Emery’s POV
My stomach rumbled in complaint.
My strength was waning. When Luciano had told me to wait for my punishment, I didn’t think it would take so long. I had no idea of the amount of time that had passed. No one came to give me food or water. I tried to reach out through the pack link to contact Mom to know if Luciano had taken his anger at me out on her.
So I sat in my cell awaiting my punishment. What else could I do at this point? I had paced so much that I wondered at how the stone floor showed no signs of wear. I was anxious, tense, tired, and weak.
I thought about what I could have done to induce a different outcome. Should I have let Anastasia’s man kill Arabella that day? Should I have left when Luciano asked me to leave?
My mind spun with the possibilities of what ifs and I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up to the sound of the door of my cell opening.
Luciano stood at the cell door himself. That wasn’t right. If he intended to execute me, he would have had me summoned and then executed in short order. Dangerous hope bloomed within me. Could he have… was it possible that he’d changed his mind about killing me?
“Emery Salvatino, you are hereby banished from the Lupo-Mortale pack lands. You are to vacate the boundaries within the next twenty-four hours with your family.”
Luciano turned his back on me to leave as though he hadn’t just upended my entire life.
“Alpha.” I barely stopped myself from calling him Luciano. “Why?”
He could have cut me off from the pack entirely instead of just from the pack lands. He could have made me a rogue wolf to be hunted down and killed. He could have ordered me to be drawn and quartered. Knowing Luciano, he probably had even more creative ways to deal with traitors but why was he being lenient with me?
I squashed the hope trying to find root within me. He’d made it clear that sex was all he thought me good for. Arabella was his mate. If I thought too long about it, I could break down in tears so I tried to keep it out of my mind.
Could this be a trap? Would he kill me the moment I stepped foot outside his borders?
Luciano turned to look at me, his blue eyes were awash with such fury that I subconsciously took a step back.
“My mate has seen fit to spare your life. If I were you I wouldn’t tarry here for long because even though Arabella has pleaded on your behalf, I haven’t forgotten the fact that you killed my child. Let this be the last time I see you, Emery, the next time I do will be your last day on this earth.”
With that, he left me alone with my cell door open.
Arabella had saved my life. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I still hated her with all of my being. To step out of that door would mean that I was indebted to her. That I would have to do her a favour or live knowing that Arabella had granted me this chance at life.
My pride held me immobile. I couldn’t be indebted to her. I recalled Luciano’s deadly gaze. If I remained here, he would return to end my life. It would be a better death than to live my life under Arabella’s debt.
But I really didn’t want to die. I took the first step out of the cell cursing Arabella under my breath.
********
Alpha Luciano’s POV
I could only hope that would be the last I saw of that woman. The next thing on my list was to dissolve the harem completely. The ones who had remained needed to leave.
If Emery could do that to Arabella then the others could do even worse upon finding out that she was really my mate. Besides I had no desire for any other woman since I had mated with Arabella.
I was done with hiding this secret. I wanted to tell everyone the truth and to hell with whatever opinions they had. I was Alpha. I had the right to do as I pleased. I just wanted to tell Uncle Tommaso first.
I opened the door to my office to see Uncle Tommaso sitting waiting for me.
“Ah Luciano, my boy. I thought you had moved your office elsewhere. You haven’t been in for days.”
With an intro like that how could I tell him about Arabella?
“I got caught up in some things. Did something happen?” I said dismissively as I walked towards my chair hoping it would discourage him from asking too much about the ‘things’ that had kept me engaged for three days.
Uncle Tommaso looked like he had a lot to say about that which was why I was surprised by what he said next.
“The time we have long awaited is here. Vitalio’s attempt at reentering the drug market has failed. My men personally sabotaged his efforts. He has fallen and he will not be able to get back up. Now we should end him and eradicate the Stonecold pack the way we planned to all those years ago.”
I didn’t feel any different upon hearing that. All my life, I felt that one of the defining moments of my life would be when I finally had my revenge on Vitalio. That once I killed him I would begin to look at the past with less pain, that my parents’ death would feel less painful and that I would be able to stand tall in their memory.
But now I already stood tall. I already felt like a man that my parents would be proud of. I still wanted to kill Vitalio but I wondered whether that victory would also feel hollow the way killing Anastasia had felt and now I worried about Arabella.
She acted like her relationship with her father was a forgone conclusion but I knew the woman. Someone who found it difficult to sentence someone who had tried to kill her and had killed our child to death, how would she react when she found out that I had ordered a strike on her father?
She would be heartbroken. She would be shattered but she would still smile at me so that I wouldn’t feel bad. She would act like it didn’t bother her. Because that was the sort of person that she was. I had no idea how it had taken me this long to see how good of a person she was.
“Uncle, you had no right to send your men to do that. Vitalio’s end is upon him and I shall personally behead him myself but not a moment before I intend to. Before I am your nephew, I am the Alpha of this pack. Before going on to make any more moves perhaps inform me first.”
Uncle Tommaso regarded me and then bowed low.
“As you command, Alpha.”
A faint whisper of unease threaded itself through my veins but I ignored it. It was unsettling how Uncle Tommaso had capitulated to my demands but he was also someone who respected the chain of command so it wasn’t totally unpredictable.
******
Elder Tommaso’s POV.
Luciano had lost his way and it was up to me to save him from himself.
Moving out of the office, I noticed the text that I had gotten from my informant. Apparently, Luciano had released Emery. After all the ruckus he had made about her giving away his beloved Arabella to the Creoles I thought that he would have had her killed quietly but instead he was going to let her go so easily.
No. There was something here that I was missing and Emery was the missing link. She had known Luciano for years. She knew him and she must have noticed the change in his behaviour. Was it possible that she had some insight I was aware of?
“Have her followed. I want you to know where she goes and who she speaks to.”
“Even after she leaves the pack, Elder?”
“Leaves the pack?” I asked confused.
“Alpha Luciano has banished both her and her parents from the pack lands.”
“Why didn’t you start with that?!”
“My apologies, Elder.”
If Luciano wanted her to leave the pack then she surely knew something.
“Once she and her family leave our borders, abduct them and bring them to my house. Be discreet, no one is to know about this.”
In a matter of hours, I would uncover exactly what Luciano was hiding from me.