Chapter 158


    After James leaves-and I am left sitting there startled by the reminder of who I am to the pack-1 force


    myself to get up and dress


    I go upstairs to my old room where my clothes still are, to pick out somethingfortable, yet stylish-


    jeans and a softly knitted sweater. It seems silly to worry about clothes when my life feels like it got put


    through a blender.


    I nce around the room as I dress, remnants of both the child and the woman who grew up here,


    confused, alone and desperately dreaming things could be different, easy to see in the pictures and


    books and sshes of color.


    I feel like apletely different person now, like I don’t belong in this space any longer.


    Like everything that happened in the warehouse that night-dying, turning, mating, losing my child-has


    rebirthed me into someone I don’t recognize.


    N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive ? material.


    Maybe it’s not for the worst.


    That girl loved a man who refused to love her back. A man who treated her in extremes. Worshiping


    her body in one moment, being guardedly possessive the next, then acting like I didn’t exist,


    disregarding my feelings, unting Jessica in front of me, yet at the same time, teaching me everything


    I needed to know to thrive in this world, but then finding ways to use it against me like when he had me


    trick my own father….


    That girl lived in a maelstrom of chaos.


    That girl had no idea what wasing for her.


    This girl is going to learn from the past.


    This girl is going to be strong. For herself. For her pack


    I leave the room and head down to Aaron’s office.


    The normality of the house after everything that’s happened is almost jarring.


    The chef is in the kitchen preparing a meal, another pack member is doing some routine cleaning, my


    newly sensitive hearing picks up the low tones of James talking to another couple of guys somewhere


    within the house.


    Of course, for them, months have gone by and apart from Aaron apparently not being here, I guess


    things quickly returned to


    normal for them.


    They haven’t been through life changing traumas like I have.


    Inside Aaron’s office, I have to pause for a moment.


    In here, his scent is everywhere.


    Not only his cologne and the soap he uses, but the earthier undertones that are simply him.


    A visceral wave of longing goes through me, stronger than any lust I experienced as a human. It’s


    almost crippling, and I have to sit down as I realize this is what a wolf longing for her mate feels like


    It’s something we’ll have to get used to feeling, because I don’t n to go running after Aaron any time


    soon. And after the way he walked out on me not five minutes after I woke up, I get the feeling he won’t


    That hurts.


    Eventually, I make myself get up and go over to my old desk, the one Aaron had set up in here so I


    could spend days looming,


    2/2


    andter working with him.


    There’s a brand newptop sitting on my desk, and curiously I turn it on.


    It loads quickly, and I find it’s been cloned from my oldptop, so everything is arranged and organized


    the way I’ve always kept


    However, there’s a new folder on the desktop that wasn’t there before, simply titled For Leah


    I open it to find a scrolling list of all kinds of documents, in number order, I assume of how I’m meant to


    read them.


    I click on the first, and suc k in a breath at the words that meet my eyes.


    Aaron has made me Luna-of all three packs.