Chapter 38
“Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, "You owe me." Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.” ― Hafiz
Rose's POV
It was much later, when I finally got into a change of clothes and was lying back in bed, that Aiden entered my room again, holding a tray with a bowl of soup on it. He sat on a chair next to my bed, watching me warily.
“I asked Lorraine to make you some clear soup,” he said finally, settling the tray in my lap.
My throat clicked as I swallowed. “Thanks.”
I took the tray from him but couldn’t manage more than a few sips.
After much deliberation, Iput the spoon down and looked at Aiden who seemed to be studying the ground with a set jaw.
“Thank you for helping me.”
Now it was Aiden's turn to swallow audibly.
“Don’t thank me, Rose. Please don’t. If I hadn’t kept my distance…
I was just giving you your space. I’ve really been wanting to talk to you.
If I just looked at you…really looked…I would have been able to tell…
” A frustrated breath escaped his lips. “We got lucky today.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I hate to think what would have happened if Jake hadn’t alerted me.
I just thought that you...Someone should have talked to you about this.
I guess Mom was so caught up with all the stuff going on with Dylan and Tanya that she didn't think to prepare you.
Or maybe she'd hoped Hilda would be the one to explain a she-wolf’s heat.
..but it's still no excuse. A she-wolf going into heat is obvious even a few days before it actually happens.
It's my fault for not seeing it earlier.
Thank goddess I was close enough to come get you. "
I stared at him. He was always ready to run to my aid at the drop of a hat.
If I felt down, he was there asking me, "What’s wrong".
If I was kidnapped, he was there looking for me, trying to save me.
If…if I needed anything, he was there making sure I got it.
Even if it was something trivial, like an opportunity to attend a college party or milkshakes at the diner.
He took care of me even when I was angry at him.
Right now, he was looking at me earnestly.
“I wanted to say sorry for what I did after marking you. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy. It was just this uncontrollable urge to find out—”
“Aiden, I practically forced myself on you on the floor right there. I understand better now how hard it is to control our animals and their instincts. I really can’t hold it against you if your wolf had the urge to poke around in my brain,” I cut into his speech matter-of-factly.
“I guess we were both bound to slip up. It’s like playing with fire…
you and I. I could feel it. Feel my wolf urging me to mate with you. ”
My cheeks pinkened when I recalled the ferocity of my desire for him.
How I'd nearly unbuttoned his jeans. The dull ache between my legs had blossomed into a throbbing need, my body pulsing for his touch. Even after the pills cooled my skin, I kept kissing his jaw, working my way across his neck and collarbone, enjoying his hands on me. It wasn’t until he stilled his hands that I was able to control myself.
“I didn’t feel forced.” His voice was teasing. “Your beautiful body on top of me? Who could ever say no?”
I did my best to smother the happy feeling over him describing me as beautiful. I looked away, a little embarrassed over the back-handed compliment.
“You did,” I pointed out.
My breath snagged as I recalled how aroused he’d been.
There was something immensely pleasing in the knowledge that I had been the cause of that arousal.
That I was responsible for turning him on.
That I could actually turn him on instead of him finding an inexperienced girl like me a total turnoff.
Now it was Aiden's turn to look away embarrassed.
“I like you, Rose. It took all my restraint to not give in to my…desires.” His confession hung between us, while I absorbed this news. “But I didn’t want to do anything you might regret later.”
I looked at him warily before leaning back in the pillows.
“You don’t have to say anything. But I think you should know that I really care about you.”
“I need time,” I finally said quietly.
Did he even really like me or was this just because of the pull our wolves felt to each other? The pills were making me drowsy, and I couldn't think straight. This was all so confusing. I liked him, but I didn't want to be with him if he was just being egged on by his wolf.
“Remember to take your pill once every day for three days,” Aiden spoke up as I felt my eyes droop.
I later learned that those pills made me drowsy and sick.
I couldn’t stand without being hit by a wave of vertigo.
Aiden was worried and requested Dr. Danvers come for a house call immediately.
Upon examination, Dr. Danvers gently told me that my body was trying to reject the pills.
But there was nothing they could do. The medicine was the only one of its kind that suppressed the heat cycles.
So I'dhave to be brave through the next few days.
“It really is better to keep up the dosage for five days instead of three since heat cycles can last three to five days. Better safe than sorry.” Dr. Danvers patted my hand in a fatherly manner before leaving.
“There’s someone here to see you, if you’ll meet them,” Aiden told me after seeing Dr. Danvers out.
I heaved a sigh. It was probably Auntie Hilda.
“Ezra came by to give me his report on Tanya’s”—he spit the next words out distastefully— “mate’s pack. Hilda wanted to come up to see you.” He absently ran the back of his hand along my cheek tenderly. “Do you feel up to it? I can send her back if you’re not well.”
“You can let her in.”
And that’s how I found myself face to face with my aunt who was wringing her hands together and apologizing and telling me she wasn’t trying to take my mother’s place but that she’d just been so lonely and so had Ezra and eventually one thing led to another…
“You think I’m angry because of my mother?
” I asked disbelievingly. Auntie Hilda nodded hesitantly.
“You are like my mother. It doesn’t have anything to do with that.
I'm angry because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me.
I'm angry because…you had to pretend to not be in a relationship because you were afraid of me. Did you really think so little of me?”
Auntie Hilda shook her head fervently. “Rose…it took me a while to come to terms with it. For a while, I felt like I was betraying my sister.”
“I think Mom would have wanted you to be happy…and she would have wanted Dad to be happy. She may even have found it hilarious that you guys found that happiness with each other,” Ireplied softly.
I looked up at my aunt as my dad walked into my room.
“I’m angrier over the fact that I didn’t pick up on it until now.
You didn't tell me sooner! And what would you guys have done? Just continued seeing each other in secret? Auntie Hilda deserves better than that, Dad.” I leveled my father, who’d entered the room amidst my tirade, with a glare.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Dad said, clearing his throat. “Rose…we won’t hide anything from you ever again. And in the interest of no secrets between us, I'm going to tell you that I’ve been asking Hilda to have the mating ceremony with me. She won’t agree.”
“Why?” I gave a stern look at my aunt.
Auntie Hilda stuttered out the words. “I w-w-wanted your blessing, Rose.”
“You have it.”
Ezra and Hilda's mating ceremony that following weekend was not at all flashy or expensive.
It was a simple ceremony in which the two exchanged rings and drank from the same chalice.
Then, Ezra and Hilda both shifted into their wolf forms along with everyone else in attendance to go run around in the woods in celebration of their new union.
I hung back, watching Josie run off in her wolf form happily.
The retired luna had returned the other day with her kids and had brought back some magical antidotes for the poison in Dylan's body.
Josie was optimistic that they would work and decided to enjoy the ceremony of two of her closest friends.
Albeit, she had been contrite over realizing that she hadn't been there for my turn and that I had had my heat so soon.
She told me that she'd expected it to happen but not so soon. Josie also confided that she’d been hopeful that even if she didn't get around to talking to me about it, Auntie Hilda might.
But it was all water under the bridge now and I couldn't help but appreciate Aiden's constant presence.
I turned towards the pack temple and was surprised when I saw Aiden leaning against one of the pillars of the temple.
“You didn’t go?” I asked.
Aiden shook his head and then inclined his head towards the temple.
“Have you tried…?”
I realized he meant the ritual to converse with the elders.
“I don’t think I fulfill all the prerequisites…but I can try,” Ioffered.
Aiden followed me inside. I started a small fire in a metal bowl in the middle of the temple.
Then I used the white chalk to trace inscriptions around the bowl of fire.
Sitting down cross-legged, I cleared my mind, concentrating on the task at hand.
My voice was loud and clear as the incantations echoed throughout the room.
A brief flare of heat from my fingertips and then nothing more. All was silent, all was still around me. I sat, waiting for something to happen. After a few minutes, I tried again. Then again. Nothing, not even a flare of heat.
I opened my eyes sheepishly to look at Aiden.
“It was a long shot anyway,” Aiden supplied, completely nonplussed.
His eyes drifted away from me and settled on the patch of floor where he’d marked me.
I cleared my throat, heat blooming on my cheeks as I recalled that night. Then I opened my mouth to make an utterly embarrassing suggestion. If we mated, I could tap into my powers.
“We could—”
“Stop offering yourself up like some sort of martyr.” Aiden's voice was flat.
It was odd how now he knew what I was going to say just by judging from the embarrassed look on my face and red on my cheeks.
“Well, what else do you suppose we do? How else am I supposed to help you run our pack? We need to fulfill all the formalities,” I pushed.
What was his problem? For someone that was supposed to have feelings for me, he was doing a wonderful job proving otherwise.
“Formality?” Aiden practically choked out. “Sex isn’t a formality.”
“What good am I to you if I can’t tap into my power?”
Aiden glared at me for a minute before muttering something about me being an idiot and left the temple.
I “hmmph’d” and walked out after him.