Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 226

Epilogue 3- Jaxon

Another 3 Months Later

I call Noah on while Skye is feeding Mila and Benji is explaining something at length to the dog that Nicolai inexplicably agreed to and which has been named-by Benji, with great authority-No.

The dog’s name is No. We have all made our peace with this.

Noah answers on the first ring. “How’s Ironwood?” I say.

“Good.” A pause. “Mostly good.”

I note the “mostly” part but let it go. He’ll explain when he’s ready.

“And you?” he asks.

“Good.” I watch Benji finish his explanation to the dog, who is listening with more patience than the explanation deserves. “Really good, Noah.”

“The baby?”

“Mila.” I say it and feel what I feel every time I say it-the warmth of a name that belongs to someone who has already made it entirely her own in three months of life. “She’s remarkable. She looks like Skye and she has Nicolai’s attention span and she’s going to be catastrophically self-possessed.”

“High bar.”

“She’ll clear it.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “You sound different,” he says.

“Different how?”

“Like yourself,” he says. “Like the version of you I thought you were going to be years ago before-” He stops.

“Before I got in my own way,” I finish for him.

“I was going to say before things got complicated.” He follows with a wry laugh.

“Same thing.” I huff.

He makes a sound I can’t quite interpret. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Something’s off with him. Something I can’t put my finger on. But he’s always been there for me, and I need him to know I’m there for him now.

“Noah,” I say.

“I know,” he intervenes. “I’m fine.”

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Okay.” He sighs. “What were you going to say?”

“That whatever you’re not telling me-you don’t have to figure it out alone. That’s all.”

“I know,” he says. Quieter. “I know.”

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He hangs up shortly after. But I replay the call in my head for a while. He’s carrying something. That much is obvious. I just have to hope he’ll tell me when he’s ready.

I know how that goes.

The next morning, I have an early meeting with Dimitri about eastern territory issues-three allied packs who have questions about the restructured alliance terms, all of whom are addressable through my network rather than Nicolai’s.

I break away midday to have lunch with Benji, who is going through a phase of strong views about what constitutes acceptable food and requires an excessive amount of coaxing to eat much of anything at all. Mission accomplished, I put him down for his nap.

And then-my favorite hour of the day, the one I look forward to everyday and would require a directive from the Goddess herself to reschedule. The late afternoon with Skye.

Sometimes it’s all three of us, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes Mila between us being her adorable self. Today it’s just us.

Skye isn’t where we usually meet so I go looking for her. To my surprise, I find her sitting on our bed, in nothing but one of my button-down shirts, her long legs stretched out in front of her and completely on display for me.

“What’s this?” I raise an eyebrow as I drink her in. “Not that

I’m complaining. Not at all.”

She pats the bed, inviting me to sit beside her. I don’t hesitate to join her. In fact, I can’t move fast enough, stripping down to my boxers before I reach her side.

“Just feeling a little needy… for you. Is that okay?” She squeals when I reach for her and flip her onto her belly, climbing in behind her.

“You never have to ask, sweetheart.”

I pull her up to kneeling, her back against my chest, unbuttoning my shirt she’s wearing until I can slip my hand inside. Skye moans as I massage her amazing tits while I nip and suck at my mark on her neck. Then I slip a hand between her legs.

“Fuck, you’re dripping for me, aren’t you princess?” I pull my hand back, groaning in pleasure as I lick the slick from my fingers.

“I can’t wait anymore. I need you inside me. Fuck me, please, Jaxon!” She pleads, planting her face in the mattress with her delicious ass in the air.

And who am I to deny my mate? I tear off my boxers and run my swollen crown through her slit to lube it up before slamming deep. Skye cries out when I bottom out inside her but there’s no pain in the bond, only need.

Skye’s tight cunt grips me like a silky fist and I piston in and out of her relentlessly. I set a punishing pace, and she more than keeps up. It isn’t long before we’re both tumbling over the edge and collapse in a sweaty heap.

Being inside her, connecting with her in the most intimate way possible, then holding her in my arms afterwards while she nuzzles into me and makes the sweetest sounds of contentment, it’s everything. Not for the first time, a pang of regret afflicts me when I think of the years I had her in my bed and took it for granted.

“Stop it.” She mutters. “Don’t ruin the moment by obsessing over the past.” because of course she can feel my guilt in the bond.

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“I don’t deserve you.” I respond, holding her tighter. “But damn, I love you, woman.”

Nove you too, Jax.” She murmurs, burrowing deeper into my arms. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I say. “Are you worried I’m not?”

“I’m just checking.”

“I’m good,” I say. “I’m-” I find the words. “I used to think there was a fixed amount. Of love, of attachment, of. whatever the thing is that makes a family work. That if there was more of it going somewhere, there’d be less for/ somewhere else.” I look at her. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“No,” she says. “It doesn’t.”

She’s quiet for a long moment. Then she takes my face in her hands-both of them, the gesture she has for when she needs me to hear something-and she kisses me.

Not briefly. Nothing like the frantic sex we just shared. The kind of kiss that says: I see you. I choose you. I’ve been choosing you for over a year and I’m going to keep choosing you.

When she pulls back, her hands are still on my face.

“Good,” she says.

Simple. Certain.

“Good,” I agree.

The bedroom door opens and Nicolai walks in. He comes to us the way he always comes to us-without apparent effort, like he’s attuned to where we are in this house, in this life. He’s carrying Mila, who is awake and conducting her usual survey of the world with the specific gravity of someone who has found the circumstances acceptable.

He sits on Skye’s other side. Mila reaches for Skye immediately.

“She’s been up for twenty minutes,” Nicolai says, transferring her with the practiced ease of a man who has held this child thousands of times in three months. “She had opinions.”

“She always has opinions,” Skye says. “She gets it from you.”

“She gets it from you.”

“She gets it from both of you,” I interject.

Silence. Then, Nicolai admits, “That’s possible.”

Rena brings Benji in a few minutes later. He tries to climb onto the bed beside me and I lift him the rest of the way. He settles against my side.

The five of us on the bed-Mila, Benji, Skye between me and Nicolai, the estate grounds going golden in the evening light. Nicolai takes Skye’s hand. I hold Benji closer, Mila coos in Skye’s arms.

My life is perfect, I think.

This is what my life was always meant to be.

I just didn’t know it yet.

Somewhere in Ironwood Pack, Alpha Noah Stephens is handling his new role like he was born to it, managing a

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council that’s testing the limits of his new leadership without skipping a beat, and telling himself that the ache he’s been carrying since he rejected his fated mate is manageable.

It is manageable.

Most days.

He’s not looking for anything to change.

He’s not ready for anything to change.

But the thing about change is it doesn’t wait for anyone to be ready.

Cara Anderson Author

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed Pursuing His Rejected Luna. Noah’s story will start here on Monday!

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