Chapter 63
“When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on."– Dalai Lama
Rose's POV
When I walked down the steps the next day, I was surprised to find Lexia standing awkwardly as Aiden looked at her angrily with crossed arms. She held something that looked like a photo album in her hand.
“You have a visitor, Rose.” His words were clipped. “She sought special permission from Tony to come and see you. Because she knows I would have thrown her out on her ass if she’d asked me.”
I looked at Adien startled. Was that really Lexia he was talking so rudely about?
“You have nothing to worry about,” Lexia assured Aiden. “My father’s in a complete vegetative state. But it’s better if you do mark her—”
“I said I’m done talking about this with you.” Aiden’s voice was harsh and I felt like waves of alpha dominance rolling off him in a bid to get Lexia to shut up.
Lexia shrank back, clutching the photo album tighter. She looked at me.
“I heard what happened. People in my pack told me,” she said to me.
“You’re not part of the pack anymore,” Aiden grit out. “I’m banishing you like we banished your sorry excuse of a father.”
I was surprised. I’d only ever seen him look at Lexia with adoration.
“Aiden, please give me a few minutes with Rose. I just wanted to give her this.” Lexia held out the photo album.
“You better not mess this up,” he warned, turning on his heel to walk towards his study. He paused, his glacial eyes melting to cast me a tender warm look. “Call me if you need me.”
And then he left. The entire exchange was so different from what I had expected. The glares had always been directed at me. The kind and loving looks had always been for Lexia. Everything was flipped.
“What’s up?” I queried as we both sat down in the TV lounge after I had gotten a bowl of fruit for myself. It was the only thing I could stomach lately.
Lexia took a breath, steeling herself, before looking me square in the eye.
“Rose, I need to give you some tough love.” Lexia placed a photo album in my hands and opened it to show pictures upon pictures of me and Aiden.
“These are the pictures I managed to get from the photographer from the regional meeting we hosted. I heard what happened with your memory. And I really am sorry to hear about it, but I don’t agree with Aiden’s methods.
” Lexia frowned. “You were so wonderful and brave. You deserve to know what happened.”
My eyes were zoned in on the pictures of me and Aiden.
We looked at each other devotedly, like I'd seen in so many pictures on social media but what stood out most was that all the pictures had a fresh bite-mark on my neck.
Neat and precise puncture marks that looked nothing like the one on my neck currently.
“He’s been sleeping on a sofa for the past month. I’m pretty sure his back is wrecked,” Lexia spoke up softly.
“I’ve told him he can take his room,” I defended myself.
Lexia shook her head. “It’s not about rooms. He’s punishing himself, Rose. He blames himself for losing the first time, for not being able to protect you. I see it. And he’s starving for affection. He’s living here with you, his pregnant mate, and things are so different from what they used to be.”
“Has he said any of this to you?” I asked sharply.
I couldn't believe I was discussing this with Lexia of all people.
“He doesn’t need to. I can see it, Rose.
He was sleeping on the couch when I arrived, and I see the tortured way he looks at you when you’re looking elsewhere.
He’s like a dog begging for even a scrap of your love.
” Lexia scoffed a little. She looked at me.
“How do you think he feels, seeing another man’s mark on your neck day in and day out?
And he’s powerless to do anything about it because you can’t remember? ”
My hand went to my neck. “Whose mark is this?” I asked a little warily.
And then Lexia began her story, telling me everything she knew from the moment I arrived, demanding the antidote for Dylan to the way Aiden came back like an avenging angel and nearly killed Alistair.
“I was in touch with Tony the entire time.” Lexia clarified. “You really pulled one over on my dad. I’m sorry you had to pay for it the way you did.”
“It was all my fault,” I said flatly.
Her eyes were wet from the tears she’d shed.
So this awful mark was Alistair’s. No wonder I had an impulse to recoil when touching it.
My eyes flitted down, down to the picture in which a neat and tidy mark with two pin prick puncture wounds stood out clearly.
It was a mark that had been placed on me with the utmost care, to cause the least amount of pain possible.
I traced my fingers, almost reverently across the mark in the picture.
"Why's he punishing himself?" I queried.
Lexia gave a bitter smile. "Isn't it obvious?
He feels guilty for losing and he blames himself for what happened to you.
He thinks he deserves to be miserable and uncomfortable.
" Lexia shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you guys have come close to, if not already, having sex on that couch a few times. He's become an utter masochist."
I blushed profusely at Lexia's bluntness. Didn't it bother Lexia, talking about her ex-boyfriend who she'd loved so much being with another girl? Apparently not.
“He broke up with me with the promise to get back with me after figuring out a loophole to the mate bond. But somehow, along the way, he fell irrevocably in love with you,” Lexia explained to me, gauging my emotions playing across my face.
"There's no use denying it and the sooner I face the facts, the better. He loves you, Rose." She stood up abruptly. “I should get going. I came here in the middle of the week. And I don’t want to be around when Aiden figures out I told you everything. But, Rose, you were amazing. You should know it.” Lexia’s eyes went to my hands. “He gave you a ring. Ask him about it. I remember seeing you wear it when you came to my house once. I guess you took it off at some point.” Lexia shrugged. “Ask him about it. You guys aren’t going to get anywhere if you keep tiptoeing around each other.”
I flipped a page, looking at another picture as I revisited the information Lexia had told me.
If he’d really loved Lexia, he would have stayed with her.
Instead, he came back. Came back for me.
Time and again I was reminded how much he loved me.
And I wanted to experience it. Wanted to feel it.
So when Lexia left, I found myself walking towards Aiden’s study and entering quietly.
“We need to talk,” I stated.
Aiden looked up at me with a tired smile. He had an account book in his hand and must be going through it while I came and interrupted him.
“Are you busy?” I asked from Aiden and looked towards the account book.
“No, not really. I was going through accounts and I must say you were thorough in your work. I’m still trying to figure out all the places you funneled money. It is confusing as hell.” Aiden spoke with pride in his voice. But my stomach plummeted. He admired me for something I didn't remember.
“I…I don’t know if I’ll ever regain my memories,” I confessed quietly.
The smile dropped off Aiden’s face and his eyes widened.
“But I’d like to know if you’d still be willing to give us a chance?
” Aiden stood up from his chair in surprise.
I kept babbling nervously. “I know it’s not what you signed up for and it’s going to be hard—”
I was cut off when Aiden walked over and crushed me against his warm body.
“You’re worth it,” he spoke into the crown of my curls.
“I’d do this a thousand times if it meant I get you, Rose.
” He looked down at me worriedly. “Would you…would stay though? Even if you don’t remember?
Or would you leave me? Because it’s killing me, constantly wondering if you’re going to stay or not.
I try to keep my distance because I'm afraid of overwhelming you.
I'm afraid you'll panic and run the other way. "
I looked at Aiden honestly. “I don’t know, Aiden. I’d like to think I’d stay but I don’t know and that’s a risk we have to take…together,” I added the last word firmly.
“I miss you so much.” Aiden let out a ragged breath, dragging his chin across the top of my head.
“I…I’m here and I’m trying,” I said into his shirt.
I breathed in and found myself oddly comforted by his scent. It then hit me why I liked sleeping in our room upstairs and why it was getting harder to sleep at night. His calming scent had faded away from the bed.
“You used to look at me like I was the best thing that had ever happened to you,” Aiden confessed heartbreakingly.
“And it’s hard having you look at me the way you do now…
like you don’t know me. I just…I wanted to let you know that.
I’m trying too, Rose. I’m doing my best to give you your space.
I keep hoping you’ll remember everything, and things will go back to normal but if this is our new normal, I’ll take it if it means I get to hold you like this. ” Aiden gave me a light squeeze.
Then I felt it. A sharp jerk in my lower abdomen that nearly made me huff in surprise. I wrinkled my nose in confusion and then my eyes widened in realization when I felt it again. Excitedly, I grabbed Aiden’s hands around my waist, putting them across my stomach.
“What—” and then Aiden was cut off when he felt the movement. His face paled. “Are you OK? Do you need to go to the clinic?”
I giggled, looking up at him with overly bright eyes. “It’s the baby. He’s moving!”
I was already convinced the baby was going to be a boy. Alphas usually had sons.
The look of wonder on Aiden’s face made it all worth it. I checked the impulse to kiss him. He looked down at my stomach as if it was magical before looking up at me excitedly.
“Can I…” He left the sentence unspoken, moving one hand higher on my stomach.
I nodded and Aiden moved both hands up and down my stomach, trying to feel out more kicks. His face broke out into a smile when he was rewarded with another flutter of movement.
“This is amazing,” Aiden breathed.
“This is a baby,” I replied with a smile.
Aiden looked at me with a smile of his own. “Our baby.”
“Our baby,” I echoed, my hands coming over his.
For the first time, I thought I could do this. We could do this.