Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide
Chapter 19 - Aubree (Part 2)

A deep baritone voice interrupted her thoughts and made her jump. “Luna?”

She looked over her shoulder to see Gunner standing in the entryway to the kitchen wearing a pair of black workout shorts and nothing else.

“What?” She swiped at her hot cheeks, unfamiliar with the word he used.

“What troubles you?” he asked.

She shook her head, avoiding his question until she gained some clarification first. “What does luna mean?”

Her eyes danced around him, anything to avoid looking at his bulky bodybuilder bod.

“You are the alpha’s mate. Luna is the title given to her,” he said. “A pack is incomplete without her. Perhaps, I am being too hasty in addressing you in such a manner since you are unmated...”

He began reciting what sounded like a poem in another language. As he did, she forced her eyes to look at his face. While his gaze did not meet hers, she noted that of the other males, he was the only one who kept his face clean-shaven every time she’d seen him.

“Luna,” he said before reverting back to English:

"A beacon of light

She shines down upon us

In the dark of night

To love and guide us."

He cleared his throat before he went to the cupboard and pulled out a glass and helped himself to the water dispenser from the fridge.

“Alpha is the head of the pack. Beta, the backbone. Gamma, the shoulders. Head Warrior,” he gestured to himself, “the muscle. Omega, the feet. Luna,” he paused and held her eyes with his pale blue ones for the first time, “she is the heart.”

Aubree swallowed and looked away. There was an intensity in his gaze that further intimidated her. It was old and otherworldly and made her feel like he could see right through to her soul.

“How can I be a luna when I am not a lycan?” she asked in a soft voice.

“It matters not. The heart loves and guides. What is a body without a heart?”

Heat flooded Aubree’s face as she twisted a lock of her hair around her fingers nervously.

“Um, would you,” she hesitated, “would you mind joining me outside? I’d like some fresh air and I know Stone worries about my safety outside.”

He frowned. “The property around the house is safe, especially during the day. Has he refused to let you go outside?”

Aubree looked up to meet his gaze in shock before averting it. “N-No, I just thought... The vampires...”

“They cannot tolerate direct sunlight. It burns them. It’s not an instantaneous burst-into-flames ordeal, but it does burn them, and we patrol our land well,” he said. “It is perfectly safe for you to go outside on your own right now, but I shall accompany you if you wish.”

She nodded, feeling like an idiot. Of course, vampires had an aversion to sunlight. That made complete and total sense. She had kept herself indoors all week for virtually no reason at all, and she couldn’t have felt more annoyed that no one had mentioned anything, or that she hadn’t at least asked.

Sighing as she slid open the door, she stepped out into the warm, fresh air and inhaled deeply. The smell of earth, pine trees, and grass filled her senses as the sun warmed her skin.

Gunner followed her outside as she ambled across the lawn without any shoes or sandals on. She couldn’t remember the last time she walked barefoot across a lush, green lawn. It had probably been years.

“He should have told me that I could still go outside,” she said under her breath.

“Indeed,” was all Gunner would add.

He followed a few paces behind her. With them was silence.

She took in the house from all angles. It was boxed-shaped with an L-shaped balcony on the top floor. There were a few limp tulip leaves poking out here and there among a garden that lined the outside of the house but otherwise, the garden was overgrown with weeds and grass from lack of care. Even the flowerpots on the patio outside the kitchen door were dry and barren.

As if following her train of thought, he cleared his throat. “We have been busier than usual this spring. Do you enjoy gardening?”

She shrugged. “I never really tried. We don’t have much of a yard back home in Chicago.”

“You should ask him. You two could use a project to do together.”

“I don’t know the first thing about gardening. I’ll probably kill everything I touch.”

She heard him chuckle—or was it a huff? It kind of sounded like a combination of the two. Either way, she glanced up at the six-foot-tall man’s face and saw a half-smirk tugging on his lips.

“I somehow doubt that. You have Adelaide’s soul. She had a green thumb.”

Humming in response, she thought back to what he had said about lunas in the kitchen. “If the luna is so important, then how did you all manage without one for so long?”

“Guinevere filled in the role as best as she could,” he said. “It’s not the same when the luna and alpha aren’t mates, but she was their daughter and managed to keep us from tearing each other’s throats out.”

She raised her eyebrow at that as a shadow of a smirk graced his lips.

“She certainly kept Alpha on his toes all these years, along with Beta Alistair. You mustn’t be too hard on him, but you’ll have to be the one to push him. If you want something, you have to tell him. He can’t read your mind, unfortunately.”

“I can’t read his either,” she added.

He nodded. “All the more reason to speak honestly with him. If you don’t speak up, he’ll think nothing is wrong. If I may speak candidly, your tears earlier suggest something is wrong, or at least not right in your mind, am I correct?”

She stumbled as his words struck home.

He caught her pale, slender arm in his large rough one before she could hit the ground and she stared at it as he pulled her back up on her feet. His grip had been firm, and it almost hurt but wasn’t enough to bruise.

While Gunner was a few inches shorter than Stone, his muscle mass far exceeded Stone’s and made her feel even smaller and more pathetic next to him.

Tears sprang to her eyes. A mixture of humiliation at being caught crying, and shame for feeling ungrateful to everything and everyone, rendered her incapable of speaking. Lowering her head, she rubbed her arms as she held herself, even though it wasn’t cold out.

“Thank you for catching me,” she managed to utter. “And... for your company.”

“The pleasure is mine, Luna.”

They went back inside, Aubree to the sunroom and Gunner upstairs to his bed.

She thought about what he said. Although she already knew that she needed to talk to Stone, Gunner’s validation gave her that little extra push to think about what to say and how to say it.

She gave up everything for him.

He had to be more considerate of her and her needs and wants as well.

Because if she didn’t speak up for herself, who would?