The Alpha Regrets; He wants his Luna back.

a's

n, mar

e shower. I had woken up from sleep and come to him in my nightwear - the thin kind that could be pulled off with one hand -

nd of wet that had nothing to do with the shower. 'Wet squared,' you

crossed behind me to grip the back of his head and my fingers curled into his damp hair as I t

d lower. "Mark me and mak

no mark. Nothing permanent that could feel real and part of him. I was the Luna of the most powerful Alpha in the territory, and that much was true. But it was also the biggest open secret in the enti

alone was enough to make my knees unreliable. My mind had already jumped ahead - to the bed after this, to the possibility of a pub forming from a moment like this. That had always been the

n my waist. Everything in me was leaning into the moment, into him,

abruptly

d back. The warmth disappeared like it had never existed, and I felt it the way you feel a door slammin

ned a

wer knob, twisting it to the ri

without looking at me, wrapped it around his waist, and by the time he turned back his face was already that strai

now plastered completely to my skin. Still wanting a

he was stating something as obvious as the weather.

ow built up a wall thick enough by now to keep them out. But the thing about words you have heard before

ho had first walked through these clan gates with nothing but a small bag and wide, frightened eyes. "We have been married fo

ike it was something that h

with enough force behind it that I lost my balance completely and went down to t

ound me. There was a part of me that wanted to stay exactly in that position and not get up. Not because I couldn't, but because

aucy words. "You have made me sick of you ever since you schemed with that

and looked down at me the way you look at som

itting upright. My brown hair was dripping onto my shoulders.

st. I could still feel what his body had wanted - and it had wanted me. And yet here we were, on opposite sides of a bathroom tha

ything, familiarity made it worse, because it always came with the extra weight of every previous time stacked on top. Every cold look. Every dismissal

an who had once genuinely cared about me, without making a single thing about it was still in there somewhe

at hope was going to be

uldn't help stuttering and I hated that too. "I never s

dy moving to

ed the sting in my palms. "What if we had a baby?

Maybe because some stubborn, unreasonable part of me was still hunting for the one s

e terrible, breathless sec

ed down right in front of where I was sitting on the floor. His hand came out and gripped my jaw - not gently

t separate and deliberate, nailed down one at a

them. The grip on my jaw was firm enough that I could feel my teeth pressing together, firm enough that there would probably b

completely this time, the last of whatever composure I had been holding onto going w

he bathroom. I heard the door

up at the ceiling, listening to the slow drip

*

long I stayed d

nough for the shaking in my hands to slow down to something I could manage without falling apart. I pulled my knees u

ed him into t

ruth. The moon goddess had chose

irl who loved a boy that the universe decided was supposed to be hers, and somehow that simple, hone

e otherwise, and five years of living beside him had not shifted that verdict even slightly. To him I was t

just

ge of the sink where I ha

hough my legs were stiff, I crossed the bathroom f

Asher....The

nd pressed it to my e

ice of a man choosing his words before saying them. "Your results su

dead before I

already hung up, staring at my own reflection in the bathroom mirror. Those damp hair and

egn

room. To nobody in particular

I didn't have a clean name for. This was the thing I had quietly been wishing for. And at the same time, it was the very t

ally reach the part of him that five yea

ke everything

on a moment longer. The

figure out. But this - this was good news to me. And

s of what