Chapter Twenty-six

LUNA

She looked at me in shock, opening and closing her mouth like a fish in the water, gasping for oxygen.

“Luna. I swear, I love you…” You sure have a funny way of showing it “I didn’t…I didn’t come to see you because…”

“Nothing,” I said after she went silent, not being able to find any valuable excuse for her actions.

“Luna…”

“You didn’t ask for me because nothing, Rose. And I understand. Really.”

“It’s not like that.” Her voice broke and tears gathered in her eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sergio shift in his chair, as though getting ready to stop the exchange.

“I…I just…” I smiled sadly “I love you so much, Rose. Not a day went by that I didn’t think of you. Every time I spoke to Giovanni, I always asked to see you. I was worried sick about you.”

“Luna…”

“My mind was filled with all the different things that could have happened to you…I thought you…” My voice broke, and I took a deep breath and wiped the corner of my eyes “I thought that I had lost you. That you had died.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“Even if you didn’t want to see me again. or if you had found a happier life outside of me. Or a happier life and you didn’t want me to be a participant in it, I wish that you had told me…”

“Luna…” I held up my hand. I was going to finish talking. I was mainly here for closure, not for her to give me excuses. Now that I think about it, she hadn’t given any to me. Not one reasonable reason.

“I wish that you had at least informed me that you were alive. I could live with myself if you no longer wanted to have anything to do with me again. Or maybe you even blame me for everything that happened, from New York to Mexico and back here. It’s my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this mess.”

“You seem to be forgetting that I willingly came with you, Luna. I will always stand with you…” I nodded toward Sergio and chuckled.

“It doesn’t quite look like that right now, don’t you think?”

She opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again. Nodding her head slowly.

“I’m sorry, Luna.” I didn’t respond, instead, I chose to look around the joint like everything about the place was new and interesting. Silence reigned at the table, with the sounds of our eating and drinking filling the silence.

“Are you happy?” I asked. She smiled widely and nodded.

“Yes. I am. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to be in a relationship.” She answered, and giggled like a schoolgirl talking about her high school crush.

“Well, that’s great. I’m happy about that.”

“Thank you.” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I looked at Rose from across the table, she was okay. She was fine. And above all, she looked happy. She had apologized, but for some reason that didn’t seem to be enough for me. I mean, if he was her mate and all, it only made sense that she would go with him.

I’m not a werewolf but word goes around, and I heard that if two mates had already met each other, and don’t begin the mating process as soon as possible, things could get very nasty for them.

I even heard some say they died. So, if they were true mates, I wish her happiness…and safe delivery. I stared at her tummy longingly. And for the first time since the day I was born, I admitted to myself that I wanted a child of my own at some point in my life.

Maybe a man too, a handsome man, with the body of a Greek god, who would love me, and we would have a beautiful family filled with love.

I smiled at my little description, but that smile quickly vanished when I realized the picture of Giovanni was the first thing to come into my mind. Since I arrived in New York, I tried my best to not think of him, but it was times like this that made it seem like a wasted effort.

I closed my eyes and let the thoughts of him overtake me. I imagined his smell in my head and the way his crisp shirts always clung to his magnificent build, and sleeves always rolled up to his elbow whenever he wasn’t wearing a suit. I thought about his hair which was always tousled, and my hands began to itch with the mere wish to run my hands through the rich, silk strands.

Could it be possible that Giovanni was my mate? My eyes snapped open at that thought. I thought hard and long about the possibility and then dismissed it. if I was truly his mate, he wouldn’t have locked me up in a room, and not wanted to see me. He also wouldn’t have threatened to kill me and our child, and he most certainly wouldn’t have let me go. So, no. I doubted that.

But…

“Rose?”

“Yes.”

“You said you are Sergio’s mate, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is he your mate?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

“Well…for us humans, it’s a bit different, I guess. Sergio said that it's rare for humans to be mated to werewolves. But in the rare occasion where that possibility becomes a reality, the human is always last to know.”

“Hmm.”

“In the case of werewolves, they can feel some sort of sparks when they touch their mates. Some sort of tingling, that’s most times their first indicator that they’ve met their mate. Humans don’t feel that. You will just have a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever this person walks into a room, touches you, smiled at you, kisses you…”

I watched as her eyes turned dreamy, and I smiled. She was happy, she found love in the oddest of ways, but she was happy and that was all that mattered. I had to cut her short as that list was becoming too expressive.

“I think I get it, Rose.” She giggled and nodded. My mind wandered to Giovanni again. and the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that we weren’t meant to be together.

“Oh, sorry.”

We finished our food and just sat there, talking about the most random things. It was almost as though things were back to the way they were before. Only, they weren’t. but who said they couldn’t go back to that? That we couldn’t go back to being the best of friends.

Soon enough, it was time to leave. I and Rose walked hand in hand to Sergio’s car parked outside.

I pulled her into my arms and hugged her as best as I could without squishing her bump.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I regret that I hadn’t reached out to you when we were in Italy.”

“It’s okay.” And truly, it was.

“I love you, Luna.”

“I love you too.”

We finally separated, and I stood to the side and watched as she got into the car, and they drove off.