Elder Tommaso’s POV
I watched the realization dawn on his face that he couldn’t do anything, that he was powerless in this situation.
Luciano’s face twisted with anger and violence as his grip on me tightened to the extent that my vision blurred. Good. This was the fighter I had raised. I suddenly felt a pang of hope. She hadn’t completely killed off the Luciano I knew.
“If you do not tell me where she is, you will not cross the threshold to this office alive. I will dice you up bit by bit until there is nothing left of you.”
“If you kill me, Arabella also dies.”
I pried his now loose fingers from my neck. It was pathetic how easily he had given in once he heard her name.
“She is in a very volatile location. If you care for your mate even a little bit, you will have to do exactly what I say to get her back.”
I saw the unchecked fury and disbelief in his eyes and the way his hands clenched into fists. He obviously wanted to pummel me in but because of his mate, he had restrained himself.
“Mates? You knew we were mates?” His gaze drifted off. “That was why you had Emery. Why would you do something like this if you knew that she was my mate?”
I ignored his question. Did it need answering? No, it didn’t. He had waived the right to that when he’d begun hiding things from me. Besides, couldn’t he guess? He knew that I hated the girl. Did he think that finding out she was his mate would butter me up to her? That would be a foolish thought. Before she was Luciano’s mate to me, she was Vitalio Bianchi’s daughter. A daughter that Luciano had accepted as his mate. The thought was aggravating so instead I reminisced.
“Luciano, how did we ever come to this? Nearly trading blows over a woman. A Bianchi at that. You lied to me for over a month about her being unconscious. But you were lying even earlier, weren’t you? You knew she was your mate right from the start. You should have killed her immediately to prevent a bond from forming between you and the daughter of your parents’ murderer. But you couldn’t do it. Your parents would be disappointed in you.”
Luciano took a threatening step forward.
“Keep my parents out of this. The only person they would be disappointed with is you. You kidnapped my mate. For what purpose exactly? Because vengeance has clouded your mind.”
My temper smouldered. Vengeance had clouded my mind. What was he talking about? Had he forgotten everything so easily?
“As it should yours. Did your parents not die before your very eyes? Did you not see them violate your mother? What happened to the Luciano I knew who vowed to take revenge by any means necessary? The Luciano who wanted to behead Arabella Bianchi and send the head to her father?”
Luciano looked at me not with contempt or anger but with something far more aggravating, pity.
“He realized that vengeance only consumes. That it is a knife without a hilt that cuts both the bearer of the knife and its target. That it gives your past power over your future and that the best form of vengeance is to live a good life unburdened by that.”
“Arabella was not the one who killed my parents. She was barely a toddler when it happened. How can I possibly blame her for it with a clear head? As for Vitalio, he is already paying for his sins. I won’t feel bad if he died but I don’t need to go out of my way to end his life. He has so many enemies that it is only a matter of time before he dies.”
I couldn’t believe the utter crap that Luciano was spouting out. That we should forgo vengeance. That Vitalio was going to die either way so we should sit on our hands and let karma punish him? I had never heard so much nonsense in all my years of living on this earth. After all our plans to make Vitalio Bianchi pay, we should dump them out the window because he had fallen in love with the enemy.
That was never going to happen. At least not in my lifetime.
“It is a pity that you let yourself be misled in this manner. There is only one thing. I will never let you make this kind of mistake. I have kept Arabella at a warehouse with a bomb on her. And I have taken the pains to inform her father that you will be there without any bodyguards or defence.”
“He is rightfully pissed at you for all the troubles you have caused for him. Perhaps he even wishes to kill you and inherit your pack lands using the old ways. Who knows what is going on in his head? If you refuse to go, he will rescue and take Arabella back to his pack and you can say bye-bye to your mate. If neither of you shows up, then she dies.”
“I would rather she dies. You are strong enough to survive her death. However the ball is in your court in order to save your precious mate’s life, you will need to kill her father.”
I relished the pain in his eyes. It would only serve to make him stronger. Though I worried if I would ever be able to completely obliterate her influence on him. It didn’t matter. Once he killed her father, she would hate him as he had hated Vitalio.
*********”
Arabella’s POV
I woke up feeling light-headed. The ties around my wrists were tighter than before drawing blood. My shoulders and my feet were also tied up to restrict movement. I tried to move but I couldn’t. It would seem like the ties had been made coated with silver to prevent a wolf from escaping.
A beeping sound announced itself on my chest. I looked down in unrestrained alarm to see something strapped to my shoulder ties. It had a timer that was counting down from one hour to zero. If this was a bomb, I was done for.
I looked around. The place was dark. Nothing, I couldn’t see through with my werewolf vision. There were boxes everywhere. Some empty and open others closed. Right in front of me, a man armed to the teeth dozed with a gun in his hands.
If I could get my hands on it…
I heard the movement of other men inside the warehouse. They were perhaps two more apart from this one. They weren’t many. I could have escaped if it weren’t for the ties around me that restricted my movement and I didn’t have a bomb strapped to me.
If I tried to in spite of the ties and the bomb then the men would catch me before I thought to blink.
When Luciano’s uncle had spoken to me, it felt like he was about to kill me. Why had he kept me alive? Giving me a chance to escape the bomb was even too generous for him. I fought off a flicker of fear.
I wanted to remain alive. I had a good life now. With Luciano and I didn’t want to lose that. I knew Luciano would come for me, it would be dangerous but I knew he cared for me so much that he’d risk it. I didn’t like the role of the damsel in distress but I disliked the role of the dead girl even more.
Before Luciano made it here, could I do anything to escape from this place or was I to remain trapped here under the mercy of Elder Tommaso?
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Alpha Luciano’s POV
As we neared our destination, my mind spun with possibilities.
Uncle Tommaso seemed comfortable as we sat in the backseat of the hired limo. He’d slipped the driver the address then requested the screen stay up as well as the tinted windows.
I would have to kill Vitalio Bianchi. I remembered the promise that I made to Arabella. A promise I would have to break because I had no choice.
The car stopped. It was time.