Luna Rising

THIRTY-FIVE

"Kaze, stop sniffing the child," Saye scolds the large canine while she holds the baby. "You will wake him."

"He smells a lot like that demon I fought with. I forgot who he is, but I remembered him trying to hurt my old master." Kaze let a low growl, not loud, wake the sleeping infant.

"He's just a baby," Saye argues as she cradles the infant in her arms. "If he does have the enemy's blood running through his veins, we shouldn't be cruel to a child who doesn't even know what is going on."

She got the point there. As much as I didn't want Michael to have the blood eyes related to the demon royal family, if he were just an average demon, then I wouldn't mind.

Finding out that Michael's child has demon blood in him got me all stressed and concerned. The number one concern is why the mother entrusted me with her son.

Did she learn that this world isn't ordinary as she thinks?

I leaned against the wall, just giving myself time to think. Everyone was surrounding the child, making it calm and comfortable.

Michael hasn't cried one bit since I brought it inside. Usually, without his mother, babies would call and make a fuss. But surprisingly, he stays quiet and sleeps.

After he had opened his eyes and revealed the color, I had been thinking of the possibility that he was Demir's son.

It can't be my father. I mean he loves my mother so much he disappeared to look for her. This could be my little half-brother if he gave up and settled down with another woman. That would make me hate him even more than abandoning me if he did.

I let out a groan of frustration and exhaustion.

"Just one problem after another," I mutter, rubbing my temples.

The door opens as Dominic enters. I smile as everything that has given me a headache fades away.

I approach him. "Did you find her?"

Earlier, I had asked him to find the child's mother to explain why she left her son to me.

"Come out for a second," he states. I sense something is off.

Looking at the infant with Camila and the others focusing on him, I followed Dominic outside. My nose picked up an awful stench as if something died when I did.

Outside were Malik and Clayton standing over oversized white clothing over what is trying to hide the smell.

"Oh, god," I cover my nose. I look at Dominic and the boys as they don't seem bothered by the stench, but I can tell they are just pretending how horrible the smell is. "Nick, what's going on?"

"We used the scent of the child's blanket and found her hauled up in a cave, and well..." Dominic crouches down and lifts the clothes, and the sight I saw of the dead woman was something you wouldn't want anyone to see. It's like seeing something so gruesome is what you see in a horror film.

The boy's mother has been poorly mauled as if a monster with large sharp claws ripped her skin off. You can see her bones through the shredded flesh off her face. I couldn't even tell what she looked like.

"Who would do such a thing?" I gasp, feeling so horrible about the woman.

"No clue," Malik responded, which is unusual because he and I have not always seen eye to eye, but he has to respect me once he knows I'm Dominic's mate. "The woman's smell resembles the demon we encountered back in the castle."

"You mean one of Demir's minions did this?"

If one of his elite warriors had killed this woman and the way it ruined her body, it had to be personal.