Finding Forgiveness

As I took my first step towards the door, I felt him grab my wrist and haul me back in front of him.

“What do you know about these men?” he asked again, this time in a low growl.

“Nothing,” I hissed and his jaw tightened.

I was terrified of him. I won’t lie. But my love for Leo and the pack had a greater magnitude than any fear and I wasn’t just going to give them up.

He hit me hard across the face, the impact sounding throughout the house. But I didn’t whimper or let him see any sign of pain, I just stared down at the floor, trying not to be crushed by the extraordinary tension now in the room.

“Talk,” he snarled gripped my face in one of his hands.

His other hand, which was firmly around my wrist was excruciating but his glare on me was worse. I searched my brain for any way of getting out of this situation until I came to the decision I’d do exactly what he said. Talk. But without giving anything useful away. Only the trivial shit like how Luca showers sitting down or how Max only eats Chinese food on Tuesdays.

I’d always been good at talking. So let’s put it to the test.

“I’m waiting,” he said.

“These photos are old,” was all I said.

“What makes you say that?” he asked finally releasing my face from his hand.

I hesitated for a moment, “They all look so young,” I said without wanting to give away too much. “Max now has one grey hair by his ear that isn’t there in that photo and Luca’s eyebrow-”

“Cut the shit,” he snapped.

“And this man, Luciano, isn’t even alive,” I continued, ignoring him.

I pointed to the photo of Luciano, where he was stood with the same darkened torment on his lips with that sadistic glint in his eye that I knew all too well.

“He’s dead?” Andrea asked, suddenly sitting forward.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“Interesting,” he muttered looking down at the photo. He rested his teeth on the end of his pen before looking back up to me. “He just died of natural causes… or?”

I paused and closed my mouth before leaning back in the chair.

“Come on, babe. What am I going to do with information on a dead man?” he asked.

“Then why do you need to know?”

“Morbid curiosity,” he replied. “Tell me.”

He had a point, what use would information about Luciano be to his mission to kill Leo. And maybe if I told him this he’d let me go without trying to get anything about Luca, Max or Blair.

“Leo killed him,” I said eventually. “Four years ago.”

“Why?” he asked. “He was a pack member, no?”

“It’s a long story.”

“And we have a long time,” he replied with a shrug.

I sighed as he watched me, waiting for me to speak.

“He was Leo’s good friend from a young age. They got along well in that they both had the same psychotic antics and lack of immorality which made him the perfect partner in crime. But Leo had at least some level of morals even if very weak and a line he never stepped over but Luciano didn’t.”

“How so?”

“Leo has a sense of justice. He lets the innocent be and tries to rule fairly. Of course, I’ll be the first to admit he doesn’t follow that perfectly but in comparison to Luciano, he’s an angel. Due to their long-lasting friendship, Leo was tolerant of Luciano doing things that no other pack member would get away with but when he repeatedly raped an innocent human woman after being explicitly told not to touch her, he exiled him.”

“Awe, I didn’t know your mate was so soft,” Andrea cooed.

“Leo doesn’t tolerate rape,” I replied.

“But murder and torture is absolutely fine?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “These morals of his are questionable but this is irrelevant. How did he end up dead?”

“Fast forward three years and I am in Italy without Leo when I come across him. Since Leo didn’t strictly allow me to go to Italy, Luciano took the opportunity to win back Leo’s trust by returning me to him. Leo fooled for it and the next thing I know, Luciano is sexually assaulting me. Which is sickening in its own right but when you consider that Luciano is my second cousin, it is utterly nauseating. And of course,” I paused and looked him dead in the eye. “The best way to piss off an Alpha is to touch his Luna, so when Leo found out, he killed him.”

Andrea let out a short laugh and leant back in his chair.

“That is quite the story,” he commented. “Your cousin, you say? And ex-best buddies with your Alpha?”

I nodded.

“And he’s definitely dead?”

“Yes.”

Andrea smiled to himself and there was silence for a few moments, “You can go,” he said. “We’re done here.”

I looked at him puzzled and when I didn’t move his eyes shifted to me, “Unless you want to share every detail of your precious Luca so that I can hunt down his family and brutally kill them all?”

At that, I got up and immediately left.

My plan had been a success but somehow I had an overwhelming unsettled sensation in my stomach. His reaction had been weird and I stood outside his office in confusion for a few moments before I tried to brush it aside and headed back to the library.

For the rest of the day, Andrea was in a good mood.

As usual, I still did my best to avoid him but when he came to find me in the garden in the early afternoon, the sinking sensation in my heart wasn’t as extreme. Think expensive yacht rather than the Titanic.

“I’m leaving for a few days,” he told me as he sat beside me on the lawn and joined me in staring up at the golden rays of the afternoon sun.

“Am I going to?” I asked, curling my fingers around some blades of grass and plucking them from the earth.

“Not this time, Blanca,” he replied. “You’ve already done your bit to help me with this.”

I furrowed my eyebrows, “What?”

He turned to me with a glimmer in his eye, before he turned back to the sky.

“Don’t you worry,” he said. “I’ll see you in two days.”

As promised, two uneventful days later he returned. Despite moving in the interim, I was in the exact spot in the garden that he left me, laying on the lawn on my back staring up into the sky.

I didn’t look up at him or even move as he approached and he stood by me for a few moments before speaking.

“Come with me.”Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.