Chapter 45

Chapter 45
YARA
Moments later, I was in a better mood now that I wasn’t about to join the puddles on the street and my phone buzzed in my pocket, prompting me to pull it out.
Elijah: Aiden told me you’re switching to online classes for now
Me: Yeah
I frowned.
Me: Why the fuck are you texting me?
Elijah: Kind of don’t want to die
“You’re dramatic,” I muttered, rolling my eyes with a smile, and he shrugged.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” he said and I snorted. “...Can I ask you something?”
“I have a feeling you’ll curse me in your mind if I say no, so shoot.”
“Why are witches after you?”
The question was so unexpected, I almost tripped over my own foot, and Elijah caught my arm with a whoa. Blood rushed to my ears despite the harmless way he’d asked and I hated my reaction. When Aiden had asked me the same question the day I moved into his place, I told him my parents had offended some witches while they were alive, and thankfully, he hadn’t asked me anything else.
I didn’t know how far we were from the Leadership Joint, and I really hoped Elijah wouldn’t decide to unlock his inquisitive side. “My parents pissed off some witches before they died, and the witches don’t want to let it go,” I said as I resumed walking, and a moment later, he followed.
Then a thought occurred to me—What if Aiden started asking questions? It might not be today or tomorrow, but it would eventually happen. What then? And even if he didn’t ask me directly, he’d surely decide to investigate at some point. After all, having a Luna who could bring hostile witches to his doorstep wasn’t something he could just ignore.
What are you doing, Yara?
“Good morning, Luna,” a cheery voice said, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I glanced in the direction it had come from to see a woman with two children next to a car. They were waving at me, and for a second, I simply stared at them, wondering if they were being genuine. I’d just been called falsefang less than five minutes ago after all, so the sudden sweetness felt like a trap I hadn’t caught onto yet.
But the five-year-old with a missing tooth and a wolf plushie didn’t seem like a double agent, so I returned their smile and waved back.
Elijah had a thoughtful expression on his face when I glanced at him, probably because of the answer I’d just given him, and I cleared my throat.
“Those women—do you know their names?” I asked and he raised his brows before realizing who I was referring to.
“Oh. Yeah.”
“And where they live?” I didn’t actually plan to show up at their homes… for now anyway. I just wanted to take his mind off what it had currently latched onto.
“Yeah,” he muttered before his brows snapped together. “Why?”
I gave him my best innocent smile. “Just thinking of making my rounds, you know. Being the Luna and all.”
“Uh-huh, I’ll let Aiden handle that.”
“Come on. Just one address,” I said, but he picked up the pace to walk ahead of me, so I feigned disappointment by groaning and throwing a you suck at him. The rest of our walk continued with pack members we walked past either saying hi or giving me disapproving looks—which only intensified after their gazes inevitably dropped to my mate mark—zero witch questions from Elijah and a conversation about uni.
We’d only gone to campus together twice, but he was pissy about me abandoning him and Willow—who he barely knew—by switching to online classes for the foreseeable future. Speaking of Willow, she was going to be out for my blood the moment I told her I wouldn’t be coming to campus for an undefined period of time.
Good thing she didn’t have Aiden’s address.
The moment I walked into the council meeting room in the Leadership Joint, Aiden flashed me a smile that beat my gratitude for air conditioning by miles. It was just him and Julian in the room, and after Elijah threw them a quick hi, he walked off while Aiden held his hand out to me.
My lips curved into a smile and I shut the door behind me before walking over to Aiden, slipping my hand into his. “Hi, Julian.”
“Hi to you too, Mrs. Aiden,” he replied with a grin as Aiden pulled me onto his lap and I furrowed my brows slightly. Then I remembered what the mark on my neck had basically stamped across my forehead, and I rolled my eyes, the corner of my mouth twitching as I turned to Aiden.
“Hey,” we muttered to each other at the same time and his smile widened by a fraction before he captured my lips in the sweetest kiss, one that had me smiling against his lips and my toes curling. When we finally pulled apart, Aiden’s face was even brighter and I had a feeling mine was too. Then Julian cleared his throat.
“Sorry, I’d let you have the room but council members will be here in—” He glanced at his watch and raised his brows. “—thirty-seven minutes. You can have the room.” As he moved to get to his feet, laughter bubbled out of me and Aiden pressed a kiss to my cheek while Julian’s gaze flicked between us. “Should I leave?”
“There’s no need for that,” I replied before glancing around. There were thirteen other chairs around the table besides the ones Aiden and Julian were sitting in, and since I had no idea if there was some sort of assigned seating, I asked, “Where’s my seat?”
Aiden kissed my jaw, tightening his arms around my waist. “You’re already in it,” he muttered, and I drew my brows together because the seat he occupied was at the head of the table. It took me a moment to realize he was talking about his lap.
I pressed my lips together to stop my smile from turning manic. “...I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
“That’s your seat,” Julian said with a long-suffering sigh, gesturing at the chair across the table from him and diagonal to Aiden.
“Thank you,” I replied, but when I tried to get up, the arms locked around my waist refused to let me, and I snorted. “Okay. I guess this could be the Luna’s seat until the meeting starts.”