Page 25 of The Piece You Stole

Formed when some of the wealthiest shifter families in the city banded together, it was only right that the pack be named after the family who had led it for the last four hundred years. The Desidarios. One day, I would have been the one to lead.

Maybe I’d already be leading it if I’d stayed, because at thirteen, after my first shift, I snarled at my five-year older brother. Instead of snarling back, Leandro showed me his throat, and that was when we all knew who would lead the pack one day.

Me.

A long time ago, the thought had excited me. Maybe it was the part of me that likes to have others follow my orders. Now, I view that life as nothing more than a cage.

Losing control of my wolf and nearly savaging a strange girl with haunted blue eyes was one thing. But attacking the men I’ve always sworn to protect? It’s time I did something about my wolf.

“What arrangement Claudine and I come to doesn’t concern you.”

Lingering in the white marble foyer of the Desidario mansion, I glance at my watch. Eight o’clock. Time for dinner. On the heels of my thoughts, a door swings open and toward the chef’s kitchen, something rich, fragrant and citrussy drifts out. Duck and…orange sauce.

“Clio will want a mansion on the hill. I bet she already has an interior designer on speed dial. All you’ll need to do is sign on the dotted line and get busy making those alpha babies that chased you into the city.” Leandro waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

“It wasn’t the babies that chased me anywhere, Leandro, it was walking in to find you fucking my mate.”

As devastating as it had been, it hadn’t really been a surprise. Leandro always viewed fucking as little more than a hobby. And Claudine…well. She was never innocent.

I shrugged it off, swallowing down my hurt instead of gutting my brother and my mate. Leandro was Leandro, and Claudine had apologized. It was just a one-off, she’d said. Just an innocent flirtation over before it had even begun. We would all start fresh; she’d promised with the sweet smile that had always gotten her everything she’d wanted.

My mistake was to believe she wouldn’t play the same games with me as she did with everyone else in her world.

I’d have done anything for her. Anything and everything. She was mine, and I thought I was hers. I lost count of how many times I nearly put myself out of my grief, and would have if I hadn’t found Kade and Aden. Now I think of Claudine, I remember her face, and I want to carve every last thought of her right out of my mind.

A sly smile stretches across his lips, flashing perfect white straight teeth. “We heard about that bar of yours. That wasn’tallwe heard. It wasn’t even the most shocking. Though I’m sure Mother would disagree.”

Monica. Mona. Nica. Three names for the woman we shared.

I’ll bet you couldn’t fucking wait to run home to feed her that tasty morsel, could you?

“I’d have thought Mother had gotten used to surprises after Claudine and Father.”

The pain blasts me between the eyes and would drive me to my knees, howling my grief at the moon if I let it. But that’s a weakness I don’t dare let anyone under this roof see. I’d tear out my own throat before I did that.

Leandro snorts. “Are you asking if she gives a fuck about Father’s fucking, or are you—”

“Leandro!” an outraged female voice erupts from behind us.

“Yes, language, Mother.” Leandro grins. “I know how you hate it when I swear.”

But not when Father fucks girls young enough to be his granddaughter. That’s easy enough to ignore.

Turning, I watch as Leandro greets her with a soft kiss on her upturned cheek. Dressed in a pale gray, belted Chanel knee-length dress with sky-high heels, he hasn’t changed either. She’s still the same beautiful Lila Desidario that I remember. Maybe there are one or two more threads of gray in the blonde hair she’s woven into a sleek updo.

But Father didn’t choose her for her beauty. No, her value came from the fact her family had produced nothing but alpha children going back six generations. Father didn’t just want alpha sons, he needed them because a Desidario always leads the pack.

Leandro and I barely resemble her at all. We’re the product of Father’s mixed Spanish and European genes, strong enough to stamp us with the same dark hair, strong nose, and olive skin. From her, we inherited our green eyes. Emerald, and brighter than you’d usually see in a man as dark as Leandro and I.

Leandro bends his six-foot-three height, even lower so she can affectionately pat his cheek, the way you would a favored child. Or pet.

And then she’s moving toward me, the same placid smile on her face as if this isn’t the first time we’ve come face to face in over a decade.

I’d often forget she was an alpha growing up. She could give the right order to servants and the staff in the house and restaurants, but there’s a hierarchy even among us alpha wolves.

Her smooth brow creases in a slight frown as she stops less than a foot away. Her bergamot and lavender scent drags me into the past, to the last words she spoke to me as I prepared to walk out.

“Dariel, there’s no reason for this overreaction. You can’t leave. In time, I’m sure we can all move on from this wrinkle.”

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