POV

Tony and I walked back towards the alpha residence, completely sweaty and dirty but joking around after a successful day of training. Mom had informed us that she would be coming back in the next few days with good news for Dylan and we brothers were optimistic that maybe now our younger brother could finally catch a break.

"You've got to let me come over for lunch today,” Tony wheedled. "Come on, I need some real food."

I laughed. "You need to find your own mate soon. Maybe then you'll appreciate the wonders of staying home."

Tony just rolled his eyes. "Well, whoever she is, if she can't cook and I can't cook, you'll be stuck with the both of us coming over for meals."

I opened my mouth to say I highly doubted Tony would be willing to leave the privacy of his own home for at least a month after meeting his mate but suddenly stopped as a feeling of trepidation coursed through me. I instinctively scanned the trees off to the side of my house and then I smelled him before I saw him. Jake stood at the edge of the woods near the alpha residence. What was he doing out here? I had gotten the mind-link from my patrols that Jake was on pack land. In a show of good faith, I'd allowed them to give Jake clearance and not try to stop the lone wolf from roaming my territory. Rose wanted me to be nicer to Jake, so I'ddone exactly that. I had expected Jake to go see Rose. Why was Jake standing outside our house?

“This ends here, Alpha,” Jake spat, coming out of the shadows.

There was a wild look in his eye. I took a hasty step back. My eyes landed on Lexia who was behind Jake. She already had clearance to roam our pack territory, so no one informed me she was around. And even if she had been around, she was supposed to be at the pack clinic to see her mother. But her mother had passed away. So what was Lexia doing here unless…

My eyes hardened. I snapped my gaze towards Jake who was breathing hard. Jake's eyes were alternating from the yellow glow of his wolf to his natural light blue eye color.

“What are you doing here Jake?” My voice was hard as steel, and I cut my gaze to Lexia who suddenly shrank back guiltily. It didn’t take much to put two and two together. Jake and Lexia were both here together. To do what exactly, I had no idea but I had a feeling that they were up to no good.

“I’ve had enough of you playing around with Rose’s feelings!” Jake’s voice was a growl. “You’re going to break her heart and you don’t even care! You’re just using her for your stupidtitle and as a fucking telephone operator for your damn dead ancestors!”

I saw red. How dare Jake think all these things about our relationship?

“So… I’m going to make it easy for you. You can step away and leave her. Leave all of this behind.” Jake’s voice had become deathly calm.

I cocked my head, my stare lethal, my demeanor emanating the promise of a terrible ending if pushed further. Rose made me irrational, and the merest mention of leaving her made me want to rip someone's throat out. Jake kept talking.

“I challenge you!” Jake roared. “I challenge you for the title of Alpha of the BloodfirePhoenix Pack and—” he stopped casting a sideways glance at the alpha residence. My eyes followed his flitting to a window where Rose's side profile was visible as she sat on her laptop, before continuing. “And the right to mate with Rose!”

Blinding fury gripped me and Ilet out a roar that rattled the windows of my own home. My eyes glowed yellow before they became bloodshot, drool dripped from my mouth. My wolf had become feral inside of me, fighting to be let out. My mind blanked, control going over entirely to my wolf. Something that I had never let happen in the entirety of my life.

Lexia took a few steps back. I knew she had never seen me this angry.