Chapter 43
"He said to me 'you're perfect, and I want you to be mine'. But I felt I wasn't worthy, and to be perfect, I need time." - Lang Leav
Rose's POV
The next morning, I woke up to Aiden entering my room and kissing me awake.
"Please, don't,” —kiss— "be angry." He voiced the plea fervently, hands roaming over my body.
He kept kissing me again and again, punctuating his kisses with apologies.
I kissed him back, holding him and whispering that I could never stay angry at him.
In the light of day, I realized exactly how irrational I'd been last night.
Relationships were based on trust. I had to trust him.
"I have morning breath," I mumbled drowsily against his lips. Oh, but I was enjoying this so much.
"I love the way you taste," was his husky response before giving me another kiss.
His hands were warm, skimming over my neck, tracing his mark, slipping under my night dress to feel the bare skin on my stomach before he finally let me get up to start getting ready for the day.
I couldn't help but smile. What a nice way to be woken up.
Diego had come to help style me, mainly because I had caved after seeing Lexia last night and asked my stylist to show up in the morning.
I wore a soft, sky-blue pencil skirt and matching blazer with a dark gray silk camisole underneath.
Diego went about putting my hair into a slicked back high-ponytail and I wore the Chanel studs Josie had given me.
All in all, it looked like a very professional get-up.
Aiden was waiting for me in the kitchen where he ate his breakfast. Accommodations had been provided for visiting packs along with breakfast. However, since we were residents of the area, we were only required to go to the event hall downtown where the conference was going to be held.
“I was thinking we could hold a meeting for just our allied packs tomorrow in the event hall on our pack territory. Maybe invite the Rushing River Pack as a show of good faith that we intend to offer them a seat in our alliance. It would be best to schedule it for tomorrow, before everyone has to leave and go back home,” Aiden suggested.
“If you’re OK with it? You could get Mom to help you with making the arrangements.
It’ll just be coffee or tea as we run over our own agenda in regard to the latest developments taking place. ”
I primly took a sip of my coffee that Aiden had just prepared for me. Lorraine slid a plate of eggs and toast in my direction.
“I could manage it,” I said carefully. “Josie’s so worried about Dylan. I don’t really want to bother her.”
Aiden's expression became grim at the mention of Dylan.
The antidotes prepared by the magical healer were not working.
The only thing they were managing to do was slow the spread of the poison.
Dr. Danvers said what they really needed were the exact ingredients of the poison.
There was a magical element to it that had left even the witch healer confused.
Josie had sent off a new round of reports and tests to the healer for review.
But Dr. Danvers said that unless they could figure out exactly what had been done to the poison, they wouldn't be able to cure Dylan permanently.
It seemed more and more like the only way of helping Dylan was catching the culprit and figuring out what had been done to prepare the poison.
Only then would we be able to prepare an antidote specifically for this unique form of poison.
Dr. Danvers had even gone on to say that the culprit probably had the antidote as well.
Aiden had called the translator asking for an update.
It was important to get specifics of the text soon.
Maybe this was the answer to Dylan's cure as well?
The translator had said that considering the sensitive nature of it, it was important to get everything right and he needed a few more days.
Everyone was worried and Josie more so since she was Dylan's mother.
I didn't want to add to Josie's burdens.
Arrangements for a brief meeting were something I could pull off on my own.
“I don’t want you to over-burden yourself. We could always schedule a meeting of the allied packs later,” Aiden suggested.
I swallowed a mouthful of eggs before speaking. “Honestly, it’s no trouble at all. I’ll call up the manager for our event hall and stop by there tonight to make sure the arrangements are all in order.”
After breakfast, Aiden casually clasped my hand in his as we left the house. When we reached downtown where the conference was scheduled, I was taken aback as Aiden leaned in from across the driver’s seat and kissed me.
“I’ve been wanting to do that again all morning,” he admitted ruefully. “If I knew you wouldn’t yell at me about messing up your clothes, I’d bite you here too.” He tapped the puncture marks of his canines along my neck.
“I won’t yell at you,” I said simply.
So about half an hour later, I walked into the conference hall, hand-in-hand with Aiden, fresh puncture marks on my neck for all to see. I couldn’t even manage to hide my elated smile when Ava waggled her eyebrows at me, looking pointedly at the puncture marks.
“This is the second time you’ve shown up late with fresh bite marks on your neck,” Ava giggled in an undertone at me. “Your alpha is worse than mine.”
I merely smiled secretively back at Ava, glad to be forming a friendship with her. And when Aiden was called on stage to present his progress in Washington, D.C., I couldn’t help but gaze at him admiringly. My alpha.
Lexia wasn’t present for the conference, and it made me more confident as the day progressed.
We finally broke for lunch, and on our way Aiden threw an arm casually across my waist, palming my butt lightly in the process. I looked at him sharply with an arched eyebrow.
“What? I can’t touch my mate?” Aiden asked innocently.
“People are watching us.”
Aiden pulled me further into him.
“Let them.”
“It’s highly inappropriate,” I murmured.
“What’s highly inappropriate is that the whole time I was presenting, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. You're gorgeous. And that skirt makes your butt look more amazing than usual,” he whispered affectionately.
I allowed Aiden to pull my seat out for me as we sat down in the adjoining hall for lunch. My gaze slid to his phone on the table, and I gave a small start. The screensaver was a picture of us from last night as we danced together.
"Nice picture,” I commented, looking at Aiden with a small smile. There was something akin to comfort spreading through my very being.
Aiden shot me a grin.
"You need one for your own.” He counteracted my remark and took my phone, holding it up as we posed together for a selfie I could use.
Aiden's POV
I clicked a selfie in Rose's phone and shot a smile her way.
She was happy and seemed more relaxed. I knew it was because Lexia wasn't here today and her absence was making Rose feel secure.
And it made me realize the callous way I'd always chosen Lexia over Rose when she was younger really must have done a number on her.
She may not have cared for me back then, but I'd always made it painfully clear I didn't like Rose. Now I was paying for it. I wanted to spend every minute trying to undo my past mistakes. I wanted to make sure Rose didn’t have anything to feel self-conscious about in Lexia's presence.
I knew I could talk myself blue in the face to reassure her of my feelings, but it wouldn’t convince Rose half as well as my actions would. So, I had to prove it through my actions. Prove that I loved Rose more than anyone else in this world.
Lexia's POV
I arrived for lunch and was flitting about, making sure everything was running smoothly.
It wasn’t until dessert was being served that I made my way towards the table where Rose and Aiden were sitting.
I knew I had to act carefully. It was evident that the more time Aiden spent with Rose, the more he was falling for her.
But I still held out hope that Aiden would come back to me. He just had to. We had so much history!
I stopped short from approaching them from behind when I heard Aiden's low hum.
“Can I try some of your pudding?” he asked Rose in a sensual voice I was all too familiar with.
My stomach plummeted and dread filled me.
“You have your own,” Rose pointed out, spooning some more pudding into her mouth.
“I like yours better,” he said before leaning down to kiss her.
I took a few steps back as I watched the scene play out before me.
Meanwhile, Rose was left breathless from Aiden's kiss. And I felt…like a failure. I had failed to keep Aiden with me. He’d fallen for Rose. For his mate.
“Everything always tastes like cinnamon when I try it like that,” Aiden whispered conspiratorially into her ear, but his whisper was loud enough that I heard it. Panic-stricken tears stung the back of my eyes.
“You like cinnamon?” Rose asked, a little flustered, face red.
I could hear Ava and Krystal giggling over Aiden's public display of affection.
“I like you and you always taste like cinnamon,” Aiden said by way of explanation, a smirk on his lips.
I finally tore my eyes away from the scene before me. I needed to go talk to Jake. This was not good at all.