Page 210 of His Fated Luna

“Rose is right,” Tony spoke up, looking at Aiden. He could tell Aiden was sorely tempted. “Give it to me, Rose. I’ll make sure it goes somewhere no one can find it.”

I handed it over to the beta, trusting that Tony had very few regrets in life compared to Aiden. And with that, Tony left theroom. I locked a censorious gaze onto Aiden. He really should know better.

Aiden had the decency to look abashed.

“There’s just so much I could change,” he defended. “My father passing away, my defeat at Alistair’s hands, stuff I messed up with you—”

Iwalked over and placed a finger to his lips, cutting him off.

“Everything that happened, happened for a reason,” I whispered. “And no matter how much we want to, we can’t change anything. We shouldn’t.”

I leaned into him for a comforting hug.

Aiden didn’t argue further, letting his jaw rub against my temple pensively.

“So I think yellow for the nursery is a good color,” I murmured into his shoulder.

Aiden smiled, momentarily distracted by talk of nurseries and baby names.

Rose's POV

“Did you really mean it?” I asked one night as we lay in bed together, Aiden tracing patterns over my stomach.

I was five months pregnant now and was starting to feel uncomfortable. None of my clothes fit anymore and my boobs were starting to leak milk. If Ilaughed too hard, Ipeed a little in my pants and had to go to the bathroom almost round the clock. I felt disgusting but Aiden, Aiden still found me beautiful.

“Mean what?” Aiden asked, gaze roving from my stomach to my face.

With my help he’d found the EIA report along with the name of the company that had been contracted to conduct the study. Earlier today it had been submitted and pretty soon, after a detailed government assessment, our lands would become protected areas. All in all, today had been a very successful day. Now we were enjoying time together, Aiden placing kisses along my stomach as he tried to talk to our baby.

“That you only pretended to not like me because you hoped to convince yourself? And that you never really loved Lexia?”

Aiden gave me a pained look.

“Of course, I meant it. I meant every single thing I told you when you didn’t have your memories.”

I gave Aiden a watery smile.

“You did it, you know. You made me fall in love with you all over again.” Igave a small helpless shrug. “I think what really did me in was the fact that you said you’d love any child of mine and you didn’t care if we had all girls.” My face sobered. “That was really sweet.”

“But it’s the truth. I just told you how I felt,” Aiden argued. His hands came up to pull me into his side. “Thanks for sticking by me, Rose. I never had any reservations about your feelings. I knew you’d given your all to me. But sometimes I wondered, what if I wasn’t the alpha? Would you still be with me? And now I have my answer.” His eyes darkened. “However, I hated what you did. I still think you should have left.”

“I think we’ve already agreed to disagree on that aspect.” I gave Aiden a withering stare.

“I mean it, Rose. I don’t ever want you putting yourself in harm’s way again,” Aiden asserted.

I rolled my eyes. “Aiden—”

“No! You don’t get it do you. I don’t think I could handle it if something happened to you! I nearly went ballistic trying to get back to you. And it’s a good thing too because look what Alistair did to you!”

“I think we’ve already established that I’m made of stronger stuff. I can handle myself. I’m the luna.”

“You’re not invincible,” Aiden huffed.

Not for the first time, I wondered why we continuously started this argument. Aiden was firmly convinced that I needed to save myself first, always. And I was convinced that that’s not what being a luna meant. So instead, I did the one thing I knew would stop the conversation. I yawned, exaggerating the droop of my eyelids. Aiden’s eyes softened.

“I’m sorry. You must be tired.”

He was immediately pulling up the covers to my chin and kissing me good night, asking if I needed anything else. He'd already placed a glass of water by my bedside.