Eliana POVLaryssa wiped the tears from her wet cheeks with the fluffy blanket, leaving streaks of her makeup on the once snow white fabric. She looked utterly miserable and totally pathetic. I felt as if she resembled a beaten puppy, flinching with every move I made. “How can I help you?” I asked, kicking myself into full-blown waitress mode. There had been many times - usually late in the evenings - when customers would mosey in through the restaurant doors and pour their bleeding hearts out all over the dining tables. I guess I had enough practice - a little bit more and I’d be forced to study psychology. Laryssa looked over to the empty deck chair and I took the hint, taking a seat beside her. “You must think I’m such a silly woman,” she hiccuped, wrapping the blanket even closer around her shoulders. “Georgio had told me how much Cassie loves Christmas, so I thought I would be able to get some points with her by dressing all Christmas-sy. I didn’t realise just how short this
Eliana POV“Escaping?” I’m sure my voice echoed the sheer confusion I felt at his admission. He didn’t seem the type to run away from a problem - unless that problem was Luca, and Luca was in the area so that would have been rather counter productive. Enzo’s sheepish smile returned and he motioned for me to walk with him, passing one of the pastries he had bought to me. “I’m actually hiding from my mother. I guess I’m also hiding from Luca, and I’m surprised at how well that has gone considering he is staying up at the villa with you and Vasilios.” I took a bite of the pastry, indulging in the way it melted in my mouth and left me craving more. My mind flashed briefly to Yvonne’s theory of food making everything better and I made a mental note to take a few pastries back for her to try. They were positively life changing. “So, why are you hiding?” I asked once my mind returned to Enzo. He looked around before he answered, as if his mother or brother would jump out at us from behi
Eliana POV“What are you suggesting?” I asked Enzo, wondering how on earth I'd get the stubborn Luca to bend to my will. Never going to happen. Enzo looked away, avoiding my gaze as he thought about his reply. “I'm suggesting that you don't take Luca at face value - he might seem cold and calculated, but he's got another side to him that most don't see. He would move mountains for the people he cares about. And if he begins to care about you, you can be assured that he would drop everything to make sure that you are safe and happy.”I remembered the way Luca had been when he came to my rescue after my skiing incident. He had seemed less serious, more open to emotions other than indifference, possession and hatred. “I think that I understand,” I said slowly, and was rewarded with another squeeze from Enzo. He guided me to where tables and benches were set up on a wooden platform. A man playing his guitar and singing walked up and down between the tables while young women acted as wa
Eliana POV“What the hell,” Cassie exclaimed, staring after Luca. “What on earth got into him?”I looked at Enzo who had a slight smile on his face as he held a hand to his quickly swelling jaw. He didn’t seem offended by his brother’s actions at all. In fact, he seemed to have been expecting them. “I may have goaded him into hitting me,” he revealed, tapping his finger on his temple. “He mindlinked Luca,” Ayla revealed with a huff, not impressed by the macho display. Cassie looked from me to Enzo and then back again before she grabbed my arm and dragged me toward her room, turning back to Enzo just to say, “The bedroom to the right is empty, and put some ice on that before your jaw swells any more.”I heard him grunt in response before the bedroom door opened and shut behind him. Within the confines of the room Cassie had claimed, she breathed out a shakey breath and fell onto her bed. “Okay, what on earth happened to you today. You disappeared for hours and when Luca and Vasilio
Luca POV“At least I know how to show a girl a good time.”Enzo's words rang out in my mind as I slammed the door of Vasilios's suite of rooms behind me, the solid wood shuddering in its frame. “Fuck!” I growled, Bruno's anger at my brother oozing into my voice. He had done it deliberately, I was sure of that. He had known that I would come looking for Eliana at some point, and he'd taken her on a run just to mess with me. He knew I didn't dare shift and come after them - Bruno hadn't yet accepted that I had rejected her and he would have marked and mated with her without heeding my words.When his voice had first crept into my mind, I had ignored them. I knew he had arrived in the area - although I pretended ignorance. So when he tried to contact me about how “cute” Eliana's wolf was, I hadn't paid much attention. But then he had gone too far, teasing that he was planning on asking if she would be his chosen mate - since I had rejected her. My blood instantly boiled.“I take it the
Eliana POVAfter watching the car drive away with Laryssa inside it, Cassie and I went back to her room. There was a light shining out from under Georgio’s door, so he had to have known that Laryssa had left. “Maybe she had a family emergency,” Cassie speculated as we climbed into her bed and ate the midnight snack we had made, careful not to mess crumbs on the linen. “Yeah, must be something like that,” I agreed. It was only the next morning that we discovered that Laryssa had broken off the relationship with Georgio, saying that she could not come between Cassie and her father. Georgio looked unaffected when he revealed the news to Cassie and I while we ate breakfast, but the closer I watched him the more I began to believe that he was actually taking the break up rather badly. “Laryssa left you girls gifts,” he said, his voice rough as he passed us two boxes tied with ribbons. I saw Cassie’s gaze linger on her father as he got up and walked away from the table, barely touching
Eliana POVThe two hour flight to the private airstrip seemed to take years. I sat with my hands gripping the armrests, my fingers turning white while Luca sat across from me. He looked serenely out of the window, almost as if he were on his way to a spa treatment rather than to meet a man who had been held captive and tortured for months on end. Only the occasional clenching of his jaw gave away the thoughts which rampaged through his mind. “Almost there, snowflake,” Enzo mumbled into my ear. “Snowflake?” I asked, amused. “Yeah, you and your little wolf are like a snowflake… all small and white. So I’m going to call you that from now on.”“Really?” Luca looked at his brother, and I was unsure if he was amused or annoyed. Enzo ignored him and passed me a packet of peanuts, leaning back in his chair on the opposite side of the aisle where he closed his eyes. I stared down at the peanuts for a second before I realised why he had given them to me. He was giving me something to do wit
Eliana POV The car pulled up outside a whitewashed building on the edge of the town, the back of the building pressed against a dense thicket of trees - probably to allow the werewolves to come and go through the trees without the fear of tourists spotting them. Enzo had made it clear that the tourists were only welcomed on the outskirts of the island and that the inner portion was designated to the locals. It wasn't as if they had a giant “No Tourists” sign up, but the private roads with security guarding the entrances seemed to deter the tourists well enough. Nina was waiting outside the clinic, her back pressed against the wall as she picked at her finger nails. Her flowing navy and white dress made her look casually chic, but her hair was pulled back into a severe bun and her lipstick was a shade of red a touch too bright for the casual dress. “Took you long enough,” she muttered as we climbed out of the car and joined her. She looked over my jeans and loose t-shirt and sniffe