The Mark of Betrayal (by Cooper) novel Chapter 33

Roman

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to pry my mother’s arms away from Samara. As soon as we walk into my office, she pulls my mate onto a couch beside her, hugging her tightly again. My father stares at them then turns to me with a look that is equal parts relief and grief.

“Have a seat, Dad. This story isn’t a good one.”

My father and I pull up chairs, creating a small circle. I know the story is hard for Samara, so before I ask her to start, I tell my mom she has to let her go and I pull her into my lap.

“Start where you started with me,” I tell her, wrapping my arms around her as she leans against me. I connect to her mind, watching it replay again as she tells the story. I feel her fingers intertwine with mine as the emotions of her memory resurface, her hands clenching tighter as she gets closer to the point where Sawyer killed Theo.

I was so focused on Samara, wanting her to know that she’s not alone, that it wasn't until she finished that I realized my mother was crying and my father’s fists and teeth are clenched so tightly that I can hear his teeth grinding and see the whites of his knuckles.

“Alpha Daniel’s boy did this?” he snarls standing up and beginning to pace. I watch my father, while I continue to hold my mate. “I was never as close to him as I was to Royal. Royal and I were ...” His voice cuts off as it starts to break.

“You were like brothers, like Theo and I were,” I say, nuzzling my mate whose own grief is still on the surface of her emotions.

“Sweetheart, where did you end up?” my mother asks Samara, reaching for a tissue to wipe her eyes.

“Alpha William’s pack,” she says and my father spins around.

“You went that far south?” he asks, as amazed as I was when I realized how far she had traveled.

“Was he good to you, Samara?” my mother asks.

“He was. I didn’t realize that he knew who I was almost from the beginning. He adopted me and gave me his last name. I did what Teddy told me to do and changed my name to Samantha and never let anyone see Ayla, my wolf.”

“A white wolf?” my father asks proudly.

“Yes,” she says and my father turns that proud gaze to me, nodding at the confirmation that his son is truly worthy of such a gift.

“Goddess, you look like your mother did at your age. There’s a bit of your father in you, but you look just like your mother.” My mother’s voice wavers and her eyes fill with tears again. “I miss her so much. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss her,” she says.

“Me too,” Samara says. I kiss the side of her head as my father sits beside my mother, wrapping his arm around her.

“What is your plan, son. You called me here because you’re going to war, but what is your plan?”

“First, Samara needs to train,” I say smiling and kissing her head again. “She’s as intelligent and strong as you would expect a white wolf to be, but she’s untrained and Ayla has never trained. I’d like you to help train her while I spar with her. I want to make sure she can hold her own before I let anyone else train with her. While we do that, we need to develop a plan to not only take out Sawyer, but also Dylan.”

“You think he was in on it, too?” my mother asks.

“I don’t see how he couldn’t have been. Sawyer was leading his warriors that night,” I say.

“You were leading ours,” he says.

“Yes, but I wasn’t there to kill Theo and his family, Sawyer was. Someone killed Luna Jessica and was trying to kill Samara. Someone killed Alpha Royal. We had three packs there fighting against one. There’s no way it was only Sawyer involved in this betrayal,” I say.

My father thinks about it for a moment, then nods in agreement. “You’re right. He had to know.”

“Althea!” my mom says, looking between us.

“That’s the other part of what we need to take into consideration and why I need Samara strong. She wants to be a part of this attack, and I won’t keep her from going. I know it’s as important to her as it is to me, but I need her strong enough first. Then, we’ll have to tell Althea and make sure she and her pups are safe, especially after we kill Sawyer. It will weaken her and she just had their third pup.”

‘Agreed. Let’s give it a couple of days, see how her training goes, especially Ayla’s training. If they have energy at the end of the day after training twice a day and Ayla takes to fighting like I think she will, we’ll mark her. Agreed?’

He sighs, not any happier with waiting than I am. ‘Agreed.’

“Besides wanting to see your wolf and to meet Ayla, when do you want to start her training?” my father asks.

“Today. Samara needs to eat, and the two of you need to get settled, but after that, I’d like to start her training and see how instinctual Ayla’s fighting skills are,” I say.

“I’m excited to learn how to fight finally,” Ayla says happily.

“I’m excited to see how strong my mate is,” Pierce says, pushing forward.

They begin purring at each other and my mother begins to chuckle. Both of us turn to look at her as she dabs her eyes.

“Your parents wolves used to do that all the time. They were so in love that they would just start purring at each other. It didn’t matter where they were, dinner, the sparring field, you’d just suddenly hear them start purring at each other. Do you remember, Sterling?” she asks.

“I do. I used to tease Brogan that he must not love Cora enough, since he never purred at her like that,” my father says.

I watch as my father’s wolf pushes forward. “I love my mate with everything in me. I always have. But the power of the white wolf, the love that they draw from everyone around them, including their mates, should never be underestimated.”

I look at my mate and I know that Brogan is right. It isn’t just my pack that loves Samara and Ayla with everything in them. I know that if anything ever happened to my mate, I could never love another woman again. Ever. I wouldn’t want to live another day without her because without her, my life would be empty, bereft of anything that could make me happy.

‘And we haven’t even marked her yet,’ Pierce says.

I can’t imagine that I could love her more than I do now. But I know that somehow, once we’ve marked each other, I will. This love that I feel for her will encompass every part of my life and I can't wait.