Page 23 of His Fated Luna

Thoughts about Rose. I wasn’t being fair to her. Going to her in my wolf form hadn’t been a smart move. And then I asked her to kiss me. I was constantly in limbo with her. At dinner I had been unnecessarily harsh towards her. Tonight, looking at Rose—how she laughed with my brothers, how effortlessly she had fit intoourworld—something inside me twisted.

I gasped out a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair to let go of thoughts circling around Rose. But it was easier said than done.

A few moments later, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I exhaled sharply, pulling it out and glancing at the screen.

Lexia.

I saw the name and my fingers twitched and curled over my phone, nearly crushing it as my wolf howled in my head. She wasn’t our mate. He didn’t want to hear her voice. But did I? I contemplated the question until the screen went blank again. There was peace for a beat and then the phone began to ring again. I didn’t pick up. I didn’t want to.

And that realization hit me harder than I expected.

There was a time when I would have dropped everything just to hear Lexia’s voice. A time when the idea of a world without her was unfathomable. But now? Now, her name on my screen felt like an obligation rather than a desire. We’d been together for two and a half years now, making plans to strengthen our packs through our union. Was our relationship so weak, that the mate bond could erase her from my heart? Or was the foundation of our relationship, based on mutual gains, the weak link?

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to accept what I already knew. I was pulling away from her. And the worst part? It wasn’t just because of the matebond.

Something was shifting my emotions, and I knew exactly where it was leading me.

To Rose.

The name echoed in my mind, unbidden, unstoppable. I hated how natural it felt to gravitate towards her.

It wasn’t logical. When I first met Rose, my emotions towards her had been nothing but resentment. I despised everything about her—the way everyone tried to force her on me, the way she silently made her way into my thoughts.

And now…now, I sought her presence.

The mate pull was relentless. It forced me to crave her laughter, her curves, her fire. I had tried to resist, but what was the point in fighting something inevitable?

A bitter chuckle escaped my lips.

How ironic.

I had spent so long hating her, and now I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

The phone vibrated again, another call from Lexia. This time, I put the phone back in my pocket.

I knew what this meant.

I was changing.

I had to stop it from happening. But how?

Chapter 10

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." – Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

Rose's POV

Over the next few weeks, I avoided Aiden like the plague. If I saw his car parked outside, I made sure to stay far away from his house. Once the new semester started, I was so busy with my chem lab and training at the pack clinic that I barely had any free time anyway.

I sat across from Jake, in a tiny bistro located on campus. We were about to dig into our food when that familiar, delicious scent that I had come to associate with Aiden wafted in. Jake, oblivious to my sudden tension, held up his Philly cheesesteaksub, indicating that I should take a bite. I did as I was told, doing my best to keep my eyes trained on Jake, head down to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

My taste buds exploded with the overwhelming euphoria of eating a perfectly made Philly cheesesteak.

“Ohh,” I moaned, closing my eyes as I swallowed the delightful, cheesy morsel. “This is so good!” I exclaimed, looking at Jake in pure bliss.

“I think I’m a little turned on seeing your reaction,” Jake joked. “You look like you just had an orgasm,” he guffawed.

Flushing with embarrassment, I tried to cover it up. “How come I never knew they serve amazing Philly cheesesteaks here? I don’t even like red meat, but that was delicious.”