Chapter 310 Unexpected guest

Chapter 310: Chapter 310 Unexpected guest

Aria’s POV

And all at once, I understood.

Dr. Everett turned back to Damian, and his voice went low and certain. "Alpha Blackwood. None of it was ever fully your fault. Look at what you actually did. You protected your grandmother. "

"You protected the woman you love. A man will do reckless, dangerous things to shield the people he can’t stand to lose. And that means the same instinct that makes him lose control is the very thing that will make him stop before he hurts what’s precious to him."

"From now on, with someone beside you worth protecting, someone who wants to protect you back, you’re only going to get better."

"..."

The words landed, and the room went quiet.

But this quiet wasn’t like the others. This one was warm. It settled over the three of us like sunlight through the curtains, and something in my chest unspooled that had been wound tight for weeks.

I turned to Damian, my whole heart aching and overflowing at once, and I reached up and cupped his face in both my hands.

"Did you hear that, Alpha Blackwood?" My eyes stung, but I was smiling.

"You’re going to protect me. And even if you lose yourself completely, you’ll stop for me. You’ll always stop for me. So you don’t ever have to be afraid again."

"...Yeah." His throat worked around the word.

He looked at me, and I could see myself reflected in those dark grey eyes of his, and I could tell every single thing he wanted to say had turned to ash in his mouth because none of it was big enough. A hundred yeahs, a thousand, wouldn’t have been enough to answer me and he knew it.

So instead he leaned in and brushed his lips against the tip of my nose, then my cheek, so careful, so gentle, that I felt the faint tremor running through him.

Right on time, Grace came back through the door with the assistant in tow, arms full of takeout.

The five of us sat down to a quiet lunch together. Dr. Everett had a plane to catch, some conference three time zones away, so he didn’t linger long.

Damian and I walked him down to the car ourselves.

Before he ducked into the back seat, he turned and looked at the two of us one last time.

"Healing from something like this takes time," he said. "But love and understanding are the best medicine there is. I hope the two of you are happy."

"..."

We stood on the curb and watched his car pull away and disappear around the corner.

Only then did Damian’s hand find mine, fingers threading through, and the two of us turned and started the slow walk back inside, leaning into each other every step of the way.

---

Author’s POV

Rose Holt had been camped outside the gates of the residential complex for hours, and she’d just about decided to give up and go home when she finally caught sight of Aria.

Ethan had collapsed at the house the night before. Rose had sent someone to check on him, and that was how he’d been carried back to her in the first place.

Only then had she learned that her grandson had spent the last stretch of days drowning himself in liquor, falling apart piece by piece.

And every bit of it, all of it, traced back to Aria.

Someone had come running to tell Rose that Ethan, her Ethan, had gotten down on his knees in front of that woman in front of a room full of people.

Rose liked to think her nerves had toughened up over these past weeks. She’d swallowed a lot. But this? This she could not choke down.

She’d been so good to Aria once. Kind to her. Generous. And this was how the girl repaid her, by turning around and trying to bury the whole Pack, every last one of them.

When Ethan had finally come to, the first name out of his mouth had been Aria’s.

Rose’s heart broke for her grandson, and it hardened against Aria in the same breath. She’d pressed Ethan’s men until one of them coughed up an address, and that was when the last piece landed. The house. The house Aria was living in. Ethan had bought it for her.

Say what you wanted about Ethan. Whatever he’d done. The boy had loved that girl with his whole chest.

And this was what she did with it. Ground it under her heel.

Margaret was at the hospital keeping vigil over Alpha Gerald, so Rose hadn’t breathed a word of this to anyone. She’d simply gathered a few people and come here herself.

It was a private community, only two units to the whole building, and the security was airtight. Whether Aria had given the order specifically, Rose didn’t know, but no matter what she said, no matter how she pushed, the guards would not let her through.

So she’d had no choice. She’d waited. Lain in wait for her prey.

The woman couldn’t stay locked inside forever, could she?

And sure enough, patience had its reward. There she was.

Rose hadn’t quite believed it when they’d told her. Now that she was seeing it with her own eyes, the fury boiled up until she could feel it behind her teeth.

Aria really did have some strange man on her arm.

"Aria! Aria!"

Rose shouted the name across the courtyard, shoving past the guards’ arms, trying to force her way toward the woman. The people she’d brought joined in the scuffle, and the head of security let his face go cold.

"Ma’am. Look, you’re an older woman, and none of us want to lay hands on you." His voice stayed level, but there was no give in it. "The resident here is a person of considerable standing. She’s not receiving visitors. I’ll ask you not to disturb her."

"Standing? What standing?" Rose spat, spraying spit clean across his cheek. "She’s my granddaughter-in-law! Considerable standing, my foot! You want to know something? Every brick of that house she’s living in was paid for with my son’s money!"

She was past reason now. She swung her handbag hard into the head of security’s chest, and because she was elderly, none of them dared do more than stagger back and take it.

The head of security cut his eyes sideways at his men. A few of them kept the old woman hemmed in while one broke off at a run, chasing after Aria and the man beside her.

Aria had faintly caught the sound of someone calling her name. She’d only just turned her head when a uniformed guard came jogging up in front of her.

"Luna. Alpha."

He dipped his head to them both, respectful, then angled his body and gestured back toward the gate.

"There’s an older woman down there. She’s saying she’s your grandmother. She’s insisting on seeing you. What would you like us to do?"