The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 202 Avery's POV All [could think, as Gideon grabbed me, was that I had badly miscalculated. He whirled me in his arms, the champagne glass slipping from my fingers and crashing to the floor, its contents splattering across the polished parquet and splashing on the hems and shoes of the Alphas and Lunas nearest us. Gideon's arm snaked around my waist, pulling me tight against his body, while his other arm draped across my shoulders. I felt suddenly, breathlessly, aware that his teeth were mere inches from my throat. And that his eyes had turned a distinct shade of yellow.

His wolf was lurking, barely below the surface, and I could hear the rasping rattle of his heavy breaths over my shoulder. "Gideon?" I whispered, eyes wide, not daring to move. He was holding me so tightly, and there was a faint tremble to his hands where they pressed against my dress. He seemed on the very verge of losing control. Around us, the crowd had frozen as well. I rolled my panicked eyes along the ring of bystanders, silently pleading for them to help, but the expressions were all aghast and pale.

Awareness of the commotion had spread, and at the far end of the room I saw the Council peering in our direction with interest. ---- "Gideon," I said in a low whisper, "It's going to be okay." He growled and pulled me even closer. | felt the heat of his breath against my neck and saw the glimmer of fangs at the edges of his lips as he pulled them back. It would take less than a second for those sharp, ivory canines to plunge into my jugular. I began to tremble in his arms, my legs going weak and rubbery. If could have, I would have run screaming for the doors.

Indeed, it appeared some people were doing just that, ducking into the hallway beyond while others stood, mesmerized, waiting to see what would happen next. The crowd did slowly edge away from us, though. Leaving a wide circle in the center of the council chambers with Gideon and I, tangled in his deadly embrace, in the center. And into this open space stepped Reynaud. "Gideon Nightwolf!" he called out in a ringing, carrying voice. At the sound of his name, Gideon's head snapped up, his pupils narrowing to hard pinpricks as he targeted the rival Alpha.

A growl rumbled in his chest so loudly that I felt my body vibrate. My own eyes tracked Reynaud as he stepped closer and more fully into my field of vision. Was he intentionally trying to antagonize Gideon, even knowing that I was trapped in his arms? He barely even glanced at me, those tourmaline eyes fixed beyond me, towards his real target. The world compressed to two spotlights, one focused on the man I was rejecting, and one the ---- man who represented my future moving forward. One man who barely seemed to see me at all, and one who clutched me as though I represented his whole world.

Both equally dangerous. Had I chosen incorrectly? A small part of my brain that only spoke in the primal language of fear was babbling incoherently that I had put myself in the jaws of a predator and the only way forward was pain. ' Reynaud paced forwards and the wolf who held me seemed to grow more agitated at his approach. "Look at the mighty Alpha," Reynaud's voice was taunting and disdainful. He pitched his voice so that it carried to the farthest corners of the hall. He knew he had a captive audience. Literally.

Istared at him in terror, worried that if he antagonized Gideon too much now, he would truly go feral and I would be his nearest and fastest victim. Gideon didn't respond with words. He merely swung his body in a semicircle to keep Reynaud in his sights.