The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 106 Gideon's POV | should have felt deliriously happy at finding my true mate, and for day or so, | was. But somehow when | embraced Dierdra, it didn't feel right. When | kissed her, | found myself comparing it to the Full Mating Moon with the girl in the woods. That night had been electric and life-changing, yet our kisses now had none of that chemistry. | had been hunting for this woman for weeks, thinking she was the other half of my soul, but when | was with her my thoughts were elsewhere. When | embraced her, Dierdra didn't fit against me the way that girl had.

If it wasn't for my bite mark on her, | would have thought she was a stranger. | had expected that, when | found my mate again, we would fall easily into that intoxicating mating rush and | would receive her mark in return. However, although Dierdra tried to initiate more sexual contact, | found myself pulling away. My body didn't respond to her touches, so | made excuses for why | needed to be elsewhere when she was in my room. Even more frustrating, | knew where my mind and body wanted ---- to be, and it wasn't with my true mate. It was with my soon-to-be bride and Luna, Avery.

Every time | was with Dierdra, it was Avery in my thoughts. It was her face that swam before me when | closed my eyes. Her shy smile and bright eyes. The chin lift she did when she was talking back... Standing on the marriage podium with Avery, all | could think was that | needed this, | needed her. | would do anything to keep her. Anything to make her stay. "You put on a good act earlier, but | can see through you. If you won't go through with this, 'm sure Dierdra would be more than happy to take your place." | said the one thing | could think of that would make her stay.

It was cruel, but effective. | had seen the hurt in her eyes when she'd visited my office. | knew she'd wanted to talk to me before Dierdra arrived, but the chaos of her arrival had kept us from meeting. | still had no idea what it was she'd wanted to say. | knew that she wanted more from me than the title of Luna. She'd made that clear. It was part of why I'd agreed to tell her about my past. Reliving those memories of the massacre was terrible, but she needed to know what sort of man she was choosing ---- | had thought she'd run, instead she'd embraced me.

No one had ever sought to comfort me like that. Her touch had been a balm to a wound on my heart | hadn't known I'd still carried. But she deserved better than me. | was the homicidal Alpha that other packs feared. | was the demonblooded wolf who would kill without warning. And | had a mate who | had marked, and who was my responsibility. Dierdra had been badly treated by her captors, and | refused to be another man who brought her misery. When Avery requested that we spend our wedding night together, | felt my heart leap.

The pull to be by her side was so strong it had taken all of my willpower to quell it. Now | was obligated to spend the night with her, and as Alpha and her husband, | would honor her request. Dierdra was furious. The side of her that came out after learning of Avery's request was ugly and unexpected. For the first time, | thanked those ancient agreements that required my bride be of Silvermoon blood, as it gave me reason to enforce my marriage to Avery. | tried reasoning with her about how Avery must feel, being Luna without being my mate, but she wouldn't hear it.

"You just want to keep me as your hidden mate! You're no better ---- than those rogues in the forest for marking me and refusing to make me your Luna!" Dierdra stormed out of my room and told me she would stay in the village until further notice. Once our wedding night was over, | would need to go make my amends to her as well. My stomach sank at the prospect. And then Avery arrived. The moment she stepped into my room and quietly locked the door behind her, she stole my breath away. The shy, meek girl who had first climbed into my car after the Silvermoon Mating Ball was gone.

The woman who was prowling across my room towards me was confident, proud, and very sure of what she wanted.