Claimed as the Alpha's Second Luna

Chapter 7 The Choice

Annie's POV:

Alexander was waiting for an answer.

"What happened, Annie?" he asked again, and the whole truth sat on the tip of my tongue. The aphrodisiac herbs at South Spring—the nights in his bed—the child growing inside me. I opened my mouth.

Elena moved first. She crossed the porch and slipped her arm through his, turning her face up to him with the warm, easy smile she showed everyone. "Nothing happened. She knocked over a flowerpot."

The lie came easily. No tremor, no hesitation. She even gave me a small laugh, as if the whole thing were nothing.

Alexander looked down at her. His free hand came up and covered Elena's where it rested on his arm. "You're shaking."

"Am I?" Elena laughed again, softer this time. "That crash startled me. It's nothing, really."

He believed her. I watched it happen: the tension leaving his shoulders, the careful edge in his voice softening into something private. They had been together for ten years. Of course he believed his mate.

That Alexander came to me in the dark burned with herbs he couldn't fight and called Elena's name while he buried himself inside me. But this Alexander, the one holding Elena's hand, loved his mate.

He wouldn't believe me.

I closed my mouth and swallowed.

But I didn't back away. I couldn't save my son by running, and I couldn't keep him by staying silent forever. There was still one thing I could ask for in front of Alexander—something Elena couldn't easily refuse.

"Luna." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Jack's birthday is next week."

Elena's smile stayed in place, but something behind her eyes went still.

"I'd like to bring him home for it. Just a few days." I kept my hands clasped in front of me, the picture of a grateful servant. "The instructors say he's doing so well in training. I just want him to have one dinner in his own house. Sleep in his own bed. That's all."

Neither of us spoke for a moment. Elena's smile didn't move.

"A boy shouldn't miss his own birthday."

Alexander's voice cut through the quiet. I looked up without meaning to. He was watching me with steady gray eyes, as if he were trying to place me.

"Let him come home," he said—simple, final. An Alpha settling a small matter.

Elena's fingers tightened on his arm, and then she laughed, bright and easy. "Of course he should come home. I was going to suggest it myself."

She stepped forward, her hand warm and motherly on my shoulder. "A mother and son should be together on his birthday. I'll send word to the camp today."

Perfect. Warm. Generous. Exactly what a kind Luna would say to a grateful servant with her Alpha standing beside her.

Underneath it, I heard the rest—I was going to release him when I was ready. Not before.

"Thank you, Luna." I kept my voice even. "I'll be ready whenever you say the word."

Alexander's gaze dropped to my hands.

"You're bleeding."

I looked down. The cut across my palm had opened when I made a fist—blood seeping between my fingers, bright against the dark wool of my uniform. I hadn't felt it.

"It's nothing," I said, and hid my hand behind my back. "The flowerpot broke."

"Have the healer look at it." He spoke to Elena, but his eyes stayed on me a beat too long. "See that it's taken care of."

"Of course." Elena's voice stayed sweet, but she stepped between us, tucking her hand into his arm again. "Annie, go pick up your child. He's waiting for you."

She was moving me out of his sight. I knew it the same way I knew the weight of her hand on my collar each night. Alexander had looked at me twice in one conversation. Twice too many.

"Jasper will accompany you," Elena added, as if the thought had just occurred to her. "The road to the camp is long—you shouldn't walk it alone."

Her eyes met mine over Alexander's shoulder. Her smile stayed sweet.

I understood her perfectly. Jasper, her brother, the Beta, the man who had stood in her cottage an hour ago and told her he wouldn't give up on me. She was making sure someone kept an eye on me. Wherever I went, he would be there to see it, and everything he saw would find its way back to her.

Or she was putting him somewhere he couldn't help me. I didn't know which, and that was the point.

"Thank you, Luna," I said again.

I turned and walked down the path between the rosebeds. Her voice came from behind, sweet as syrup. "Come back early, Annie. You still have work tonight."