Arabella’s POV
The house was massive and the more I explored, the more I found. It was around the same size as the current pack house but this one seemed slightly larger probably because it was empty. The rooms were wide and spacious, a mix of modern and ancient themes. I wondered how many years this pack house had been in use prior to Luciano deciding to move out.
It was in a surprisingly pristine shape from all the maintenance Luciano supervised. I thought about how much power an Alpha had over his subjects, that they followed his every command like it was a mandate from heaven, that they could abandon their ancestral home just because it had made him uncomfortable…
My father had ruled using that power to foster fear. Luciano’s rule was more of a mix from the little experience I had with his pack. There was fear, admiration, love, and pity and like the man, I couldn’t make an unbiased assessment of the rule itself.
“My lady, some fruit perhaps?”
I nearly jumped, startled even though Luciano told me we had two to three staff. The house simply felt too deserted that it was easy to forget that I had company.
Cecile was the cook, a matronly lady who had impaired hearing, Luciano had assured me that she, like the other staff, were trustworthy and loyal unto death. He had chosen so few people to serve us because he was still worried due to the Emery situation. Until she confessed whether or not she had an accomplice.
“Sure.”
I let her escort me away from the empty wing. My mind wandered to Emery and I felt a riot of conflicting emotions. She killed our child and I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive her for that. I wasn’t that good of a person regardless of what Luciano thought. My hand strayed to my belly, I made a fist and dropped it down.
There was no need to fixate on the past. The only thing that I was vaguely curious about was the why behind it. What had inspired her to do so many terrible things? Greed for power? She so desperately wanted to become Luna after all.
Envy? At all the attention Luciano gave me, good or bad. Or was it desperation borne of the fear of failure? That all her efforts would be in vain. She hadn’t accomplished anything after years with Luciano. Did she feel wronged, or cheated? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t good enough for her to have murdered my innocent unborn child.
We reached the dining room. It was large and felt twice as empty without Luciano. He’d left for less than three hours but I missed him desperately already. So quickly I had grown addicted to his smile. It was so beautiful. Perhaps the draw was heightened by the fact that he’d barely smiled at me before. Now I greedily wanted to see it all the time.
I recalled this morning before he left, how he’d worshiped me with kisses from head to toe before taking me. I could have died from the pleasure alone and the intensity of the emotion in his eyes when he looked at me.
“It feels ominous to be this happy.” I had told him afterwards when we cuddled on stolen time. His front pressed against my back encasing me with tantalizing heat. His lips drifted to my nape and although I was sore, my core tightened with need.
“We’ve earned this Arabella. I won’t let anyone take this from us so be at peace.”
I gripped his hand, still somehow frightened. Every time we were happy it seemed like something or the other ruined it. Now was undoubtedly the happiest we had ever been. Naturally, I was scared.
Sensing my fear, Luciano turned me in his arms to look at him.
My eyes found his comforting blue ones and I relaxed in his arms.
“We will be fine. I won’t let anything go wrong. Trust me.”
I nodded and when he kissed me again, I forgot my worries. I didn’t even think of how easy it had been to trust him. He was my mate after all.
When he finally left, he was later than he should have been and had almost forgotten to apply the scent blocker to obscure his scent. Without it, one whiff of him and it would be impossible to hide the fact that we were mated.
As I ate the fruit I was served, I missed him so ferociously that my chest ached with need.
I wanted him back that very instant. I wanted to wander into his office and see what he was up to. I wanted to watch him and keep watching him until he was sick of me.
I wondered how things at the pack house were going.
********
Alpha Luciano’s POV
Has Arabella woken up?
“No, she is still unconscious. Why do you ask?”
I was proud of myself and how I kept my facial muscles under control. Perhaps it seemed too in control and blank because Uncle Tommaso didn’t seem to buy it.
His eyes narrowed in suspicion then he nodded his head as though agreeing with me or as though he was confirming something in his head.
“If she is still hurt, wouldn’t the hospital be the better option for her? Maybe you should return her to the pack’s hospital until she wakes up.” He suggested offhandedly as though he were not watching my features intently while he spoke.
“The doctors have already said that she will feel better in some time. There is nothing more that can be done on their side.”
“Is that so? I guess it can’t be helped.”
Uncle Tommaso changed tactics.
“You’ve been absent for days, you even came in late today. Instead of celebrating our victory over the Creoles and planning on how to deal them another blow to show them the consequences of standing against us, you just drew back. I almost thought that I would have to come and drag you out of the former pack house. I thought you hated that place, what changed?”
Everything. Everything had changed. I had changed. Being with Arabella there had made it far too easy to forget a world existed outside those walls. Now I was forced to face an impossible fact. That I might not be able to live without someone I once detested. And I couldn’t reconcile both parts of my life – the man I was currently and the man I had been before – much less tell Uncle Tommaso about it.
“I used to. Now, I wonder if I was too hasty in cutting it out of our lives. It held good memories that perhaps we shouldn’t overlook. Besides, being ruthless to prove to our enemies that we shouldn’t be trifled with seems like needless violence sometimes.”
“Needless violence?” Uncle Tommaso regarded me as though I had grown another head.
“I know that is the way we have done things for a while and that to do things any differently would give the impression that we have grown soft but don’t you just feel…tired sometimes? I want to maintain the traction we have gotten yet at the same time I wonder if we aren’t becoming the problem we wish to eradicate.”
Uncle Tommaso was unreadable.
I repressed a sigh. Truth be told, I wasn’t in any mood for arguing about the many reasons that we should try to rein ourselves in so I pulled myself up and looked at my watch pointedly.
“Right now, however, I have a torture session with a prisoner that absolutely can not wait. I’ll catch you later, Uncle.”
It had been an excuse to escape my uncle and his sure castigation about my newly found radical point of view but I found myself walking towards the dungeons anyway. This would be the first time after being with Arabella that I would torture someone. I wondered if I would revert to my former self.
I walked down the stairs and towards the cell. How many times had I placed Arabella here?
It was a wonder that she had forgiven me after all that I had done to her. I truly didn’t deserve her.
The prisoner stirred.
“Luciano?”
“Hello, Emery.”
********”
Elder Tommaso’s POV
I found myself wondering about whether there was any truth in what Luciano had told me. In trying to make sure that Luciano didn’t end up dead like his parents, had I made him just like the people we fought against? If I had, was it a completely bad thing? Would my brother be proud of the way I’d raised his son?
I entered my home. There was no need to wonder about what couldn’t be changed. Wrong or right, Luciano was alive to make decisions about his life. That was all that mattered.
My mind went to the conversation again. When he had spoken about Arabella, he had been lying about something. I had known him since he was a child. I could tell. But why had he lied? I knew he already had the suspect for her kidnapping in custody. So what was the need to lie to me? Only a few answers remained to that question.
The first was that Luciano wasn’t lying at all. The second was that he felt that there were suspects that he was yet to identify. And the last was that something had happened in the old pack house that Luciano didn’t want me to know about.
There was only one thing to do.
I picked up my phone.
“I have work for you.”