Last to Love

by Alexa Whitewolf

  When I sense a presence in the cell, I look up with accusing eyes. “Mamma, is this what you’ve been trying to tell me?”

  She stares at me, eyes filled with tears, but says nothing. I get back up, clenching my fists and feeling that trembling in my body again. My muscles rip, and the change almost overwhelms me. Mamma comes to me and places a hand on my shoulder.

  I turn to her, frustrated. “Why won’t you say anything?”

  Her contrite expression clues me in. Something changed between last time and now, and she cannot talk to me anymore.

  “Is it because I’m getting closer to the Underworld? But I haven’t killed anyone, and if anything, that fact should be opening the communication between us.”

  I stare into her eyes, filled with so many unspoken words. Once more, I’m being robbed of answers, of the only person who can provide them. And because I’ve been too stubborn and have no mastery on the chimera, I cannot work it properly.

  Frustration rolls through me again. And then steps echo again outside my cell, and a red haze unlike any previous ones fills me. I gently push my mother away, and face off to the gates. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice her disappearing, but don’t let it affect me. Feet width apart, fists clenched, I’m a hunter waiting for its prey.

  And when Alessandro walks in, I lunge on him. My chains snap, and this time I yank chunks out of the wall with them. Then I’m flying at him, my fist connecting with his jaw, time and time again. We slam into the wall and I’m unleashed, a flurry of fists and snarls that makes the place tremble.

  My father has no chance to fight back. I’m the tornado he should’ve expected, the fists of the gods coming down on him with all the power of a tsunami. He is useless – pathetic.

  “Fight me, bastardo!” I yell back. “Or is it only the weak you like to manipulate?”

  By the time six of his men pull me off him, my forearms are filled with rusty hair, and I’m panting hard. It feels like I’m halfway, stuck between morphing and my human side. My wolf is nowhere, instead all I get is the chimera. The fucking chimera singing in my veins, demanding I take a life.

  Just one more.

  One. More.

  And this one, I would relish. The taste of his blood, the feel of my claws ripping through every inch of his chest, pulling out that cold, unfeeling heart – that is what I crave. That is what I need.

  I lunge again, pulling three of the men with me, then someone tosses a chain against my throat. My neck muscles cord, taut, and I turn to my right. Ana’s cold gaze meets mine and she tugs on the chain like a leash.

  “Basta,” she says softly, and the men step away from me. Or rather, her. It takes me a moment to realize why. She doesn’t appear as innocent as she did before. Instead, her robe is almost undulating with darkness.

  Ana tugs on me again, and with a jerk of my head, I snap the chain out of her grasp. Alessandro is helped up by two more wolves, which he shoves away, wiping blood off his chin. “Have you lived among savages, boy? All I’ve tried is to connect with you, and this is how you repay me?”

  My fists have found their target. His nose is bloody, and he’s sporting a black eye and a bruised jaw. His suit is spattered with more blood and ripped in parts. Satisfaction tears through me, but not enough to dilute the rage.

  “How dare you bring Matteo back? Have you so far lost your mind that you really think you can bring us together?”

  He slants a look to Ana, who shrugs and bites her thumb. “Scusi, caro. I couldn’t resist.”

  Rather than get mad, Alessandro snorts and judging by their sickening camaraderie, I get the feeling this is a twisted game they play. One I refuse to be a part of.

  “You committed a despicable act,” I growl. “If Mamma was around, she would be ashamed of you.”

  Alessandro shrugs. “She never was very proud of me. Then again, you get what you pay for.”

  “You fucking—”

  The wolves around him form a semi-circle, and the movement makes me laugh. “Scared much? For once in your life, you should be.”

  Alessandro pushes past one particular guy and steps until he’s only a foot away from me. It’s a show of force, but I can tell he doesn’t mean it. His fear coats the air – I guess Finn’s gift does come in handy.

  “Don’t ever talk bad of Mamma again,” I hiss at him. “You don’t deserve to even say her name, after what you did.”

  He spreads his palms in a gesture of helplessness. “Luciano, basta! Enough with the old grudges. Your mother was a complicated woman, and she drove me insane as much as I did her. What happened that night was an unfortunate incident. One we have to move on from.”

  “Sì, I can tell you moved on real well,” I scoff with a scornful look at Ana.

  Alessandro scowls, his expression almost pinched. “Watch your tone.”

  “I don’t take orders from you anymore, remember?” With deliberate movements, I tear into the chain cuffs around my wrists, watching his expression pale as they turn to dust in my hands. “You wanted me strong, wanted to raise the chimera? Well, congratulations. You have managed, Papà. Now what?”

  “So you’re done with your tantrum and ready to listen to reason?”

  I frown. His satisfied stance tells me he’s got something coming. “Send your goons out of here, and I’ll listen.”

  Alessandro nods at them and they leave, but Ana stays behind. I can’t resist another dig. “How easily you replace quality with quantity, Papà. Used to be you cared about a good thing.”

  Ana takes a step towards me, hand raised in a slap, but I catch the wrist and stop her. “Raise your hand at me again, and you won’t live to regret it.”

  She blanches at my furious tone, and staggers backwards to Alessandro’s side. The sight of his pudgy arm around her trim waist makes me want to puke. “Now, now. I want you two to get along, if we are to be a family.”

  “You are deluded,” I mutter.

  “Not so, mio figlio. This entire time you could have escaped, yet you stayed. Why?”

  My fist itches with the need to punch him again, but I manage to hold back. Channeling my inner Dominic is not the way out of this. “I thought there might be some logic to your craziness. Something behind all this. Something more than... you losing your mind.”

  I shake my head, feeling drained all over again. “How could you do this to Matteo? How?”

  “Matteo died too young, you know it as well as I do. And I found a way to return him to his former glory. You should be thanking me, not judging me for it.”

  “But I do!” I glare at him, stepping closer. “Do you not see you’ve robbed him of the afterlife? How can you live with yourself after this?”

  Alessandro holds my gaze for another moment, then smirks. And laughs. Maniacally. A similar expression is on Ana’s features. “What the fuck am I missing?”

  “You never do change, Luciano,” Alessandro says as he rights himself. “Very well. Let me drop the charade, since it seems you outgrew the time of fairytales. I don’t care about your brother, or you for that matter. What I do care for is your gift. Now, the way I see it, I have what you want. You do something for me, and I’ll let you have Matteo, to do with as you wish.”

  I thought I’d heard it all before from him. I guess I was wrong. Ana’s cold smirk confirms they’re not joking about this, and that it was their plan all along

  “And what makes you think I’m not going to go out there now and drag him with me?” My gaze drops to the remnants of the chains. “Not like you can keep me here.”

  “One, because he wouldn’t believe you. You see, your fratello does believe in fairytales, and even though his last life ended rather unhappily, he is so very eager for more.” A mocking chuckle. “He definitely does not get that from me. And two, because un anima – a soul – taken unwillingly will disintegrate and haunt the earth forever, rather than return in the afterlife.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My, you really are clueless for
such a powerful hybrid,” Ana snorts. “After death, the soul travels to the Underworld. When its existence there is troubled, there is no way to bring him back to the world of the living other than bonding him with someone.”

  My gaze goes between them. No way my father volunteered for the experiment, which means... “He’s bonded to you,” I say.

  Ana grins wider. “Indeed. Which means any attempt on my life will impact his. And if something happens to me or you try to unwillingly bring him back to the Underworld, to return his peaceful ever after, it will backfire. Matteo will haunt the edge of the earth forever and never find peace.”

  My fists clench and unclench. Processing this, not acting on it, not killing them when the chimera wants their blood, is hard. Sifting through the rubble and the words trying to find the deeper meaning is even worse.

  They bonded Matteo with this witch, and there is no way to undo it. He’s stuck on Earth, in a half existence. My poor brother...

  Alessandro watches my every move, that glint of calculation in his eyes. “And of course, there is your pack. You do this for me, and I will release them from Rockland Creek.”

  “What do you mean, release them?” I take a step forward. “What did you do?”

  “Tsk, watch yourself,” Ana says. “It’s only a little spell, designed to keep them confined there. But I could just as easily blow them up to pieces if you don’t behave.”

  “See, mio figlio, over here you are no alpha. And if you do not submit to my demands, I will send the full force of my wolves on them, and make sure to breed your females extra hard.”

  Bile rises up in my throat. “You make me sick.”

  “Difference of opinion.” Alessandro shrugs. “What will it be?”

  There isn’t much of a choice. I became alpha not because of the power or control, but because it called to me. It’s the same reason I’ve played nice. It’s the same reason why I won’t leave my brother behind to suffer a worse fate than before.

  “Unlike you, I don’t let my pack pay for my mistakes,” I finally say. “What is it that you want with my gift?”

  Alessandro claps his hands in delight. “Meraviglioso! It is simple really. I want you to go to the Underworld and retrieve an object for me. In so doing, you can find a little something that will ensure your brother regains his full life, and no longer needs to be bonded to Ana.”

  “And what is this object you require?”

  Ana steps forward, an eager glint in her eyes. It’s only then I notice she’s been twirling something in her hand – a coin of some kind. “There is a man there, soon as you enter. It is he who drives the souls to their final destination in Hades’ realm. His name is Charon, and what you will procure for your father is his staff.”

  I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, and yet... “His staff? That’s what you want?”

  “Yes,” Alessandro says. “Easy, sì?”

  There must be more to it, but I’ll leave that for later to figure out. “And what about Matteo’s cure? Where is it?”

  “Matteo knows,” Ana says. “I will give him proper instructions before you head in.”

  “So, do we have ourselves a deal?” Alessandro asks. “Ana here is a great witch, but even her spells do not last forever.”

  I glare at him. Forcing the words past my lips feels like the ultimate betrayal, because it’s an agreement I don’t wish to give. “You can go to hell, Alessandro.”

  “I knew you’d see it my way.” With barely contained satisfaction, they leave my cell, not bothering to chain me again. They’ve ensured other restrictions are placed on me, though. Ones I cannot escape through sheer brute force.

  Merda!

  Monica

  I’m half-dozing at the back of the truck on the way to the Conti mansion. At some point, I fall fully asleep and wake up in a cellar. A man is on a cot, spread over and with his arm over his head, covering his eyes. Bits of chains are scattered on the ground, and the walls around look like they’ve been pummeled down.

  “Merda.” He sighs and stands, only then noticing me. “Monica? What—”

  I’m just as shocked. How can I be here, with Lucas, when moments before I was in Dominic’s truck?

  And then my eyes drink him in, starved from being distanced. He’thinner, though it’s only been two days. And there are bruises I can see through his ripped shirt, and a bloodied lip healing. In short, he looks like a mess. “What happened to you?”

  Lucas jumps up at the sound of my voice with a panicked expression. “Are you dead? Dio, I swear if he hurt you, I will tear him apart!”

  “Che? No, I’m—” I glance down at my shimmering body and hands, frowning. “I’m not sure what this is, but I’m not dead. We’re on our way to you.”

  Lucas pauses midway towards me, taking my words in. “We? Who’s we?”

  “Me and the pack. Dominic and the vrykolakas, too.”

  “Merda!” He crosses over to me, grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me gently. “You can’t, Monica. Tell them to turn back, all of them! Alessandro wants you here, he wants to use you as leverage against me.”

  “We can take care of ourselves, we have a plan.”

  He shakes his head. “My father is a monster, much worse than either you or I could have imagined. You have to turn back. Promise me you’ll tell them.”

  “I’ll tell them... but none of us will turn back. We’re committed to rescuing you.”

  Lucas lets me go then and paces the ground in frustration. “I don’t need a rescue! I need a damned miracolo.”

  Since I still don’t know what’s going on, I figure I might as well find out more. So I chance getting closer, and touch his shoulder. “What is it, Lucas? What did Alessandro do?”

  He freezes at my touch, and his breathing shifts. Then he’s pulling me close, kissing me like I’m his water. It’s what I’ve been craving, yearning for. His touch, his skin close by, his mouth on mine. My body hums at the closeness, and my wolf purrs in satisfaction.

  I vaguely wonder if he’d been feeling it too. There’s an urgency to his touch, to his kiss, like he knows time is running out. Not just for us, but for him, specifically. That’s what makes the alarm bells ring in my head, albeit sluggishly.

  We end up on the cot, me on top, tangled in a mass of limbs. I don’t even know how it’s possible, when it looks like I’m some apparition to him, but I chalk it up to his chimera. What I do care about is his frantic heartbeat. I recognize this mechanism, I’ve used it enough times.

  So despite wanting more of him, I pull back gently from his masterful touch, and cup his cheek. In his lap, with his arms on my waist, the gesture feels close, intimate. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”

  Lucas says nothing for long moments. So long, in fact, I fear he won’t open up, much like before. But then...

  He drops his forehead to my chest, not in a sensual gesture, but in one of defeat. “Alessandro brought back my brother from the dead, and he’s leveraging him against me. Him, and all of you. I cannot... I won’t let him hurt any of you. I failed before to protect what was mine, and I will not do so again.”

  There’s so much pain in his voice, so much hopelessness that I’m not used to, not with him. Lucas has been a rock, a pivoting tornado since I’ve met him. To see him like this...

  I drop my mouth to his, gently kissing him. He nips at my lips, then the embrace grows in intensity. My fingers roam through his hair, and he pulls me even closer, then releases me abruptly. I can hear footsteps in the distance, a clatter of boots and heels. Two men, and a woman. I can already guess who she is.

  “Why did they beat you up?” I whisper urgently.

  “A measure of control.” He stands, running a hand through his hair in agitation. “You have to go, Monica. Before they come here.”

  “I don’t even know how I got here! Let alone how to get back.”

  He sighs, caressing my cheek reverently, like he’ll never see me again. “Just close your eyes and think of your body. It’s bou
nd to work, none of this is permanent. Just... temporary.” He opens his mouth as if to say something else, but the footsteps get closer. “Tell everyone to stay away, tesoro.”

  I don’t know what to say to make it better. It feels like I’m losing him, and I’m not even grasping the full story. So I fill the silence with empty words, hoping he gets my meaning. “Hang in there, Lucas. Just... hang in there, please.”

  The last I see of him is his resigned expression. Then I close my eyes, and think back to the smells inside Dominic’s truck, and the mission I have to return to. When I open them again, I’m back to reality.

  Finn’s staring at me intently, and I gulp. How much of all that did he catch?

  “Pretty much all of it.” He grins. “You’re having Lucas dreams, and you still deny you’re his mate?”

  “More than that,” I whisper, ignoring the second part of his question. “I don’t know how, but I was physically with him... And we’re going to get there too late.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  ∞ Salvezza ∞

  “Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”

  -Unknown-

  Monica

  “Not if I’ve got something to say about it,” Dominic growls and guns the engine. Next to him, Luz dials a number and tells someone – I’m guessing Tristan – to step on it.

  “Will the vrykolakas be able to keep up?” She asks Dominic.

  He nods tightly, then meets my gaze in the rearview mirror. “How did that happen, you seeing him?”

  “I don’t know. One minute I fell asleep here, the next I was with him in Alessandro’s mansion. I... Lucas thought I was dead, because I looked like a ghost. But I wasn’t.”

  “How do you know?” Luz asks.

  A blush spreads on my cheeks. “Umm, because he could touch me.” Thankfully, I’m avoided further embarrassment when Dominic shifts into a deeper question.

  “How did Lucas look?”

  I shake my head. “Not good. He was beat up, but didn’t say much about how it happened.”

  “Beat up?” Finn frowns. “With all of his powers? That makes no bloody sense.”