Page 20 of Venice

“There must be some explanation,” I say.

“Yeah,” Marcello paces. “She played us again. That’s the explanation. That woman is an expert liar. We should have chained her to the bed, not set her free.”

I put a hand on his shoulder, and he swings around, fist cocked. I hold up my palms. “Look, if she doesn’t want to stay with us, we let her go. The reason we kidnapped her in the first place didn’t work. Her parents refused to stop the registry, and we aren’t the sort of wolves to hold someone hostage anyway.”

“You’ve claimed her, Luca. You can have no other. Both you and Emilio will remain celibate for the rest of your long lives. She shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this,” Marcello growls. “She’s lost nothing, but you two have lost everything.”

I sit down on the couch next to Emilio. “It doesn’t matter.” My words sound strange, even to my own ears, and I surprise myself by saying them. Even more so because I mean them. “I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with us. We let her go. We go on with our lives. We can still have intimate relationships with other women as we have in the past, without intercourse.” But I know the main reason I’m suggesting this is because I am in love with her, and I don’t want to mate with another.

Emilio shudders next to me. “It would have been easier if we’d stayed virgins, then we wouldn’t know what we were missing.”

“I disagree,” I say. “We experienced our knotting. We don’t have to wonder anymore. And Marcello can still claim a forever mate.”

“I just can’t believe she would do this,” Emilio says. “I thought she loved us.”

I shrug. “Maybe she does. Maybe she’s scared or had another agenda. Maybe we’ll never know.”

“I really don’t get how you can be so understanding,” says Marcello. “I’m furious.”

“At us or at her?” I ask.

He sags, all bravado gone in an instant, and plops down next to me on the couch. “Both.”

“I understand that,” I say. “You’re disappointed and hurt.”

“Betrayed. You two gave her your most intimate selves, and she betrayed you. I’m the pack alpha, I should never have let this happen. I’m the one who should have claimed her first. I can’t live with myself knowing I’ve let you both down.”

“This isn’t your fault, Marcello.” I turn to look at him. “We rushed into this together, taken by her.”

“Fooled by her,” Marcello says.

Emilio stands up. “I’m going to look for her. I want to her to tell me why.”

“No,” Marcello stands and puts his hands on Emilio’s shoulders. “Luca is right, we let her go. Why she abandoned us doesn’t matter. Her actions speak volumes. I’m done with her, and so are you.”

“My heart is broken. I’ll never love again,” Emilio turns away from us and skulks upstairs to his bedroom.

Once he’s gone, Marcello sits next to me again. “If she came back, could you forgive her? I know what Emilio would say, but what about you Luca?”

I run my hands along the black leather couch and turn to face him. “She is my bonded mate, the only one I will ever have in my life, so yes Marcello, if she returned, I would welcome her back with open arms.”

“I don’t think I could do that,” says Marcello. “How could you trust her again? Twice betrayed.”

I shake my head. “You say that because you haven’t knotted inside of her. If you had, my friend, you would never hold a grudge. You’d lay yourself naked at her feet, begging her to take you back, if she walked through our front door right now.

“Then I’m glad I didn’t claim her,” he says.

But I’m not. I wish he had, not to hurt as we do but to know the magic of her loins and the intensity of her love. And I’m still glad I took her as my mate. If I had to do it over again, I would, even if she is gone forever. I know Emilio feels the same way. The three of us have formed a bond that will never be broken, by distance or even by death.

Chapter Nineteen

Diva

I can’t deal with what’s happening. The change. The flying. The heightened senses. I am Signum. How can this be? I’m part of a race I’ve despised my entire life. No, I was taught to despise Signum because they were different. The unknown. What will my bigoted family say now? Surely they’ll see the error of their ways.

Without thinking, I fly back to the rental property I was sharing with Iphi and Sophia. Landing on the windowsill, I watch the women sit at the kitchen table drinking coffee.

“I’ll be sad to leave Venice,” Sophia says.

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