Arabella’s POV
I 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 POV
It 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 much her entire family. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see an officiator there to join us together already.
Uncle Tommaso had given that broad shit-eating grin that he always had after outsmarting an opponent. I never thought I’d see him using it on me though. Then he said five words that altered my life.
“Meet your fiance, Anastasia Creole.”
Stunned, looking at the faces of my smiling soon-to-be inlaws, I replied.
“Fiance? But I didn’t propose to anyone.”
Uncle Tommaso had smiled even wider. It was unsettling like seeing a shark smile.
“We’ll have to change that.”
Then he produced a box from his pocket containing the engagement ring. It was at that moment that I knew that I had been fucked over by my uncle.
I wanted to punch the walls. The smiling inlaws, my pretty blushing betrothed, hell even my uncle.
I couldn’t say no in such a public setting without ruining his standing and showing my pack had a divided front. I couldn’t even send the girl out to talk to my uncle alone because she was with her entire family.
I couldn’t leave because it would buttress the former point. I couldn’t disappear because alas wolves do not have that superpower. So I had taken the ring from my uncle and approached the girl.
Yes, girl. She seemed so breakable that I almost asked for her age. She seemed unable to lift her head to look at her soon-to-be betrothed.
“Ama, will you marry me?” Every word felt like gravel in my mouth.
Her cheeks turned pink. Like actual fucking pink. Goddess, I was marrying a doll. How had I sunk this low?
“It’s actually Ana and yes I do. I’ll marry you, Luciano.” She looked up at me then barely me my gaze. Her hazel eyes stopped at my chest region. “Can I call you that?”
“Sure.”
This was what I was supposed to have a child with? Could she even kiss? Did I want to kiss her? Hell no.
I looked back at Uncle Tommaso’s smiling face and reached for her hand. The ring fit perfectly.
As though she had been measured for it.
I was going to kill Mikah.
*****
Emery’s POV
I threw the moisturizing face mask off my face.
“What?”
Luciano was getting mated? How had that happened?
Was I still dreaming? Alpha Luciano had said he would never accept a mate. That was the entire reason for the harem. He would marry the one who bore him a child or not depending on his preference. He wasn’t supposed to go over us and pick someone else to marry.
My parents. Once they found out that Alpha Luciano was getting mated to someone who wasn’t me, I was finished.
My father would cut all ties with me. I wasn’t as bothered about that as I was about my mother.
If she felt my cause was hopeless, she would stop supplying me with the pills.
The pills that I mixed into every food that found their way to the harem quarter. The pills keeping all the women here save from me barren.
Only Arabella was safe from this because Margaret, that damned sly woman, handled anything pertaining to her personally.
Initially, I had been unbothered because Alpha Luciano had been using protection with her, I’d monitored everything. Then he stopped and I had begun to look for active methods to eliminate her from the competition. It would seem now that I had bigger fish to fry. Anastasia Creole.
Everyone looked at me and saw a dumb bimbo who was madly in love with Alpha Luciano. The latter part was right. I did love him but the former was wrong. I was no fool.
I took my time getting ready to meet Luciano. Being pretty wasn’t as effortless as I made it look. It took time and bloody effort. A subtle swab of concealer, a dab of blush, and natural scents that boosted my scent without seeming brash. When I was done, I looked like I had just tumbled out of bed looking this attractive.
While I had been getting ready, I had taken the time to think. Actually think. Alpha Luciano would never agree to be tied to any woman without being forced to.
I walked towards his room. Elder Tommaso was behind this. Knowing Luciano he was already looking for a way out of this arrangement. I just had to be patient. And assist from the shadows in any way I possibly could.
I entered his room. I found him waiting and ready.
“Emery. I didn’t summon you.” His tone was guarded. Wary even.
It was to be expected. Usually, I never pushed the boundaries. But these were no normal times. He was engaged now. I had to make sure he didn’t cut me off in a misguided attempt to keep celibate for his apparently virginal bride.
I let my night dress drop to the floor.
“You don’t have to, Alpha, your subject is here to serve.”
I lowered my gaze and dropped to my knees between his legs.
“Please allow me.”
“Sometimes, I feel I don’t deserve you, Emery, go ahead, tend to me.” He laughed.
No, you do not deserve me, Luciano. You are a conceited bastard.
Yet somehow I had fallen for him. I don’t know why or what that said about my character. I poisoned women on a daily basis to keep him, yet I didn’t even have him.
If I could get pregnant for him, however, if I could bear the heir to this pack, the ends would justify the means.
I took him into my mouth.
It would seem I had nothing to worry about on the celibate part.
He fucked me so hard that I lost count of my orgasm. He was rough and demanding, uncaring of if I was even feeling good but then again, he knew I like it hard and rough and dirty.
Hours later when I donned my nightdress, I wore a smile as well. It was phenomenal. Luciano wasn’t tired of me. He wouldn’t abandon me because of his fiance.
I walked away from the room in the wee hours of the morning feeling sore in all the right places. I looked forward to the long soak in hot water I was going to have uninterrupted in the bath because everyone was asleep.
One minute I was in the hallway, the next I was pressed against the wall, a manicured hand clutching my throat with surprising force. I couldn’t break free of her grip and I hit her hand again and again trying to breathe but she didn’t even flinch.
“I heard about you.” Her voice was childlike and her hazel eyes shone with barely restrained cruelty.
“His little harem. You are surprisingly pretty. Almost as pretty as me. I can’t have that. Maybe a scar or two would fix that.” She smiled at me as though we were having a normal, civilized conversation.
Goddess, she was insane.
“Please.” I choked out.
“Oh, I do love pleading. Say it again.” Her giggle was childish and girly.
“Please. Please.”
Her face hardened and suddenly I was looking at a woman. A very wicked and heartless one. The girly facade was gone.
“You will not come to my fiancee’s room again. The next time you do, I will rip apart your face with silver. Let’s see how he likes you when you are unattractive, shall we?”