The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna

Chapter 427

“Your dress really is pretty,” Gideon muttered, pinching a piece of the dark blue fabric between his fingers. “It suits you. You were always a nighttime person.” As he spoke, his hand rested on my knee through the layers of silk and tulle.

I pushed his hand away with my free one. “Don’t start, Gideon.”

He huffed. “Why are you so cold to me?”

I glanced at him. His eyes were still closed, and for a moment I thought he might be speaking gibberish again. But then he turned his face toward me slightly, and I could see he was actually looking at me, his eyes so heavily lidded that I almost hadn’t noticed they were open a slit.

I considered deflecting. It would have been easy. He was delirious enough that I could say just about anything and he probably. wouldn’t remember it come morning.

That was exactly why I didn’t deflect.

“Because I’m afraid of you,” I said.

quickly fell back down onto the cushions.

“I’m… afraid of what you represent.” I swallowed.

stared at me like I’d

love me, not just keep me around because I was useful.” I looked at his face. “You never said it. Not once. Not in private, not when it was just the two of us and there was no one around to

why you left? Because you didn’t

there was more to it than that, but he still didn’t know Bjorn was his child, and I didn’t want to get into

and keep pretending it didn’t bother me,” I said. “I couldn’t be your Luna, standing beside you, knowing that you had only picked me because I was your mate and not because you actually wanted me there. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life trapped in a gilded cage where my entire existence was putting on pretty dresses and pretending I was happy when I was married to a man who couldn’t even say

eyes fully then. They were still glassy, but there was something underneath the

you there,”

had a strange way

“Avery-”