Emery’s POV
I knew I was fucked the moment I caught sight of Luciano bringing Arabella back.
I had waited in my room in the haren waiting for the arrest order. When it didn’t come, I prayed to the goddess and thanked her for saving my life.
It was all that bitch Anastasia’s fault. If she hadn’t engaged me in a conversation when I was handing off Arabella to her, Arabella would have never seen my face. But she had and the look on her face when she realized I was behind her child’s death was chilling.
When she woke up, she wouldn’t hesitate before telling Luciano about me.
Then I heard about how serious her case was. I had been so happy and prayed fervently for a miracle. For her to die on the operating table. That way I wouldn’t be punished by Luciano for trying to kill her. However, she’d survived. And that quickly I was in trouble again. She seemed to do that a lot. It was as though she had nine lives or something.
“I heard her case is extremely sensitive. The only thing that can be done now is to wait for her to recover on her own.”
I had contacted my friend at the hospital fighting concern over her health. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried to myself.
Arabella was unconscious with no way to regain her consciousness as of yet. So I plotted. Once Luciano brought her back to the pack house, I would launch my final attack on Arabella and take her life to secure mine. It was the only way out for me now.
And then as though informed of my plans, Luciano stashed her somewhere else. Now I couldn’t get to her in time to kill her. She could expose my identity at any time. There was only one recourse I had. I needed to run.
I remembered what I heard about the way he had killed Anastasia off. Anastasia with the powerful family backing. Just because she had messed with Arabella. If he found out about my betrayal and the fact that I had caused the abortion of his child, I was dead. He would skin me alive.
It was with a bitter mouth that I started to pack. My account was red. I hadn’t saved for rainy days. Luciano had been very generous with our stipends. He had promised to keep paying until we grew old. I was still in the prime of my youth so I had spent the money freehandedly. It was always going to be there after all.
Now, I regretted it.
I finished packing and mourned my loss of Luciano. I would leave at night and the rest of the money I had could get me out of Italy so that Luciano wouldn’t come after me. I would be penniless but I would keep my life at least.
I slept for hours feeling sorry for myself. In the dead of the night, I carried my bag.
I was at the doors leading out of the harem about to open it when it swung open all on its own.
Luciano stood outside our quarters. “Emery? Where….” He noticed the bag I held and his expression changed.
I shuffled back at the thunderous expression on his face.
“Where are you going at this hour, Emery?” His voice was deceptively soft but I could hear the danger in his words.
“Uh… I…” I swallowed. “You asked me to leave, remember? I wanted to leave at night to avoid notice at least for now. I just want to spare my parents that attention.”
I prayed silently that he would buy my story.
“Of course. You may leave.” Luciano’s face was inscrutable but he obviously believed what I had to say because he was letting me go.
I exhaled the breath I was holding.
“Goodbye, Alpha Luciano.”
I moved, hauling my luggage. I had escaped punishment. Escaped with my life intact. As I moved past him, he caught my arm.
I paused and looked up at him in askance.
“Exactly how stupid do you think I am, Emery?”
In his hands, he held my flight plans and the empty pack of the abortifacient.
I felt my heart sink to the ground.
“Luciano, please listen to me, that isn’t…”
“I’ll listen to everything you have to say in the dungeons.”
On cue, two pack warriors entered the room. I felt the walls constrict around me.
*****
Alpha Luciano’s POV
Mikah had been the one to point it out to me.
He’d handed me a set of papers. I looked through them and looked at him confused.
“Why did you give me the shopping list of Emery’s mother?”
Mikah folded his hands behind his back. “Alpha, she has been ordering some suspicious drugs privately for some time now.”
I tried not to show my indignation.
“And so? She is allowed to buy whatever drugs she wants. So what if she doesn’t want it to be broadcasted across the pack by ordering through the general channel? It’s not a crime.”
I rubbed my temples. “Didn’t I tell you to get the accomplice for me? How do you still have time to go through people’s shopping lists? Have you checked out Uncle Tommaso’s whereabouts on that day?”
“Alpha, your uncle checks out. He wasn’t the person who betrayed us. I brought this list to you because my fiance noticed there was an abortifacient among the drugs ordered.”
I paused. An abortifacient? “Your fiance?” I found myself asking.
Mikah blushed a little. “She is a pharmacist. She confirmed what it was.”
The doctors hadn’t said that Arabella’s miscarriage was caused by artificial means – I’d asked. They said it was stress induced as her hormone levels had spiked inducing a spontaneous abortion. They had been unable to detect the exact cause of the hormone spike and blamed it on the exacting conditions the day she lost the pregnancy.
Was it possible that the drug had been metabolized so quickly that the doctors had been unable to find it in her blood sample?
If that was true then Emery had a hand in my child’s death. No. I placed a lot on my temper. First I needed more information.
“Tell me more about this drug. And all the other drugs on this list.”
The more Mikah spoke, the angrier I became.
Not only had Emery poisoned Arabella but from the logs of the orders that she had placed through her mother, she had been giving contraceptives to the other harem women for years. That wouldn’t be so terrible in and of itself as women had a right to pick their conception times.
But somehow I doubted she had informed these women of what she was doing. In the same way, I doubted she had informed Arabella about the true contents of whatever she had added the drug to.
I wanted to bring in Emery’s mother and question her. To punish her. Then I remembered how it had been to be a parent even though it had been for a brief period of time, what wouldn’t I have done to protect my child? She was a mother, of course, she would want to protect her child at all costs. Even at the cost of my own child.
Once we had a suspect, it had become extremely easy to find out that she had been missing during Arabella’s disappearance. Easy to find her ripped dress at the pack dry cleaners that reeked of Arabella and had a small blood on it.
Then we’d gone on to discover she wanted to jump ship because of how the intensity of the search was amping up.
As they dragged her away, I mind-linked Mikah to go ahead and start her interrogation. I wanted to know about any other accomplices that she might have had.
****”***
Arabella’s POV
I wish I could have said that I had been in a dream. Living a different life or trying my best to wake up. I did none of the above. Instead, the moment I took the bullets for Luciano, I felt a sense of calm sweep over me and after I confessed my feelings for him I was swept under.
The next time I opened my eyes, it was only fitting that Luciano was next to me. I smiled, tears in my eyes.