Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 287

Ch. 57

Noah

Are you fucking kidding me?

Why can’t I seem to go anywhere, in my own fucking home, without seeing them? I’m just walking down the hall, to my own Goddess-damned pack event and there they are.

My first thought-before I can stop it, before any of the control I’ve been practicing has a chance to engage-is: she’s laughing. Not the polite, practiced version reserved for social occasions either. Not the timid chuckles she offers the pack members who’ve started to warm to her. The real kind-surprised, unguarded, the kind that changes her face completely because she’s relaxed enough to let it.

I’ve never seen that before.

I don’t like finding out it exists because of Jack Morrow.

They’re not even doing anything. That’s the part that makes it so much worse. He’s not even touching her and it still pisses me the fuck off.

If there were something concrete-if they were touching, if the body language were unambiguous-I’d have something to focus all this untethered rage on. But no, it’s just Cassandra leaning against the wall with her arms loosely crossed, Jack beside her not even all that close, saying something I can’t hear from across the hall.

And then she laughs.

My wolf does something I don’t have a word for. Not a growl-not even close to a growl, this isn’t aggression. This is something more fundamental, more primal. Something that negates all my decisions and control and the six months I’ve spent telling myself what I’m doing and why. The sound he makes is a claim that says Mine without actually forming the word.

I cross to the other side of the hall. Take the long way around. The way that takes me past the food table and two pack council members I have to stop and acknowledge and the window that looks out at the eastern grounds. All so I can avoid her.

Unfortunately, there’s one minor problem with that I didn’t account for. Piper is with me. And, of course, she

notices.

“What are you doing?” She hisses under her breath, leaning into me, the smile never leaving her face.

She’s good at pack social events-natural, easy, knows everyone’s names and enough of their situations to ask the right questions. I’ve watched her work a room before and noticed how she gives people her full attention while she’s with them, which is rarer than it sounds. It makes people feel seen.

But one thing she’d never do is make a scene.

“I saw Councilman Knox wave me over.” I lie smoothly. The slight tightening around her eyes is the only indication I’m not as smooth as I think.

We talk to the people we’re supposed to talk to. We exist in the room together the way you’d expect from the Alpha and his future Luna-comfortable, established, making the rounds. All while I’m painfully aware of where they are in the room, no matter how hard I’m trying not to be aware of it.

“You’ve looked at them three times in the last ten minutes.” Piper murmurs without looking at me.

“I’m not-” My automatic response is to defend myself but she interrupts me.

1/3

+15 Bonus

“I know,” she hums, still smiling. “I’m not accusing you of anything.” She’s watching the room, not me. “I’m just

elling you what I saw. If I see it, others will too.”

I hold her gaze when she finally looks at me. “She’s here,” I shrug nonchalantly. “It’s awkward. That’s all.”

Piper is quiet. “I know,” she sighs.

Not warm, not cold. Not hurt, not angry. Just accepting. Which is somehow harder to sit with than any of the other options.

I walk her to her car at the end of what felt like a very long evening. She lets me kiss her and kisses me back.

“Good night, Noah” She says in the voice that means she’s fine.

And I tell myself she is fine. She’s just processing something she’s going to process on her own time.

“See you tomorrow, sweetheart.” I watch her drive away.

I go back inside. And I tell myself the tension between us is just a product of my imagination.

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