The Betrayal

Chapter Nineteen

"Who do you trust?" I asked, leaning back against the oak desk in my mother's office. I guess it was really my office now.

Valerio sucked in a breath, placing his hands on his hips. "You... I thought we could trust Luca, but I'm not going to say I do anymore after what he pulled at the meeting."

With a curt nod, I breathed out. "I only trust you too."

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't trust Damon?"

"I trust you Valerio. I love Damon, but I don't trust him fully. I wish I could, but the only man I'm certain of his trust is you." In my vision of the future, only Valerio was there. I could only trust him, no matter how much it hurt.

After nodding, Valerio sat in a velvet cushioned seat. He rested his forearms on his thighs and leaned forward. "Well, I should tell you that I released Luca from the cell. I've placed two of our men on him. They're watching him at all times. He won't leave their sight. I needed to release him. He should have the same amount of time to ready his men for war as Damon does."

"Good. We have to stop the Challengers. I can't be bothered by him right now; I'll deal with him later."

"If he survives. As far as I know, no battles have taken place yet, but they're both ready for bloodshed."

I pursed my lips, my heart quickening just a bit. Bloodshed. Of course, war comes with bloodshed, but I didn't want to see either of them hurt. If Luca was injured or died, it would only hurt me because of his mark, and, he was my best friend for years. Even though we were fighting right now, I didn't want to see him dead. Maybe, hurt but death is a different story. But, I didn't want Luca killing Damon either. Damon knew that Luca's mark would affect me. I hoped he didn't hold back his strength because he didn't want to hurt me again. I needed him to survive as well. "Keep me updated on the battles. I can't think much about it now thought, we have bigger problems."

Valerio nodded his head, stood, and walked to a closet. He rummaged through it until he pulled out a large laminated map. Spreading it out on a wooden table, he took a marker and placed small and large dots all over the map. "Each dot represents the packs who have over seven kidnappings by Challengers within the past twenty years. The larger dots have had more than twelve kidnappings."

My eyes gazed at the marks, studying them intently. How did they connect? Why were pups being taken here? I tried to find a central point they all connected at, but there was none. There were just dots scrambled all over the map. No pattern. No point. Nothing.

Counting them, I sighed.

Seventeen dots. Seven large dots and ten smaller ones.

"What's so special about these packs?" I walked around the room, thinking out loud. "Out of the five hundred packs all over the world, why these seventeen?" Stopping in front of my desk, I crossed one arm over my torso and gripped my chin in between my thumb and finger with my other hand.

"I have no idea. With your mother we would just sit around for hours trying to figure this out," Valerio said.

"Well, I'm not her. We will figure it out."

He nodded.

"Are there any particular landmarks near each of these points?" I asked.

Valerio pulled up a map on his laptop, pulling the screen in different directions with the mouse. He zoomed in on a couple of the pack properties. After a few moments, he sighed. "I can't find anything, but I'll have a couple of my warriors scope the areas out."

"Good..." I crossed my arms over my chest, chewing on the inside of my lip. "What about cities? To me, it looks like these points are far away from the cities, farther than normal packs for the most part. Since the peace treaty between the humans and wolves, packs have moved closer to the cities to get jobs. These packs haven't though."