Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 157

Chapter 157

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Despite every instinct we possess, clawing at us to never leave our bed, Woolf family business never sleeps. Nicolai’s phone buzzes on the nightstand and he rolls over with a groan to check it.

“I have to go to the office, Moonbeam,” he says regretfully. “You stay in bed and rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He kisses my forehead and tucks the covers around me. I try to burrow in deeper, inhaling the way our scents mingle perfectly. But stronger than everything else is the scent of our lovemaking and that has me squirming and restless, unable to settle down.

Giving up on sleep entirely, I check the monitor. It’s Jaxon’s morning with Benji and he’s already gotten him up for the day. Relieved of that responsibility, I shower and dress quickly, grab my coffee, and head for the garden.

It’s my favorite place to relax on the estate grounds. And this is my favorite time to enjoy its beauty, before anyone else is up. The particular morning light that makes everything look like it’s been rinsed clean.

I come out, surprised to find Nicolai already there-not in the office where he said he’d be. He turns when he hears my footsteps. And he’s holding a ring.

My breath catches in my throat as he goes down on one knee. I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t expecting any of this.

I laugh-genuinely, before I can stop it-the slightly shocked laugh of someone caught entirely off-guard by something that also happens to be perfect.

“I’m sorry,” I manage, still laughing though. “You just-I wasn’t-”

“I’m on my knee in a garden,” he says, with the dry patience of a man who expected exactly this. “Go ahead, take a moment.”

“I’ve taken it.” I’m still smiling, my shoulders still shaking slightly. “I’ve taken it.”

He looks up at me. And whatever the laughter was-whatever the lightness was-it settles into something deeper when I see his face, his entire focus only on me. He’s here, in the garden, on his knee, looking at me the way he always looks at me.

Like I’m the most precious gift in the world.

“I want to build a life with you,” he says. “I want to be Benji’s father every day. I want to face whatever comes next with you as my equal partner. I want the arguments and the 3 AM feedings and all the messy, hard parts of it.” He holds the ring. “I want to run our pack and our business side by side. I want to give Benji a sibling, watch you grow round with my child. And I want to do all of that for the rest of my life, only with you.”

He pauses. And I can see the restraint it takes for him not to stand and wipe the tears from my cheeks.

“Will you?” He asks, the hope in his voice overwhelming me again.

I look at this man. The one I’ve known since he was fifteen years old and far too full of himself. The one who still stands up for me now the way he did then. Who owed me nothing but gave me everything the moment I reached out to him again. Who sat on a hallway floor at 3 AM and held me while I cried. Who learned my son’s cries and called him Benji before Benji was born and said I chose this before any bond told me to.

“Yes,” I answer emphatically. I don’t make him wait.

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After-after the ring and the kiss and the tears of joy cried onto Nicolai’s chest as he held me like I was his salvation-I take a moment to let it all sink in.

The absence of Jaxon’s bond. The presence of Nicolai’s. The full accounting of everything that brought me here.

I’m not the person who stood at that altar three years ago. I’m not the person who spent so long being slowly ground down, or the one who divorced my husband while pregnant, prepared to raise our child alone,

I’m someone built from all of those people. The accumulation of all of it has produced exactly this: standing in a garden with a ring on my finger, my son asleep upstairs, a man who chose me before the universe told him to.

And while I process all this, Nicolai sits patiently beside me on the garden bench, one arm around my shoulder while the other plays with my hair. He doesn’t speak, but I can feel the anxious energy rolling off of him, wondering where my mind has gone.

A few minutes later, I look up at him and smile softly. It’s my signal to him that I appreciated the space to sit with my feelings but it’s no longer needed. He lets out an audible sigh of relief.

“Are you okay?” The question rushes out like he can’t contain it any longer.

I think about three years ago. About the woman I was. About everything it took to survive but I did. “Yes,” I answer confidently. “I’m going to be so okay.”

He smiles. The real one he saves only for me, the one that lights up his whole face. And that one look from him is all it takes for me to know, he will burn down the world to make sure life doesn’t make a liar out of me.

I let Nicolai lead me back inside, both of us anxious to see our son and share our happy news. Nevermind he has absolutely no concept of mate bonds or engagements, it’s the thought that counts, and Benji is always our first thought.

But even as he tucks me close to his side, and I can feel his whole body practically vibrating with happiness, I can’t help but think of Jaxon.

I haven’t spoken to him since the ceremony. We’ve been giving each other space, both needing time to heal without the pressure of awkward confrontations. But we’ll have to talk soon.

I’ll have to see him and feel whatever I feel now that the bond is gone-now that there’s nothing explaining the

thing I’ve been not-examining.

I find, when I sit with that thought, that I don’t entirely know what I’ll feel when I see him. And that uncertainty is still there. New, and unresolved, and waiting.

I tuck the uncertainty away in the same careful way I do all things I haven’t found the bandwidth for but know I’ll have to eventually.

There’s enough that’s new already.

One thing at a time.

Cara Anderson Author

Thank you for reading!

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