The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna

Chapter 167 Avery's POV And then he was gone. The one person I thought might be able to intervene, who might have been able to throw me a lifeline, instead turned and walked out my bedroom door. He held all the cards, and instead of playing the hand that could have saved me, he had done the equivalent of politely folding. As Dierdra and Gideon departed my room, the last vestiges of pride that had kept me standing exited as well. I barely missed hitting my head on the bedframe as I collapsed to the floor and sucked great lungfuls of air into my body. My hands were shaking.

20 minutes of standing in a room with Gideon Nightwolf had drained me of every last bit of life. He had pronounced his sentence. I was to be sent away. Thad seen the desperate, hunted look in his eyes while Dierdra had been speaking. It was not the despairing, besotted look of someone watching the love of his life collapse on the floor sobbing. No, Dierdra's act had been convincing, but I didn't think Gideon was truly convinced. His expression had, instead, been the pursed-lips grimace of a politician. Of a man who had uncomfortable truths he didn't want to deal with.

---- 1 had never before seen Gideon look shifty, and yet, it was obvious in the coming days after his lieutenant came and moved my belongings to my new lodgings that Gideon was all too happy to find excuses to avoid having to deal with me further. From my new apartment above the coffee shop, I had a clear view of the pack house. The next morning, Gideon and a pack of warriors departed in a great show of force, off for destinations unknown. Despite passing within feet of my new front door, Gideon never even glanced in my direction as they progressed down the street and out of town.

Once again I was on my own. Left to my own devices. Except now Dierdra had the title of Luna, and she fully intended to use it. The day after Gideon left, she barged into my tiny loft apartment. Thad just struggled out of the shower, and had barely finished dressing when she opened my front door and marched in as though she owned the place. Which, I suppose, now she did. She made a great show of looking all around, sniffing and poking at the simple furnishings.

anything you had left there ---- will need to be burned." She posed, tilting her head to see whether her words goaded any reaction out of me. I tried to think if there was anything I still cared about in this

ruin that would get under my skin. Sure, she could salt the gardens, destroy my plantings,

tone she always took when she was about to be cruel, "If your wolf is too weak to transform properly, you had better be careful. There has been talk of a culling." Aculling. Ihad heard the term before. It referred to when a

them. The results were always bloody. Thad seen it happen only once in Silvermoon, when a young male had been badly wounded and refused to relinquish his spot in pack hierarchy but was still too weak to enforce his authority. Jealous packmates had turned on him at the next Full Moon. I could still remember the horrible howls that had gone up when the culling had taken place. They had hunted the young wolf through

the pack decides you need to go. Why would any of