Chapter 11: Reckoning
1360words
Aiden paced the narrow space, his energy barely contained. Every few seconds, his eyes returned to my stomach, as if reassuring himself that what he'd sensed through our bond was real.
"Well?" Elder North finally broke the silence. "I assume you called this... meeting... for a reason, Aiden."
He stopped pacing, squaring his shoulders in a way I recognized from countless pack confrontations. "Yes. To end this farce once and for all."
My heart sank. So he agreed with his grandmother after all. The dissolution was inevitable.
"Finally seeing reason," Elder North nodded approvingly. "The child can be acknowledged through proper channels. The pack lawyers will draw up—"
"That's not what I meant," Aiden interrupted, his voice sharp. "The farce I'm ending is this ridiculous campaign you've waged against my mate since the day we were bonded."
Elder North's mouth fell open in genuine shock. In any other circumstance, I might have found her expression comical.
"You forget yourself," she recovered quickly, drawing herself up. "I am still Elder of this pack."
"And I am Alpha," he countered. "My word is final. My choice of mate is final."
"A mate who abandoned you," she reminded him coldly. "Who hides your heir from you."
"I didn't hide anything," I interjected, finding my voice at last. "Aiden has known about this baby from the beginning."
Elder North's gaze snapped to me. "Impossible. He only learned today."
"He's known," I insisted. "Ask him."
Both of us turned to Aiden, who had the grace to look slightly uncomfortable. "Dream-walking," he admitted. "I've been... connected to Luna since she left. I sensed the pregnancy almost immediately."
Elder North's expression shifted from disbelief to calculation. "Dream-walking? That ability hasn't manifested in our bloodline for generations."
"Apparently, extreme circumstances bring it out," he said dryly.
"This changes things," the old woman murmured, almost to herself. "A North Alpha with such power, and an heir already on the way..."
I recognized the look in her eyes—the same political maneuvering that had characterized our entire relationship. Even now, she saw me only as a vessel for North bloodline continuation, not as a person with feelings, with value beyond my reproductive capacity.
"This changes nothing," I said firmly. "My pregnancy doesn't erase the past. It doesn't fix what's broken between us."
Aiden turned to me, his expression softening. "Luna—"
"No," I cut him off. "For years, I begged for your attention, your priority. It shouldn't take me leaving and carrying your child for you to finally stand up to her." I nodded toward Elder North. "To finally choose me."
"You think that's what this is?" he asked quietly. "A reaction to the pregnancy?"
"Isn't it?"
He ran a hand through his hair—that familiar gesture that had always betrayed his frustration. "I've been trying to reach you for months. Not just through the dreams. I've called. I've written letters you've returned unopened. I even came to the bakery opening, but stayed outside because I didn't want to ruin your moment."
This was news to me. "You were there?"
"Of course I was there. It was important to you."
Elder North made a disgusted sound. "This sentimentality is precisely why—"
"Grandmother," Aiden said without looking at her, "if you can't be constructive, you can wait in the car."
She bristled but, remarkably, fell silent.
Aiden stepped closer to me, close enough that I could catch his scent—pine and rain and something uniquely him that still called to my wolf after all this time.
"I've made mistakes," he said, his voice low and intense. "So many mistakes. I took you for granted. I let others come between us. I didn't know how to love you the way you deserved."
"And now you do?" I couldn't keep the skepticism from my voice.
"Now I know what it's like to lose you," he said simply. "And I never want to feel that way again."
Something in his tone—raw, honest, stripped of Alpha authority—reached past my defenses. Still, I'd been hurt too deeply, for too long, to surrender easily.
"Pretty words," I said. "But words are easy. Actions matter."
"Then let me show you," he replied. "Not just today, but every day. Let me prove that I've changed. That I can be the mate you deserve."
Elder North could contain herself no longer. "This is absurd! You're the Alpha of the Northern Territories. You don't beg an Omega to return, especially one who's publicly humiliated you by leaving."
Aiden turned to her, his expression hardening. "Grandmother, I respect your position in this pack. I value your counsel on many matters. But my relationship with Luna is not open for your input. Not anymore."
"You would choose her over family? Over tradition?"
"She is my family," he said firmly. "She and our daughter. And some traditions deserve to be broken."
The old woman's face flushed with anger. "I won't stand for this."
"You don't have to," Aiden replied calmly. "You're welcome to step down as Elder if you find my leadership so objectionable."
The threat hung in the air between them—not just a grandson defying his grandmother, but an Alpha asserting dominance over a pack elder. The power dynamics that had shaped our lives were shifting before my eyes.
After a tense moment, Elder North rose stiffly. "This discussion isn't over."
"Yes," Aiden countered, "it is."
With a final glare in my direction, she swept from the room, the bell above the bakery door jangling violently in her wake.
Silence fell between us. Aiden remained where he stood, giving me space, waiting for my response to everything that had just transpired.
"That was..." I searched for the right word.
"Long overdue," he finished for me.
Despite myself, I smiled. "I was going to say 'unexpected,' but yes, that too."
He took a cautious step closer. "Luna, I know I can't undo the past. I know I hurt you, repeatedly and deeply. But if you'll let me, I want to build a future with you. With both of you." His gaze dropped to my rounded belly.
"How do I know this isn't temporary?" I asked, voicing my deepest fear. "How do I know that once the novelty wears off, once the baby comes, you won't revert to old patterns?"
"You don't," he admitted. "You can only judge me by my actions from this point forward. All I'm asking for is the chance to show you who I can be. Who I want to be. For you. For our daughter."
He held out his hand—not grabbing, not demanding, just offering. Waiting for me to decide.
After a moment's hesitation, I placed my hand in his. Not a surrender, not forgiveness, but perhaps the beginning of something new. Something built on honesty rather than expectation, on choice rather than obligation.
As our fingers intertwined, our daughter kicked—a strong, decisive movement that made us both gasp. Aiden's eyes widened in wonder as he felt it through our connected hands.
"She knows her father," I said softly.
"May I?" he asked, gesturing toward my belly.
I nodded, guiding his palm to the spot where our daughter continued her acrobatics. The moment his hand made contact, a surge of energy flowed through our bond—dormant for months but never truly broken.
"And... thank you, for the 'revenge'." I mouthed these words slightly.
Aiden's eyes widened, understanding dawning. "You know about Victor."
"Eliza told me," I admitted softly. "Why didn't you?"
His fingers trembled slightly against my belly. "I didn't want you to come back out of gratitude or obligation. If you returned, I needed it to be because you wanted to."
Our daughter kicked against his palm, as if punctuating his words.
"And if I did want to?" I whispered, the question hanging between us like a fragile thread.
Hope flickered in his eyes—cautious, vulnerable, real. "Then I'd spend every day proving I deserve that chance."
