The Betrayal

Chapter Eight

I stared at myself in the mirror. Beads of water dripped from my hair and rolled down the curves of my body. Wiping the steam off of the mirror, I examined the mark on my chest. The full circle glowed brightly, so bright, I adverted my eyes from it.

A knock rapped at the door and Valerio peeked his head in. Immediately, he looked away from my naked body, but I urged him to come in anyways. I felt comfortable enough with him for him to see me naked. We were going to spend eternity together, he's bound to see me naked at some point.

I took a deep breath, studying my features, as Valerio stood behind me and watched me in the mirror.

Beams of sunlight burst through the curtains of the bathroom. It was an early morning for both of us.

"Are you read for tonight?" Valerio asked.

Inhaling sharply, I nodded. "Yes, I'm just a little nervous," I admitted.

His eyes lowered to my chest and lingered on my mark. He wrapped an arm around my frame and brushed his fingers against the glowing circle. "I never thought this day would come. I never thought I'd be given the responsibility to be the personal protector of the Moon Goddess."

I smiled widely at him through the mirror.

"I'm honored to protect you, Mae. There is nobody better for this position than you."

My heart warmed at his kind words. I clutched a hand to my heart and knotted my eyebrows together. Turning around, I looked up into his bright eyes. "Well, I'm honored that you're by my side. You're the strongest man I know."

A smile tugged at his lips, something I rarely saw from him. He usually was so serious.

"I brought you something," Valerio spoke. He stuffed his hand in his pocket, furrowing his eyebrows together as he pulled out a silver chain. The chain lightly burned the palm of his hand, but he held it out for me to take anyway.

My lips parted as I realized it was the necklace that my father gave me. I had lost it when I put it around Brett's neck before I killed him. I thought I would never see it again. As I grabbed it from him, the silver stung my skin, but I bit back a yelp. I would have to endure more silver later on.

While I studied the necklace, I noticed an ashy substance where the drop of red once was before it spilt out onto my chest. "What's in it?" I asked.

"Your father's ashes. I went back to Brett's house and found the necklace and your father. I thought you should have a piece of him today during the Ascension and always."

I held my hand up to my lips to hide the fact that my lips were trembling. A tear slid down to my cheek and I held the necklace close to my chest. After putting the chain around my neck, my skin burned slightly, but weirdly enough, the placement of my dad's ashes on the mark itself, didn't burn at all. Wrapping my arms around Valerio, I pulled him into a hug.

His arms wrapped around my waist, making me feel safe and protected.

"Okay, well, we have a lot of preparing before moonlight," he stated.

The rest of the day him and I stayed in the cabin. He occasionally mind-linked Luca and Damon to make sure all of the security measures were in place and that all of the alphas and their Lunas had arrived.

My thoughts travelled to Aaisha. She was still pregnant, but the baby would die tonight. It was not something that I wanted to happen, but I couldn't stop it. Although she told me she didn't want kids, over the past few days, I could see this was really taking a toll on her and Richard. Yesterday, she cradled a small bump. She constantly rubbed her hands over it and each time she did, she frowned. I couldn't believe this was happening to her. It surprised me at how fast the bump grew but Valerio explained that werewolf pregnancy was much quicker than human pregnancy. But, Aaisha wouldn't even get to see her pregnancy to her full term.