Chasing the Moon

“But he went home! I told him to go, and he did! He...” A thought occurred to me. “Aiden, where are we?”

“I—”

Before he could answer, I shoved him away from me and looked at my surroundings. I could have cried out of frustration.

“I wasn’t supposed to come back!” I hissed at him, glaring at my bedroom walls. Aiden scowled from my bed before standing up and seizing my wrist. A growl escaped my lips when he jerked me to him, but I immediately regretted it. After all, he was holding me again.

“That doesn’t work for me,” he whispered softly, getting right in my face. I had to work very hard to keep from leaning closer to him. “We really need to talk.”

It suddenly became very easy to keep from leaning to him.

“There’s nothing to talk about. You think I’m a cheap floozy, that’s all.” I tried to pull myself from him, but he held me close to his chest. His heartbeat was too calming.

“I do not think that! Honestly, I don’t.” He pulled back to look at me. “I’m not sure who to believe right now, but I still love you. Even if you truly did do what Jon said, I’d still be in love with you. You could break my heart like that, but I wouldn’t ever stop caring about you.”

“You still don’t believe me?” I whispered, voice cracking. Out of all that, all I had gotten was that he still thought I’d cheated him.

“I love you, didn’t you hear that? Gabby, baby, don’t you love me?” He couldn’t have worded his question differently?

“What game are you playing here?” I demanded, shaking away the memory of my nightmare. He wasn’t going to kill me, I hoped.

“I’m not playing anything! Babe, please, did you stop loving me? Did you ever stop? Did I fuck up way too much? I know I did, but you have to understand. Do you love me?” There was a pleading look in his warm eyes, as well as sincerity. But what’s a girl to do?

“Aiden,” I groaned, hesitantly reaching up to rest my hands on his chest. “I do, but... I don’t know. If you can’t trust me, then how is this going to work?”

“That’s why we need to talk.” I forced my heart to stop racing when his hands fell to my hips. “My mom—my real mom, not Celeste—and I were talking. I told her about your babies, and how we kind of broke up. She said I need to work things out with you, and that’s what I want to do. If those are my kids I want to be there every second.”

“There’s no ‘if’ about it. They are yours.” I set my eyes on his, a stern look on my face. “You can take a damn blood test if you want, I really don’t care.”

“After I left you in the infirmary, Jonathan accompanied me home," he told me randomly, acting as though I hadn't even spoke. "The whole time he kept saying that I would finally be happy; that you were worthless and not worth my time. And, Gabby, you were right. He brought up you being a half-breed before he stormed off. I do believe his exact words involved you being a ‘slut of a half-breed’. Babe, I’m pretty sure I believe you. You love me, right?”

“You know I do,” I mumbled softly.

“I want to hear you say it. Please,” he whispered impatiently in my ear.

“I love you.”

“I love you so much, baby.”

His lips crashed eagerly to mine, and I hardly had time to think. I melted in his arms and didn’t even protest when he led me to my bed without even breaking the kiss. The sheets were still perfectly made, but I could tell that Aiden didn’t plan on keeping them that way.

But the fatigue from the fight with Marshall was setting in. The fight...

“Where’s Marshall?” I asked Aiden suddenly, pushing him off. He looked pissed off, but then my words seemed to have sunk in. He sat up beside me, pulling me into his lap.

“He threatened to kill my kids, Gabriella,” he murmured, a tinge of regret laced in his voice.

“Aiden, please tell me you didn’t.” I turned around in his arms, trying to look into his eyes. He wouldn’t let me.

“After all he did, how could I let him live?” he asked me, meeting my gaze suddenly.

His warm, sweet eyes never looked so dark...