Chapter 148
Chapter 148
Avery’s POV
Dim light was filtering past the window curtains when I groggily pulled myself from sleep. Something had awoken me, but for a moment I wasn’t sure what. My mind was full of hazy memories, and it took me a long moment to remember where I was.
Ah, right.
The Council palace.
I had… been at the ball? And then…
Someone had escorted me upstairs. We had been going to an alcove, no, my room. Then we’d ended up in an alcove… then…
I squinted my eyes at the ceiling, trying to remember. Why was this so hard?
I had ended up in this room. My room here at the council palace… There had been a man here… I hadn’t seen his face but we had… oh god…
Some of what we had done filtered through my memories suddenly, and I blushed and squeezed my eyes shut. Not again!
There was a loud noise outside the door, and then a loud banging on the door that entered my room from
the suite common room.
“Avery?” it was Dierdra’s wheedling tone, and the sound of her voice made me wince. I flopped back on the bed, shoving my discarded dress to the floor and stretching out. My body felt languid and exhausted, well spent and well pleasured.
“I’m coming in!” Dierdra yelled, and my eyes shot open.
“No, no, no!” I snatched a sheet off the bed and flung it, and myself at the opening door, through which Dierdra had shoved her foot.
“What’s going on in there?” I heard a bunch of people in the room beyond, and the voice sounded like Zara’s. Through the crack in the door, I could see quite a few people roaming around. Other Alphas and Lunas that I didn’t know.
“This is my bedroom!” I snapped, “What the hell are you doing p>
What were they thinking trying to force their way in? I glanced at the room behind me, at the rumpled sheets and discarded clothing.
Discarded men’s clothing.
Oh.
A shirt was tossed on the floor, along with a belt, though I didn’t see any pants anywhere. Why would he
1/4
Chapter 148
+25 Bonus
leave without a shirt? Why would he leave me at all?
For a moment I felt panic rushing through me. How could I let this happen again? My mystery lover had
snuck off and left me alone?
Curse him! And curse me for falling asleep and letting him sneak off!
I felt an ounce of shame that he must have felt the same way after I left him the first time. Now I knew what that felt like, and I still hadn’t even seen his face in the daylight!
And it was at that time that the sound of running water hit my ears.
Oh shit.
Did that mean the man I had spent the night with was in the shower in my room p>
Oh god!
And all of these people were about to see me naked, and the detritus of my one-night stand was spread
across my room.
I tried clumsily to tuck my sheet around my body further, while still heaving on the door against Dierdra’s pushing.
“Open the door, slut.” Dierdra laughed, “We know you had a man in there last night p>
How would she know? Perhaps we had not been discreet, but I also hadn’t thought anyone else had been in the room. Dierdra and Gideon would have been at the ball until late…
Oh god, was Gideon out there?
I peered out through the crack in the door, trying to see if his disdainful face was among the throng of onlookers that Dierdra and Zara had apparently rustled up to witness my shame.
I didn’t see him, and felt a surge of relief at that. Whatever Zara and Dierdra had cooked up, whatever humiliation they’d devised, at least he wasn’t around to see it.
I did feel embarrassed at how far things had gone.
The man I had mated with last night, and in the forest the month before, had an appetite for pleasure that matched my own. We had been caught up in our heat until the late hours of the night, when I had fallen asleep on his chest.
So many of my memories of the night before felt so muddled, as though I’d been drinking. I needed to find Reynaud, assuming he was the one I’d been intimate with. Horror flooded through me as I realized that he might be the person in the shower.
I heard the water stop, even as Dierdra and Zara both shoved the door open to my room and knocked me backwards. I scrambled across the floor, using the sheet to cover my nudity, and glared at them.
“You have no right to barge in here,” I yelped, “Leave at once p>
2/4
Chapter 148
+25 Bonus
“Not until you admit that you were unfaithful last night!” Dierdra crowed, and curious faces thronged at the doorway, looking in at me with judgy stares.
“Don’t you have a husband?” Zara sneered, snatching the man’s shirt of the floor, “Whose shirt is this p>
“I…” I didn’t know what to say, feeling flustered and overwhelmed. Why did they even care who I slept with? Dierdra was Gideon’s mate, even if he was my husband, and everyone else seemed okay with that, so why wasn’t I allowed to have relationships p>
It was so unfair.
“I know what you’re doing,” I hissed at Zara, “Trying to create a scandal around me won’t absolve you two of whatever you’ve been plotting p>
“You don’t know anything,” Zara smirked, “you probably don’t even know who’s in your bathroom right now. Stupid slut, you really don’t know how to not sleep with mystery men p>
She made a show of looking at my rumpled bedsheets with distaste.
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I truly didn’t know who was in the bathroom, and since I could hear the sound of someone moving around in there, I was terrified they might emerge at any moment.
Worst case, whoever it was would fight with Gideon, and then we would really have a mess on our hands.
“You need to leave,” I said with as much authority as I could muster, “You’re meddling in things you don’t understand, and you’re going to regret it,” I tried to make it sound ominous and foreboding, but Dierdra just stifled a giggle behind her hand, and Zara laughed in my face.
“Nice try,” She pulled the comforter over the bed and flopped across it with that sly, mean smile, “I think we’ll just wait right here p>
“It doesn’t matter,” I feigned a confidence I didn’t feel, “it doesn’t prove anything. I’m still Luna until
Gideon decides otherwise p>
“But he will, won’t he?” Dierdra asked, eyes big and lips pouty, “He will be so upset that his perfect Luna Avery is fucking some other man, and then he’s gonna throw you out, and I’m going to laugh and laugh, and then I’ll be Luna, and you’ll be nothing. Just some washed up whore who thought she could be more
than that p>
I glanced at the people milling around past my door, not sure how much of this they were hearing.
“Shut up, Dierdra,” I hissed, “You-…” and then we all froze as the door to the bathroom opened and a man
walked out. Shirtless. Still wet from his shower.
It wasn’t Reynaud, like I’d thought.
It wasn’t any other alpha, either.
It was Gideon.
3/4
Editorial Board
Editorial Board Our editorial team works behind the scenes to refine each chapter, maintain consistency, and deliver the best reading experience.