The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 571

He didn’t say anything back. He just leaned into my hands for a second and let his shoulders drop, his lips curving into a very small and very tentative smile—as if bracing himself for the scolding.

It would come eventually. Not tonight, though. Not right now.

Melissa shifted against the tree, wincing. “As much as I hate to interrupt a beautiful moment between mother and son,” she said, “we don’t have much time before tomorrow night.”

She was right. I sat back on my heels and sighed.

Melissa looked at Bjorn. “So they’re getting married under the Blue Moon?” she asked.

“They said it would be this weekend.”

Melissa turned her face up toward the sky, looking at the moon for a moment before she said, “The witch isn’t a wolf. She doesn’t experience mate bonds like we do. But the Blue Moon has special properties that aren’t like most full moons.”

I knew that, of course. Perhaps better than most.

“If Gideon marks her under it,” Melissa went on, “she’ll be able to create a blood bond. She’ll have his strength, his instincts, his healing, everything that makes him what he is, running through her too. Once that’s done, there’s no undoing it. Not that I’ve ever heard of.”

Bjorn’s face had gone pale. “Like a black widow,” he said quietly. “She mates with him, and then—”

He didn’t finish it.

“She eats him,” I said, when he wouldn’t.

That meant we still had a ways to go before we made it home. Even longer with Melissa in the state she was in. And I was not leaving her behind.

“We should get moving,” I said, standing. “We’ve got a long trek ahead of us and a wedding to crash before it even starts.”

“Mom, there’s something you need to know first.” Bjorn stood, looking up at me. “Dad’s really far gone. Like, all the way gone. I don’t think he even remembers what’s real anymore half the time.” He stopped and swallowed. “There’s a chance he won’t even know it’s you tomorrow.”

I reached into my pocket and closed my fingers around the small glass vial I’d grabbed on our way out of the burning hut, the one thing besides the two of them that I’d thought to save. Then, I looked up at the moon one last time, and felt warmth cascade over me, like a giant hand coming down to stroke over my hair.

In that moment, I didn’t feel afraid at all.

“I’m not worried about that,” I said. “We just need to get there.”