The Betrayal

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After making sure Aaisha didn't kill Luca by making one of the Protectors follow her, I smiled at Nakida.

She bowed her head. "I am truly sorry that you felt what we did last night."

A part of me felt uneasy at the thought of her and Luca having sex, but this was her mission and she did it well. "Nakida, you did what you were supposed to do. Did you uncover any information?"

"Luna, I believe Luca is telling the truth. From the information that I uncovered, it seems as if he is truly in love with you. After we had sex, he cried. Nobody has ever done that before. I was honestly out of words and did not know what to do. He was hurting so much. From what I heard, I think he plans on attacking Damon again in a few days. But, I heard of no plans of further betrayal to you," she said.

I nodded my head. "Good. You'll go back then and keep watch on him."

Her lips parted, but then they closed quickly.

I furrowed my brows at her. "What do you want to say?"

"Not to be disrespectful to you, but I do not believe Luca wants me to bother him any longer. After we had sex, he kicked me out and told me to stop bothering him and that he never wanted to see me again."

I pursed my lips together, glancing at Valerio. His eyes were trained on Nakida. His eyes flashed a darker color for a moment. When he glanced over at me, I raised a brow. His cheeks tinted a barely noticeable pink color.

Did he like her? My insides warmed just thinking about it.

"Okay, you can stay, but I would like your counsel and strength to be by my side from now on. The next time we go to a Challenger's hideout you will be there fighting by my side. Valerio will help train and prepare you."

A smile stretched across her face. "Thank you!" She stood, bowed, and walked to the door, Valerio following behind her.

"You're welcome," I said in the mind link to Valerio. Before he escaped behind the door with her, he turned around sending me a smile, his cheeks still a light pink.

Once he left, I continued the piles of work in my office and strolled to the living room. When I entered, the once howling wolves quieted down.

"Has anyone been in contact with the spies sent to the packs?" I asked. I'm sure Valerio had contacted them earlier, but I needed to be sure everything was still alright since I spent the majority of the day with Damon.

"Yes, I believe all of the men and women have said that there haven't been any missing pups from any of the packs since they began their missions. I will check back in with them tomorrow," one of the women bowed to me.

I nodded my head, feeling better about this situation. We were keeping it under control, at least more control than my mother had kept it. Now, all we had to do was find out who the kidnappers were. The spies couldn't stay there forever, and I needed the packs to be safe before I relieve the spies of their missions.

Hopefully we will get some information out of the Challenger we captured tomorrow.

~ ~ ~

"Who took the pups?" Valerio asked for the thousandth time. He stayed calm, his fingers lacing between each other as he sat on a chair in front of the prisoner.

From the corner of the room, I stood examining the prisoner's posture. His gaze shifted between Valerio and I in a dominant way, like he knew exactly what we needed to know, yet didn't want to tell us. He knew he held information that we needed. The man's lips curled up just slightly.

A loud growl rumbled from his stomach, making me meet his smirk with one of my own.

He was hungry. Of course, he was – he's a wolf and hadn't eaten in a few days. Since wolves needed more food than a human, he was probably starved already. And, by the look of the dark bags under his eyes, he was probably tired too.