The Betrayal

Chapter Forty-Three

"Morning, Kitten." Damon's soft voice drifted through my ears.

I opened my eyes and gazed into his green ones. The sun was bouncing off of them perfectly, creating a web of green and yellow threads within them. He leaned over me, brushing his thumb against my cheek softly.

How long has he been here just staring at me? My cheeks warmed, and I pulled the blankets up over my bare body.

"Good morning," I said. I expected to wake up with that empty feeling deep in my heart - the feeling I've felt every morning the days before and after Luca's death. But, I didn't feel bad - at least not as much.

I still wasn't ready to part just yet. But being with Damon made everything a little bit better."How about we go get breakfast?" he asked.

I nodded my head, throwing on the clothes I wore yesterday. I really should get some clothes for his house.

When things settled down, where would we live? Would we live together? I had duties back at the Protector's home while Damon had duties here. But, we would make it work. We had to.

Once we sat down in the kitchen, the pitter patter of feet rumbled around us. Small giggles and yips drifted through the walls, and I smiled to myself thinking back to last night.

My gaze drifted from Damon to the empty seat next to him – Samuel's seat. Hopefully, Damon's theory was correct, and Samuel was blackmailed or forced into going with the Challengers and wasn't actually a Challenger himself.

I feared that if he was, it would break Damon even more, having everyone he knew and loved from his childhood gone. I stabbed my fork into my eggs. "So, what's our plan? What do you think we should do next?"

Damon grimaced and finished chewing. "Valerio has teams in the North, right? I'll send some wolves that way too. They know the lands around here better than anyone else, but for the rest of-"

The door slammed and a warrior wolf raced in, his chest heaving up and down. His right eye was nearly swollen shut. "Alpha..." he wheezed. "We're under attack."

Damon's eyes widened, fading into blazing golden suns. A growl exited his lips and he stood up.

Luca was dead... Who would be attacking?

My nostrils flared.

Damn Richard.

"We can't have one nice morning, can we?" I growled. I sprinted after Damon as he stormed into the back yard. As soon as his feet touched the grass, he fell onto all fours, transforming into his beast. His paws hit the dirt, and he sprinted toward the direction of the howls.

When I finally made it to the battle, my eyes widened at the number of eyes staring our way. Richard brought many more warriors than he had before. There were at least two warriors to every one of Damon's.

One wolf turned to me, ready to attack, but as soon as he saw me his eyes widened, and he looked toward the ground bowing his head in submission. I clenched my jaw, glaring at him.It wasn't his fault that they were here. I doubted that most of these wolves actually wanted to be here. These packs were allies at one point. The wolves were probably friends. It was Richard fault that they were here.

Why would Richard attack Damon even after Luca died? Did he really hate me that much? Was he seriously going to try to kill Damon, just because he wanted to get back at me?

My gaze drifted to the submitted wolf in front of me to Richard and Damon who were circling each other. A deep gash above Richard's eyes was spewing blood, yet he continued forward, trying to claw at Damon.