The Betrayal

Chapter Forty

Damon stormed to my office, followed my Valerio who walked just as quickly as him.

"You shouldn't have killed her," Valerio said.

Damon yanked open the door, holding it for me to enter. The brothers continued to argue as I sat down at my desk.

"She should've been dead weeks ago," Damon said.

"We needed information from her. Now we have nothing!"

"I had every right to kill her. She was taking pups from my pack and killing them!"

"Well, look where we are no-"

"Can you guys shut the hell up for a minute?" I glared at them. "No, you shouldn't have killed her..." I said to Damon. Then, I turned to Valerio. "But, don't get angry that he did, and you didn't."

Valerio's eyes widened. "I'm no-"

I held a hand up, commanding him to stop, and walked over to the table with the map on it. "She told us information - a lot of it. We just have to dissect it."

Damon took a seat, one of his forearms resting on the top of the table, the other on his lap. "She said Samuel killed the boy during their attack in my pack."

Valerio nodded. He placed his palms on the top of a chair and leaned onto them. "Yeah, but he didn't."

"I've known him since we were children," Damon continued. "I've seen every kill that he's made. He never fails - ever. He makes sure his prey is dead before going onto the next one."

Valerio shook his head. "So, maybe, he just didn't want to kill a kid?"

"But, if he was a Challenger he should have no problem killing kids, right? That's what they do," Damon said.

I gazed at Damon, my lips parting. "You're saying that Samuel purposely didn't kill the boy. He wanted him alive," I restated. Damon nodded his head. "But, why? Why not kill the kid if Alexandra was going to kill his brother and his friend?"

Damon shrugged. "He didn't kill him on purpose because he didn't want to kill anyone and, well... this is a stretch, but... maybe she threatened or blackmailed him in some way and he had to make it seem like the boy was dead? I don't know... I don't know what to even think anymore to be honest."

"We should search the woman's home again to see if he left any evidence behind. Maybe, a note."

Valerio nodded, his eyes glazing over as he talked through the mind link to some of our Protectors. My eyes glazed over too as I mind-linked Nakida, asking her to come to my office. She was with Alexandra before we took her. Alexandra might've said something to her that would help us find the pups.

When Valerio's eyes faded back to normal, he pulled out the chair he was leaning on and sat down into it. His shoulders slumped forward just slightly. "What did Alexandra mean by, 'It happened for the first time,'? She kept repeating it over and over," he said, changing the subject.

What did she mean by that? What happened for the first time? War between Damon and Luca? My mother's downfall? Draining enough pups? It sounded as if she tried her whole life to start war, watch the downfall of the Moon Goddess, and drain pups and each time ended in failure – except this time.

Had she dedicated her whole life to being a bitch?

"Maybe, she was just going crazy?" Damon offered with a lifeless laugh. "She was talking about becoming divine and a force. She might've been a little wacked up. She's always been a little crazy."

Valerio laughed along with him. "She thought that she would become divine by killing Mae... I would definitely say she was more than a bit crazy."

They laughed together, but I couldn't force out a laugh - not even a fake one. A part of me wanted to think she was crazy, but she knew about the force, the energy. Only my mother and the previous moon goddesses had written about it before. It was only in my journal. I doubt they would write it anywhere else for fear that someone would learn our secrets.