The Perfect Luna novel Chapter 36

Riannon couldn’t believe her own happiness when she opened her eyes and saw him lying in front of her and watching her.

Amate. She had a mate. A real one. Not a chosen one. A smile curled onto his lips and she reciprocated it. There were no regrets. Whatsoever.

This was very different from what she had with Brayden back in the day. Now that she thought about it, if this was what Brayden felt when he met his own mate, she could understand why he couldn’t reject Roxanne.

She would never reject Gideon if she knew.

This did not cancel all the horrible things that Roxy did to her and to others in their power struggle. But she could understand now.

Partially.

This was not changing her plan. But it gave her some understanding. “Onyx,” she called her wolf, “Are you there?” At first, all she heard was silence. But then the familiar voice sounded in her head.

“I will be soon…”

She tried calling her again, asking what was going on. But Onyx spoke no more.

However, this was better than nothing. This was a promise. And just knowing that her wolf didn’t abandon her made Riannon smile wider.

The motion did not go unnoticed. Gideon pulled her closer. So that her head was now tucked into his chest, and he was able to dig his face into her hair and breathe in her scent that he loved so much was able to enjoy for the first time.

“I can’t believe this is real,” he muttered, “From the moment I saw you… I dreamt of this. of holding you like this, of having you as mine.”

She looked up at his handsome face and slid her hand to brush his cheek with a short stubble that prickled her fingers slightly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked. “Would you believe me if I simply told you?” He arched his brow at her.

“I guess not,” she admitted honestly. She had too much on her plate to simply believe some lycan who approached her out of the blue insisting that she was his mate: Even if he was a king. Not to mention that Onyx, the little hyena, never told her that they were mates on the rare moments she spoke to her. She couldn’t believe her wolf would waste her strength to tell everything

On the other hand, Onyx was smarter than regular wolves. Ria always knew that. She proved it to her many times. And to be honest, maybe it was for the best that she did not throw them into a situation where Riannon knew that he was her mate from the very beginning yet did not feel the connection. In that way, Gideon had to work for it and earn her trust.

Yes, that wolf of hers wasn’t simple at all. She took a bet and look at where it got them…

“Yesterday,” he traced his fingers over her bare hand, “You said the word. You called me Mate. How did you know?”

“Onyx called you that,” Ria decided to confess. Now that they were together, she did not want secrets from him. It was hard starting to trust the new man in her life but what they had was so much different from what she experienced before.

It was bigger. And better. And so special. Everything one could wish for.

“Is Onyx back?” Gideon asked with hope in his voice. They were already together but he would still feel much better if he knew that the wolf was there.

“Partially,” Ria gave him a vague smile, “I feel her presence somewhere there inside of my soul but she is not at full strength yet. I think she is trying to restore after.”

She stopped talking and he suddenly got serious. This was not a joke to him at all. He knew about a few people who had lost their wolves. He started reading about them when he found out about Onyx’s absence. This was rare. But it did happen several times in shifter’s common history.

When the beast was lost, the host was becoming just an empty shell as half of their soul was gone. That did not happen to Ria yet. But a mostly missing wolf was a bad sign. This wasn’t a destiny that he wanted for his mate.

But there was another thing that bothered him. Those people he read about were all warriors who fought in battles. Sometimes against forces much stronger than them. In the

very few cases known in history, it was always the same. When on the brink of death, the wolves, foxes, bears or other creatures sacrificed themselves to protect their hosts. The hosts survived but at the same time were deadly wounded and hardly ever lived longer afterwards.

And when the beast died, the owner was slowly becoming just a mere human. A fate worse than death. of yourself. To stop seeing through your beast’s eyes, to stop sensing what he or she could sense…

It was the same as losing hearing, sight, and ability to move properly at once for humans. Probably even worse because something inside was missing as well. Everything was lessened, everything was different… Less vibrant. It was the same as sucking the joy out of life. That most vital part of a person was gone forever.

And not everyone could cope with that.

He could tell that Riannon was one of those who would be able to cope, though. She was strong. In some sense maybe even stronger than him.

But he did not wish for her to have that kind of fate. For her, he was ready to do everything

Then again, there was another thing. He didn’t know of any recent battles she took a part in. As far as his research on her showed, and his spies were among the best, her life was a typical Luna life. She had her hardships but nothing too major happened.

Just what was done to her in that pack behind the closed curtains that made her almost lose her wolf?

“Ria,” he said, “I am going to ask you this again. Regardless of me asking you this earlier. But this time I want you to be absolutely honest. You can trust me. All that I do from the day I met you is for your protection. You are my Luna even in spite of being another man’s wife. You are mine.”

Riannon smiled at the words even though she knew that she wasn’t going to like the question that was about to follow.

“Did he hurt you? That husband of yours?” Gideon tried not to show it, but she felt his inner rage by the way his grasp on her tightened.

“Yes and no,” she sighed. How could she tell him everything that happened to her and expect him to be okay about it?

“Did he hurt you physically?” the Lycan king asked through clenched teeth.

“No,” she said at once to calm him down. Luckily, it was the truth.

“But something happened to you,” he took her chin into his large palm and made her look at him, “Something that made you want not only divorce but fight for your pack. Something that broke you so much that your wolf almost died.” did sound weak every time she spoke. She tried to convince herself that it was just a temporary weakness due to their rebirth and their chosen mate bond breaking. But what if it was everything? And more…

“I don’t even know how to say it,” she sat up, wrapping the Egyptian cotton sheets around herself, Gideon following her motion not to miss any trace of emotion on her beautiful face.” You will probably think I was crazy,” she muttered, covering her face with her both hands.

He took them away so that she could see him. He hoped that she would understand that no matter what was happening, he was going to be by her side. Whatever she was going to tell himi..

“I am hard to scare off, Riannon,” he gave her a soft smile. “Let’s hope so,” she gave him a nervous one.

And then, taking a very deep breath, she pronounced everything in one go as she was letting it out, “I already lived this part of my life. With Brayden and his mate Roxy in my pack. He never rejected her as he promised, and she took everything away from me. She killed the people I cared about, made Brayden reject and humiliate me, taking my title. And even then, after I already lost everything, she still killed me with the help of one of the wolves from my own pack. It was horrible. But then I somehow came back to the very moment it all started. Gideon, I literally opened my eyes when the door opened and the two of them walked in into our packhouse. This was when I lost Onyx. And since that day I had to live again during the most horrible days of my life. Only that I didn’t want for everything to repeat. I wanted to change what happened. And I started tweaking things one by one. Big and little. I changed them and they were changing the reality. Yet main events are still the same. For example, when I tried to fight Roxy joining the pack, I still lost. But when I called you earlier this life than I did before it resulted in this… And then the Alpha Ball…”

She stopped when she noticed the frozen expression on his face. Did she overdo it? Was it too much for him? Should she have stopped after the rebirth part?

Gideon tried to process it. He thought that she was joking at first, but she was too serious and nervous about that. And now that he was thinking, it all made sense to him.

All right, not all. But some of the things did. Their very first conversation. She was already sure that bad things would happen.

And then her appearance at the ball. Her husband brought out his mate and mistress for everyone to see. Anyone would be crushed by that. But not Riannon. She held her head so high exactly the opposite.

Not to mention the way she spoke to him. No one was that bold. Unless… they were on the brink of death and had nothing to lose.

“I am so sorry you had to go through this,” he said, kissing her hair as he couldn’t reach anything else from this position but didn’t want to let her go yet.

Gideon was holding her in his arms as long as she needed, hurting together with her. Even Mars was howling inside feeling their mate’s pain.

“So, this is how it is now?” Reid said in a fake spiteful tone, “You have secrets from me? After everything we’ve been through?”