The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 401

Avery’s POV

Three days passed before my ankle felt anything close to normal again.

I spent most of those days on the couch with it propped up on a pillow, which drove me absolutely insane. I wasn’t good at sitting still on the best of days, and being forced to do it while Bjorn ran circles around the house and Sebastian brought me cups of tea I didn’t ask for like he was my personal servant was a special kind of torture. I felt like I didn’t deserve this kind of treatment, and that I should be working, not getting coddled over a rolled ankle.

I did manage to check in remotely with Aldric about the testing progress. He told me that the child’s progress was slow, but promising. That news came as a relief and gave me something to think about.

But for the most part, the days were slow and frustrating, and by the third morning I was already putting weight on the ankle despite Sebastian repeatedly telling me not to.

“It’s fine,” I told him, at breakfast, when he caught me walking to the coffee maker without my crutch.

“It’s been three days.”

“Exactly. Three whole days.” I poured my coffee and turned around. “I’m not made of glass.”

Sebastian opened his mouth, then seemed to decide it wasn’t worth it, and went back to eating his eggs.

Bjorn, for his part, had bounced back almost immediately. By the morning after the storm he was already asking if he could go outside, and by the afternoon he was back to running around the yard with the other pack kids, new sneakers and all.

He hadn’t brought up Gideon again since the bath. I hadn’t either. I still felt uncertain about the decision I’d made to let them see each other more often. Especially because Gideon’s presence usually meant Fiona’s as well, and I didn’t want that girl anywhere near my son.

It was on the fourth morning, when I was finally sitting at the kitchen table with actual work spread out in front of me, that Sebastian came in and sat down across from me with an almost sheepish look on his face.

I glanced up from my notes and quirked a brow at him. “What?”

“There’s a full moon banquet next week,” he said. “Hosted here at Evergreen this year.”

“Okay…?”

“I’d like you to attend. By my side.” He paused. “As my Luna.”

I looked up then. Sebastian smiled at me.

“The contract,” I said, having nearly forgotten about the whole arrangement.

He shrugged one shoulder. “It would be good for appearances. The pack expects to see me with a potential mate at these kinds of things.”

He had a point. The contract between us had outlined this kind of thing from the start, and I had agreed to attend the occasional public event. A full moon banquet was about as public as it got. As much as I wanted to skip it, because these sorts of events rarely ended well in my experience, I knew it wouldn’t be fair to Sebastian if I declined.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go.”

“Good.” Sebastian nodded, then added, “Oh, and I would also like to have a gown made for you.”

I set my pen down. “What?”

“There’s a stylist I use for pack events. She’s very good. You’ll like her.”

“That’s very nice of you, but Sebastian, I have perfectly nice dresses. I don’t need—”

“I know you don’t need it,” he said. “I’d like to do it. Consider it a thank-you, if that makes it easier.”

“A thank-you for what?”

I looked at them both. “Blue,” I said firmly. It was really pretty, like the night sky.

“Good choice.” She quite literally chucked the green over her shoulder. I suppressed a laugh when it hit Colt in the face. “Now,” she said, “for the silhouette. I’m thinking something fitted through the bodice, with a skirt that has some movement. You have a good figure. There’s no point in hiding it.”

“Sure, that works.”

She nodded, already moving on, draping a length of deep blue fabric over my shoulder and stepping back to look at me critically. It was a rich color, almost navy but with more depth to it, and the fabric itself had a slight sheen that caught the light when I moved. She clicked her tongue and moved it around until she found a shape she liked.

“This one,” the stylist said, clearly more to herself than to me. “Yes. Definitely this one.”

I looked down at it. The fabric alone was nicer than anything I had bought for myself in a long time, and I could already tell, even just draped loosely over my shoulder, that it was going to look stunning when it was finished.

“How long will it take to make?” I asked.

“For the banquet? I’ll have it done in five days.” She waved her hand and began pinning the fabric at my shoulder. Surprisingly, she didn’t poke me with any of the pins despite how fast she was moving.

We had just moved onto the options for the skirt shape—mermaid or ballgown, structured or flowy—when I heard the front door open, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps.

I assumed it was Sebastian, coming to check on the progress, but the footsteps were heavier and slower than his.

A moment later, the living room door opened.

Gideon walked in, mid-sentence, saying something back over his shoulder to whoever was behind him. Then he turned, and his eyes landed on me, standing on the platform with midnight blue fabric draped across my body and pins along my shoulder.

He froze and stared.