The Lunar Destiny Series

Chapter 23

I awakened the next morning curled up next to Lio. His arm was around me and my head rested on his chest. A yawn escaped my lips making me blink a couple of times. Lio was sound asleep; his chest rose and fell steadily. I heard the basement door opening and scrambled for the sheets. I quickly pulled the sheets up to my neck and pulled them up over Lio’s lower body. I’m sure if he was awake he wouldn’t care because all of them had seen him in the nude before.

Baltasar came down the steps wearing a pair of dark brown boxers that were slightly loose fitting. His hair was slightly sleep tousled and his ruby colored eyes looked puffy.

I sat up a little and Lio’s arm moved against me, holding me more securely. Even in his sleep he was making sure I was by his side. Baltasar came down the last step and walked up to the foot of the bed. He had his cell phone in his hand and a disturbing grin on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Funny? Nothing at all. Except all of the moaning you were doing last night. I could barely sleep.” He said tossing his phone to me. I blushed furiously but thought of a quick comeback.

“It’s not my fault you have superhuman hearing. Anyway, you’re just jealous Lio’s found his mate before you.”

Baltasar pretended to stumble backwards with his hand to his chest as if I’d shot him.

“Ouch Astraia, that was mean! How do you know Celeste isn’t my mate?”

I shook my head without dignifying his remark with a response and picked up his cell phone. I knew it was Celeste because she’s the only one who calls me on Baltasar’s phone.

“Gee Celeste, could you have called any earlier?” I asked with a thick bit of sarcasm in my voice.

“Oh shut up, it’s like ten O’clock in the morning. I got a call from your parents earlier this morning. Your mom wanted me to tell you to call her and that it’s urgent.” She said with a stressed sigh.

“She didn’t say anything specific?”

I sat up all the way still holding the sheets to my chest with my other hand. My movements made Lio’s arm slide off of me. I heard him mumble something but I had no clue what he’d said.

“Not really, I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.” She said.

“It’s fine. Thanks Celeste, I’ll call them right now.”

I tilted my head to the side, wondering what they could have wanted so urgently in the morning that they would call Celeste.

“Any time, you know you’re like a sister to me. Talk to you soon okay?” She said.

“Yeah, talk to you soon…”

I pressed the ‘end’ button on the screen and then looked up at Baltasar.

“Do you mind if I call my parents?”

Baltasar shook his head before sitting down on the foot of the bed. I dialed my parent’s home number and then held the phone up to my left ear again. My father picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?” He sounded suspicious as he answered. That tone you use when an unknown number shows up.

“Daddy, it's Astraia. I got Celeste’s message. What’s going on? It’s not like you two to be so secretive.” I asked a little concerned.

“We have someone very important you need to meet, someone you should have been introduced to years ago.” He said starting to sound a little melancholy.

I found myself trying to figure out why my father sounded so defeated. This wasn’t like him at all.

“Who is this someone? Why do you sound so sad?”

I felt Lio turning onto his side facing me; his arm found my hip again.

“I would tell you, but your mother insisted that we wait until you got here. How soon do you think you could get here?” He asked utterly serious.

This sense of urgency and demand made me worry all the more. If he wanted me to drive out of town today something big was going on.

“Um…Give me a couple of hours dad. I just woke up so…”

“Sure honey, of course. I’ll let your mother know.” He said.

“See you in a few hours.” I said before ending the call.

I tossed Baltasar’s phone to him and he picked it up from the foot of the bed.

“Thanks Ba’al.” He simply nodded.

Lio’s hand started tracing small circles on my lower back. I looked down at him and his eyes were half open, he still managed to smile.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No worries. It sounded like your parents needed you ASAP, what’s wrong?” He asked.

“I wish I knew. They wouldn’t tell me anything more than, ‘there’s someone important we want you to meet’.”

Lio frowned, puzzled I think.

“That sounds really suspicious, and out of the blue like this? Who could be this important person I wonder.”

I shrugged my shoulders and sighed.

“I have no idea. I guess I’ll find out when I get there.”

Lio raised himself up on one elbow.

“I’m going with you; I don’t like all of this secrecy.” He said.

Lio sat up and kissed me on the forehead before getting out of bed. Baltasar didn’t bat an eye. They were all like this. Nudity didn’t faze them be it a man or a woman. I don’t know how they do it.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m getting dressed so we can go. You want to be there as soon as possible right?”

He didn’t give me time to respond as he went into the bathroom.

“I’ll leave you two alone now. Oh by the way, congratulations on the engagement. Nice ring…”

I looked down at my hand; I’d almost forgotten we’d gotten engaged last night thanks to the odd phone call with my parents.

I looked back up to Baltasar.

“Oh, thank you. Could you maybe keep this to yourself for now? We’ll tell everyone later of course.”

He gave me a nod with a slight bow.

“Of course.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What was that for?” I asked curiously.

“You’re getting closer to becoming our queen; I respect you as highly as I respect my king.”

He said before going back upstairs.

I blinked a couple of times as I reflected on his words. This was going to be an interesting day.

I looked over towards the bathroom to see Lio rubbing his face with a damp towel.

“Lio you don’t have to rush, we just woke up.” I said.

“I know but, what if this is something serious? What if they’re in some kind of trouble?”

I nodded.

“You’re right, we should get going.” I said. I got out of the bed and joined him in the bathroom to brush my teeth.