Luciano's POV"The troops are ready and recruitment has been promising." Cross said."Keep those numbers up. I'll stop by later to examine their skills myself.""Of course, Alpha.""You may leave." Cross bowed out and I faced the two most important people in my business and pack. Natasha and Mikah."Natasha, what do you have for me?""There's word on the streets that there is a new drug out. Distributors are laying low and you can't get a hit unless you know them."I grunted. "Is the drug any good?""Days after the release, the FDA listed it.""Sounds good to me." I smiled. "Put feelers out on the street. Get those who are deep in drug debts to acquire this drug for us. Promise them drugs, money. I want that drug here by tomorrow morning.""Yes, Alpha." Natasha bowed and walked out of the room her dark ponytail and hips swaying with her movement, one of my most ruthless drug lords.I turned to Mikah. "Talk to me.""The Alphas are restive. The Cavanos are working in with Vitalio Bianch
Arabella's POVThis time I wore nothing underneath the red robe. I walked all the way from the women's harem to Alpha Luciano's room wearing only that damned red robe. I could not maintain eye contact with anyone. For some reason it felt like a lot of pack members were out that evening and I felt like everyone already knew what Alpha Luciano was doing to me. That had to be the reason they were giving me the side eye and some laughed when I passed. It felt like I was doing the walk of shame. No, Arabella. It's not your fault the moon goddess gave you a sadistic mate. I squared my shoulders and increased my pace. The faster I got to the room, the less time the pack members had to see me and make deductions.I felt such an immense amount of relief when I finally got into Alpha Luciano's room that it was only after I closed the door behind me that I remembered what I would have to do there."Missed me?" Alpha Luciano smirked. "But then again the Bianchis are known for saying one thing
Arabella's POVSomething strange was going on. Apart from the fact that once more Alpha Luciano had summoned me much to the annoyance of the other women in his harem- Emery had calmly walked out of the room when it was announced only for me to hear the sound of vases shattering following her wake.So no. The strangeness wasn't because of that. Nor was it because of the whip that Alpha Luciano had used to whip me before fucking me missionary style so that I laid with my injured back on the bed taking him. I had werewolf super healing so it wasn't a big issue.The strange thing was after the sex, Alpha Luciano held me. I faced him on the bed, his fingers threading through my hair. His clear blue eyes regarded me and his body felt undeniably warm next to me. I could almost imagine how differently things could have been if my father hadn't been my father.Almost.I didn't try to question him or react like I was surprised, I just looked away to the side while he touched me tenderly."Arabe
Arabella's POVI had to get out of here. I had to escape at all costs. I thought about what Alpha Luciano did to me yesterday and I squeezed my eyes shut in mortification, shame, and disgust. Weeks ago I was a virgin, respected. I had a future to look forward to. But now, it felt like my life had come to a standstill. A pause. A full stop. Like I was living in a hellscape where I was running around in circles like a headless chicken. I had to leave this place or die trying rather than stay here and die a little more every day losing sight of who I was."Are you good?' I turned in my bed at the sound of Margaret's voice. "You knew." She avoided my gaze and put her hand on my forehead to check my temperature.I slapped her hand away. "You could have warned me. You are a woman yourself. How can you do that to another woman?"Tears fell down my cheeks. "Arabella–""Leave me. Now. I would like to be alone."I turned my back on her to face the other side of the bed. After a few second
Arabella's POVThe sound of the gunshot reverberated in the air. I fell to my knees, Alpha Luciano following me, his hands intertwined with mine. The gun fell out of my grasp.The moment I had taken the shot, I'd known he would take the gun from my hands in seconds so I pulled the trigger. Blood coated my hands and I strangely wanted to laugh. Alpha Luciano looked at me like I'd lost my marbles. I guess I had laughed out loud. Finally, it would all end.My vision swam and my body slumped almost hitting the ground but Alpha Luciano caught me, his hands were gentle or maybe the blood loss from a bullet in my thigh was already getting to me. It was a silver bullet after all. I wanted to take the gun and finish the job but my hands shook and my limbs felt like wet noodles. If I could not kill him, I would rather die than follow him back. "Crazy girl. I won't let you die so easily." His hand went to my wound and I thought he wanted to put pressure on it to reduce the bleeding. Only, h
Alpha Luciano's POV"No." I didn't have to think twice about it. The nerves on this girl. How dare she think to make demands of me? Me! She was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Arabella Bianchi was fearless now that she'd discovered she had nothing left to lose since she no longer cared if she lived or died. I would change that. The problem was that I had never expected Arabella would be hiding claws beneath that subservient exterior so I was ill-equipped to handle this situation. A gross oversight on my side that I would soon correct. "That will never happen." I repeated making sure she got the point. Give her the right to pick the times we would have sex? Yeah, that was never happening. Did she think we were courting or something? This was not a fucking democracy, it was a dictatorship. I gave the orders, she took them. That was all it could ever be. That was all I would allow. She rolled her eyes. Fucking rolled her eyes. I was going to kill Arabella Bianchi and damn the consequenc
Alpha Luciano's POVI stood up from my chair so suddenly it fell to the ground. "Vitalio is here?""Not here exactly, Alpha. He is at the meeting house. He is demanding to see his daughter, Arabella.""You may leave Mikah. I will see to him.""Yes, Alpha." Milah bowed and left hurriedly.After he left, I smiled viciously. Finally, I had Vitalio exactly where I wanted him."You look satisfied. Was this the plan all along?" Uncle Tommaso asked warily."Of course it was. I will have Vitalio grovel for his daughter but he won't still get her back. I want revenge, Uncle Tommaso. It would be so easy to kill Vitalio but I need to see him degraded, insulted and brought down. I want him to die in instalments not at once. Before doubting my commitment to this cause, Uncle, maybe have a little faith in me."I straightened the cuffs of my shirt eagerly. "Now if you would excuse me, I have a date with Vitalio I cannot be late for."*******I kept him waiting for an hour while Emery gave me the mos
Arabella's POVMy eyes widened in shock and I squeaked in fear as I saw Alpha Luciano at the door. I stumbled back in an effort to get away from him and my legs gave out beneath me. As I fell, he caught me. My hands went to his shoulders automatically as he gripped my waist. We stared at each other for a second. Me in a loose hospital gown, my leg bandaged. Him in an extremely form-fitting suit that seemed solely cut and designed to show off the superiority of the wearer with Margaret passed out on the floor behind us, her blood staining the tile.A nurse walked in with a notepad and saw Margaret. She shouted raising an alarm and the moment was gone. Alpha Luciano let go of my waist and I removed my hands from his shoulders balancing on my good leg. He looked at Margaret and whistled."You made quite a mess here, Arabella. Here I was thinking she was your friend but I guess one never knows for sure with you Bianchis." He regarded me with clear blue eyes filled with malice and dark a
Alpha Luciano's POVI sat outside the surgical ward as they took the bullet out of Arabella.Uncle Tommaso sat next to me and we were silent for a time."I'm sorry." He began."Me too."I was sorry about a lot of things. I was sorry for the way I had treated him, he was my uncle. The man who had raised me. He deserved better.I was sorry about the way I had treated Arabella in the beginning when she had been as much of a victim as I was. Vitalio Bianchi, may his soul rest in peace had never betrayed my family. Instead, he had been betrayed by his own family."I shouldn't have kidnapped her… you were right. Vengeance is a blade that cuts both the wielder and the person who is cut."I was silent. In my head, I was replaying the scene from earlier on. Seeing Arabella shoot down the man who she had thought to be her father until just seconds ago. I should have felt cheated out of my revenge but I couldn't help but feel like she was the one with a larger claim to it. I wondered what it w
Arabella's POVI was shocked. My father was using me as a human shield? Surely there was a mistake. A misunderstanding because what parent would use their child as a shield?Luciano paused in his tracks but his uncle looked like he could have cared less. As long as he was able to kill my father, he didn't care who else had to lose their life in the process. Luciano raised his hand to stop his uncle, his jaw was clenched and his blue eyes burned an unholy silver."Vitalio, would you really threaten your daughter's life just to ensure your own escape?"My father laughed, his chest vibrating behind me and a chill swept through my veins. "Father?" There was a mistake. There had to be. Maybe he just wanted to use me to escape. He would apologise any minute now and tell me that this was the only way for him to escape with his life. He would tell me–"Shut up you dumb slut." He said his gun digging into the back of my skull. I froze in that moment realizing that I might not know my father
Alpha Luciano's POVThe first thing I did after seeing the warehouse was to mind-link my men. It was on the outskirts of the city. By the time they got here, the fight would be almost over but I wanted them here anyway in case Uncle Tommaso decided to play a fast one on me. That way Arabella would be safe. The limo zoomed off behind us and we entered the building. The moment we entered, gunshots went off. I dropped to the ground and rolled. Before they could begin shooting on the ground, I was already hiding behind some boxes. I pulled out my gun. Vitalio Bianchi did not follow the unspoken terms for the meeting. He had brought in his men. It wasn't like I hadn't expected it. It was Vitalio after all. It was just that I was having a problem connecting someone who was as despicable as him to someone like Arabella.The shots continued to go off but I didn't scent Uncle Tommaso's blood so I knew he was alright.I followed the trajectory of where the gunshots were coming from. One, two,
Elder Tommaso's POVI watched the realization dawn on his face that he couldn't do anything, that he was powerless in this situation. Luciano's face twisted with anger and violence as his grip on me tightened to the extent that my vision blurred. Good. This was the fighter I had raised. I suddenly felt a pang of hope. She hadn't completely killed off the Luciano I knew."If you do not tell me where she is, you will not cross the threshold to this office alive. I will dice you up bit by bit until there is nothing left of you.""If you kill me, Arabella also dies." I pried his now loose fingers from my neck. It was pathetic how easily he had given in once he heard her name. "She is in a very volatile location. If you care for your mate even a little bit, you will have to do exactly what I say to get her back."I saw the unchecked fury and disbelief in his eyes and the way his hands clenched into fists. He obviously wanted to pummel me in but because of his mate, he had restrained hi
Arabella's POVWhen I woke up, I was tied to a chair. The last moments of the fight came to me. How I had fought to the butter end. How someone had jabbed me with a needle. And how it had all gotten dark. Yes, I could remember now. What I couldn't do for the life of me was tell you where exactly I was. I looked around. I was in a basement. It smelt familiar and come to think of it, the painting of the room looked familiar.Someone entered the room. It was Luciano's uncle. I couldn't believe it. I thought he was sick so what had happened? After Luciano had told him about us, had this been his reaction? I thought about the timeline. It hadn't been an hour after Luciano left when those men came. There was only one explanation. He had planned it all. Removed Luciano from the equation so that I would be defenceless.Goddess, I didn't know for sure what was going on but I intended to find out. "Arabella Bianchi." He spat my name out like it was a curse. Maybe it was for him. "You kidn
Arabella's POV"Emery!" She shouldn't have been here. She should have been far far away. I shook her awake but she remained passed out on the ground. I needed to take her in and call Luciano. Then– I smelt wolves approaching. I could smell three of them. They could have been the perimeter guards that Luciano had told me about. But looking at Emery's prone body in front of me, I had my doubts. I pulled Emery into the house and locked the door. I backed away and picked up my phone. I had to inform Luciano. I called him. It rang but he didn't pick up the call. I tried it again with the same result. Someone pounded on the door and I jumped.The door would hold. It would– I saw an indent of a fist in the iron. I took my phone and ran for the side exit in the kitchen. There were only three. I could leave out back before they rounded up to the sides. It was possible they didn't know about that exit. I needed to leave now. I ran to the dining area and the kitchen. I pushed open the doo
Arabella's POVAt this rate, he was going to be late to work. Again. I really had to stop trying to assist him with getting ready for work. It wasn't helping either of us.Luciano pushed me against the wall as our tongues duelled for dominance. I wanted him so fiercely as though an hour ago, we hadn't been at it.His hand moved between my thighs expertly fingering me, I gasped into his kiss riding his fingers as I tightened my grip around his shoulders. His phone rang. We ignored it. I was almost there, my orgasm a few heartbeats away. I grabbed at the zipper of his office pants. I needed him inside me now. The clasp gave way under my ministrations. As I slid my hand down the zipper and Luciano buried his fingers so deep inside me that I was sure he could lose his ring inside me if he tried, the bloody phone rang again and again.I groaned in frustration as he pulled away shortly to pick up the call before settling firmly between my legs to continue touching me. I threw my head ba
Emery's POVWhen I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar basement. It had a barely functional light bulb and many knickknacks spread about. Where was I?Last I remembered, I was leaving. I hadn't even gone back to my parents' home. I sent Mom a heartfelt letter containing my apology for being such a problematic daughter, asking for her forgiveness and advising her to take this opportunity to leave that man. To leave the person who couldn't give two shits about us. I refused to keep being a burden to her. I left through the back woods to avoid notice. One minute I was leaving this wreck of a pack behind, the next I felt a blunt object hit the back of my head then darkness. Had Luciano changed his mind about sparing me? No, I didn't think so. Luciano wasn't one to attack from behind. He would have killed me and gotten it over with. He was the Alpha after all. No one would even question him. The door creaked open and Elder Tommaso stepped in. My eyes widened with shock as I realized
Emery's POVMy stomach rumbled in complaint. My strength was waning. When Luciano had told me to wait for my punishment, I didn't think it would take so long. I had no idea of the amount of time that had passed. No one came to give me food or water. I tried to reach out through the pack link to contact Mom to know if Luciano had taken his anger at me out on her. So I sat in my cell awaiting my punishment. What else could I do at this point? I had paced so much that I wondered at how the stone floor showed no signs of wear. I was anxious, tense, tired, and weak. I thought about what I could have done to induce a different outcome. Should I have let Anastasia's man kill Arabella that day? Should I have left when Luciano asked me to leave? My mind spun with the possibilities of what ifs and I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up to the sound of the door of my cell opening. Luciano stood at the cell door himself. That wasn't right. If he intended to execute me, he