Alpha Luciano’s POV
“We were unable to get exclusive rights to Song.” Natasha said her head bowed and her voice lowered.
“Explain yourself. Wasn’t it a done deal already?” My voice was low with barely restrained anger.
“Almost. Then the suppliers got a big shipment order from an anonymous buyer that made them change their mind about exclusivity.”
“And who is this anonymous buyer?” I questioned.
“I am still investigating this, Alpha.” Natasha sounded extremely contrite.
I tsked tapping my fingers against the tabletop.
“Natasha.” I purred drawing out her name the way I was wont to when I was not pleased.
“You are losing your edge. Is it because you feel irreplaceable? I assure you that you aren’t. What was his name? Ah, Bishop. Bishop will be more than happy to ease the burden that seems too large for you.”
I watched her stiffen at the sound of her arch-nemesis’s name.
Natasha went on her knees and pressed her head to the cool tiled ground.
“Forgive me, Alpha. I will rectify my mistakes. Please give me another chance.”
“You have a week. If you do not give me any satisfactory results by that time Bishop will take over. You are dismissed.”
Natasha stood, her hands fisted and gave a bow before leaving the room.
“Mikah?”
“Yes, Alpha. It was as you suspected. Vitalio is trying to buy into your business as it is proving lucrative.”
“That old thieving bastard not an original thought in that empty head of his. I can’t let this go unpunished. Find out when his shipment will reach here and the ports of entry, land borders, flights, everything.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Mikah bowed. Uncle Tommaso entered the room and Mikah took his leave.
“At work so soon? Shouldn’t you be off resting after your close brush with death?”
“I didn’t know you could be such a mother hen. I am perfectly fine. The doctors have given me a clean bill of health. Besides, there will be enough time for rest when I am dead.”
Uncle Tommaso gave a low laugh. “Your father would be proud of the kind of man you have become.”
I frowned, my hands clenched into fists of their own accord. Would my father really be proud of an offspring that had not only failed to kill his murderer but was also mated to said murderer’s daughter? I wasn’t sure.
“On to more serious affairs. Were you able to identify who set the assassins on you?” Uncle Tommaso asked, leaning in across the table.
“No, nothing yet, unfortunately.”
However, I had my suspicions. Alright, suspicion. It was Vitalio. There was no proof or anything substantial but I knew in my veins that he was the one. The only problem with my theory was that if he had sent the assassins, why hadn’t he tried to abduct and save his daughter? Why ask them to eliminate both of us?
Could it be because of Arabella’s testimony? Did he really buy all the trash she had said and thought to kill her for tarnishing the family name?
No, the timeline was suspicious. The men had been lying in wait for a while. Regardless of the testimony, the plan had been to jump me.
It was probably the real reason he had reported me to the council. Not to bring his daughter back home but to bring me to a neutral location where he could ambush me.
“I heard Arabella didn’t run off even though she had ample opportunity to.” Uncle Tommaso said casually. Too casually. He was obviously fishing for info about me and Arabella.
If only he knew I was even more lost than he was. I couldn’t still wrap my head around the fact that Arabella had saved me and stayed. The same woman who had shot and tried to kill herself just to escape me had not only saved my life but trashed her one chance to go back to her home.
As though that wasn’t worse enough, she’d kissed me. Like we were in an actual relationship or something. If I closed my eyes I could see her on top of me, her hands on my chest as she panted, her back arching as she rode me. The way she called my name. I felt an erection coming up which was the last thing I needed now that Uncle Tommaso was alone with me in the study. Awkward.
What was her plan? What was the motive behind her saving me? Questions whose answers needed to be shaken out of her body. But for now, I would settle for not touching her to avoid misunderstandings.
“So, what’s the latest update with Song?” Uncle Tommaso asked and I began to brief him.
******
Arabella’s POV
“I guess even golden pussies have their time and seasons.” Tina smirked as she and her companion discussed my out of favour ‘golden pussy’ within earshot which was frankly disrespectful.
It had been a week since the incident. Alpha Luciano had made a complete recovery in forty-eight hours. Since then, he had called Emery and some of the harem women back into his bed. While for all intent and purposes, it seemed like he was ignoring me. Me.
I tried not to take it personally. The only reason I’d taken note of it was that I’d expected something more dramatic. I wondered if this celibacy was a punishment for me for saying what I shouldn’t have, for stepping out of line or was it a punishment for himself for acceding to my demands.
There was only one problem really. I was bored to pieces. I needed to do something. What could a spurned sex slave do in a pack house to keep busy?
Turns out, the answer was playing with children.
I left the harem and some of the harem women snickered behind me. I nearly rolled my eyes in exasperation. Did they really think my life was now at a standstill without him? That I was bothered about the fact that Alpha Luciano wasn’t raping me?
In fact, it was quite the opposite. For the first time in my captivity, I was free. I wandered around the pack house, learning the layout and cataloguing the people in the house. After I got bored doing that, I looked around for Margaret. She was in the kitchen having lunch.
“Margaret, a second?”
She turned to look at me perplexed. “Arabella?”
“Yeah. I want to go outside the pack house.”
Her eyes widened with alarm. “Surely, you do not want to…”
“Calm down. I don’t want to escape. I just want to be productive. Do anything. Alpha Luciano doesn’t want me in his bed anymore so I should be free to do what I want for a change. You can check in with Alpha Luciano if you want.”
Margaret looked like she still had a lot to say so I interrupted her. “I’m not asking for permission. I’m just telling you so you don’t start looking for me.” With that, I flounced out of the kitchen.
******
Alpha Luciano’s POV
“She did what?” I shouted, my temper boiling over. I should have known it was all an act. Arabella had used me not summoning her to my room to her advantage. I wondered where she was planning on running to now. Vitalio wouldn’t take her in for fear of angering the council so who was she running away to?
The thought came unbidden to my mind. Her fiance. Of course, it was her fiance. Why hadn’t I thought about that?
Emiliano Basilio. He and his father Dante could offer her succour. Not on my watch. I would find her and drag her back screaming if I had to. I mind-linked Cross.
“I want all our men looking for Arabella. She couldn’t have gone far.”
“But Alpha…” his voice in the pack link sounded strangely hesitant.
“What? ”
“She’s right here.”
*******
I barely listened to what Cross had to say after assessing the pack link and him telling me her location. I told him to keep her there and left my office.
Apart from the pack house which only housed me sometimes, the harem, Uncle Tommaso, people who had no homes to go to, the warriors, cooks and other domestic staff, the rest of the pack resided in sprawling properties around the expansive pack house.
It was towards the pups’ school that I headed. What was she doing there? Had she been on her way out and then gotten lost? Yes, that sounded plausible. She wanted to escape but she didn’t know anywhere in the pack. Foolish.
I reached the school. Pups were outside playing, rolling around in the grass and sand. Some were squealing, others crying. It was beautiful yet it looked stressful. Every time I came here I was reminded of how little I wanted children. I saw Arabella.
She wore a poorly woven wreath of flowers and carried a snotty child in one hand and another held her hand using her as a support to move. Arabella was smiling and laughing without a care in the world. For some reason, I was beyond pissed.
“Arabella.”
She turned and saw me. Arabella had the guts to sigh and roll her eyes before disentangling herself from the children. One of them began to cry and she handed the child over to another caretaker who was there monitoring the children.
Then she walked up to me, her stained cotton dress flowing behind her. “Yes?” Yes? Like she’d done nothing wrong.
I didn’t reply to her question. Merely grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the school towards the woods proper. Once we had reached a sufficient distance from the school, I pushed her against a tree. “What do you think you are doing?”
She cocked an eyebrow and I fought the urge to throttle her. “I don’t understand your question.”
“Why are you trying to bond with my pack? Do you think it will endear me to you? That will never happen.”
“Not everything revolves around you. I was there because I felt like it. I’m not going to wait around for you to want me. If I’m not going to leave this pack anytime soon, I’ll make myself at home.”
Arabella rolled her eyes once more and I fought a rising wave of anger.
I punched the wood above her head and she barely flinched, merely giving me that infuriating look. “You are my slave. You aren’t supposed to be happy.” I grated out aggressively.
Arabella stepped closer to me into my personal space, her hands on my shoulders, she stood on her tiptoes so she could whisper in my ear.
“You are my master. You are supposed to fuck me. Guess we are both not good at doing what we are supposed to.” Then she bit my earlobe.