Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 271

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Noah

Piper glares at me from the end of the hallway, her arms crossed over her chest and a determined air about her that tells me I’m not getting out of this conversation no matter how much I wish otherwise. I guess I should consider myself lucky. A pissed off Piper is better than a hurt Piper any day.

She has the look of a woman who has suspected something for a while and just had it confirmed. The righteous indignation of knowing she’s been right all along, despite my attempts to convince her otherwise.

“Who is she to you?” she demands the second I reach her, not giving me a chance to deflect.

“She’s here under a pack arrangement.” I spit the first thing that comes to mind. I hear myself say it and know it’s insufficient

before she does.

“Noah.” She sighs my name. And the disappointment in that sigh is enough to break my

resolve.

“She’s complicated,” I hang my head, my tone apologetic. “But everything that happened between us happened before. There is nothing between us now.”

“Before how?” Her growl is menacing, sending a shudder up my spine.

The Piper I know is sweet, kind. But this Piper is not taking any more of my bullshit. Which, fair. She deserves better from me. She deserves honesty, complete honesty, not the half-truth I’ve been offering her.

“She’s my rejected mate,” I focus on a spot on the wall over her shoulder, afraid to see the hurt on her face.

The room goes quiet except for the blood rushing in my ears. Piper receives this information exactly the way I expected her to, the pain and betrayal almost visceral.

“Okay,” I’m not sure if she’s talking to me or herself. “How long have you known she was here?”

“Since she arrived.” I cringe as I say the words. This is bad. Very, very bad.

“And you didn’t tell me.” She screeches then seems to catch herself, lowering her voice to a whisper.

“No,” I shake my head. “She doesn’t matter so I didn’t see a reason. But… I can see now that I should have.”

“Yes,” she snaps at me, pointing a finger at my chest. “You should have.”

She turns around sharply, her long blond hair nearly smacking me in the face as she gives me her back. “I need some time to think,” she tosses over her shoulder as she walks away.

“Okay,” I breathe, something cold settling in my gut.

She’s hurt and that’s understandable. But not devastatingly, not the end of something, at least I don’t think so. Still, she’s genuinely hurt by the withholding. That’s fair. It’s exactly as fair as Cole told me it would be, which I knew before Cole said anything.

I think about what Cassandra said to me in the hall. I think you want me to hurt. Then I think about my answer. I haven’t decided yet.

That wasn’t true. Not even close. Because I decided weeks ago.

I’ve been wanting her to hurt since the moment I realized I could. And the moment in the kitchen with Piper, when I smelled the change in her scent and understood what it meant, was the moment I tested the theory and confirmed I was right. I wanted it and I made it happen and I kept making it happen every chance I got.

So yeah, that was as big a lie as it gets.

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I can accept wanting to hurt her. Because I believe she earned it, and I believe I have the right to it. After what she did, it’s what I’m owed.

What I can’t quite accept is that she said yes, it bothers me and held my gaze. She admitted knowing I want her to hurt without even flinching. She’s been absorbing everything I’ve done and not reaching for the defenses I know she has.

I’ve been showering Piper with affection just to hurt someone who takes it all without complaint. And now she’s dancing with some random guy and I fucking destest how much my wolf hates it. She doesn’t deserve me to give a single fuck what she does.

Somehow, I find myself back in my office with no idea how got here. I stare at the crayon drawing on my desk, pick it up.

It’s the first time since Liam gave it to me-actually holding it, actually looking. Three figures, his mother, him, and me. All of us on the same piece of paper like it’s obvious we belong there.

He included me because he thinks P’m nice. But he’s wrong.

I’m anything but nice.

I set the picture back down and pick up my phone, typing out a text to Piper: Can we talk tomorrow? I owe you more than I gave you tonight. I put the phone down without waiting for a response.

I look at the drawing one more time. Then I get up and go to get water from the kitchen-the kitchen that’s usually empty at this hour-and she’s there. Cassandra.

She’s leaning against the counter with a cup of tea, obviously not expecting me. We look at each other for a moment across the kitchen.

“I owe you an answer,” I tell her without having decided to.

She blinks, the only indication she even heard me, but doesn’t make a sound.

“Yes, it makes me feel better.” I give her the honest answer I should have given her earlier. Pain swims in her eyes, there and gone again, no other response. “And no. Not the way I wanted it to.”

She presses her plush lips together, flattening them to a thin line. The thought that such kissable lips should never wear that expression flashes through my head before I can stop it. My wolf rages at the hurt she’s holding inside, the sound of her voice the only thing that quiets him.

“I know,” she says.

I put my glass down. I cross to where she’s standing-not close enough to be anything, just closer than across the room. Close enough that the bond flares in recognition and every ounce of pain in my body melts away.

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” I whisper so quietly, only she and I could hear.

“I told you I’ve stopped doing that. Making things easy for myself at others’ expense.” She’s right, she did tell me that. I just didn’t believe her.

“It would be easier,” I admit, giving too much away. “if you’d just be what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

And now I know she’s punishing herself just as much as I ever will. Because she knows the answer to that question. And she wants me to say all the ugly words anyway. Knows she deserves them.

But being this close to her, the bond numbing my pain, I find the words won’t come.

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