Chapter 153

Aria’s POV

Silas’s words haunted me long after the phone conversation, and that, combined with my discussion with Cathy and Piper convinced me to at least hear Lucian out. Because of this, when he called me to talk, and asked me to go out on a date with him, I decided to say yes.

Now, after dressing in a cute but modest silver dress, I met Alaric outside of one of the more fancy restaurants in the heart of downtown.

As soon as he saw me, he did a double take. I wasn’t dressed particularly stylishly, I thought, yet he looked at me like I was a supermodel. I couldn’t help but flaunt it a little, adding a bit more hip to my walk. The way he looked at me made me feel sexy in a way I hadn’t in a long time.

“Aria,” he said as I came closer, his voice a bit breathless.

It felt as if, since his confession the other night, as his question asking me to stay here and start over with him, that something fundamentally had changed between us. The sparks that had been crackling between us had come out into the open now, making them impossible to ignore.

On chemistry alone, I’d want to stay at Lucian’s side forever. But there were so many other things to consider. Even if Silas had said that everything would be okay in Moonglow…

What did I really want?

“Shall we?” Lucian asked, seeming to recover himself. He held the door for me as we entered the restaurant.

The host had our reservation and led us to a nice table along the far side of the dining room. Here, Lucian and I could speak more privately than in other places, as this table was flanked on either side by flowers and partitions.

Lucian held my chair out for me, then helped push it in as I sat down. Then he moved around the table and sat in his own chair.

He seemed somewhat nervous, which was a new look for him. I found it endearing, seeing how much he cared for me and how much he wanted this night to go well.

After we ordered with the waiter, we talked for a while about this and that. He asked about my work and I asked about his. We discussed current news, and about some upcoming movies.

We talked in a way we really hadn’t before, like friends. In the past, Lucian only really told me things he thought I needed to know. We didn’t really ever connect like this, even early in the relationship when we’d still been trying to learn each other.

Back then, there had been topics I’d been too nervous to talk about. Now, I felt like nothing was off the table.

Perhaps this person sitting across from me was the new him, and this entire dinner was an insight into the kind of life I could expect if I returned to his side.

Or, maybe this was just the person he wanted to be. Perhaps, if we reconciled officially, he might return to being the cold shell of a man he had been in the past.

The thought overwhelmed me, sucking the joy from my heart. In the past, I’d had an idea of how things would be when we were married. It had turned out to be the opposite.

Was I doing the same thing now? Was I seeing things that weren’t there? Was my hopeful heart and my lovestruck wolf making dreams again that weren’t aligned with reality?

What was I even doing here?

My stomach twisted and sunk.

“Aria, are you alright? You’ve gone pale and quiet rather suddenly,” Lucian said.

I was finding it difficult to breathe. The air in here… it felt so stale, so thin… I couldn’t seem to fill my lungs.

“I’m sorry,” I said, removing my napkin from my lap and leaving it on the table. “I’m sorry I have to go.”

“But the food hasn’t arrived yet,” he said.

I couldn’t wait. Feeling like I was going to pass out, I needed out of here.

I pushed my chair back and stood. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Turning, I hurried away from the table, from the dining room, from the restaurant. I threw the door open and ran outside.

While we’d been inside, the sky had opened up and rain was falling now. In no time at all, I was drenched to the bone.

“Aria!” Lucian called.

Facing the front of the restaurant, I was surprised to see him rushing out of it behind me. He came into the rain, right up to me, without caring about the rain.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“I can’t do this,” I said, my voice shaking, just as my nerves shook. I felt like I was someone else in this moment, watching my body move from the outside.

I couldn’t fall back into old habits. I didn’t want to see Lucian change again, back into that cool distant man who never had time for me.

“We were only having dinner,” he said.

“It’s not just that,” I said. I had no idea how to properly explain, but he deserved an effort. “It’s that you are being so wonderful…”

That only confused him more. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“No!” I said.

“Why?”

“Because it gets my hopes up! Because it fools me into thinking you might have feelings for me, and that things might be different this time. But I won’t fall into that trap again, Lucian. I couldn’t bear it for you to treat me like you did when we were married, not after being so great now.”

The confusion cleared from Lucian’s eyes and he took a hurried step forward. When he came too close, I inched back and he stopped. This left a two foot space between us.

“Aria, things would be different this time,” he said.

Tears welled in my eyes. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying,” he insisted. Arms out, the rain poured down on us both. His damp hair clung to his forehead. “I love you.”

I froze, wide-eyed.

“I will love you forever,” he said. “I know I was not a good partner in the past, but I want to do better this time. I want to be the kind of man you’ve always deserved. I want to have more kids with you, but I also want to stand beside you while you continue your career. Whatever you want out of life, I want to help you achieve it.”

“You can’t mean all that…” I said with disbelief. “If we reconcile, things will change again…”

He stepped closer. This time I did not back away.

“They won’t,” he insisted. “I can’t do more than promise you yet, Aria, but if you give me the chance, I will prove to you everyday for the rest of my life how much I mean it. I messed up royally in the past, but I love you. That love is not going to change.”

“Lucian…” So easily, I fell back under his spell. Maybe it was wishful thinking that would only amount to more hurt for me, but in that moment, in the rain, his words soaked into me and helped blossom my own love for him.

Because I did love him. Desperately.

“Aria…”

One moment we are looking at each other, and in the next, we are kissing. Passionate. Frantic. I cupped his face with my hands as he held onto my waist with a fierce grip.

Yet, before we could fully lose ourselves to the moment and each other, Ben’s voice called out. “Alpha! Dr. Aria!”

We broke to turn and look at him. Lucian’s hands stayed on my waist, though mine dropped to his chest.

“Not now, Ben,” Lucian said, but Ben was adamant, hurrying toward us from his parked car.

“It’s urgent, Alpha,” Ben insisted. “Your father is in the hospital.”