Chapter 25
”I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect."– F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rose's POV
I only had lab on Monday, and for the rest of the week, I usually interned with Dr. Danvers for class credits.
Aiden, on the other hand, had classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
So that following day, which was a Tuesday, I woke up late and trailed down into the kitchen just as the clock struck twelve.
As I walked in to grab something to eat, I was surprised to see Tony hanging out in the kitchen. Papers were laid out in front of him on the marble countertop.
“And here I always thought you were the early bird,” Tony mused, looking up from the papers he’d been going through.
I bit back a sheepish smile. Truth be told, I loved sleeping in. But usually, I was up by at least 10 a.m. No, my reason for sleeping in was entirely different today.
“It’s really hard to sleep in a new room,” I said carefully.
It was even harder to sleep in a room knowing Aiden was right next door.
Tony’s eyes narrowed slightly as he followed my walk across the kitchen to the fridge.
“Is the bed uncomfortable? Mom kept going on and on about how Aiden ordered a new mattress for you with some memory foam technology. She’s bent on buying herself something like that.”
“No,” I said quickly, again feeling like Aiden had really gone through too much trouble for me.
I didn’t need any fancy mattresses or jacuzzi tubs. My bookshelf made of pure cedar wood arrived the other day, and it was just preposterous when one thought of how much money he’d spent preparing a temporary room for me.
“It’s not the bed, just the… new atmosphere,” I concluded.
I couldn’t keep the glum tone of my voice.
Tony simply looked at me, waiting for me to elaborate.
He’d always been more of a comrade to me, a friend, a brother. So I went ahead and said what was really on my mind.
“I just hate being a burden.”
My voice was subdued as I walked around the kitchen getting bread and jam for breakfast. My eyes landed on a plate of homemade waffles covered in cling wrap inside the fridge before I shut the fridge door.
The waffles looked delicious, but in a house filled with so many people, I didn’t want to assume they were meant for me.
“Burden?” Tony echoed.
I started up the coffeemaker. It was one of those fancy espresso machines—one that Aiden had specifically ordered for me.
“We all know Aiden’s true love is Lexia,” I said sadly, spreading some jam on my bread while I waited for the coffee to brew. “Now he’s got me living here in his house, in a room that’s supposed to be his luna’s room… he’s stuck escorting me to classes… I feel like he’s just forced to babysit me.”
“Now wait a minute, Rose, stop thinking like that,” Tony argued harshly as I bit into a piece of bread.
“But it’s the truth,” I retorted, taking another bite of my bread.
Tony wrinkled his nose.
“That’s disgusting. I can’t believe you don’t toast your bread before putting jam on it.”
I raised an eyebrow at him before I went to grab my hot brewed coffee. “Didn’t know you were so particular about bread,” I joked.
“This is blasphemy, Rose. You turned down a perfectly delicious plate of Lorraine’s homemade waffles for cold bread and jam.” Tony threw his hands up in exasperation.
I nearly dropped my mug of hot coffee. “That plate in the fridge was for me?”
“Who else did you think it was for? Me?” Tony quipped.
“Well… I didn’t think it was for me,” I replied dryly, taking a sip of my coffee.
Tony shook his head.
“See, that’s your problem. You’re walking around on eggshells here. You’ve spent time in this house before, Rose. Why aren’t you making yourself at home? Until you do that, you won’t ever feel comfortable.”
“But this isn’t my home,” I replied. “We both know that, eventually, I’m going to have to leave. Lexia… Lexia should be the one living here. You know it’s what Aiden wants.”
“Why do you seem to view wanting to be with Lexia and wanting to take care of you as two mutually exclusive activities?” Tony challenged.
I was taken aback. He had a point.
“Aiden wants to be there for you, Rose,” Tony said with conviction. “It’s the only reason he didn’t consider option number two, the easier route.”
“The easier route?”
Now I was the one repeating words.
Tony nodded.
“Ezra wanted to take you away. Aiden wouldn’t let him.”
“That’s just his alpha instinct, wanting to care for his pack members and prevent anyone from leaving the pack,” I said with a wave of my hand.
“That’s not true, Rose. He didn’t want you to be taken away from the pack because he knows you love it here.”
I simply looked at Tony, unconvinced.
“OK, well…” Tony heaved a huge sigh. “I wasn’t here for the meeting with the Council of Elders, but they did have a proposition that involved you two uh…
you know… sleeping together.” Tony looked at the ground for a minute before looking back up at me.
“If you guys did that, Aiden would be able to mind-link you even before your werewolf shift. You guys are mates after all, and if a werewolf mates with their half-human counterpart, the mind-link opens up between them. But Aiden and Ezra got pretty angry over that suggestion. It was one of the older members that suggested it, but Ezra told me Aiden almost jumped across the table and strangled that old lady. He said you deserved better than that. That he wasn’t going to put an option in front of you that made you uncomfortable. ”
I gasped. “Why didn’t Aiden at least tell me that was an option?”
There was no room to be embarrassed about any of this.
This was actually something worth discussing when it came to my freedom.
It wasn’t really that big of a deal if we had to…
but my mind immediately shied away from even thinking along those lines.
What was wrong with me? Girls younger than me were having casual sex. I could do it too, couldn’t I?
“Would you have agreed to it?” Tony’s eyes were steady as he looked at me, interrupting my thoughts.
“Well… if it meant I didn’t have to live here and keep up this ruse of being a couple… maybe,” I concluded lamely.
In all honesty, I really couldn’t say what I would have done. Maybe I would have just left with my father if given the choice.
“Aiden wouldn’t want you to do that,” Tony said quietly, interlocking his fingers.
“He’s… different from me.” Tony’s face was beet red by now.
“Look, you’re like my sister…and it’s a bit unsettling to talk about this subject with you.
But you need to hear the truth. He didn’t want it to be something you guys had to do.
He’s never even had a one-night stand if you want me to be honest with you. He believes in love and making love.”
“So he probably wouldn’t have agreed even if I had,” I prompted, trying to get an unbidden image of myself naked and in bed with Aiden out of my brain. But there really was no going back once I had pictured it. My face began to heat up. “Especially since he’s in love with Lexia.”
“He agreed to mark you, Rose. That’s… it’s…” Tony stopped short.
I remembered Aiden’s words from long ago.
It’s more personal than even sex…
My heart sank a little at the realization. Aiden knew I was a virgin. Was he really making all these decisions based on what he thought my comfort level was? Logically, marking me was more permanent and invasive than having sex with me.
“Once you’re marked, there’s no going back.
You have full access to his mind, his feelings, his thoughts,” Tony said quietly.
“If either of you are ever intimate with someone else, you’ll feel it even more than you might feel it now.
Before the marking, it’s always this uncomfortable feeling, but afterwards it’s unbearable.
You really think he can be with Lexia after he marks you? He could never be with her physically.”
I thought back to the day Aiden had called me when I’d kissed Jake. He’d said it felt uncomfortable. Remembering that made me think of other things. Aiden could sense my feelings, but I couldn’t sense a thing about what he was feeling.
“I can’t feel anything,” I said, clearing my throat. “But he can vaguely sense my feelings. Enough for him to guess what’s going on with me. How come?”
Tony shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you haven’t turned yet, Rose.
Half-human mates aren’t very common, and the rules are a little shady when it comes to them.
” He turned his head to look at me, a little surprised by this news.
“But usually, even human mates can sense if their mates are intimate with someone else. Once two mates meet and the more they spend time with each other, the stronger the bond... the pull gets. You’re living together now.
If he does anything, you’ll feel it now.
It’s not an intensely excruciating feeling if the bond isn’t solidified, but it’s rather disconcerting from what I’ve heard. ”
I looked at Tony, puzzled. I was pretty sure Aiden was at least kissing Lexia, and I hadn’t felt any uncomfortable cramping or tugging around my navel like Aiden had described.
“Hmm,” Tony mused. “Interesting. Judging from your reaction…you haven’t felt a single thing. Well they haven’t officially been together for a few months. Ever since Aiden found out he couldn’t be Alpha unless...”
Tony trailed off and my eyes lit up with understanding.
I remembered how he’d admitted to me in the library about how he felt things he shouldn’t feel because of the mate pull.
He’d distanced himself from Lexia because he didn’t think it was fair to her.
But eventually, he’d get back with her. He’d said as much the other day.
So maybe Aiden wasn’t doing anything with Lexia, and that’s why I couldn’t feel that uncomfortable tugging. I knew Aiden definitely felt it when I’d kissed Jake.