The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 194 Avery's POV I didn't sleep well that night. Flashes of my conversation with Reynaud ran through my mind on loop, causing me to toss and turn fitfully. Over and over I considered what I should do. Reynaud had been specific about what was on offer. He dangled power and prestige in front of me, and safety for my mother, everything I had said that I cared about and then some. However, there was something too smooth about his actions, his eagerness to agree. Was he so eager to have me in on his plot because he genuinely was interested in what I could bring to his pack?

His reaction to my presence physically had felt genuine, even I had responded to the intense chemistry of his hands on me, and I could see that he had also been effected. Reynaud was a virile Alpha in his prime, and to him I represented the possibility of humiliation of a rival. I wasn't so naive not to consider that the main thrust of his interest probably lay in cuckolding Gideon and seeing him brought low socially. Any actual attraction Reynaud felt for me was probably secondary to those desires. I tried to think back to our previous encounters at the Alpha Ball.

Certainly, he had been politely interested then. I remembered some of what had transpired before I had ended up tangled in the sheets with a mystery Alpha. Had it been Reynaud? And why were my memories of that time so helplessly hazy? ---- Was he drawn to me because he was the one I had spent that breathless night with? Was that the tension I felt between us? And if so, why did he not allude to it in the slightest? What he offered me was tantalizing to daydream about.

To have a life in a new pack, one where I might be worshipped and admired and valued unlike this agonizing existence I had lived through in Nightwolf Pack thus far. Oh yes, it was very tempting to imagine the world Reynaud's words painted. His comments had the effect he had no doubt calculated. He had seen the wounds on my body and surmised, correctly, that I felt alone and abandoned. But words were cheap. I knew almost nothing about the man, or his actions, outside of the Alpha Ball.

The morning was fast approaching, and Gideon was sparing no expense in making sure that I would attend the Alpha Council at his side, bedecked and bejeweled as his Luna. Didn't that mean something as well? He had said that my punishment was completed, and he was removing me from proximity to Dierdra, in fact he was choosing me over her for this trip. Did that mean that he valued me? 1 I sighed and pounded my fist into my pillow, trying to conform it to a shape that would allow me to rest.

When morning did arrive, 1 felt no better rested than when I had fallen into bed, and I still wasn't sure about my feelings in regards to Reynaud's offer. The car would leave at 9:00 a.m. to transport Gideon and I and ---- our entourage to the far Council Estate. It was still a few hours until that time, and I had business I wanted to see to before I left. I dressed carefully, in the new clothes that Camila had bought for me and which Dierdra had lent with great recalcitrance. Then I marched across town to seek out the lair of my enemy.

Isat in the entranceway as a servant told me to wait while he let his mistress know that I had arrived, then I was shown into the parlour where a woman I hated waited for me. "T was surprised at your note," she said, flicking her fingers at a chair nearby for me to seat myself, "I had thought our business was concluded." Jessica's emerald eyes were cold jewels that glittered at me as I seated myself. If she was annoyed, or pleased, it was impossible to read. She was waiting for me to reveal my purpose before she decided one way or another. "Thave come to ask a favor," I said bluntly.

Her delicately arched eyebrows rose at this admission. "Generally," she drawled, leaning back in her chair, "when someone is being blackmailed, they don't come asking for favors." "You already know that I am good for repayment," I pointed out, "as you can show Gideon that letter at any time. As I see it, we're already in this together, and I need something only you can supply."