Alpha Loren Book 2

“Ssh,” I whispered in my daughter Marie’s ear, “Don’t wake Daddy up.”

She hushed and looked up at me, eyes wide and blue.

“Good girl,” I said, planting a kiss on her soft little head.

I laid her back down next to her twin sister, Francesca.

“I’ll miss you,” I said, letting Francesca clasp my finger in her hand.

“Mommy?” a little voice said.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the light of the moon pouring in through the hallway window, was my eldest, Cato.

“What are you doing up so late, young man?” I asked as I scooped him into my arms. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

“But I wanna play a game,” he protested.

“I know a good game,” I said, taking one last look at my twins before closing the door behind us.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Ssh, we have to be quiet,” I said, bringing my finger to my lips.

When we got to his room, I shut the door behind us and tucked him into his dinosaur-print sheets.

“It’s called…sleeping lions,” I said with a smile.

He let out a giggle before slamming his tiny hand over his mouth.

“How do we win?”

“You have to stay totally silent, and you definitely can’t move. If you do, I win. If I do, you win. Okay?”

He nodded before snuggling into his bed as I sat on the armchair beside him. After ten minutes, when I was sure he was asleep, I kissed his cheek and crept silently back into the hall.

I’d bid my farewells to all six of my children. Now all that was left was my mate.

I sat at the desk in his office, his scent thick in the air all around me. There was a pen lying on the desk and in the drawer a fresh sheet of paper.

A tear dropped from my cheek and onto the paper, smudging some of the ink. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, and before any more damage could be done, I left the letter lying on his desk.

The key to the front door was in its usual place on the bookshelf, and after securely locking the door behind me, I disappeared into the cover of the woods.

Goodbye, Leonardo. Just for now.

When I arrived at the New York cargo docks after hours of bus rides and hitchhiking, I found the guy I was looking for easily.

“Have you got the money?” he asked as he leaned against a post, a cap covering his eyes.

I handed him a wad of cash from my satchel. He smiled as he flicked his fingers through it.

“Enjoy Naples, kid,” he said, “I’ll make sure no one follows you.”

I gave him a nod before he let me through the gates and I hopped onto the cargo ship.

Sailing on a rickety ship across the Atlantic was never going to be a good way to spend two weeks, but taking a plane was too risky. Leo would be able to track me without even breaking a sweat.

It took some digging through the internet to find an alternative, but cargo ship owner Clive found me eventually and was more than willing to take my business.

So there I was, eating canned food, surrounded by nothing but ocean for days on end.

Fortunately, Naples harbor was busy and chaotic, meaning after slipping off the boat, I could easily disappear into the city and cut ties with Clive on the off chance that Leo found him.

The air was warm and arid and the streets aromatic with herbs, olives, and tomatoes. It was exactly how I had imagined Italy but even more fantastic.

I was proud to say my ancestors were from this wonderful country.

I eventually reached the outskirts of the city where farmland and vineyards cropped up as far as the eye could see.

With the help of a few locals, I tracked down the address I had scrawled on the back of a crumpled grocery store receipt.

It was a single detached house, solitary and not particularly boastful in size. Two stories, no car, quiet, peaceful, and simple.

Not what I had imagined at all.

I made my way up the steps to the front door and knocked. A voice called for me to enter, but nobody came to let me in.

So I turned the knob of the unlocked door and cautiously opened it to reveal a room with a small stove, a weathered sofa, and a balcony at the opposite end. Facing out to the countryside stood a man.

Dark hair, tall, mid twenties—exactly who I was looking for.

“Long time no see, lil’ cuz,” he said, slowly turning around to reveal his face.

It was Max, that was for sure. But he looked older, more mature, some may even go as far as to say amiable.

“You’ve changed,” I said, placing my satchel down on the wooden table and heading through the sheer, white curtain onto the balcony.

“It’s been three years,” Max said, leaning on the balcony railings and gazing out over the vineyards and olive groves.

“This is where you chose to spend your exile?” I asked.

“I tried New York and Rio and Bangkok and Paris and London and even Bangalore, but they weren’t right, and I couldn’t make them my home. So I came back to our roots. Where it all began,” he explained.

“Right,” I said. “It’s nice, I guess.”

We stood for a few moments in silence. I felt the gentle breeze through my hair and breathed in a deep lungful of the fresh air without the subtle hint of salt and ocean.

“Still no mate?” I asked.

“I haven’t been looking,” he replied. “There’s no rush, no title that needs an heir anymore, is there?”

I could tell in the tone and spite of his voice that he still blamed me for that fact.

“Guess not,” I said with a shrug.

What did I care?

“So what have you been doing for three years? Giving birth to and bringing up the alpha’s kids?” Max asked.

“Among other stuff,” I said after a short scoff.

“Such as?”

“Since when do you care?” I snapped.

“Since you appeared at my house, completely alone, thousands of miles from home,” he said, turning to face me again.

“I learned how to fight,” I replied eventually.

“The alpha would never have allowed that,” Max stated, shaking his head as he walked into the house.

He lifted a jug of fresh water off the table and poured me a glass.

“Did I ever say he did?” I asked.

“Maria, Elena, and I began a secret she-wolf training camp because it felt wrong that the ones in the most danger weren’t given the opportunity to learn how to defend themselves from it.

“We got fed up with relying on men for protection, so we started to teach ourselves.”

“Show me what you’ve got, then,” Max said, raising an eyebrow with an amused smile.

I returned a smile before taking a sip of my water and putting the glass back down. I began to stand up, but before I had the chance to finish, Max was straddling me on the floor, pinning my arms down.

“That’s what I thought—”

Halfway through his sentence, I snapped into self-defense mode.

Twisting my wrists and driving my hands down, I freed my hands from his grip before using my legs to throw him off balance and get myself out from underneath him and put myself on top.

Max retaliated by using his sheer strength and weight to roll us back over.

“Why did I fall for that? It’s been so long since I last had to restrain someone that I forgot the oldest trick in the book,” Max said when he was back in the dominant position.

Time for plan B.

I used my legs to hook around his so that he lost his balance and fell onto me, giving me the opportunity to shove him off before he could think of stopping me.

I then twisted his arms, which were still tightly gripped to mine, around his own body so that I was in a kneeling position and above him again.

“I’m impressed, Ella, if only you could have done this three years ago,” he said before untwisting his arms and getting to his feet, pulling me with him and driving us into the wall.

“You’ve got tactics, and you’re strong but not as strong as an ex-Megestanis.”

“Do not underestimate me,” I hissed with a scowl before raising my knee to his manhood.

He blocked it the first time, but he wasn’t expecting the second with the opposite leg. As he bent over in pain, I reached down to my holster, taking out the Praesidium Deae Astra.

When he looked back up, his face still in a grimace, I took the opportunity to knock him off his feet so that I was straddling him once again.

Before he could retaliate, I took his wrist and carved a tiny slit into his skin. In seconds, his entire body had gone all floppy and unresponsive except for his eyes.

“I guess you could call that payback for everything you did to me in the space of a couple of weeks. Now that I’ve let my anger out from you almost ruining my life, we can be friends,” I said, getting off him.

“Well...in twelve hours when you are able to move again. Revenge stings like a bitch, doesn’t it?”