Alpha Luciano’s POV
“We’ll hit him here.” I tapped on the map of the docks and marine supply chain of Vitalio Bianchi. It hadn’t taken much to bribe one of his men into leaking the information. The man was repulsive and a traitor. It was only normal for him to attract people of his kind.
Uncle Tommaso hmmed and I knew immediately that he had something else to suggest.
“How about we attack the ship while it’s still at sea? We could sink the entire ship. That way it’d take less time and casualties on our side.”
I looked at the plans again. That would work and I had no compunction about killing Vitalio’s men. They were every bit as evil as he was. But the sailors who were ferrying them across…
“Let’s go with it. This is why I need you around Uncle Tommaso. You are always so insightful.”
Uncle Tommaso laughed lightly. “I have been looking for a partner for you that will take my place in giving you all this advice. A nice quiet fertile lady.”
I sighed pulling back. Of course, we always circled back to this.
“Uncle Tommaso, I have made my stand on this clear several times. I am not interested in getting a mate. I have proven that I do not need any allies besides I don’t believe in love.”
“Who is talking about love? I couldn’t care less. If you don’t want a mate, then sire a bloody child! A son preferably but at this point, I don’t really care.” Uncle Tommaso said incensed.
He always tended to get too worked up about this issue. Telling me how vulnerable the pack would be without an heir should something happen to me.
Nothing was going to happen to me. I was fit, strong and at my prime. I couldn’t say the same about Uncle Tommaso. The hard years seemed to have aged him prematurely for a wolf. He already had some tufts of white hair on his scalp, if he didn’t chill out, he would end up going way before I did. But I knew he wouldn’t appreciate me saying that.
“I am trying to. I agreed to the harem, didn’t I?” I said trying to appease him.
“And how has that worked out for you?” Uncle Tommaso quirked his brow.
I recalled a particularly nasty trick Emery had done with ice cream and honey last week before I had tossed her out of my room.
Very well. I wanted to tell him. It was working out exceptionally well.
“At this point, some members of the pack are thinking that you are impotent.”
Impotent.
“And these members would be?” I asked casually.
Uncle Tommaso didn’t rise to the bait. He knew me too well.
Pity.
I would have rendered them impotent myself. I had undergone multiple tests and all assured me that there was nothing wrong with me. The entire pack knew about the tests and the results.
“The point is that this is no longer up for debate. I have a duty to uphold as your uncle and an elder of this pack. Your wolf is the problem and we will fix it. Once he has marked and mated a female wolf, you will not be having these sorts of problems. It’s a pity your mate never showed up but this will have to do.”
Oh, if only he knew.
“Fine. Knock yourself out. But I’m not giving up my harem.”
Whatever girl he chose would eventually run away screaming when she realised who I was and that I wouldn’t give up my harem or having casual bondage sex. And if she stayed, I still couldn’t have children with her because I had already found my mate as infuriating and frustrating as she was.
Hell, I wouldn’t even be able to mark her. For the first time since I discovered Arabella was my mate, I was grateful. I had no intentions of settling down anyway. She had only helped matters.
“And why would that be?” Uncle Tommaso asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked over at me carefully. “It wouldn’t be because of a certain Bianchi now, would it?”
“Of course not.” It would seem everything going on with me now had to be attributed to Arabella according to Uncle Tommaso. The fact that for once he was right didn’t matter.
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Because a little birdie told me they overheard you fighting with… Emery,” He struggled to recall her name. “Because you are giving Arabella Bianchi preferable treatment above the others.”
So Uncle Tommaso still had spies in my household. I had to work on eliminating that. Even though I knew he was my uncle who wanted only the best for me, I couldn’t rest easy knowing someone. Anyone was keeping tabs on me to report back to him.
“Your birds are wrong, Uncle, I fought with Emery because she lost her manners.” Among other things.
Uncle Tommaso twisted his mouth like he’d tasted something sour. “Luciano. Be extremely careful.”
*********
Arabella’s POV
“I’d like to take you out on a date.”
My eyes must have been as wide as saucers. A what?
Didn’t he…Wasn’t he…
Let me rewind a bit.
After my interrupted time with the children of the pack, I decided to spend more time with them the following day and possibly explore the rest of the pack grounds. The only problem with my fantasy was that the members of the pack were still wary of me.
Getting them to let me into the school had been a tug of war. When they noticed the children liked me, however, they relaxed their restrictions. So I wasn’t extremely optimistic about them welcoming me with open hands but I felt exposure therapy would work wonders.
The more they saw me, the more they would see me as a normal relatable wolf and eventually they would warm up to me. Eventually.
So that was what I did for the next couple of days. Alpha Luciano didn’t come to whisk me off again and I didn’t see him once although I noticed that Cross was almost everywhere I was. Alpha Luciano probably wanted to make sure that I wasn’t trying to escape or something.
During this time, apart from keeping myself so busy that I couldn’t think of Alpha Luciano if I wanted to, I thought about the attack a lot. About the men in particular. There was something that kept nagging at me that I couldn’t quite remember or unravel.
It came to me when I was cutting an apple for a pup to snack on. The knife. The knife he had held against my neck. I had taken the knife to help me dig out the bullet in Alpha Luciano but I had ended up using my hands. The knife had an awfully familiar hilt.
The day Alpha Luciano had abducted me on my way to my wedding, I had seen my driver shot dead. A knife had been clasped weakly, uselessly in his palm, as though he’d wanted to defend himself before he was killed. It was the same design as that of the attackers. Was it a coincidence or had my dad or a faction of my old pack planned the hit?”
I refused to believe my dad would send men to kill both of us when he could have just asked them to bring me home secretly instead. But if he did then… could it be that Margaret hadn’t been lying? Had my father really killed Alpha Luciano’s parents and broken the treaty or was it all a lie?
I continued minding my business so that I would keep busy. I met Victor at school.
He was a teacher who came out to help with the kids, especially the younger ones. He was bright, funny and extremely witty. He wasn’t pushy or judgemental. Honestly, he felt like a breath of fresh air in a place where some of the female teachers were still giving me the third degree.
The school was over for the day and we were pretty much locked up when Victor spoke.
“I’d like to take you out on a date.”
I tripped before turning to look at him in shock.
“You want to take me out on a date? Me?”
I had to first confirm if I’d heard him properly before I could react.
Victor laughed. His eyes twinkled with humour.
“Yes, if you don’t mind. This week was pretty hectic. I’ll definitely shift, and run around a little but I think a date night would be more relaxing–”
“Victor, do you remember who I am?” I asked.
“Arabella Bianchi?” He lifted his brow up like he couldn’t still see the problem with that.
“And Alpha Luciano’s sexual property? You know I’m in the harem, right?”
“Of course, you are in the harem everyone knows… oh that’s what you were talking about.” Victor groaned and facepalmed.
“When I said date, I meant like a friendly sort of date. You’re always talking about wanting to visit more places so I thought it would be perfect…Goddess, I can be so clueless. I thought it was really obvious when I asked.”
I sighed in relief. The last thing I wanted was for Alpha Luciano to come and pummel my new friend for liking me. Or maybe I was giving him too much credit. He was giving me space so I somehow doubted he would show up even if a member of his pack was showing interest in me.
“It’s okay. I’m also socially inept so I often make blunders like that too. But…”
I looked at him as we neared the pack house. He always escorted and dropped me off since we started talking.
I grabbed his arm so that I could get his attention. His warm brown eyes met mine.
“Just to be clear. You don’t have feelings for me, right? Because apart from Alpha Luciano tearing you apart, I don’t like you in that manner. I just want to be friends…”
He clutched his chest theatrically.
“I feel hurt by your decision but somehow I will survive.”
“Stop it, I’m being serious.” I fought back a smile.
Seriously, who was this guy?
Victor laughed. “Alright. Sorry. I’ll try to be more serious now.” He paused.
“Don’t get me wrong, you are pretty and all that but I’m not attracted to you. I feel sympathetic. Sympathetic towards all the women in the harem really. It must be so hard to give up on finding your mate and staying closed off from the rest of the pack. And you didn’t even willingly make that choice unlike the others so I feel like your life must be very stressful. I want to help reduce that because, for the daughter of Vitalio Bianchi, you don’t seem like a bad person.”
I felt like crying. I was that emotional about what he said.
“Thank you. I think you are the first person to be so nice to me since I arrived here.”
I impulsively hugged him. He seemed a little stiff at first as though he hadn’t been expecting it then he relaxed and hugged me back.
I pulled away, wiping tears from my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, did I do that?” He pointed to my tears.
“Oh, that’s alright. I cry very easily.” I laughed it off. Then something he said came back to me.
“Wait when you said a for a daughter of Vitalio Bianchi, I don’t seem bad, What did you mean?
What I mean to say is, what bad thing did my father do that would make you automatically think that I would be a bad person?”
I could never really trust Margaret fully as much as I liked her. She was too tangled up in what I had with Alpha Luciano. But Victor? I could trust him. It would be a heck of a coincidence if he gave me the same story that Margaret had.
I had to know if my father had done something so horrific.
We reached the pack house.
Victor looked contemplative before he spoke.
“I guess you’ll have to come to the date and find out.”