Chapter 44 — Accepting Your Destiny

Alice's POV:

"Aunt Flora," I called out to her as soon as the people started to disperse.

"Yes, dear?" she said.

"I have a question for you. Can we talk privately?"

"Of course, dear," she replied pleasantly.

Ever since Mark's incident, I had a question running in my mind.

We walked into the house, and I took her into my room. She sat down elegantly in a chair.

"I was wondering…when you manipulated Mark's memories, was something similar done to me when I was a child—after the attack? You know how I have repressed memories of that incident," I asked cautiously, afraid of offending her.

I did not want to accuse her. I was simply curious.

She laughed.

"You are a wolf, Alice. You are immune to most spells and magic. You are a supernatural being yourself. Our spells don't work on you," she said.

"Oh! But werewolves do take your help, right? I mean, Lucian’s room has certain protection spells."

"That's different, Alice. Those are enchanted objects. And some potions and spells do work for a few hours or on certain ailments, like controlling the heat or masking the scent. But our magic is not strong enough to harm a werewolf. It only works on humans. So, rest assured I did not manipulate your memory. Your memory loss was purely psychological."

I turned red. “I didn’t mean that, Auntie," I said, embarrassed.

She held my hands in hers.

"Don't worry, dear, I am not offended. You are an incredibly special woman, Alice. It was my honor to protect you all these years. Now, your mate must keep you safe. He is a wonderful man, and he loves you."

I could feel my ears tingling and a warm feeling flowed through me.

"I have hurt him, Auntie, because of my arrogance and stubborn attitude. I broke his heart and forced him to reject me. How can I go back to him?" I said tearfully.

"Nonsense, you are soulmates. You have been chosen by the Moon Goddess herself to be with each other. He can't reject you," she said.

"But he did. He broke the mate bond," I said sadly.

"Yet he arrived to save you, watched over you, made sure that you were safe—even helped you resolve Mark's issue. Why would he do that if he didn’t care?"

She had a point.

"You think he would accept me back?"

"You are a beautiful and powerful woman, Alice. Any man would want you and Lucian is your mate. The way he affects you…you have the same impact on him," she said with a wink.

Of course! The way he turned me on…his body would react the same way. Why did I never think of that? I was so obsessed with running away from him. I never thought about how unfair all this was for Lucian.

"I understand your fears, Alice. You have been running away from your identity, your destiny, for your whole life. But you cannot run away from it. It's time you embrace it." She grinned, then winked at me.

I grinned back at her. Talking with her made things a lot easier to figure out.

"Thanks, Aunt Flora, for everything." I hugged her.

I had one more thing to do—apologize to Emma and Bobby. They would suffer needlessly because of me.

I was returning from Emma's place when a familiar musky scent stopped me in my tracks. We were standing in the driveway, so I pulled him away into a thicket.

"I was looking for you," I said while he raised an eyebrow.

"Me? For what?"

"I wanted to apologize…for hurting you," I said nervously.

His green eyes stared at me for several seconds. "Apology accepted," he said as his lips twitched into a smile.

"And one more thing. I know I screwed up but is it possible for us...I mean, can we be back together?"

"We were never apart, Alice. We are mates. We couldn't break up even if we wanted to." He moved a step closer, pushing me into a tree. I leaned on its trunk.

"In that case, Lucian Blake, will you take me as your mate and Luna?"

He grinned and leaned his head to kiss me on my lips. It was not a demanding or overpowering kiss. Just gentle and passionate enough to make me go weak in my knees. Good thing I had support.

"Let's go home, my Luna," he whispered in my ear.