The Hybrid Luna's Revenge

Chapter Eight

Vladric's POV

The council chamber smelled of burnt wood and something old, just as it always did after a meeting that had gone on for too long.

I sat at the head of the table and let them talk.

They had been talking for the better part of an hour and I had been listening the way I listened to rain.

I was aware of it, unmoved by it and definitely waiting for it to stop.

Until one of the questions was directed to me.

“You let her walk out.” Aegon, the oldest of my elders, set his cup down with the particular care of someone who wished he could throw it across the room. "A girl who survived a rogue attack, a girl who snapped silver chains and threw an armed guard across a room without laying a hand on him.” He looked at me steadily. "And you let her walk out.”

He was right, I could have stopped her, I knew she was headed to the forest, I could have brought her back if I wanted to but instead of explaining, I let out a lazy exhale.

" I did,” I said.

The silence that followed after was the kind that my council members had learned over the centuries that they should choose their next words carefully.

Ceron, who looked younger and less wise for it, overlooked this. "It is obvious she is the key to uplifting this curse. We should have kept her and used her when the next blood moon comes.”

"If she should go back to her pack and seek refuge there…” Aegon tried to say.

"She already has,” I said and the room became tense once again.

" Then we should go after her, your highness” Ceron continued as I reached for my cup and leaned back in my chair "Let's raid their pack tonight, as the master of war, I would gladly arrange my able warriors to begin the raid"

“Ceron is right, your highness, what if she tells him…” Aegon tried to say.

“She will not tell him anything useful.” I set the cup down. "She knows nothing useful. And even if she did, she will come to hate the Alpha of her pack more than she hates me." I paused. “Which is considerable"

A few of them exchanged glances. I ignored it.

"So we simply wait?” Ceron asked, unable to keep the disbelief from his voice.

“We wait," I confirmed.

He scoffed “for what exactly? She is the only descendant of that witch and our only chance of…"

His voice trailed off as one glare from me, reminded him who he was speaking to.

“And what good is a witch who hates us to relieve us from the curse oh Ceron?"

The room quieted and I exhaled, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“I will have the tongue of anyone who dares to question my decision on this matter” scanning the room. " Understood?"

“Yes, your highness." They chorus.

“Now leave”

Slowly but eventually, they all emptied the council room before I went back to my own chambers to ponder.

I moved around my room in thoughts.

Two centuries.

Two centuries of living with a weight.

The witch who placed it had been dying when she did it.

With her coven destroyed and her bloodline scattered, she took a glance at me with eyes that were already leaving and said the words I still heard most times In my quieter hours.

‘You will carry what you took from us until the blood returns it. Death is for anyone you love for you are not worthy of it”

I had not understood it then.

I did not need to, curses were not puzzles to be solved so I lived with it, carried it along with my pack.

Until her.

I hadn't recognized her for what she was from the moment I saw her across the field, the moonlight settling over her.

All I could vouch for was the bond that pulled me towards her, it scared me.

I strode towards the mirror in my room and stared at it, at myself, before slowly taking off my robes and my gloved hands.

The patterns were there, like roots in a tree, only these roots were lined all over my arm and body and it burned faintly underneath my skin.

Impossible. The moon goddess wouldn't be so cruel to make the last descendant of witch my mate.

Suddenly, the knock on my door distracted me from my thoughts, the knock only came once before the door opened.

Valeria stepped inside, exposed skin in a satin like garment and of course, her scent was coated in the most luxury of fragrances.

“Your highness" she bowed at the door before fully stepping in.

Valeria was the closest thing to a mistress, how could she die when she was one of the people and already affected by the curse.

I didn't move from where I stood but my robes had come off and my chest became bare for her to run her slender fingers down while she hugged me from behind and I watched her from the mirror.

" I heard about the fuss in the council room” pressing her lips against my skin as she travelled her touch towards my groin.

"They are oblivious, that's all”

"They are cursed…” she started to say.

" And I was spared?” My voice became firmer.

“No.. no that is not what I meant at all your highness, it's just… letting the girl go…”

I turned and walked away immediately, she tried to follow but I held up my hand against her.

" I'm sorry if I've said anything wrong, your highness," she said.

I shook my head. “You’ve only said your mind and I only do not want to continue out frequent night activities”

I heard her sigh as I added. "You can leave now”

She hesitated for millisecond before bowing her head and leaving my chambers.

If only they knew she struck off as something that was more than my redemption.

More than everyone's redemption.