The Lunar Destiny Series

Chapter 32

It had been at least two weeks since I’d been to Lio’s house or even called him. My house stayed peaceful without any supernatural shenanigans to speak of. Lio and I hadn’t spoken at all since our dispute. He left voicemails, I listened to them but I didn’t return his calls. When I didn’t call back I would get a call from Ba’al or Naremi either scolding me or asking if I was alright. I’d gone to work as usual and hung out with Celeste when I could.

She constantly asked, ‘What’s up with you and Lio?’ but I evaded the question in every way possible. The plan was to give myself some space from the ‘issue’, but I could only run away for so long. I was running away from my problems and I didn’t care. That was before Lio popped up over my house in the middle of the night.

I woke up out of my sleep, stirred by the sounds of a car in front of the house. I got out of bed and went to peek out of the blinds. I looked up at the night sky and the moon was full, bright, and beautiful. I stepped back from the window and heard knocking at the door. I went into the foyer and opened the door. Lio stood on the porch wearing a navy blue sleeveless shirt and faded blue Levis with white Nikes. His face held relief, but there was still a hint of sadness on his face.

“May I come in?” He asked.

His silver eyes glowed as they stared into my gray ones. They did that on the full moon nights.

“Um sure, please come in.” I said stepping aside. He walked inside and I locked the door.

Lio had made his way towards my room and I knew he wanted to talk about what happened.

He didn’t always stop by on the full moon, but I assumed that the reason he did now was because he wanted to reconcile with me before another day went by.

I went back to my room and saw that he’d sat on the foot of the bed. I put a brave face on and sat next to him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn his head to look at me so I met his eyes. They were so much brighter during the full moon it was almost scary.

“Are you going to run away every time we have a problem?” He asked. He was being very direct and I wasn’t going to beat-around-the-bush either.

“No, I’m not. This isn’t some typical relationship problem Lio. Lisette is pregnant with your kid. Even worse, everyone knew and no one came to me and told me.”

Lio nodded.

“I handled the situation badly, I know. I never meant to hurt you Astraia. I don’t know what I can do to remedy the situation but I can’t go on the way we are either.” He said, reaching over to touch me. I got up from the bed before he could.

I turned around to face him and he was standing less than an inch away from me, staring down at me with a frustrated expression.

“Do NOT refuse me, Astraia. That would be unwise tonight.”

He said as he started backing me up. When my butt pressed up against the dresser, he slammed his hands down on the top of the dresser so that his hands were on either side of me. I flinched but he didn’t move.

“Control yourself, Lio.” I said with a very shaky voice. It was like he was a different person, so aggressive. He smirked then.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I never would. But you aren’t making things easy for me being scared like this…”

He whispered as he leaned forward towards my neck.

Lio abruptly stopped his aggressive display and looked at my doorway. I looked at him confused.

“What?” I asked.

“There’s someone at your door, two werebears.” He looked back at me and he looked agitated.

Lio backed off and I went to answer the door. Surprise, surprise it was my brother Iericho and Petros. I started to feel queasy seeing Petros again. Lio came up behind me and pulled me back from the doorway.

“Having a fight already eh? Off to a rocky start then.” Petros said with a grin.

“Hello again, Astraia.” My brother said before looking over at Petros coldly.

“Keep your mouth shut Petros; don’t forget what I told you.” He warned him Petros said nothing more.

“Why are you two here?” Lio asked none too kindly.

“I had some information for you, and a request.” Iericho said. Lio raised an eyebrow at him.

“You have my attention, proceed.” Lio said.

“The wereleopard that broke into my little sister’s house is still locked up. He’ll shift tonight and expose us all if something isn’t done. You know on the full moon we can’t hold back the change for long.”

“How did you know about that?” Lio asked, sounding highly suspicious of him.

“Word gets around fast in the shifter community, Lio. You also could have told me yourself how the two of you actually met, but we can discuss that another time. I want to get him out before he shifts.”

“You know we’ll be taking the biggest risk attempting this right? If we shift while we’re at the jail, it’s all over.” Lio said.

“I know, but we have to try. Call your lawyer first to see if there’s anything we can do legally, pay his bond or something.”

“If not?” I asked.

“We bust him out.” Iericho said without hesitation.

I looked up at Lio worried. It was an insane idea no matter what would happen with the wereleopard. At least if they didn’t storm the place the only ones exposed would be the wereleopards for the moment. Lio looked down at me and sighed.

“I know, Astraia. But we don’t have too many options. I’d rather have the police harass me long term than put our entire species in danger. The authorities wouldn’t hesitate to kill us if they knew what we were. It’s human nature to kill what we fear or don’t understand.” Lio said.

He was right, history shows that. I still had a very bad feeling about this. Something just wasn’t right. I looked back at my brother.

“Hold on, before anyone does anything, I want to know exactly how you knew that the wereleopard was still in jail.”

Iericho looked at me surprised; maybe he didn’t expect me to question his plan or him directly.

“My first in command was contacted by one of my informants who has personal ties to the wereleopards. He gave us the information.” He said.

“He has personal ties to the wereleopards? Just who is this informant?” I asked with a suspicious stare.

“A trusted, reliable source. This person has proven themselves many times. Is that what’s bothering you?” He asked.

“Yes. That and I think you and Lio might start fighting and blow it.” I said crossing my arms under my breasts. Iericho frowned and sighed.

“I’m willing to put our differences aside for this. The protection of our kind is more important than personal quarrels.” He said.

“I agree. I’ll help you.” Lio said.

“Lio you can’t be serious! This doesn’t sound the least bit odd to you? He came to YOU, his enemy of all people. He could have just taken a few of his people and went on his own, why involve you?”

I still wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea. Lio turned to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“You may not understand now, but you will later. I need to do this Astraia. I have my own reasons.” He said.

I looked up at him feeling defeated. No matter what I said I couldn’t persuade him to stay out of this.

“Lio please, be careful.” I said.

“Always.” He said before kissing my forehead.

Lio let go of me and turned back towards Iericho and Petros.

“The change is coming, you and I can control our change a lot longer because we’re pack leaders. I’m concerned about Petros here.” Lio said to Iericho.

Petros glared at Lio.

“Don’t speak of me as if I’m not standing here, Wolf King.”

Lio, I kid you not, growled at him angrily. Petros didn’t flinch but I did. Lio looked at my brother.

“This one is highly dominant. You had better watch your back.” He warned Iericho.

Petros scowled at Lio before he turned around and walked down the steps to the sidewalk.

“Should we walk just in case things get crazy?” Iericho asked.

“Yeah we should probably walk. I’ll call my lawyer on our way there. We can act based on what he says our options are.” Lio said.

“I can drive my car and meet you guys as a precaution.” I said.

“No!”

“No!”

Both of them said in unison.

“What if you need to leave in a hurry without shifting? Or if one of you gets hurt? I want to help if I can…” I pleaded.

“No Astraia, I’m sorry but this could be dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt by accident.” Said my brother.

Lio stepped out on the porch with Iericho.

“I’ll be along, give us a moment.” Lio said to Iericho. My brother nodded and left us alone.

Lio looked down at me.

“I apologize for earlier; I’m just feeling all of the stress from everything going on. On top of which it’s the full moon.” He said.

“Don’t worry about it.” I said with a shrug.

Lio gave me a real smile then, his genuine flash of pearly white teeth.

“I’ll call you after this is over. Get some sleep until then.” He said before he kissed me with the softest brush of his lips against mine.

“As if I can sleep worrying about you.”

Lio did one of those deep, masculine laughs before he left to catch up with my brother and Petros. I saw him taking out his cell phone and I assumed he was about to call his lawyer. I closed and locked the door before going back to my room. I laid down on my side and started to watch T.V.