Alpha Luciano’s POV
I noticed the man approach Arabella. He looked familiar but I could care less. What was he doing with her?
She glanced in my direction while talking to him. Was this a scheme to get my attention? It wouldn’t work.
I watched Arabella take his hand and follow him to the dance floor. Watched him slide his hands around her waist.
Anastasia was talking to me about something but I was no longer listening.
I would not give Arabella the pleasure of seeing me get jealous. His hands kept wondering and touching her over and over again but she didn’t seem to mind.
How could she dance like that with him in front of so many people but if I touched her in front of some people, she tried to kill herself? I would never understand women.
Then she was laughing the way she never did with me. Surely whatever he was saying couldn’t be that funny.
Some couples moved around them obscuring them from my view and I nearly jumped up from my seat to follow their movement.
Calm the fuck down, Luciano. You don’t even like her.
The crowd cleared and there she stood with him, they had stopped their pretence of dancing and were staring at each other like long-lost lovers.
I had seen enough. I stood up suddenly from the table ignoring the protests from my uncle and the gasp from Anastasia.
I stalked towards him.
‘Take your hands off her.”
The man was startled and his hand dropped from Arabella’s cheek. “Excuse me?”
I pulled Arabella to my side ignoring her protest and glared at him. “You have no right to touch my property unless I give you permission to do so. Know your place as a guest.”
“Let go of my arm, you are hurting me.” Arabella protested, trying to break my grip on her. I ignored her attempts, she didn’t have enough strength to oppose me.
“I apologise. Why don’t we talk about this in a more private location and you can let go of her?”
Arabella stopped her struggles to stare at him in unmasked surprise like he was some saviour or something and I lost it.
Would he now tell me what to do in my pack? He wanted to be a hero to impress Arabella. I remembered how he had danced closely with her. He was still looking at her. I couldn’t control myself.
I let go of Arabella and threw a punch at him. He fell down. I heard Arabella’s gasp. Great, she was now concerned about him. Didn’t she meet him like two seconds ago?
“The next time you try to tell me how to run my pack on my grounds, I will have you eviscerated. This will be my only warning to you. Keep away from my property if you care for your life.”
Ignoring the shocked looks and murmurs from several members of the pack, I pulled Arabella away and out of the hall. She didn’t protest much as I pulled her away. The pack house was deserted as we moved through and I pushed her into the office, the only room I knew we would be uninterrupted in and locked the door behind us.
“What was that? What did you think you were doing?” I questioned her.
“I could ask you the same thing. I’m not your property. How could you just hit someone like that without provocation, he was trying to reason with you for goddess’ sake! Do you even know who he is–”
“Your lover or at least you wish he was. Let me break something to you Arabella. I will never allow it.”
“Allow it?” Arabella arched an eyebrow. “You are getting mated, I don’t need your permission to fuck anyone. Never have and never will.”
“You can try it and find out what exactly I will do to you and to whoever it is.”
“Fine. I’ll go and do exactly just that.” Arabella knocked back my shoulder and walked briskly to the door as though intending in finding the nearest person and fucking them to prove a point to me.
Only I didn’t let her even unlock the door. I pushed her against the locked door.
“What are you–”
I claimed her lips with mine, she was still at first then she was moving against me. Her body arched into mine, her lips moving to deepen the kiss. I pulled away from her. Looked at her bee-stung red lips, her dilated pupils.
“You see this, you are mine. If you are so eager for a fuck. I can give you one. You don’t need to go looking for just anyone to debase yourself with.”
Her lips parted with outrage and she pushed my chest. I didn’t budge. I caught her hands when she tried to push me again and pushed them above her head with one hand before going in for another kiss.
She struggled against me this time, refusing to give herself to me so easily this time. It wasn’t a problem. I took it from her instead. I kissed her and bit her lower lip when she kept her mouth closed forcing her to gasp so that I slipped my tongue into her mouth as my other hand found its way to the middle of her thighs.
I touched her and she stiffened, unable to do anything but gasp and moan as I worked her towards her orgasm, I felt harder than I had felt in a while.
I wanted to fuck her until she remembered who owned her. Who her master was. And I would. I let go of her hands so that I could get out of my pants. I was surprised to note that she assisted me to push my tux jacket off.
I reached for the buckle of my pants.
“Luciano?” Anastasia knocked, her voice was uncertain.
It broke the spell. Arabella pulled her dress down and unlocked the door storming away without a second glance at Anastasia.
Anastasia watched her leave, the unmistakable scent of arousal in the air.
“It would seem I came at the wrong time.” Her voice broke and she turned to leave.
Fuck. What had I just done?
“Anastasia, wait. Come in, let’s talk.”
She hesitated, obviously reluctant to come in. Not that I could blame her. I had told her that I wanted to mate with her for real only for me to be possessive about Arabella mere hours later and for her to almost walk in on me fingering her.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
Anastasia entered the office. I kept the door open so that the scent of Arabella would dissipate.
“What you saw…”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to explain yourself to me. I already told you that I am trapped in this arrangement, I thought we were on the same page about staying together only if you wanted to.
You obviously have feelings for Arabella. If you want to break up the engagement, I understand.”
Her voice was pleasant and easygoing but she didn’t look me in the eye once.
“I don’t have feelings for Arabella.” Like I would ever. I despised her.
“But just now…” Anastasia’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Naive thing. She probably thought people only had sex with people who they had feelings for.
“It was nothing. I had a momentary lapse of judgment.” I tried not to gag as I said the next part. “I’m not used to having you in my life. I want to be a better person. For you.”
“Luciano.” Anastasia had tears in her eyes. It would seem like she had a surplus supply of tears. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell me you forgive me.”
I couldn’t let Uncle Tommaso ream me a new one for picking Arabella over my fiance. I haven’t done that but that was how he would see it.
“Of course, I do. It’s just you hit my cousin in front of so many people. I can’t just forget that. If she wasn’t important to you, why would you do that?”
He was her cousin? Of course, that was why he looked so fucking familiar. Great. I had hit my fiance’s cousin at our engagement party because of Arabella, and my entire pack had witnessed it, Uncle Tommaso included. I needed to do damage control now more than ever. Fuck.
“She doesn’t matter. I promise. I’ll apologise to him. Publicly if he wants it.” That was never going to happen but she didn’t know that.
Anastasia examined my face. “I don’t want to come between you and anyone. I want you to be happy. I want to be happy. That can’t happen when we are not with the people we want to be with.”
I forced a smile I didn’t feel. “I’m already with the person with whom I want to be.”
What exactly had Uncle Tommaso done by getting me a bride?