The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 480

Avery’s POV

Had the city always been this… noisy?

The moment I stepped out of the parking garage, the sound hit me like a fucking brick wall. Car horns blaring, engines revving, the hiss of hydraulic brakes on a bus pulling away from the curb that made me jump.

Music spilled out of a storefront, bass thumping, and someone was shouting into their phone on the corner. A siren wailed somewhere in the distance, growing louder, then fading again.

Goddess, it was like being caught in a blender.

I pressed my hand to my chest and breathed, but even that felt like an effort. It was like the noise and pollution and the thick, hot air from too much concrete and too many tall buildings blocking the wind and far, far too many bodies moving around in one place made it impossible to draw in a complete breath.

It had only been a couple of months since I had last been here, and yet it felt like I was arriving for the first time all over again. Everything was too loud and too bright and way too fast after enjoying the slow life of the packs. The buildings loomed overhead, glass and steel catching the glow of streetlights and neon signs. The air smelled like exhaust and hot asphalt and fried food from a vendor cart parked on the corner.

Worse of all, it made my wolf retreat further than she had since the last time we had been here; as if returning to the packs after ten years away had made it impossible for her to assimilate into the human lands again.

I swallowed and forced myself to start walking.

The hotel was only a few blocks away, but it felt like miles. People brushed past me on the sidewalk, their shoulders bumping mine, voices overlapping into a cacophony.

No one made eye contact. No one smiled or apologized for slamming into me. They were all in their own little worlds with their heads down, looking at their phones.

It was almost hard to believe that I had lived here for ten years. I couldn’t quite figure out if I had simply gotten used to it or if I had felt this anxious all the time without realizing. Either way, I was already missing the clean air and open skies of the packs. And the stars. I especially missed the stars right now.

“Avery,” one man said, standing. “You look, um… Different.”

I looked down, only just now realizing that I hadn’t even changed before I left the packs. I was wearing what I’d gotten used to wearing lately: a pair of jeans, practical boots for walking through the forest, and a sweater. My hair was still in a braid over my shoulder and I had dirt under my nails from digging into my potted plants.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t have time to change. I came as quickly as I could.”

The man winced a little, but shook my hand anyway. “Well. We’re glad you could make it.”

“Of course. I understand you’ve been having some concerns about the company.”

“That would be putting it lightly,” one of the other men said. He gestured to the empty chair across from him. “Sit.”