The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 456

I shut my book and walked over to one of the storage shelves, where I had organized some dried herbs. I pulled open a drawer and retrieved a bundle, then walked back over to the workstation and began pulling it apart and tossing it into the mortar and pestle for grinding.

“What’s that?” Gideon asked, coming up behind me.

“Ashwaghanda. It’ll help keep his immune system supported and offer some relaxation benefits.”

“Hm.” Gideon braced his hands on either side of the table and leaned over me, peering into the mortar and pestle as I began to work. His breath tickled the hair at the nape of my neck, making my body want to shiver, although I didn’t let it.

“Can you stop that?” I asked.

He turned his head toward me. “Stop what?”

“Trying to fuck me when I’m working.”

“I’m not trying anything,” he said. Then, pausing, he added, “My wolf is still feeling the effects of the full moon.”

“Yeah, well, mine isn’t.” That was a lie, and we both knew it. “I need to focus.”

“Am I distracting you?”

“Yes, by breathing down my neck.”

“Sorry.” Gideon pulled back and moved to the window. I felt a distinct coldness now that he was gone.

When I was finished grinding up the herbs, I turned, leaning back against the table with my arms folded. Gideon was looking out the window now, peering into the darkness. For a moment, my mind went to the dream I’d had last night—peaceful and quiet, sort of like this, only with less space between us, less anger, less… everything.

And the moment after that, another image flitted through my mind. One of ten years of Gideon sitting in my workspace just like this, listening to the sounds of me grinding herbs while tea steeped and plant extracts bubbled on the counter.

Melissa had said so herself. Sebastian was a good man, and he would do anything to take care of me and Bjorn.

But he was also a lover.

And I… wasn’t. Not when it came to him, anyway. And as things stood right now, I highly doubted that there could ever be anything like that between us. It would eat away at him. It might ruin everything for both of us, and most of all, for Bjorn, who had already been through enough.

Gideon noticed my expression, of course. He always did.

“You’re considering it,” he said. “The proposal.”

“I’m not—” I stopped myself, breathed, then went on, “To answer your question: yes. I do think Sebastian would be a good father to Bjorn, even though Bjorn isn’t his biological son.”

Gideon’s jaw ticked. “But let’s say, just for the sake of the argument, that Bjorn is my biological son,” he said. He tapped his chest with my finger. “Mine. And I could give him a title, a father figure, and so much more. Because the connection is there between us. And yet you would still see Sebastian as the better option?”