Page 69 of His Fated Luna

“A hot… tall… leggy cook with big…” Tony cupped his hands as if holding invisible breasts.

Josie smacked him on the head.

“You’re despicable, Tony!” she scolded.

Auntie Hilda and Lorraine burst into laughter.

I felt a smile pulling at my lips. I tried to look at Tony with a straight face, but it wasn’t working—especially as he sputtered, claiming he was a healthy young man with a healthy appetite for the opposite sex. Josie hit him again. I looked down at the last bit of my pancakes, hiding my grin. This—this is why I lovedAiden’s family. Being an only child, I loved feeling like I had siblings.

“At the risk of you eating me out of house and home, no, Tony. You can’t have a hot cook,” Aiden said with a laugh as he got up, grabbing his school bag. “You ready to go, Princess?”

I looked up, a little surprised at his light tone. I gave a quick nod, took one last bite of pancake, and followed him out.

Sliding into the passenger seat, I noticed how carefully Aiden checked everything—the brakes, the headlights…

It all made sense now that I knew why.

“Do you want to stop at the coffee shop near the library? I can park the car around there,” Aiden offered. His sunglasses made it impossible to tell if he was looking at me or not, but I had this weird feeling he kept glancing my way.

“I usually grab a coffee in the morning,” I said quietly. “But if it’s out of the way for you, I can go later.”

“I’ve seen you there plenty of times buying coffee,” he replied smoothly.

I tensed up as we passed the spot where I’d been taken. Aiden must’ve noticed, because he reached over and placed his hand on mine where it rested on my knee. He gave it a gentle squeeze before returning his hand to the gearshift. He drove one of those fancy stick shift cars that I found totally impossible to understand.

“Don’t worry, Rose. I'm going to make sure nothing like that happens again,” he said, voice full of conviction.

“I’d like to be equipped to take care of myself,” I finally said once we’d turned off that awful road and left the memory behind.

“You will be,” he said with certainty. “Once you turn, we’ll get you into the same introductory fighting classes our warriors take. It’s part of the training program.”

I smiled. Okay—this was progress. When we pulled into the lot near the coffee shop, I couldn’t hold back the question that had been tugging at me.

“You never said hi,” I said, getting out of the car and adjusting my bag.

Aiden gave me a puzzled look, hands stuffed into his pockets as we walked toward the shop.

“You never said hi whenever you saw me at the coffee shop. You obviously know I go there because you’ve seen me there,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh… yeah, well… we were always on our way to class or headed into the library to grab printouts,” he said evasively.

But you still took the time to notice me.

That thought teased its way around my brain. As we got in line, Aiden stepped forward and placed our coffee orders. I pulled out my wallet, but he gently pushed my hand away.

“You know the pack pays me,” he murmured, leaning in so close that his breath brushed the side of my face. I had to fight not to shiver. “So really, it’s like you’re already paying for your coffee.”

“But—” I started to protest.

He ignored me and handed over his card like the conversation was already settled.

The pack had its own system for generating funds. The land was in the name of Bloodfire Phoenix Inc., with the alpha always serving as the CEO. They owned residential and commercial properties, and the rent collected went straight into the pack accounts. That money paid for everything—maintaining the lands, the pack doctor, the alpha, beta, gamma, warriors, and anyone else on the payroll. Most of the pack lived on pack land, paying a small fee to stay in the houses built by Bloodfire Phoenix. Even those living off pack land still had to pay a smalltax as members, since the land was shared for shifting and running in wolf form.

So when Aiden said his pay came from me, he wasn’t wrong. Auntie Hilda and Ezra both contributed to the pack fund. Well, not Ezra anymore—he was on the Council of Elders now, which exempted him from pack taxes. But Hilda still paid. I had a feeling that after my turn, I’d be expected to start paying too.

As I stirred sugar into my coffee, mind wandering, I caught Aiden staring at me over the rim of his cup. My eyes slipped—completely on their own—down to his lips as he sipped. They pouted slightly, pressing against the edge of the cup. The closer I got to my turn, the more attractive his lips seemed to become. When I finally looked up, his blue eyes were locked on mine, full of smug awareness. He knew what I’d been thinking.

My face burned, and I quickly turned away, tossing in a dash of cinnamon before picking up my coffee. As we stepped outside, he finally spoke.