Alpha Luciano’s POV
No, she couldn’t be dead. I laid her down on the forest floor. She looked serene. If not for the bullet marks and the blood on her lips, I would have thought her asleep.
My wolf howled within me and I felt the twin feelings of rage and pain cloud my vision. There was once a time that I wanted Arabella dead. That I saw her as nothing more than a means of getting back at Vitalio. A time when revenge was all I was. All I needed to be.
When I detested this bond between us that stopped me from harming her. A time when I was lost and somehow somewhere something had begun to shift and I denied it. Fought it with all of me because I didn’t want to suffer the way my parents had.
Their love became a weakness. Seeing the other half of her die had killed my mother before those men had even touched her. I’d wanted no one to have that hold on me and I had been successful. Sex was impersonal for me. It was merely satisfying my needs, scratching an itch so to speak.
After finding out that Arabella Bianchi was my mate, I hated the idea of mating even more, the moon goddess had screwed me over once again by making the daughter of my adversary my mate.
So I treated her badly and I fought against any emotions that I might have developed for her. But somewhere somehow something had changed. Bit by bit, I changed. And I didn’t realize how much until I saw Arabella lying there tirelessly. I couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.
A life without her glares, her crazy actions and her unpredictable behaviours. A life without her smiles and goofiness and all the moments we’d shared together flooded my head.
The day we’d met for the first time when I’d saved her without knowing she was Vitalio’s daughter. That moment of discovering my beautiful mate and thinking, maybe I could change for her until I had heard her name.
I remembered the first kiss we’d shared in the shed after she saved my life.
I remembered the first time we made love not sex, love and how utterly terrified I had been afterwards.
I remembered how the day I had summoned the pack doctor to examine her so sure that she’d lost her mind.
I remembered how she looked at me when I told her we were expecting. How we’d held each other in mutual dread and anticipation for the future.
I remembered how beautiful it had been being co-expectant parents. How she came apart in my arms with every touch I had administered to her.
I remembered the fights, the arguments, and all the wrong things that I did to her. I never deserved someone like Arabella. I realised that now. She was too good for me. She deserved a mate that worshipped the very ground upon which she walked. Instead, she had gotten me with my many flaws and she kept forgiving me till the end. Kept protecting me in her own way.
Worried about me and looked at me like I’d hung the moon.
And now that I realized how much she actually meant to me, it was too late for me to do anything because I had fucked up the one good thing I had.
I cradled her in my arms. “Arabella, please open your eyes.”
She didn’t respond. I couldn’t hear her breathing anymore. I prayed for a miracle for the first time since my parents died.
As if in reply to my supplication, I heard a faint throb from Arabella’s chest. Her heartbeat was faint but it was still there.
I pushed myself to my feet, lifting her into my arms.
“Alpha, we have discovered where Anastasia is hiding.”
My men had suppressed Anastasia’s men already and were searching the forest for stragglers.
The former Luciano would have handed over Arabella to his man to take for treatment and gone after his enemies himself to exact revenge but I had learnt that there were things more important than revenge.
“Restrain her and bring her to our pack.”
I barely glanced at him as I raced away with Arabella in my arms.
*******
Once more I was waiting in the hospital. I swear I hadn’t been as familiar with the place as I was now ever since Arabella entered my life.
They couldn’t let me in as they were carrying out a surgery to get all the bullets out of her.
I shook uncontrollably as I prayed. She had to be alright. Arabella had to be fine. Losing my child had broken me but losing Arabella would shatter me. I wouldn’t be able to cope with that.
I didn’t want to come with that.
A doctor exited the operating room and I walked up to him briskly, my heart pounding in my chest. “How is she? Is she alright?”
“We have removed the bullets but we’ll still need to treat the silver poisoning in her bloodstream.” The doctor hesitated. “Truthfully speaking Alpha, it is a miracle she is still alive. She has a long way to go before she is in the clear.”
I gulped, surprised to feel tears in my eyes. “I don’t care what you have to do or use. I want you to save her. Do you hear me? It’s a command.”
The doctor looked nervous but nodded. What else could he do?
“We will try our best, Alpha.” He rephrased. “We will save her Alpha.”
I stumbled out of the hospital barely seeing or feeling anything. There was nothing I could do. I wasn’t a doctor. I just had to wait. I had never heard of a more cruel punishment.
“Alpha,” Cross appeared next to me.
“Report.” I said, trying to get my head back in the game.
“We have apprehended Anastasia Creole. It was difficult because she–”
I waved away the explanations. I could care less about the method used to apprehend her. She hurt Arabella and I didn’t think I could forgive her for that revenge tendencies aside.
“Take me to her.” It was time to put the entire Creole issue to rest. To ensure they would never hurt me and Arabella again. Never.
Anastasia looked scared when I saw her. Not that I could blame her. I was going to kill her for her and she knew it. There was nothing she could do about it. Before thinking of stealing my pack from me, before kidnapping Arabella, she should have known what she was getting into by daring me.
“Luciano, please I’m sorry, okay? I just wanted to make a name for myself. Surely you can understand that.”
I said nothing.
She tried bluffing instead.
“The Espositos and the Creoles will come for you for this. You can’t just get rid of me. If you think this is bad, wait until my people get wind of the fact that you are holding me. You won’t be able to run any of your businesses.”
I walked close to her cell.
“Who is the person helping you?”
Her eyes glinted with avarice.
“I’ll tell you, once you’ve guaranteed my safety.”
I shook my head. She thought this was a negotiation.
“Your family, the Creoles, have overextended themselves by picking a fight with me. Your allies have deserted you, your financial reserves are down from paying debts that I have imposed on you. And for the Espositos, they are too smart to involve themselves with the downward spiral of your family.”
“Your family is on its last legs as a power to reckon with in Italy and the werewolf community. As for the traitor, you can take the information to your grave. I’ll find out soon enough.”
I scented her fear in the air when she realized that she had nothing to bargain with and I held all the cards. I didn’t feel any sense of triumph at besting her. Not when Arabella lay on a hospital bed fighting for her life. All I felt was a sense of finality.
“Luciano, wait–”
I shot her between the eyes and she fell forward lifeless.
I turned to Cross. “Stuff her body in a box and fill it with worms and send it to the Creoles. Tell them I await their surrender or we ride tomorrow to obliterate them.”
When Arabella woke up because she had to, I wouldn’t accept any other outcome, every inch of this place would be safe for her.