The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 360 Sebastian told me there was a general store about twenty minutes outside the pack grounds that most of the pack members used for regular errands. | was hesitant at first, but he had his Beta take me, so | wasn't alone. Colt parked in a parking spot and waited while | ran in. It was quiet inside. A few people wandered the aisles, none of whom I recognized. | grabbed a basket and worked through my list quickly, grateful for something mindless to focus on.

| was standing in the toiletries aisle, comparing two identical- looking bottles of hand cream, when | heard the sound of heels on linoleum. I glanced up. Fiona. She was at the other end of the aisle, looking at something on the shelf. She seemingly hadn't noticed me yet. For half a second | considered just turning around and going to a different aisle, but she looked up before | could move and we made eye contact. "Oh. Avery." She smiled smoothly. "Fiona," | said. | put one of the bottles back and moved toward ---- the end of the aisle. She drifted my way.

Everything about her was unhurried and graceful. Even in a general store on a Wednesday afternoon, she was put together. Hair pinned back. Heels. A clearly expensive coat even though it was quite warm outside. "Funny running into you here," she said. "| needed a few things." | looked at her directly and decided to just say what had been on my mind for days now. "Did you tell Gideon where | was staying? Because he's been harassing me." "What? Of course not," she said. "I told you | wouldn't." | studied her for a moment.

She didn't seem to be lying, but | didn't know her well enough to count on it. "| see. Well, he's been coming around the pack lately." | watched her face. "Talking to my son behind my back." "That's concerning," she sighed. "But | didn't tell him." She held my gaze with the same composed expression she always had. Maybe she was telling the truth, or she was a really, really good actress for her age. | decided not to dwell on it; the damage was already done whether she told him or he found out on his own. It wasn't like | needed to live with her or anything.

"Well, it was good seeing you," | said politely. ---- "You too." | turned. Just then, | noticed the ring. An enormous fucking diamond was on her left ring finger. It definitely hadn't been there the last time I'd seen her; it was new. Fiona, noticing me looking, smoothly lifted her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, making sure | got the full view. "Ill let you get back to your shopping," she said pleasantly. * Take care of yourself, Avery." She turned and walked away down the aisle. | stood there with my basket over one arm, looking at the spot where her hand had been.

The ring had been real, and it had been new, and | didn't need her to explain what it meant. Gideon had given it to her. What she'd said about their engagement was true; she must have turned eighteen, and now it was set in stone with a stone. | knew | shouldn't care. It wasn't my business, and if someone else kept him away from me and my son, then | was glad for it But it didn't sit right with me. This girl was freshly eighteen, if even that. She was barely legal, and Gideon, a nearly forty year old man, had given her an engagement ring. ---- It disgusted me. More than that: it terrified me.

All this time, I'd thought that he might never fully get over me, that he might try to take me and Bjorn as his trophies to hold. But now | knew the truth. It really did have nothing to do with me, just as he said in Asher's camp all those years ago. He only wanted Bjorn. His strong Alpha heir. Which meant that he would likely try to take Bjorn away from me after all.