Chapter 242
Chapter 242
Avery’s POV
Avoidance became the name of the game from there on out.
Not avoidance of Gideon, or Camila.
Avoidance of myself. Of the inner monologue that kept trying to tell me that I might be making the wrong choice. I didn’t want to consider that possibility.
I didn’t want to consider that the only plan I had might be useless.
That I was useless.
The last few months of my life had been driven by other people’s decisions. When I stopped to consider why I kept trying to leave, it was staring me in the face that it might be the only control I had in my life.
My Luna duties were proscribed. My wifely duties were nonexistent, so long as Gideon and I remained
hostile.
Not that he was being hostile to me. More like on guard.
I could sense his desire smoldering across our bond, and when he slept at night it intensified, keeping me awake with echoes of his desperation.
For me.
But I had been possessed for so long. All I could think was that these men had wanted me first for being expendable, then for being indispensable, and from either end of that spectrum I had remained a plaything in their games of power. 2
Would my child enter this world as a defenseless babe, as the pawn of those who would seek to control, use, and dominate their life? Knowing that the Rogue King already believed that any child I bore would be fated to be powerful, I knew he would not allow us to live a simple life.
Not while he still lived.
I loved this child, even before I could feel them. I loved and hated how they threatened to upend my life completely, I had thought the path before me had seemed simple, if hard. Now it felt impossible.
I spent all my time working on the tasks Gideon had given me, trying to avoid my own thoughts. The wolf within me made that impossible. She was strong, opinionated, and very sure that I was fucking up.
‘You are scared,’ she told me one afternoon, while I paced through the pack house trying to distract myself, ‘and it is never good to run when you are scared. That’s how rabbits get caught p>
‘I am not a rabbit,’ I thought angrily, ‘I am a wolf p>
‘Then show your fangs and destroy those who oppose you,’ she urged, ‘that will do more for our pup than this panicking p>
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Chapter 242
+25 Bonus
I growled in my throat. My wolf always thought everything reduced down to simple dynamics of hunter and prey, but that was her world, not mine. My world was more complex, and its dangers were less obvious but no less painful. (1
I hadn’t been watching where I was walking. Now, I raised my head as I realized where I was.
This was a corridor I had avoided coming down for weeks.
Because it was where she was.
I understood that she was still kept under guard, but that Gideon had allowed her time in the training yard every day.
Now, impulse took hold of me and I stepped past the guard outside her door and into her room.
“Hello, Dierdra,” I said, as she lifted her head in surprise. She had been eating her dinner, I saw, though
most of the food was untouched.
“I wondered when you would come to gloat,” Dierdra looked paler, but her eyes were still intense. She
stared at me with barely concealed hatred.
I ignored the look in her eyes and stepped further into the room, shutting the door behind me.
“You’re not worried I’ll kill you?” she sneered, “Maybe you want the guards to escort you in my presence p>
“We both know how it would go if you tried,” I bared my teeth at her.
We both remembered the scene on the path where my wolf’s voice had made her submit.
“What do you want?” Dierdra hissed, “Did you get bored with your perfect life, now that you have the
perfect Alpha to yourself p>
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure why I had come. Perhaps I had just wanted to remind myself of what I had fought for, and won.
“Gideon has allowed me to oversee your daily activities,” I lied.
Her eyes darted around, guiltily. She was, no doubt, remembering what had happened when our positions were reversed.
“Starting tomorrow, you will begin hard labor in the fields,” I smiled nastily, heading for the door, “so make sure you get good rest tonight p>
My hand was on the door handle when she said, “He doesn’t love you p>
I froze, turned to look at Dierdra, who gave a cold smile,
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