Arabella’s POV
When Luciano came again to the cell, he wasn’t alone. His guards dragged something between them down the staircase.
When Luciano got to my cell, he opened the door.
“I brought you a gift. ” Luciano said sardonically.
I didn’t even reply to his taunts at this point. He wasn’t going to get to me so easily, I was busy conserving my strength for the incoming pain.
He nodded at his men and they dragged the thing they had brought up with them into her cell. The thing was a person. A boy really, he looked like a teenager, thirteen to fourteen max. He also looked like he had been beaten to within an inch of death’s door.
My stomach turned at his callous regard for people and life in general.
Then his men unstrapped me and dumped me unceremoniously to the ground and my ass hurt with the landing. Then they put the boy in the interrogation chair.
I looked at Luciano wondering what his plan was this time.
Once the boy was securely strapped down, his men went outside and stood guard.
“Do you recognize this boy?”
He knew for a fact that I didn’t know the boy. How could I have when I barely left the pack house?
What was he getting at?
“No.”
“He is a runner for your friend Natasha. She knows how to pick them, doesn’t she?” He walked up to him and pulled him by his hair drawing him upward and back, baring his bruised face. He had two black eyes and the left side of his face was extremely red. He smelt off.
A low groan escaped the boy even though he was still unconscious. Luciano smiled at how unnerved I looked. Surely he wasn’t going to torture this kid?
“The best part is, he is human and extremely fragile. One wrong nudge and he’s gone.”
“What are you doing, Luciano? Why is he here? He is just a child.”
“He is an incentive. This is how this will work. I ask you a question, and you respond. If you don’t, I will remove one nail from him. Once we are done with his toes, we move to his fingers then other extraneous appendages. I will try to go easy on him so we don’t kill him too soon. And we wouldn’t want that now, would we? Because if that were to happen I would have to start all over again with another of her runners.”
Luciano gave a snide smile.
My heart skipped a beat, my fear growing. It was one thing for me to take the pain but this boy? No. He looked half dead already. But what on earth could I do?
“I don’t even know the kid. Torture him all you want. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Maybe if I bluffed, he would let him go. After all, what was his use if he couldn’t be used to keep me in check?
Luciano smiled. “If you insist.”
He went to a table that held gleaming torture equipment. The taser was there and I repressed a shudder at the memory. He picked up two of them and came back to the boy.
“When did you meet with Natasha for the first time?”
I remained silent, my heart nearly imploding in my chest.
At my silence, he nodded like he was agreeing to something. Then he took the boy’s legs then used one of the pieces of equipment to lift the nail up to secure it properly to the second then he began to pull out the nail. The boy screamed. It was a high-pitched wail.
“Stop! Stop! I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
Luciano stopped and looked at me, a mocking smile in place. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
***********
Alpha Luciano’s POV
Arabella wiped the tears from her eyes. “You are cruel. How could you torture a child for information? Every time I think you can’t get any lower, you take it as a challenge to surprise me with your cruelty.”
I cocked a brow. “Maybe you should get your expectations in order. You already know that I am not a good person. Now answer me. When did you and Natasha begin this plan?”
How long had Natasha planned this? Had this always been in her plans even while she had worked for me? If I knew her thought process, I could predict her next actions.
“The day you let me out to test my royalty. She approached me while I was on the rollercoaster.”
Of course. Fate had a wonderful sense of humour. I sent Arabella out because I was distrustful of her loyalty -for the right reasons if I might say so- only for her to meet the person who’d made and enabled her with the means with which to betray me.
I kept asking her questions. Where were the drugs? She had no idea to the best of her knowledge they were gone. Natasha hadn’t told her all the minor details.
What was Natasha’s long-term plan? She had no idea just that fucking with me had topped her list before. Apparently, their partnership had ended once she had stolen from under my nose.
I asked her more questions that she had no answers to. Did she know where her hideout was? How many men did she have? Did she have a mole in my pack apart from Arabella? How did they meet or communicate because only members of the pack could mind-link?
The fury that burned through me when I discovered the answer was so hot that I had to inhale deeply to avoid combustion. They had met in the pack house under his very eyes. I asked her for the dates. The guards on duty on those days would need to be questioned because Natasha had gotten in somehow, she wasn’t a spirit.
I signalled the men to come in and carry the boy out for medical care. He had served his purpose.
Once they were gone, I regarded Arabella on the floor, her eyes were downcast and her body vibrated with tension. She was trembling.
“So you betrayed me because you were angry that I strangled you because I didn’t know you had been loyal to me. Unfortunately for you, the one thing I can’t abide is a traitor that is why you will have to die Arabella. You have proven yourself to be your father’s daughter.”
I lifted her up from the ground and she stood wobbling on her feet. It had been some time since she had stood upright so it was okay for her to be unstable.
“I might be unable to kill you because of my wolf but I can certainly have you killed.”
“Luciano, I can’t…” Arabella put a hand on her throat as if to say something then she dry heaved. Her eyes fluttered shut and she fell to the ground unconscious.
“Arabella?” I crouched next to her and checked her pulse. It was weak. She was probably severely dehydrated. During the almost full day that I had tortured her, she hadn’t had any liquids. No matter, once the doctor gave her a few liquids either orally or as a drip, she would be good enough to withstand another round of questioning and eventual death.
I would treat her and then break her again. It didn’t matter.
******
The doctor came up to my room to check her out. It’s not like I could have had her checked out in the dungeon, the doctors had seen worse but not unnecessarily.
The doctor examined her using the stethoscope, and checked her pulse, and the pallor of her skin. “She is dehydrated and needs some fluids.”
Just like I thought.
“Some vitamins will also help too and her feet will need some healing ointment to hasten the healing process since she will be unable to heal fast enough on her own.”
I paused. “Why will she be unable to heal well on her own? It’s not a silver or wolfsbane-laced injury.”
“No, but pregnant she-wolves have trouble healing because of the unconscious suppression of their wolf side to keep the unborn pup safe.”
My world stopped.
“Arabella is pregnant?”