Chapter 0035
(Luna Jane POV)
I am sitting beside my son’s hospital bed when my mate, Alpha Randall, walks into the room.
“Any improvement?” he asks somberly.
“Not as far as I can tell,” I respond sadly.
Randall sits down in the chair next to me and places his hand on my leg. “Are you ready to talk about what happened?”
“No.”
“Jane, darling, it has been 48 hours. We should talk about what happened,” he urges.
“We can talk after James wakes up.”
“Robert and Margie think that you are avoiding them. They have been waiting outside this room, hoping you will give them permission to come in, or that you will go out there and talk to them.” 1
I lean my head against his shoulder. “I can’t face them right now, Randall. I just can’t.”
“Darling, they are our best friends. Please just go out there and reassure them that you are not mad at them, and that you do not blame them for what Lily did.”
I lift my head back up and look at Randall with annoyance and confusion. “Is that really what they are worried about? That I blame them for what Lily did?”
Randall furrows his brows. “What else would you be upset about? And why else would you be blocking them out? They have been our best friends for over twenty years, Jane. This is the first time that your have ever refused to talk to them.”
I stand up and walk to the window. I stare at the forest outside. “I think there are plenty of more important things for me to be upset about right now than what Lily did,” I respond.
“Like what?”
I say nothing. I just continue to stare out the window.
“Darling, please talk to me. I cannot help you if I do not know what is wrong.”
“Randall, I love you, but I am begging you. I do not want to have this fight right now. Our son has spent the past 48 hours unconscious in a hospital bed, and I have barely slept. I need some space to process
“Who is fighting. Jane? I am just asking you to share with me what is going on in your head. You cannot expect me to support you blocking out our friends and acting like a recluse if you do not tell me what is going on.” 1
“Please let it go, Randall.”
He stands up and approaches me.
“No, Jane, I am not going to let it go. I have let you use that excuse for the last couple of days, but I am not going to let you get away with that today. You are my mate and my wife. Our emotions have been linked since the day we marked each other. I know whatever it is that is bothering you, it runs deeper than simply a lack of sleep and a concern for our son. Please just tell me!*
I cup my hands over my face and sigh.
With my hands in a praying gesture, I try once again to avoid the fight that I am sure is about to happen. Randall, please. You are such a smart man most of the time, but you need to trust me on this. If we talk now, you are not going to like what I have to say, and it is going to start a fight. Please let me process
this a little bit more before we talk about it. Maybe I will change my mind or feel better about all of it.”
“NO! I told you that I am done with the excuses, Jane! Talk to me!” he fires back.
Randall sounds angry, but after being married to him for 30 years, I know that he really isn’t. He just feels
frustrated and helpless. As an alpha, those are emotions that he is not comfortable with. Ultimately,
Randall wants to know what the problem is so that he can fix it. The trick is, I do not know if he can fix
this one.
“Randall, please. Give me another day or two, or until James wakes up. I promise, I will talk to you then.
Just please, do not press the issue right now, I am not ready to talk about it yet.”
“What is going to happen between now and tomorrow that will change anything? You will be even more
sleep deprived, and it will be one more day that has passed without me being able to fix whatever it is.”
“I do not know if you can fix what is bothering me, Randall. That’s the thing.”
“LET. ME. TRY.”
“Tomorrow. I will let you try tomorrow.”
“NO! JANE ELIZABETH ANDERSON, TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON, AND TELL ME RIGHT NOW!”
As he yells at me, I feel him release his alpha aura. As his mate, it does not work on me, but it definitely pushes my buttons. It is his way of telling me that he is the boss, which he is not. We are equals.
“WHAT IF WE ARE WRONG?” I finally shout back at him in anger.
“Wrong about what?”
“Wrong about everything! We clearly failed as parents, for one. We taught our son that fated mates are important, but then we told him that we were going to force him to take a chosen mate! And then our son met his mate, and in a fu&&ing memorial event with the entire pack watching, he publicly rejected her after taunting her with all the sex and bl ow-jo bs that he planned to get from other she-wolves!”
