Chapter 39
"Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other...”― Nicholas Sparks
Rose's POV
Aiden walked into the library where I sat with piles upon piles of old tattered books, some with their spines falling apart laying open on the table. My laptop along with a notebook with my neat precise handwriting lay in the middle of it all.
“Look at this,” I said excitedly, looking up at Aiden.
I pointed to something written in an obscure language in one of the books.
“I think this is what we’re looking for.
I just need to figure out what language this is.
”I was completely oblivious to the way Aiden was looking at me instead of the ancient book.
I looked up at Aiden warily.
“I never gave you your birthday present,” he said simply.
I looked taken aback momentarily. He’d gotten me something for my birthday?
“I meant to give it to you after your turn but… well...” His smile was a little contrite, embarrassed about revisiting his earlier mistake.
He took out a small USB case and handed it over to me.
“I had help from Ezra. I got someone to replicate the audio and make this. I hope…you like it. You can download the audiobook into your phone.”
I stared at the USB warily.
“You’ll…understand better once you listen to it,” Aiden finally spoke up hesitantly.
He began edging out the door.
“Let me listen to it now,” I said crisply, moving to slide the USB into the port on my laptop.
“Maybe I should leave.” Aiden warily took a few steps back, closer to the door.
“You should stay to see my reaction,” I chided gently.
Aiden stood stock still. I clicked on the file.
“It might make you emotional,” Aiden stated bluntly as I hit the play button.
I gasped as an audio recording of the Count of Monte Cristo started up in a poignantly familiar voice. A voice I'd never actually heard speak to me in real life. A voice I’d heard many times in old family movies my dad and aunt had shown me.
“I made him re-do it twice to get the voice range and sound synthesis just right.
They're all words cut from old family movies Ezra gave me. Some old movies my mom had also had her in them since she was the wife of our beta,” Aiden admitted, looking at me.
I had a hand over my mouth, completely overcome with a tumult of emotions.
"Some of the words have been artificially constructed, but most of the words she actually spoke with her own voice," Aiden clarified as my eyes filled with unshed tears. He cursed inwardly before shuffling towards me. “Crap, Rose, I didn’t mean to make you cry. Seems like I’m always messing things up when it comes to you.”
He tentatively reached a hand out to touch my shoulder.
I looked up at him with shimmering eyes, finally dropping my hand from my face. “Thank you.” Those two words held a world of warmth. No one had ever given me something like this.
“Is this why you were always trying to read the Count of Monte Cristo?” I queried, wiping the tears from my eyes with my thumb and pausing the audio.
Aiden nodded, his hand retreating from my shoulder.
“It’s one of the reasons,” he admitted vaguely. “I still hate the book. Maybe I’ll try reading it again in a few months to see if I still feel the same way.”
I stared at my laptop screen listlessly.
“That’s fair, I suppose. You’re entitled to your own opinion.”
My voice sounded like I was somewhere far away. I was still emotionally wrecked from Aiden's gift.
“Go enjoy it,” his voice cajoled me.
My head snapped up. “What?”
“Go to your room and enjoy the audio book. I’ll clean up here.” He motioned to the old books spread out on the table. “I can send coffee up for you, if you want.”
“But what about the re—”
“It can wait. I know you well enough to know by now that what you really want is to go listen to the book in the privacy of your room.” Aiden was already walking around, gathering up the books for me. He waved me off. “Go.”
And before I could think twice, I stood up, grabbing my laptop bag.
Staring at him with uncertainty for a minute as he was peering down at my notes, the insecure girl inside me made a split-second decision.
I squared my shoulders and closed the distance between us.
Standing on my tiptoes, I reached up to kiss him on the cheek to thank him, to show him my appreciation. And then I backed away.
Pausing at the threshold of the door, I turned to give Aiden one last thankful smile. I found him standing stock still, almost as if he was shocked I’d kissed his cheek. A blush crept across my cheeks as I rushed out of the library to go to my room.
Aiden's POV
When Rose entered the library after breakfast the next day, she was surprised to see me sitting with books strewn about, poring over the ancient text she’d been looking over the other day. I looked up and smiled at her tenderly.
“It’s Arabic. Ancient South Arabic to be exact,” I supplied.
I had her notebook open in front of me. Rose could see I'dgone over her notes, adding things in and circling certain statements with a question mark.
She walked over to me, again in her old cutoff shorts and an old, olive-green, tank top that portrayed her luna mark on her bare arm.
Momentarily, my eyes flicked to my mark on her neck before meeting her amused green eyes.
“Weren’t you supposed to clean up after me instead of taking over the research?” Rose teased. Her hair was in a bun again and I wanted to yank it open so I could watch those curls fall around her face in wild abandon.
“I had some time yesterday, so I thought I’d use it to help out. Decided to cancel my meetings for today and work on this some more. It is for my brother after all,” I replied easily. “It’s not fair that you’re stuck doing this.”
“Your brother is a member of my pack,” Rose pointed out.
“Our pack.”
I amended the statement with an incline of my head.
I pushed the book towards her. “We won’t know for sure if it’s what we’re looking for until I get this to a translator though.
This is all mere speculation on your part.
” I rubbed my eyes tiredly. “I was up half the night going over your notes. There’s no concrete evidence that this is what we’re looking for. ”
“No, I think I referenced the book in my notes that mentioned this…” She came over and leaned into her notes, not catching my sharp intake of breath over her proximity. “Look.”
Rose pointed to something I had circled and underlined twice.
“This book talks about the ceremony being enacted to let a second alpha join the pack. It makes sense because the pack would be stronger with two alphas and the two end up co-sharing the responsibilities of an alpha. It’s actually been recommended for larger packs in the book to have the ceremony. ”
“But it’s customary to have two betas if the pack is large,” I pointed out. “I’ve never heard of two alphas.”
“In the olden days, things were different. Might is what determined if a pack was strong or weak. What’s mightier than having two big, strong alphas within one pack?
” Rose reasoned, going back to an upright posture, and crossing her arms. “Of course, one alpha is more dominant than the other. The land just accepts the second alpha’s scent onto the territory.
That’s actually what’s driving Dylan’s wolf wild.
He wants to be able to scent his territory like any other alpha would. ”
I pondered her words for a moment. “This is all speculation though,” I finally said firmly.
“And if I’m right, it means we found a way to help Dylan. So, there’s really nothing to risk if we hire a translator for this,” Rose ended primly.
“What’s this?” I pointed to a title of a book Rose had written down along with page numbers. She’d written “options” next to it. I had inserted two question marks next to the word. “Is this an alternate plan if the ceremony backfires?”
“Oh…” Rose trailed off, biting her bottom lip apprehensively.
She was hesitant to tell me. I gazed at her, drinking her in.
My eyes softened as I watched the sunlight glinting off her hair in the afternoon sun.
I'd never seen a more beautiful sight than my luna nibbling her bottom lip, deep in concentration as wisps of curls fell from her messy bun and into her face.
Finally, the look of indecision on her face gave way to a resigned sigh.
“Well, there’s something else I found when I first started all this research. It's about us being…” Rose’s face became hot as she hesitantly spoke. “…mated.” She looked down quickly.
If she had glanced at me, she would have seen my eyes darken with desire at the mention of mating her. Her eyes flitted across the table until it landed on the book she’d been looking for and she began walking around the table to grab it.
Rose was quiet for a minute, as she flipped through the book, completely oblivious to the fact that I was peering at her backside in the cut-off shorts she was wearing.
In a split-second decision, I got up and walked over to her, approaching from behind, hoping to look over her shoulder to see what she was reading.
“Aiden.” Rose turned to me, almost slamming into my chest. Her hands were clasping the book between us, a finger bookmarking what she meant to show. “Not all wolves mate for life.”
My dark eyes finally met hers as I struggled to keep myself from grabbing her and pulling her flush against my body. What was she on about now?
“In the olden days, there was only one luna, but it was normal for alphas to often mate with different females in… in different years. It didn't cause the luna any physical pain as long as there was a one-year gap of mating. I had honestly thought to tell you sooner but...” She trailed off.