The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 211 Dierdra's POV Avery and Gideon returned from the Alpha Ball in the middle of the night, but I didn't see Gideon until the next day. He declined to come to my room. When I went to greet him in his office the next morning, his door was closed and I could hear conversation inside. I knocked, and Avery stepped out. She fixed me with a cool smile, but didn't say anything other than, "I'll report back," to Gideon before wandering down the hall and out of sight. I ducked into Gideon's office with a slow-building panic in my stomach.

"T missed you," I said, and it was somewhat truthful, "You didn't come to bed when you got home." Gideon was powerful, and easy on the eyes, and when he was around I had a focus for my fractious nature. He helped center me, in that when he was around, I always knew where my target was. When he was gone, I had felt somewhat aimless and drifting. With both him and Avery gone, there had been no one to anchor my schemes. "J didn't want to wake you. You need all the rest you can get," Gideon explained, but his eyes wouldn't meet mine, and I hada sneaking suspicion something else was going on.

---- The next few days this sensation intensified. It was hard to put my finger on, but Avery and Gideon seemed closer somehow. More deferential and respectful towards each other. Even more concerning was the way in which Gideon seemed to be carving more time out of his schedule for Avery, including scheduling over long-standing appointments I had with him. When I questioned the new itinerary, he said that he wanted to make sure that Avery was performing her Luna duties adequately, but there seemed to be more to it than that.

He hada number of papers scattered across his desk at times, that he seemed to put away when I entered his office. All of these things were subtle, and maybe I was reading too much into it, but I had been a survivor for too long not to trust my senses when they were tingling, and right now my intuition was telling me that something else was going on. Concerned, I scheduled an emergency meeting with Zara and the Rogue King. At least with Gideon canceling our meetings, I had more time to sneak away while he was preoccupied.

I hopped ina pack car and took off for the cabin in the woods that had become our de facto rendezvous-vous spot. "You need to keep a tighter leash on your man," was the first thing Zara said to me. She recounted the events of the Alpha Council, "Gideon has been playing you for a fool, and you've been so preoccupied with your fake pregnancy that you never even noticed!" Next to her the Rogue King looked equally irritated. Apparently ---- this Reynaud had been taking his money to stir up trouble in the packs, and now he was missing a return on his investment.

"So Avery somehow went in there as Reynaud's doxy, and came out as the Luna of the hour?" I raised my voice in an outraged squeak. "Tt was no accident, mind you," Zara spat, "Gideon was grooming her in ways we hadn't suspected. She was supposed to be ripe to turn on him, but instead he came out stronger than ever." The atmosphere in the room was sour and frosty.

"So do we take her out now?" I turned to Zara eagerly, "If she is as important to Gideon's position in the eyes of the Council as you say, wouldn't her removal from the playing field be a blow to his power?" I saw Zara's eyes gleam at my suggestion, she had no love for her half-sister, and she was all too willing to make sure that she was permanently taken out of the picture, if for no other reason than that her husband and mate had an inordinate desire to chase down Avery, his old ex.

"No," The Rogue King's tone was harsh and snapped like a switch across us both, "Anyone who harms Avery will face the same from me in turn." Not only did he speak vehemently, but the full force of his Alpha strength was behind the command, and I was already nodding in obedience before he even finished speaking. Annoyed, I grimaced at him as he crossed the cabin to stare pointedly at Zara from a ---- few feet away. "avery is not for you to deal with. She is mine, understand?" His voice resounded with power, and even Zara blanched as she tried to meet his one-eyed gaze.

Eyepatch or no, he had grown in power undeniably, and the wolves within us both were cowed by his consummate authority.