Heart of Stone (Parts I & II)

II. Chapter 29 | Part 1 - Aubree

The morning flew by in a blur of awkwardness for Aubree.

Stone took her to a high-rise downtown first, where she met Mr. Johnson (a fake name), who was one of the few humans who knew the truth about lycans, werewolves, and vampires. He was the man that handled all of their documentation, identifications, cover-up stories, and paid them for the vampires they killed. His assistant was a werewolf from the North Fang Pack, who doubled as a bodyguard for him.

Aubree discovered that over the last week, Stone and his family had taken out twenty-six vampires, which slightly angered Mr. Johnson because he couldn't afford to pay him the usual amount.

"This is getting out of control, Alpha," Mr. Johnson said through gritted teeth. "If you brought me Carina and ended this fucking war, I'd give you a hundred thousand just for her."

It had been the only time he displayed anger and used profanity in front of Aubree during their meeting, but Stone seemed unfazed by it. He kept a calm composure and agreed to settle the amount for a thousand dollars a piece.

"Trust me," Stone told him, "no one would be happier to have her taken out than me."

Afterward, much to Aubree's dismay, Stone insisted on using twenty-five thousand of the twenty-six to pay off her student debt.

"Consider it an advance on your new duties as Luna," he said in an attempt to silence her repeated objections to it as their car pulled up to the bank.

Crossing her arms over her chest as he put the car in park, she huffed. "I just don't feel right accepting it."

Aubree had never been given anything in her life without having to work hard to earn it herself. She wouldn't even let her father give her money for college when he offered. She couldn't justify accepting something as huge as paying off her student debt—especially when that money came from killing vampires. Even though it was because of those vampires that brought her and Stone together in the first place.

What would have happened if that vampire had never attacked her? Would she have learned the truth about her and Stone? About his family? Would she have stayed with Dan?

After turning the car off, Stone touched her cheek. She felt his concern before she looked up and read it in his blue eyes.

"Aubree?" he asked, as if knowing that there was something else on her mind than money.

Biting down on her bottom lip, she asked, "If I had never gotten attacked by that vampire in Wisconsin, would we be where we are now?"

"You tell me."

His response caught her by surprise. His cool eyes stared into hers calmly, as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

She remembered Gwen telling her that the matebond was rather persistent and probably would have brought them back together at some point, but would she have accepted him under different circumstances?

"I don't know."

He caught her chin with his thumb and forefinger and tilting her head toward him. "I do."

Her breath hitched in her throat as she stared back into his eyes as her stomach flip-flopped.

"I would have discovered your return sooner or later. I would have been furious. I would have cornered you and demanded to know why you returned." He paused, pressing his lips together and swallowing before continuing. "Seeing you again after such a lengthy absence would have pushed me to do something more drastic. I'm afraid, I would not have been gentle."

He lowered his gaze. "It was hard letting you go that night we went to the pharmacy. I kept telling myself that it was for the best, that you were better off in Chicago. It broke my heart. My only consolation was in knowing that you would be safe. I believed that. If you had returned, it would have reopened the wound that I had been trying to convince was best." Pain reflected in his eyes and touch as his gaze lifted her hers again. "I can handle another loss if it means you are safe. If you could live a life filled with joy without me, that was better than you not living at all."