Chapter 70 – Avery and Heartless Gideon: A Werewolf Romance

If she were in her wolf form, it was possible she was out roaming the woods, though to what purpose I certainly couldn’t guess. Finally, I transformed and let my wolf take over the hunt. Holding him back when the moon was full was draining anyway.

He wanted to run. He wanted to hunt. Embarrassingly, he wanted to mate. All his desires flooded through me as we switched.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, as he stuck his nose to the ground and took off at a ground-covering lope.

“Finding her.’”

“Who?”

“Her.”

>>

Infuriating beast. I wondered if he longed for the girl in the forest the way I did. She had been his mate, or at least housed the wolf that he had claimed as his mate.

But for me, the memories of that time were a haze of pleasure and sensation, and little else.

Still, when we came across her in the forest, it reminded me viscerally of that time.

My wolf huffed, though I wasn’t sure if it was in satisfaction or disappointment, for the girl in front of us was in human, not wolf, form. Then he switched us back, so now I was the one staring at the girl in the moonlight.

It was the strangest sense of deja vu.

There was a lovely woman in the center of the forest, bathed in moonlight. Her hands were lifted to the sky, her face upturned. Long hair cascaded down her back. She was like the Moon Goddess herself, come to life.

Her curves were gilded in silver, as though she was molten starlight. I watched, mesmerized, as the light faded and she turned to face me.

Was this her? The one we’d been looking for?

I stepped forward, as if in a dream. It felt so similar to that time… to the last mating moon…

And then I realized it was Avery.

Avery.

Not our mate.

“Are you sure?” My wolf asked, disappointed.

I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure of anything.

“Gideon?” Avery had paused, eyes wide in the moonless darkness. “Is that you?” I heard her rustling in the leaves, saw her pulling on a robe.

I shook my head to clear it, still feeling dazed. It was like I was walking through my memories.

But this girl did not bear my mark. The absence of it on her neck wounded me more than I cared to admit.

I had to make certain.

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us, and swept her hair off of her neck. She made a soft noise a leaned against me.

Her neck was lovely, but unmarked. I felt the urge to bite and bite deep, to mark again and again.

But no, she wasn’t the one.

I pulled back with a rough sound.

“You need to stay away from my brother.”

Gideon’s POV

“W-what? Your brother? The pack doctor?” Avery tilted her head, confused. The softness of… whatever she’d been doing in the moonlight was falling away as she tucked her robe around herself.

“Yes. My brother. Hudson. Don’t see him.”

“Ok, but why?” She acquiesced so easily that something in my core loosened. She genuinely seemed confused as to why I was asking. “He was acting strangely anyway. I wasn’t sure if I should mention it, but I don’t think I want to see him regardless.”

Her words made me want to embrace her all over again.

But she wasn’t my mate.

Best not to confuse the matter further.

“Is something wrong?” Avery asked.

“Not at all,” I said, tamping down the feelings. I didn’t want to have to explain it all. “You disappeared.”

“Ah.” She looked a bit embarrassed. “I was trying…” Her voice faded off, as though she wasn’t sure she wanted to say. She gestured at the woods.

I looked around at the lit candles, smelled the rich herbal aroma of crushed rosemary and mint.

“Are you… summoning a demon?” I asked.

Avery laughed, a lovely sound.

“No, no. Just trying to commune with the Moon Goddess.” She looked at me, shyly. “I… wasn’t sure how I w able to help you with your wound. I’m trying to learn more so I can do it on demand.”

That was such an admirable goal that I was taken aback slightly. And I had barged in here with my temper at its max. I felt a little ashamed.

I cleared my throat, “Well, any luck?”

She frowned, “I’m not sure. I felt something… but there’s no one here needs healing.”

That was an excellent point. One I needed to hammer home.

“You can’t be out here alone. It’s not safe.”

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