Page 196 of His Fated Luna

I made my way back to the alpha manor with an extra skip in my step. Aiden was home, as always, and I handed him the usb stick, blushing all the while.

“I thought you’d like to see it,” I confided.

Aiden closed the book he’d been reading and took the recording with a small murmur of thanks.

“Oh, that’s my favorite book!” I exclaimed cheerfully when my eyes fell on Aiden’s book, and I realized it wasTheCount of Monte Cristo.

“I know,” Aiden admitted before adding bashfully. “I always try to read it for your sake.”

“For my sake?” I looked at him confused.

“Honestly, I’m not a fan of the story. But I always try to read a little bit of it whenever I have the time since you’ve always been so adamant about me finishing the book.”

“You try to read a book you don’t like,” I said carefully, slowly. “Just because it’s my favorite?”

“You’re the one that’s always telling me to give it a chance.” Aiden was a little defensive, ears turning pink. I couldn’t help but think he looked so cute right now.

I realized why he was embarrassed over why he was reading the book. He was reading it for me. I knew it was for me… he was reading the book for me. And that made my heart do a little flip-flop.

After a few days, I firmly deleted my social media accounts from my phone to avoid running across more pictures of me and Aiden. Pictures that made me wonder who I had become within the past year. There was a sultry snap of me wearing a crop top, his arms around me, the bare skin of my stomach exposed from my shirt riding up and leaning into him. My back was pressedfirmly against his taught chest as one arm was lifted up, lightly grazing the hair at the nape of his neck. My luna mark was on full display and if I didn’t know better, I’d say Aiden was kissing my neck. But that wasn’t right. If this picture was to be taken seriously, the caption denoted that we’d gone to a party together while he was still dating Lexia.

Did he cheat on Lexia with me? Bile rose in my throat. What kind of person was I to enable such behavior? And this picture had been taken in April; four months after the time my mind was stuck in. Had things changed between us that fast? The questions made my head hurt, made me even more confused and when I tried to ask Aiden, he didn’t offer much in the way of explanations. His replies were brief, sticking to facts and dates.

Aiden’s curt replies only made me confused. He said he’d taken me to a party because I’d been crying. But he wouldn’t tell me why I’d been crying or what happened at the party that resulted in a picture like that being snapped. Instead, he just looked at the picture fondly like it was some inside joke between him and the Rose who had her memories. So, to avoid any further unpleasantness, I decided it was better to remove the temptation of over-analyzing my life through social media.

An entire week passed by and every day when I woke up and trudged into the kitchen, Aiden looked at me hopefully. And every day, my heart twisted with guilt as I dashed his hopes because I hadn’t woken up with a regained memory.

Finally, on a Monday, Aiden broke our routine which had consisted of me eating breakfast, asking Aiden questions which he answered as briefly as possible and then me trudging off to go spend time with Layla or my aunt and father.

“Aren’t you supposed to meet with your academic counselor today?” he queried, looking at me searchingly.

I nodded. “I have a meeting later on today.” I looked at Aiden oddly before speaking next. “I have…emails about housing in New York. For the both of us?”

Aiden grinned. It was the first time he’d graced me with a full-on smile, and it took my breath away. He really was cute when he smiled.

“We planned to move up there so you could do your specialisation for med-school.”

“We?” I echoed. Why would he…?

“I didn’t want to live apart from you,” Aiden said quickly. “So I froze my spring semester and decided to transfer in the fall to NYU.”

I blinked. I’d been conflicted that the only reason he was with me was out of a duty to follow the mate pull. I’d convinced myself he probably didn’t love me since I knew firsthand how much he cared about Lexia. I had also known that if Aiden wanted to be alpha, he’d have to make me the luna. So I had deduced that we’d eventually gotten together because Aiden had been forced into it. As for myself, I suspected I’d fallen in love with him. It wasn’t hard to understand why. This side of Aiden, that I'd never seen before, was so kind and considerate. I just had to be near him to make my heart go into overdrive.

“What about your pack?” I finally queried. “How were you going to manage things?”

“Dylan and Tony. And your dad,” Aiden supplied nonchalantly.

Maybe he’d decided it was better to live together to help with the baby.

“Did you know I was pregnant?”

Aiden gave a small chuckle. “I don’t think even you knew you were pregnant until recently.” He looked at me a little sadly. “I found out you were pregnant after you ended up in the hospital.”

And before I could stop myself, the question tumbled out.

“When was my last heat?” Because I had to know how long we’d been…trying to make babies. I must have conceived during my last heat. That was the only logical answer.

Aiden looked at me a little taken aback.