Alpha Luciano's POVI let go of Arabella and she fell to the ground unmoving. I pulled the file from his hands and opened it. Truly all the papers were blank as Mikah had said. I was beyond shocked. Arabella had really swapped out the content of the file? Was it in a misguided attempt to protect me? I was confused. No one had ever done something so stupid and strange for me before. "Check if she's still alive."It would seem I had been mistaken as rare as that was. At least I had found a mole from this pathetic attempt at whatever Arabella had thought she was doing. "Her pulse is faint but still there." "Get her to the infirmary."Being stupid was… well stupid. But it wasn't a crime. At least not in my books. I watched my men troop in according to the signal. They picked up Tina's body. And I watched Mikah carry Arabella away to be treated.What a waste of time. *** I came out of my shower to meet Emery on my bed. She was naked. "Alpha Luciano." Her gaze was downcast and demur
Alpha Luciano's POVI was on the warpath and no one could calm my temper. "Explain yourself." Natasha had exactly one minute to explain how in hell's name she had lost over a million dollars worth of drugs to the goddamned police."Alpha. We were ratted out. It was our usual route, the border patrol was paid off as usual. We were clear but someone–""Shut up Natasha. I have had enough of your excuses. First that stunt with Song and now this. Consider yourself fired. For the years of loyalty you have given me, I will spare your life."Natasha looked at me, her face slack with shock. "Alpha. Please, this wasn't my fault. I promise. The operation was sabotaged, I–" "Get out of my office. It is pathetic how you are trying to make excuses to cover up for your inadequacies. Before I rescind my decision and have Mikah kill you here, scram."After a lot of hesitation, Natasha walked towards the door. As she was about to open it, I spoke."Oh, and Bishop will be taking over for you. Do tell
Arabella's POVI tried. I promise. The moment I heard the news, I tried to restrain but the laugh escaped me anyway, and I burst out laughing. Who was the unfortunate lady?"You… You are laughing?" Margaret seemed confused. "You find the news that the man you have feelings for is getting mated funny."I stopped laughing. "Margaret, I don't like him.""Of course.""You are saying that but I can read something else between the lines. I honestly have no feelings for him. If he decides to mate with someone else, then good for her. It's nothing to me. I'm so happy for him and sorry for her."Margaret arched a brow then cracked a laugh. "Okay. I'll admit it is actually really funny. I never thought anyone would be able to hold him down. I guess his uncle must have him by the balls or something."******Alpha Luciano's POVIt was an ambush. Through and through. I never saw it coming. Now I was trapped with no means of escape or recourse.The girl had been in the sitting room with pretty muc
Arabella's POVThings were bubbling at the pack house. It was in preparation for the engagement ceremony. The harem was solemn in contrast.The common area was scanty unlike its usual interactive nature. It felt unreal walking out from a dreary harem to the bubbling preparation for festivities.I guess I could understand. They had come here with the hopes of someday becoming Luna and now… the ship had sailed. I wondered if Alpha Luciano even realized what he was doing by spurning the women in the harem to focus on a totally different woman entirely. Their families would definitely kick back and I found myself anticipating what was going to go down.As for the new bride, word of mouth had it that she was a wisp of a thing with no strong will or anything. If there was even an iota of truth in that rumour, Alpha Luciano would eat her alive. I hadn't met her in person though and I wasn't planning to. Alpha Luciano's life was his own business. What I was interested in was meeting with
Alpha Luciano's POVBishop was a no-nonsense man and I was beginning to think I had been wrong for trying to be open-minded while hiring a woman to head my drugs division. I needed someone as vicious and callous as myself to show my enemies that I was strong on all fronts. He was bold and I liked that."Tell me about it.""There is a new drug lord on the streets. No one knows who it is but they've been recruiting and have poached some of our men."I stroked my chin thoughtfully."Did they poach anyone particularly good?""No. Mostly grunts and underlings. I was thinking of breaking a few of their bones to discourage others from joining them. With your permission, of course, Alpha."I fought back a smile. A man after my heart. If a little too impassioned."There will be no need for that. In fact, this is good. So that we can sort out the shaft from our loyal men. Let them leave if they are just grunts but if they know too much about our operations, kill them."Bishop bowed with a smil
Alpha Luciano's POVI noticed the man approach Arabella. He looked familiar but I could care less. What was he doing with her?She glanced in my direction while talking to him. Was this a scheme to get my attention? It wouldn't work.I watched Arabella take his hand and follow him to the dance floor. Watched him slide his hands around her waist.Anastasia was talking to me about something but I was no longer listening.I would not give Arabella the pleasure of seeing me get jealous. His hands kept wondering and touching her over and over again but she didn't seem to mind. How could she dance like that with him in front of so many people but if I touched her in front of some people, she tried to kill herself? I would never understand women.Then she was laughing the way she never did with me. Surely whatever he was saying couldn't be that funny. Some couples moved around them obscuring them from my view and I nearly jumped up from my seat to follow their movement.Calm the fuck down,
Arabella's POV Based on principle, one should never eat at a table likely to be poisoned. When you were in the harem of a man getting married to his first and probably only wife, if she invited you for a feast, the probability that it could be poisoned was very high.Especially when she had caught said person in a very incriminating position with her betrothed.That was the reason I had gone out for a walk before the breakfast she would share with all the women in the harem. Okay, I might have exaggerated the situation a bit.Sue me. I knew she wouldn't really poison me but I was not willing to put myself in that sort of uncomfortable situation. It was better to just avoid it all together."A penny for your thoughts?""My thoughts are very expensive." I quipped before turning to look at Alec. Fine. The reason I came here wasn't to avoid food poisoning or an uncomfortable situation with Luciano's bride. It was to see Alec.The thing was I felt incredibly disturbed and guilty about
Arabella's POV"We made thirty million dollars in profit." My eyes widened. "It's small but we are still starting out. Once we've made our name a bigger name, our purse will also get fuller."I tried not to gape. Thirty million dollars was small compared to what we stood to gain? After realizing my life was at stake because of Luciano's fiance, I left the harem contemplating all the ways I had fucked up and with Alpha Luciano and all the myriad ways in which his bride was going to get back at me for all of that.The next two days had been dreary and filled with the stench of sickness in the harem which Luciano would never know since he never visited the harem in person. And for some reason, he didn't call anyone up either. A lot of the women had recovered already but a few remained under the weather because of the concentration of the poisons they had taken in.I had been exceptionally bored until I had gotten contacted by Natasha and here I was discussing earning millions without b
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