Alpha Luciano’s POV
“I think it’s high time you killed Arabella. She has outlived her usefulness. Vitalio has been declawed and is busy fighting off the government with the last of his cash to keep himself out of jail. We have no use for her anymore.”
I ignored Uncle Vitalio. He seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed today. He wanted me to kill Arabella now that she was no longer carrying my child. And somehow he felt that I would go with it?
I browsed through Mikah’s report on the activities of the Creoles. It was too quiet and I had learnt to be wary of the quiet before the storm.
“Luciano, I’m speaking to you.”
“I heard you.” I raised my eyes to meet him. “I just don’t feel like wasting my time on pointless arguments. Arabella is my property. She will live as I will.”
“It is not your place to interfere with your Alpha’s affairs. We all saw what happens when I let you try it. That’s how this entire Creole mess started anyway. So mind your business and find a fucking hobby to keep you occupied.”
I saw the hurt flash over Uncle Tommaso’s features but I could care less. He should have thought twice before barging into my office to make demands of me. I wasn’t just his nephew. I was his Alpha.
I finally felt more like myself than I had felt in weeks. I had gone to visit Arabella once she had been discharged from the hospital only to find out that she had moved out of the suite of rooms that I had given her.
I sat on the bed of the room that I had ordered to be cleaned up in preparation for her arrival and I could understand her decision. She wanted to avoid this place because it held too many bad memories. I couldn’t fault her for that. It was also close to my room and I knew the last thing she wanted was to see me.
Which was fine too because I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to see her as well. Seeing her always provoked a riot of emotions in me that were better left buried. I wanted to be frozen. I wanted to not feel anything.
“You care about her.” Uncle Tommaso sounded shocked.
I almost rolled my eyes but stopped myself in time. We’d had this conversation about a hundred times already and it wasn’t getting any interesting. It was aggravating.
“Don’t you ever tire of talking about Arabella? Nevermind. If that is all you came here for, you may leave. I have important things to do.”
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Emery’s POV
After Luciano’s stunning rejection, I realized something. He was never going to love me because he was already in love with that bitch. No matter, my love would have to be enough for the both of us. There was only one way out now. I had to kill her.
Once she was dead, I would be able to sway him with time. Even if they weren’t having sex together now, it didn’t mean anything because he was keeping himself for her. It would take careful planning and an appropriate scapegoat because if he found me out, I would be finished.
As I sat on my bed in the harem that Luciano had practically thrown me out of, I thought of a plan that would give me Luciano permanently. I hadn’t come this far for nothing. Arabella wouldn’t need to grieve her child and friend anymore, she would soon join them and I would keep Luciano.
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Arabella’s POV
“We are so sorry for your loss.”
If I heard those words one more time, I would kill someone. No. I would kill a lot of people. While I was at the hospital, news of my pregnancy had leaked and sympathisers had begun to pour in the moment I was discharged.
Maybe I shouldn’t have left the room that Luciano had given me, at least they wouldn’t have had easy access to me as they did now. The thing was I had moved out because I didn’t think I could have taken it if Luciano had thrown me out.
Thrown me out of the room where I had experienced the happiest moments of my life. No, I preferred to leave on my own terms before he could tell me to leave because I no longer had a right to the place after losing his child.
Besides when I had gone in to take some stuff, I had looked at the corner and all I could see was Margaret in every space of the room. Margaret making sure I was comfortable. Margaret holding back my hair while I threw up. Margaret comforting me while I ranted once more about Luciano. Margaret being my partner in pregnancy fitness workouts.
I cried as I moved my things. I couldn’t stay there. I was no longer depressed as I had been in the early days but I was still in so much pain that sometimes I couldn’t sleep. And when I slept, I woke up to a pillow wet with my tears.
I hadn’t seen Luciano since that day at the hospital. He had truly washed his hands off me as I lost his child. It was good. It was fucking perfect. I shared his guts either way so it didn’t matter to me.
Did I care that I had seen Emery go towards Luciano’s room wearing that damn robe and reeking of fucking petals? Of course not. Ge could fuck whoever he wanted to. I didn’t care.
I noticed the emptiness of the harem and I’d inquired about it when some of the harem women came to pay their condolences. I had been shocked when they told me that Luciano dismantled the harem and that they were here of their own free will because they didn’t have anywhere to go.
I even nurtured hopes that had been dashed the moment I saw Emery enter his room. She would remain his favourite no matter what.
I stood up from my bed feeling strangely violent. I needed to work this rage off. I pulled some clothes on and left the pack house. Almost no one watched me for Luciano anymore. I had become a fixture here. No one thought I would escape because where could I go that Luciano couldn’t be able to reach me?
I didn’t even have the zeal to escape anymore at this point. I just didn’t want to be in pain anymore. I wanted to freeze my heart and just breathe. For the first time since I had arrived at Luciano’s house, I was completely alone.
I jogged into the tree line of the forest that was close to the pack house and had just begun to relax when I heard a voice.
“Arabella.”
It was Emery. Even here she had on a flowy impractical dress that made her look like a flower that would soon be blown away by a stiff wind.
“Yes?” I didn’t have the time to talk to her. I didn’t want to talk to her, she was the reason I had come out here, to work out the anger I felt towards her.
“I was just about to come looking for you. You saved me the walk. How are you feeling now?” She moved close to me, her red hair unbound and pin-straight.
I almost laughed. “Even you, Emery? Do you also want to give me your condolences? I’m grateful for you saving me but this is so not you. You don’t care about me.”
She smiled. “Why I’m impressed, you know me so well. You are surprisingly astute.”
“I don’t get something though. Why did you save me?” It was the one thing I couldn’t wrap my mind around.
“That’s the thing,” She was right in front of me now, so close that I could see the flecks in her eyes. “I didn’t save you.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she swung a heavy branch that I hadn’t noticed she held until that moment because of the way she stood. It was so fast that I couldn’t duck. It hit my head.
I fell, my vision blurring. I held onto the edges of her dress, ripping it as I fell.
“Fucking bitch.”
Then she hit me again and the world went dark.