Chapter 128: 128. Blood in their hands
Days went by speedily and soon it was almost time for the ceremony to be conducted. It was night and only left a few hours before sunrise. The cold wind blew with dew descending and dropping on the leaves of the trees and petals of the flowers, the sound of the chirping and croaking insects could be heard. and under cold stood a couple.
Darren and Kora stood in the gardens basking under the moonlight that shone brightly in the sky. He hugged her from behind placing his chin on her head. Kora had her hands on those of Darren’s that were around her waist and leaned into him relishing the sparks created by their skin-to-skin contact.
"I am sorry," Darren mumbled close to her ear. He nuzzled her neck breathing in her sweet and intoxicating scent. The scent that he always craved, the scent that always let him know she was near and with him.
"Sorry for what?" Kora asked, still leaning on him. Though there were things that they hadn’t had the time or prepared themselves to talk about, she didn’t see the reason for him apologizing all of a sudden.
"I was afraid, Kora, and for that reason, I didn’t come completely clean with you." He said and his hold around only got tighter as if he was afraid she would disappear af hearing what he was going to say.
Kora frowned still lost as to what he was talking about. She reached out her hand to his face but was only able to touch his hair as his face was buried on her shoulder. She caressed it gently and asked, "What are you talking about, Darren?"
"You once asked why I left the pack when I was young." He reminded and she hummed in response. "I have not given a suiting answer to you for that question.
"I know already," Kora said turning her body around to face him. He raised his head to look at her in the eyes. "I saw it when I visited the pack house the other day."
"Why didn’t you say anything?" He asked and Kora’s eyes flickered. He started into the red and green of Gaia and started into onyx ones.
"We wanted you to tell us about it. We didn’t want you to feel forced to tell us something about yourself." She replied and caressed his cheek affectionately. "We know it wasn’t your fault, mate."
Darren stared at her and relief washed over him. His hand around her waist pulled her closer to him and he sealed her lips in an emotional kiss. Letting all of his insecurities and fears in that one kiss and she received it all affectionately.
Darren’s eyes also flickered and turned crimson. "Thank you," He said staring into her eyes once more before engulfing her in a warm hug. "Thank you for not judging me," Darren said still hugging her tight. "Thank you for not being afraid of me and leaving me."
Kora wrapped her hands around his broad back and stayed in his embrace because she knew he needed it at the moment more than ever. What she saw was not a pleasant thing to see and she could tell Darren found it difficult to tell her about it because he didn’t want to remember it but was forced to do so when she asked him. She didn’t blame him. He was only a child who sought love and affection from his family, and his parents but never got it and was pushed to the brink that he lost control over his first shift and ended up hurting the people he didn’t intend to. "I am not in the position to judge you, and it was not your fault that it happened."
"I am sorry for not telling you sooner." He said and felt Kora pat his back. Putting some distance between their bodies, he cupped her face and kissed her one more time." I love you," He whispered on her lips.
******
The sun was quick to rise as it peeked through the curtains that covered the windows to the room where Kora lay, crawling its way to her face. Kora squirmed awake and rubbed the sleepiness off her eyes as she felt the warm rays of the sun. The space beside her was empty and cold.
Her eyes fluttered open when she heard the sounds of a door opening and closing afterward. She saw Darren walking out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. His dark hair was damp and looked even darker when wet. "Good morning." He said seeing her awake and staring at him. He walked over to her and leaned forward for a kiss.
"Good morning," Kora replied after the brief kiss. "Why didn’t you wake me?" From the look of it, he woke up a long time ago which made her wonder if he had even gotten a wink of sleep at all. The sun shone brightly in the sky letting her know that it has been long since it appeared.
"You were sleeping so soundly, I wouldn’t bring myself to wake you." He said looking at her affectionately. A soft smile could be seen as he looked at her face which still had a hunt sleepiness on it.
Kora pursed her lips and turned to look at the time on her phone." Emily and Lucinda would be here soon if I am wrong." She said made her way from the bed.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked her. He stared deeply at her back that was facing him. Walking over he made her turn to face him.
"I am," Kora said meeting his gaze, he saw something flicker in her eyes that he could not entirely figure out what it was. Was it worry? He wondered.
"My love," He called her. "What is it?" He could not let it be knowing how important today was for the both of them. If she was not ready or prepared enough for it, then they could shift the date a bit further until she was sure she was ready and prepared for what we to come.
"I just have a bad feeling about something." She said and a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes appeared on her lips and disappeared very quickly.
Darren knows for a fact that the day would not go smoothly knowing how many people didn’t wish for his happiness there was also the vampire who only know how to crash important events like this, and there were the humans who seem to have taken a special interest in them now. "Did you see anything?"
"It’s not clear what I am seeing and it is strange because this has never happened before," Kora explained. She tried even harder to see clearly what she had seen the moment her feet made contact with the ground but she could not. Everything was still the same the image just appearing in front of her.
"What did you see?" Darren asked trying to make sense of the things that she had said.
"Mateo and Ezra," She began to pause upon seeing the frown that had appeared on her face of Darren at the mention of his beta. She continued when she saw him still looking at her and waiting for more. "They were both standing and staring at two dead she-wolves with blood in their hands."
Darren didn’t understand what it could mean besides the obvious thought of them killing two she-wolves but he knew that for her to see that, there must be a deeper meaning to it. "Let’s worry about that later, why don’t you get ready, they’ll pick you up soon." He said and she nods before walking to the bathroom for a bath.
******
Moments later, Emuky and Lucindacame into view ready to take Kora to the salon to get her ready for her big day. Leaving behind the mansion that was now getting used to and Darren who was busy making calls and giving orders to different people making sure that everything went smoothly and accordingly.
Darren wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for his mate even if all that they needed to do and the most important thing was mark each other and have proclaimed as the Luna supreme, he wanted to make the most out of it. Spend as itch money on her day as possible because there was no one else on whom he would be willing to squander his money.
The girls left the mansion and drove for quite a distance with another car tailing behind them where the guards were. The place was a bit far as it was in a human town away from the pack. They wanted to do something new and taking her to a salon or spa run by a shifter wouldn’t do.
They came to a stop in front of a popular salon and stepped down from the cars accompanied by the guards. When the spar attendant saw them approaching with the guards tailing behind them, they knew that they must be related to some important figure in the country. The manager came to receive them and realized that they had booked the whole salon for half of the day.
The salon had just opened for business a few minutes ago with some last-minute cleaning being done for the place while they waited for their first customers to arrive forgetting that they were to select only one customer during the morning hours until noon.
Quickly apologizing for their mistake, which no one was listening to, she led them inside. Korawalked to a seat and sat down quietly and pulled out her phone and statue playing with it while Emily and Lucinda handled the things with the salon attendants.
"What would like to do today?" Tue manager asked Lucinda who was the oldest among the three women. Her gaze shifted to Emily and she offered her a polite smile. Emily returned the smile and turned to look in the direction of Kora.
"She is your main customer for today," Emily informed them with her finger pointed at Kora and the look of surprise on their faces could be been clearly. Kora gave a lazy and bored glance at them before at her phone again. Emily smiled and looked at the manager and her employees with an understanding smile.
They had just mistaken their customer and focused on the two active individuals forgetting about the third member of their group who turned out to be the more important one among them. Now looking back at it, two bodyguards could be seen standing to begin where she sat while the other two stood outside guarding the door.
"You should worry more about getting her fixed than us." Emily’s voice made then to look at her again and she still maintained her smile.
"You will understand soon why the salon had to be booked for so long." Lucinda chimed in.
Not knowing how to respond to that the manager nodded and walked over to where Kora sat. Kora only lifted her head to look at the woman so it wouldn’t look too rude of her to ignore the middle ages human.
"Sorry for negligence, Miss...." She left it unfinished hoppling that the girl in front of her would complete it but it did not happen instead it was Emily who filled the gap.
"Kora," Emily said standing beside her. They started to wonder if she was more or something because she had not spoken since they entered the salon.
"Miss Kora," She said and gave a grateful smile to Emily." What would you like us to do for you? "
"How about this?" Lucinda came over with a magazine in her hands and showed ut the manager. "This hair would look good on her," Flipping to another page, she showed another photo to the woman, "Thid makeup would be great on her too. Can you do that?"
The manager was now sure that the girl could not talk if she could but even tell them about what she wanted and had to be picked by others. "Of course, we can do that." She replied taking the magazine from Lucinda and giving it to an attendant to take a closer look at it.
Kora glared at Emily and Lucinda who smiled sweetly at her. "You have to bear with it if you want to leave this place, Kora, we all know how much you hate places like this," Emily said and plopped down near her.
********
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NATASHA’S REVENGE
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