Eliana POV I'm not sure what I'd expected of Luca’s family and home, but it certainly wasn't this. The kitchen was loud, filled with Valenti and her six sisters - whose names I would never be able to get straight - all talking at the same time, yet somehow understanding each other in the ruckus. “You get used to it,” one of Luca's aunts smiled at me, squeezing my hand. They were all preparing a massive spread of food, enough to definitely feed half of the island. In some way, the chaos actually made sense and slowly I could tell the dishes coming together. While I was peeling potatoes - my assigned task - Luca and Enzo entered, causing another flurry of activity as each aunt went to greet them and make one or another comment. I smiled at the interaction, my eyes meeting with Luca's as he hugged one of his aunts. I quickly looked away, not wanting him to think I had been watching him - only to meet the gaze of his mother, a slight smile tugging up one corner of her mouth. Luca q
Eliana POV I pressed the button and instantly there was a mechanical grinding sound. I jumped backward, scared that I had triggered a trap or something along those lines. Instead, the bookcase moved an inch toward me. “And this is how we die,” Ayla muttered under her breath as I pulled on the bookcase. It swung aside like a door, without difficulty as if it was attached to well oiled hinges. I stepped inside the passage and pulled out my phone, switching on the torch to light my way in the darkening tunnel. “Did you not pay attention to those scary movies we watched as teenagers? Lesson number one, don't go down the dark tunnel of death,” Ayla practically shouted in my mind.“Shush, Ayla. It's not like we're going to meet a vampire or ghost down here. Those things only occur in horror stories,” I replied irritated with her irrational fear. “Yeah, just like werewolves are so not real,” she mocked with a roll of her eyes.I ignored her and continued down the tunnel until it split i
Eliana POVI didn't see Luca at dinner. Enzo said he hadn't returned from his run, but that there was no need to worry.“He's probably just checking out everything on the island. He hasn't been around for a few weeks so he needs to make sure I haven't run the pack into the ground.”He said it as if it were a joke, but I could tell by the edge in his voice that he was dead serious. Dinner was loud and an absolute sensory overload. I was actually grateful when I was able to slink back to my room, telling everyone that I had a headache so couldn't stick around for the after dinner entertainment. Yet, even as I closed the bedroom door behind me, I could hear the opera performance coming from the lower floor. “Looks like that headache is about to become a reality,” Ayla muttered as the performer missed the note and screeched her way through the last chords. “It would have been worse if we'd stuck around,” I replied, burying my head under the pillow. I must have fallen asleep, startling
Eliana POVIt was the best sleep I'd had in years, and I told myself that it was because I was no longer worried about Elijah. I refused to acknowledge that it might be because I'd had the most mind blowing sex I could ever dream about. I pulled myself out of bed, wincing slightly at the tenderness between my thighs.“The price we pay,” Ayla sighed in my mind and I wanted to slap her. “It's not like you're feeling this. You could have made me stop, you know,” I grumbled back. I was rewarded by her wolfy smirk which told me she definitely could have stopped the whole thing, but chose not to. “Arg! How am I going to face him now?” “The same way you always do. Head high. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”I guessed she was right. I hadn't done anything wrong, and I wasn't going to act like I had. Knocking on the bathroom door before I entered, I locked the door leading to Luca's bedroom before I went through the paces of my morning routine. I could hear soft snores coming from Luc
Eliana POVOf all the places in the world they could have gone, why did they have to be in Isolda di San Pietro? “Hello Stacey,” I replied politely to her before greeting the other two girls who stood just behind her. “Lacey, Tracey.”Tracey smiled at me and started lifting her hand to wave at me before Lacey smacked it back down and glared at for a brief moment before turning her frosty gaze my direction when she saw the smile slip from Tracey's face. “You didn't answer me, peasant. What are you doing here?” Stacey said slowly, flicking her bleached blonde hair back over her shoulder. “I'm here with a friend,” I said truthfully, only to have the three girls erupt into laughter. I'd purposefully been avoiding them at university, sitting as far as possible from Lacey in our Economics lectures and turning in the opposite direction whenever I saw any of them on the campus grounds. Even though I'd tried to make myself invisible to them, I'd always hear their laughter and jibes when I
Eliana POVChilling, gut wrenching screams echoed through the entire building, making the hair on my arms stand up. A nurse rushed into the reception area, obviously having been told by the receptionist that we had arrived. “Thank goodness you're here, Beta,” she looked frazzled, her brunette hair in wild disarray under her nurse's cap. “We've just managed to get hold of the Alpha and he's on his way, but perhaps Miss Eliana will be able to calm Mr Elijah. He's started trying to attack everyone who gets close.”She ushered us down the hallway to the room where Elijah had been put, the doctor looking worriedly from the doorway with a deep frown on his face.“Thank you for coming,” he said seriously. “He seemed to be doing fine, he even ate some jelly this morning and was talking to the nurse about his music. The next thing we knew, he was lashing out at everyone. We managed to get the handcuffs back on him, but he bit one of the guards quite badly in the process. He's chewed open the w
Eliana POVThe doctor came to see me that afternoon, apologising that he had been delayed at the clinic by a sick pup.I tried to tell him that it was okay, but my words came out sounding as if I were Kermit the Frog's great grandmother. With every word hurting my throat, I resorted to hand signals to communicate. “Your larynx - the voicebox in layman's terms - has been bruised. Luckily, you're a werewolf. With your accelerated healing, you should be fine in two to three days and the bruises on your neck should be gone just after that.”I nodded and gave him a thumbs up, feeling like an absolute dork. “Don't stress too much about your brother. If he's got what I think he has, the council has a remedy. He'll be right as rain, although I'm afraid that the emotional scars he has sustained may be with him for the rest of his life.” The doctor's expression changed and it seemed as if he were reminiscing as he said, “some things haunt you for the rest of your life. I pray that he is stro
Luca POVI leant back in my office chair and put my feet on the desk, pressing the tumbler of brandy to my forehead. I'd hoped that the alcohol would slow the flow of thoughts that bombarded my mind. It didn't work. “Where are you?” I heard Enzo mindlink me. “Study,” I sent back the single-word response. Moments later, the study door opened and Enzo entered, closing the door behind him before he went to the sideboard and poured himself a drink. “Everything is set at the clinic, Doc said he's grateful for your concern. He had been worried that the staff would abandon the clinic. The nurse we saw today has been rather shaken up by the whole ordeal,” he sighed and sat down opposite me. “And the blood samples?”“Already on their way to the council. I sent two of my men, just to make sure that they're not waylaid by anything.” There was a moment of silence and I could almost see the gears turning in my younger brother's head. “What do you think it is?”I shook my head and slipped my f