Blood Moon Mate

Chapter 8

(Unedited, 1st draft)

Chapter 8

Walking to my small shack I saw my father and mother sitting around the table looking down at it. With the fire blazing around them, I could sense something was wrong since it was still dark out knowing they should still be asleep.

My father was the first to look up at me with the flash of weariness dancing through his eyes "Laiya, where have you been?" He asked, pushing his chair back to stand up to walk over to me.

"Why does it matter where I've been?" I question. With the information, I had learned at the pond earlier with Victor I finally understood my family's deep dark secret. I was to become the Beast' mate if I like it or not. It was going to come for me tomorrow night and there is nothing I could do to stop it. Victor had been right, I was the key to undoing the curse, but I was unsure if I could accept such a monster as a mate. All I cared about the moment was finding Penelope and bringing her home, even if that meant being captured by the beast.

"Laiya please we've been worried that you had run off before the Blood Moon. There's no telling what the beast would do if it found out most likely cause more trouble for a village." my mother sobbed.

"If you must know I was out looking for answers about Blood Moon. The answers I found to have left me with more questions about who I really am and what it is the family has been keeping from me." I explained to her not liking to see my mother and such a sorrowful mood. "Why must I wait until grandma tells me tonight about the Blood Moon and how it is our family is tied to the beast?"

"Because Laiya, that is how things were told in the prophecy." Pa insert hanging his head. "There used to be a book revealing the beast and it's tied to the moon, but the book was lost during the last Blood Moon." As he spoke about the book my heart pounding think back over what I had read earlier at the pond with Victor.

"Pa, what is the prophecy say?" I probe, hoping he was finally opening up to me.

"Laiya I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to tell you. We all promised Penelope before she disappeared, we wait until the eve of your birthday and have your grandmother tell you everything." He answered, taking a step towards me as I took one back feeling betrayed by him once again. Only thing was he did not know that I knew the answers to my questions now. My destiny sealed and there's nothing anyone could do to stop it not even myself.

There was just one person that I wanted to talk to about this to see if there was a way out of it. "Well, it's the eve before my birthday when do I get to go to grandmother's house?" I demanded, wanting to be able to figure out a plan as soon as possible.

"When the sun goes down you'll walk along trail and not wonder off. It's the first night of the full moon and there a chance the Beast will be hunting in the woods and there's no telling what it would do if it found you the night before the blood moon." My father worried before turning his back to me and walk over to a wooden chest next to our fireplace while pulling out a key from his pocket. Has he unlocked it and threw it open my heart dropped from my chest. "Penelope would want you to have this. She knew how much you adored it when she got it for her eighteenth birthday."

When he turns back to me with the red cape across both arms, walking over to me. I slowly raised out with a shaking hand to glaze my fingers across the red stain has the memories of Penelope sitting under the tree on my fifth birthday when she gave me the red ring that blended into the red cape. "I thought the Beast tore it up?"

"No, one of the hunter the next morning found it in perfect condition hanging on the tree limb blowing the wind." Pa explain, lifting it out now for me to slip into. "I know she would want you to have it for your birthday. You have grown up into such a strong woman. I know the Moon Goddess has a great plan for you to come in the upcoming years."