Chapter 31

**AIDEN**

This was *not* how tonight was supposed to go.

I heaved a sigh before hooking my car keys on the key stand and moving further into the house, wondering if Yara was still awake since it was almost twelve am. The emergency council meeting had taken longer than it was supposed to because Rhys had found out the person that went with Jason to the vampire club and had the cosmic drug, and it turned out they’d already shared it with some other people in the pack. We summoned some of the people Jason’s friend mentioned — the rest of them weren’t in the pack then — and they claimed they didn’t have it. It was obvious that just like Jason, they also thought taking it was worth the risk since all werewolves that ended up going rabid eventually got out of the rabid phase, and Jason’s death wouldn’t deter them because he’d only died from an overdose. Also, their parents, who had come with them, had believed them and kept demanding that we ‘stop holding them against their will’.

It was ridiculous but their parents behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary because they’d been behaving like I was their enemy ever since I became the Alpha. I hadn’t done anything to warrant it but I’d once overheard them talking about how Alex Horton should be the Alpha instead, so I assumed that was why. They didn’t want to see me as their Alpha, but if their children who had the cosmic drug ended up dying due to it, it would somehow be my fault because I didn’t do enough as the *Alpha* to keep the drug out of the pack. That was the same thing a hysterical Jason’s mother had said to me.

I rubbed my forehead as the woman’s words came back to mind and dispelled them before turning into the hallway that led to Yara’s room and mine. I hoped she was still awake. I didn’t like that our date had ended like that and I wanted to talk to her — put her mind at ease because she was obviously worried when I dropped her off and pick up the conversation we were having in the restaurant before Julian showed up.

“Aiden,” came a familiar voice behind me and I turned around, tensing for a moment when I saw Vernon standing at the end of the hallway. It was still a bit jarring for me to see him moving around the house because up until last Wednesday, he’d been dead.

“Hey, Vernon.”

He nodded and took a couple of steps towards me, giving me a once over. “Where were you?” he asked and I let out a harsh breath.

“Emergency council meeting. Someone overdosed on cosmic.”

“Oh.” Vernon drew his brows together. “That’s a mess.”

“It is,” I replied as Jason’s mom’s words came to mind again. I hated that she blamed me for her son’s death because I had done everything I could to keep that drug out of my pack but I felt bad for her. He’d been the last living child she had after she lost her husband and other children when the Moon Valley pack invaded ours seven years ago.

“What about what I asked for this morning?” Vernon asked, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I tilted my head to the side. Then I remembered the request he’d made this morning after Yara left the room so we could talk, and I frowned.

Vernon wanted me to find the witch that trapped him in the prison world. Why? I had no fucking clue— I had asked him several times this morning and he kept saying he just wanted to find her. And his demeanor didn’t give anything away. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to find her to get revenge or something else, and he seemed determined to find her. It made me wonder if the reason he kept going back to where he’d been found in the forest, which was the same place he’d met the witch who trapped him, was to meet that witch again.

“No. Sorry, I was a bit busy.”

I’d actually just pushed the conversation out of my mind after I left home because regardless of the reason why he wanted to find her, him wanting to find her was a bit insane. There was also the fact that the witch who trapped him was probably from the same coven the Moon Valley’s witch Luna was — yes, the Alpha had taken a witch as his Luna — since she’d been here when the pack attacked ours, so yes, him wanting to find someone from *that* coven who was related to *that* woman was unnerving.

But I was still going to try to help him find her because if he tried to find her himself, it would most likely end *badly*.

“I’ll get on it tomorrow.”

He frowned and regarded me silently before giving me a nod while his gaze dropped to the bags in my hand which contained Yara’s clothes. She’d left them in the car.

I glanced at the door of Yara’s room over my shoulder and when I returned my attention to Vernon, I asked, “Are you still moving out?”

He’d told me he didn’t want to stay here on Monday and I’d said he should let me know where he wanted to stay in the pack — there were some buildings with empty apartments and some empty houses too — but he hadn’t gotten back to me regarding it. I asked that question now because well, Yara was living here now.

I wanted us to have the space to ourselves.

Vernon shrugged and turned, heading in the direction of the front door. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

I raised a brow, suspecting that he was once again heading to the place he’d been found in the forest. “Where are you going?”

“Out.” That was all he offered me and moments later, the sound of the door being shut echoed through the house. I clicked my tongue and resumed heading to Yara’s room, knocking on the door when I got to it.

“Give me a moment,” she immediately called out and hearing her voice brought a smile to my face as I rested my head against the door. I could hear the sound of rustling and her moving around in the room. “I’m coming.”

A little while, she finally opened the door and her eyes widened slightly when they landed on me before her lips curved into a smile. “You’re back.”

“Sorry I’m home late,” I said before wrapping my arm around her, pulling her flush against me, and laying one on her. She responded instantly, wrapping her arms around me, and the moment, her tongue slid against mine, I dropped the bags I was holding and wrapped my other arm around her, holding her to me tightly like she’d disappear if I didn’t.

Goddess, she was intoxicating.

Heat rolled over my skin as she moaned into my mouth and I backed her into a wall, kissing her some more before stopping so we could catch our breath.

“And I’m sorry I ended the date early,” I added and the corner of her mouth turned up slightly while she still panted.

“It’s okay.”

I pressed another kiss to her lips, this one shorter than the previous one, before picking up the bags. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“You don’t have to,” she said, her smile widening a bit, before reaching out to collect the bags and I frowned when I noticed a cut on the side of her palm. It wasn’t bleeding heavily, but it was bleeding enough for me to notice.

“Hey. What happened?” I took the injured hand in mine as I dropped the bags again and her brows jumped.

“Ah— knife cut. I wanted to peel an orange… in the kitchen.”

My frown deepened as my gaze dropped to the blood stains on her dress. “Come with me.”

I didn’t have a first-aid box at home because I didn’t need it, but I had bandages because Vernon used to get into a lot of accidents when we were kids. As we grew up, he ended up needing them less and less, but I still kept getting them from the pack’s hospital, and after he *died*, I didn’t get rid of them.

Now that Yara was here, I should get a first-aid box.

“I don’t have a first-aid box. I’ll get one tomorrow,” I said while retrieving the bandages after I led her to my study.

“Okay.”

I then led her to her bathroom where I cleaned her wound and while I was bandaging it, she asked, “What happened?”

I lifted my gaze from her hand, raising a brow.

“Why did you end the date?”

“Oh… Issues with the pack.”

“What issues?” There was a small frown on her face as she asked that and the corner of my mouth turned up before I gently tapped her nose.

“I’m handling it. You don’t have to worry about it,” I replied while I finished bandaging her hand because she had barely began to settle in. There was also the fact that she had almost been killed by witches a couple of days ago, so I didn’t want to bother her with what happened at all.

Her frown deepened a bit and she tipped her head to the side. “Why? A Luna helps an Alpha with pack issues and I’m *your* Luna, so why shouldn’t I worry about it?”