Arabella’s POV
The only problem with being high is eventually you come down.
Being pregnant had been my high. I had been happy. I felt loved, felt wanted. I had loved, dreamt, hoped and seen a future when I should have been scared of the aftermath.
My body healed. My belly was flat and concave again in days thanks to the genetics of being a werewolf. If I tried a little I could imagine it all being a dream. The only problem was when I opened my eyes, Margaret was gone.
The painful part was Margaret’s sacrifice had been in vain because the child had died anyway. The baby was gone. My baby was dead.
And Luciano. After forcing me to eat, he stood up and was almost at the door before he turned and asked me a question that wasn’t even about me.
“Emery. What role did she play in all this?”
Out of spite, I wanted to stay silent. She had wronged me several times in the past and I wanted her to hurt as well. I wanted everyone to feel this endless pain that seemed to hollow me out from the inside, taking away chunks of me at a time.
“Arabella. Tell me now. If you say she did anything then I will kill her. You never have to see her again.”
I never wanted to see anyone again. I just wanted to sleep and keep sleeping because every time I opened my eyes, I remembered Margaret, I remembered the baby and for a brief moment, I remembered Luciano.
For that brief moment, I wanted him to touch me, hold me, kiss me and fuck me so that I could forget anything had happened to me even if it was for a short time.
“She saved me.” Then l thought about it and laughed. It was a dark pained laugh. Had she really saved me or damned me? If the assassin had killed me at least I wouldn’t be…
“Or at least she tried to. She shouldn’t have. It’s not like it mattered.”
I might be alive but my heart wasn’t. My heart felt dead.
Suddenly, Luciano was next to me and I felt his cool fingers on my chin. I looked up at him and I was surprised to feel tears wetting my cheeks.
His blue eyes looked tired as he looked at me and for the first time, I wondered how he was holding up. He might not care about me but the baby, he’d loved the baby more than anything else that he had.
“You are not allowed to feel that your life doesn’t matter. Because it matters to me.”
Then Luciano dipped his head and kissed the tears off my cheeks. Then he took my mouth in a devouring kiss that I was surprised to feel my body responding to. I thought I was dead inside but by the time we stopped kissing, I was no longer sure.
Because for that moment I forgot. I forgot my loss and pain and I knew that made me a terrible person for wanting to forget about my friend’s death. The worst but I still wanted it desperately.
Luciano pulled away and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I caught his arm.
“Don’t go. I want to forget… even if it’s for a short time. Please.” I forgot that I hated him for still being so damn callous to me even now. I wanted to bury my pain in pleasure till I couldn’t anymore.
Luciano removed my hand from his. “You need to heal and I have people to kill. You don’t need this right now. Margaret was your friend. Allow yourself to grieve. Our child was important to you too, let yourself cry. You don’t need to sex distract you from that. It’s the only way you will be able to heal properly.”
I looked at my hand he had just removed from his.
“So you will tell me what it is that I need? You’ll tell me how to feel, how to grieve and how to cope with loss. Who the fuck do you think you are, Luciano? This all happened because of you. You made me stay locked up in that room for ‘my safety’. You left me despite how much I begged you not to. You were busy celebrating some shit I don’t know while I lost my child and Margaret sacrificed her life for us. Hell, even Emery pitched in but not you and now you think you can tell me how to feel. You can go to hell.”
Luciano growled. “Arabella.”
“Fuck you, Romano. Fuck you.”
He gave me a death glare before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.
Then I broke into heart-wrenching sobs.
**********
Alpha Luciano’s POV
I was in a foul mood to end all other foul moods. I was mad, I was in pain and most of all I wanted to spill blood. I called Mikah and ordered Emery’s release. I should have tendered an apology to her for the wrongful accusation and torture but since when did I ever apologise about anything? I was fucking Alpha. I didn’t need to.
My men were ready for the fight we were about to take to the Creoles. If they wanted war, I would show them that I was the God of war and they would fear my wrath and cower at the mention of my name.
We didn’t go to their pack. No, they would be expecting that and we wouldn’t have the home-front advantage. Instead, we hit the main location of their business sector. Their drug empire. They had strips of clubs and underground seedy places that were their territory as I had mine.
My men tore up the area with bullets but I wasn’t armed with a gun but twin daggers. I wanted to be up close and feel the blood spill on me. Arabella wanted sex to forget. Only swimming in a pool of my enemy’s blood would suffice.
When the shooting stopped, the real violence began and I killed and killed and killed. As I killed, I lost sight of the better person I had wanted to be for the child. It was all hogwash anyway. People like me didn’t change. We were unable to. How could we when this was all we knew?
When we finished with that joint, we hit another then another. In hours, the whole of Italy ran red with their blood. I knew that there would be casualties from bystanders but I didn’t care. I felt numb now and the Creoles would finally know exactly who they were messing with.
********
Emery’s POV
After being released, the first thing I did was confirm the death of Arabella and Luciano’s unborn child. The child was dead. I could have danced for joy if I hadn’t been so weak from the torture. Who would have known that quiet Mikah was as good, if not better than Luciano with torture?
The good thing was that I was a werewolf so in days, I was fine. I couldn’t say the same for Arabella. She had been released from the hospital and had returned back to the harem. No more special suites for her. I laughed, had she really thought that Luciano had fallen for her?
No way. It was just the child and now, now I would usurp that position. There was no way she was getting back into his bed if I had my way about it. Luciano was slowly returning to his former self with the deaths he was dispensing around Italy that had the entire werewolf community shaking.
There was just one thing left. For him to fuck someone else apart from Arabella. He hadn’t touched her since her return nor requested for her. I was going to use this situation to my advantage.
I took my time getting ready for him. It had been a while and just the thought of him had me slick. I pulled on the robe and left my room.
I paused at Arabella’s door, inhaling the scent of her misery before smiling and carrying on. The sweetest part about all this was the fact that neither of them knew I had been behind it.
Some might have called me desperate for not hesitating to fall into bed with someone who had found it too easy to order my torture but it wouldn’t have fazed me because I was desperate.
Desperately in love with Luciano and love forgave all. Love killed to protect. Love razed all in its path. The same way I would raze everything and everyone in my path to getting Luciano. I slipped into his room.
Luciano was pulling on his shirt. At the sound of the door opening, he moved and suddenly I was up against the wall, his fingers choking the breath out of me. Then he noticed who I was and let go.
“Emery. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you.” I parted my robe slightly to show him was completely naked underneath. “I wanted to comfort you. Everyone in the pack knows about the child yet you stand alone. I understand loss, and I want to help you heal.”
Luciano looked at me.
“I shouldn’t have had you tortured unfairly.” It was the closest he would come to an apology, I took it with a bright smile stepping into his personal space.
“It doesn’t matter to me, Alpha. I understand.” I ran my fingers down his body about to reach for his dick when he caught my hands.
“I do not require your services. You may leave.”
I looked at him in shock uncomprehendingly. I had broken her hold on him. I killed the child so why…
“Alpha.”
“I said you may leave Emery. From now henceforth, do not come back to this room. I appreciate what you did for Arabella but I no longer require your services along with the remaining women in the harem. You may stay there or leave. It doesn’t matter to me.”