His Mate By Resistance (Lunetti Pack #2)
Chapter 1 Luca
CHAPTER 1: LUCA
The hulking presence of Luca’s bodyguard two steps behind him should’ve prevented him from feeling the need to check every store window for the stray reflection of a sniper scope as he walked down the city streets. It really fucking didn’t.
Luca hated relying on anyone to keep him safe and he wasn’t about to change that just because someone had decided he needed to stop breathing. He was cousin to the Alpha of the Lunetti Pack, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t hide from anyone.
A loud crack like a gunshot echoed against the brickwork of the building they were passing. Luca barely had time to stop his wolf from breaking free of his iron control before Angelo’s huge form crashed into him from behind. Pounds of raw muscle pressed him against the rough wall as the head of the pack’s security put himself between the potential threat and Luca.
Luca stiffened and fought to draw in a shaking breath as everything in him screamed to push the other shifter away. Angelo was only doing his job. If he repeated that enough times in his head, maybe he could convince his body and his wolf they were okay. Glancing up the street, Luca watched as a junk heap of a car turned the corner. He was already shoving Angelo off him before it had time to disappear from view.
His bodyguard growled in response. “Luca?—”
He cut Angelo off before he could berate him for exposing himself. “I’m fine. It was just a backfire. I can take care of myself.”
“No one ever said you couldn’t. But until we find this traitor, we’re all vulnerable.”
No one had to say he couldn’t. It was clear as fucking day by how they all treated him. Angelo must’ve been on edge because it was more words than the gruff man usually strung together when they were outside pack lands. The reminder of the traitor in their ranks had Luca wincing. It was the only reason he’d agreed to be shadowed everywhere he went. Luca didn’t want to believe one of the pack had betrayed them, but the evidence was overwhelming. He’d been attacked leaving their pack house, his home. No one but those loyal to the Lunetti Pack had access to the area where the sniper shot had come from and his car had been parked in the pack parking garage for weeks before they found the bomb the next day.
As the pack’s resident hacker, he’d spent the last few days hating himself for stalking his own people—his family—online as he tried to figure out who was responsible and what he’d stumbled onto that had made him a target. It was a painstaking process of infiltrating public security footage and online records to establish alibis without tipping anyone off. Shifters took loyalty seriously and Marco, their Alpha, was trying to avoid directly questioning anyone if it wasn’t necessary. The fallout from their Alpha being perceived as losing trust in their packmates would be far worse than the isolated threat to Luca—something his attacker was probably counting on to stay hidden. Once they knew for sure who it was, it would be a different matter. Like the human Mafia families people compared them to in whispers, they would make a brutal example of whoever it was who’d betrayed them.
Angelo fell back in behind him as Luca resumed his walk towards one of the local restaurants the pack owned. His bodyguard had argued they should travel by car between the locations on his list, but it didn’t make sense when he was only traversing a few blocks. He refused to live in fear just because of one asshole. He already had that covered without any outside help.
“Did you get what you needed from the warehouse?” Angelo asked.
Luca sighed in frustration. “No. I forgot they wipe the footage every three days. It was already gone. Sorry.”
It was a careless mistake. One he wouldn’t have made if he didn’t have such a huge volume of data to work through. He was only one man and there were over a hundred shifters with free access to the pack grounds who still needed clearing. He’d prioritised chasing down the packmates with means and potential opportunity first, which meant their many enforcers were top of the list. They were all highly trained shooters and used to hunting from the shadows.
The warehouse footage had been the only obvious way to clear three of the most concerning, including one of the newest recruits to Angelo’s security team. Lou was bloodthirsty and highly competent, and he’d really hoped he could take some of the stress off Angelo’s plate by clearing her. The head of security needed some trustworthy backup while he was busy playing bodyguard. The other two enforcers, twin brothers Dino and Tino, were explosives experts who definitely could’ve handmade the bomb they’d found under his car.
If only he could figure out what intel he’d stumbled on that had made him a target, he could eliminate their suspects much more quickly. He could feel a migraine coming on just thinking about it. In the lead-up to the attempts on his life, he’d been working around the clock tracking D-2S, the previously unknown anti-supernatural group that had been muscling its way into town trying to start a fight between the three supernatural crime families who ruled New Trinity. Rechecking that intel alone could take weeks.
“Do you think someone was trying to cover their tracks?” Angelo asked.
Luca glanced over at him, but the large man was too busy scanning their surroundings for threats to make eye contact. “It’s not like that. Deleting the footage is standard procedure and we’re keeping everything under wraps, so no one knew I needed it. I’ll have to do a deep dive into their finances and messages instead.”
Which would be fucking time consuming and a huge violation of their privacy. Angelo must’ve heard the disgust at himself in his voice, because he squeezed his shoulder in comfort. Luca forced himself to endure the touch in silence. It wasn’t that he was against the contact. All shifters needed touch. He just loathed being seen as weak and his family had never been able to move past his troubled teen years to see him for who he was now.
Angelo might not be a blood relation, but he was family all the same. He had the same hang-ups about Luca as his sister and cousins did. They looked at him and saw someone damaged. It made him want to lash out until everyone saw he was more than a victim trapped in past trauma .
He’d moved on. Everyone else needed to as well.
“Heard from your mate yet?” Luca asked, desperate to change the subject.
Angelo’s face froze in pain and he immediately felt bad for letting his frustration get the better of him. He’d known the question would hurt the man, and he’d asked it anyway. Angelo had pushed his vampire mate, Vin, away in some misguided show of loyalty to the pack. Luca might hate everything about the idea of a mating bond, but even he could see Vin was good for their staunchly quiet protector and would be an asset to the pack. Once they completed the mating bond between them, there was no way Vin would betray Angelo or his pack, unlike whoever this traitor was that Luca was hunting down. Angelo never should’ve sent his mate away, and he knew it.
“Fuck off,” Angelo growled, which was fair. Luca deserved it.
Shrugging a wordless apology, he focussed on the bustling street around them. They were half a block from the restaurant that was his next stop to collect video footage from when he recognised a figure up ahead, deep in conversation with someone.
“Uncle Gio!” he called out, mouth stretching into a smile.
Luca scented the air as he approached, but his attempt to identify the person half-hidden behind his uncle’s larger form was thwarted when the restaurant door between them opened. Delicious smells of fresh tomato and grilled mozzarella wafted onto the street as a group of people exited, making his mouth water and temporarily blocking his uncle from view.
He was almost certain the person Gio was talking to was the same one he’d seen him with last week—neatly tailored navy blue overcoat and light brown curls. The thought made him smile. He might hate the idea of mates, but that didn’t mean he was against finding your person. Especially for his Uncle Gio, who’d been alone since long before he’d pulled Luca back to humanity all those years ago. Craning his neck, he tried to catch a glimpse of whoever it was, but they’d already slipped into a silver car that was pulling away from the curb. Gio turned and hauled him into a hug before he could get a closer look.
“Well, this is a lovely surprise! My favourite nephew! Fancy a late lunch?” Gio asked.
“Sure.” Running into his uncle was a stroke of luck because it gave him the perfect cover for his visit.
Letting himself take comfort in the embrace for a moment more, Luca drew in a deep breath of his uncle’s reassuring scent that had always calmed him. His nose wrinkled as he caught the fading notes of whoever Gio had been talking to—anise and something peppery that made him want to sneeze. Luca didn’t get the attraction if they were seeing each other, but scent compatibility was a uniquely personal thing for shifters. Who was he to yuck his uncle’s yum? He kept his silence as he gave his uncle one more squeeze before letting Gio guide him into the restaurant.
“Will you join us, Angelo?” Gio asked.
The surly bodyguard shook his head, taking up a position near their table with his back to the wall where he could keep an eye on everyone around them. Excusing himself to use the restroom, Luca managed to snag the security footage from out back with no one the wiser while he was up. That left him free to settle back and enjoy the company of one of the few members of his family he could trust not to piss him off.
“So, who was the guy? Are you seeing him?” Luca asked, popping a piece of mouth-watering garlic bread into his mouth.
“I couldn’t possibly comment,” Gio said, his lips turning up in a smirk .
He hadn’t really expected Gio to tell him given his uncle had always kept whatever casual liaisons he had private.
“You deserve to have someone. It’s been too long.”
“You can talk. When are you going to start dating again?”
And that was why Luca liked Gio so much. No one else would say something like that to him. Well, no one except his twin. They’d be too afraid of dredging up past trauma. They treated him like he was a delicate ball made of glass, whereas Uncle Gio treated him like he was made of rubber that would bounce right back into action without breaking. That didn’t mean he wanted to answer Gio’s question, though. Luca hadn’t been with anyone since the day his brother died saving him, and if he had his way, he never would.
“Not today,” he said.
Gio reached over the table and squeezed his hand. “You’ll get there. Don’t let one asshole take the chance for companionship away from you.”
Luca shrugged. “Stop deflecting and tell me about whoever that was.”
“I’ll do you a deal. I’ll tell you about him on the day you come and tell me about a man you’ve fallen for.”
“No fair!” he complained.
Gio just laughed and changed the subject. “So, what’s been keeping you busy?”
Luca opened his mouth to vent about the work he’d been doing and then swallowed the words before they could come out as his Alpha Marco’s warning ran through his head— Tell NO ONE outside of this circle until we find the traitor. The circle included only those family members with airtight alibis—his sister Aria, Angelo, Marco’s two brothers, and Marco’s friend/accomplice Bella. He’d thought some of them would’ve guessed by now, but the idea of someone in their pack betraying them was so anathema it didn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that the attacks had been too close to home.
“Oh, you know. The usual. Saving the pack one hack at a time,” Luca said, hating himself for misleading his uncle.
A lie by omission was still a lie. He’d just have to hope Gio understood when it eventually all came out. Luca owed Gio everything. If not for him, he’d still be stuck in his wolf form—an animal rather than a man. His wolf whimpered inside him with guilt at the thought. He ignored it.
“I’m so proud of the work you do, Luca,” Gio said, squeezing his hand one more time before releasing it.
Luca forced himself to smile. “Thanks, Uncle. I wouldn’t be here to do it without you. Have you heard from Emilio lately?”
“I’m sure you speak to him more often than me, but yes, we spoke yesterday. He’s in Paris, I believe. Still ‘finding himself’ or whatever it is he thinks he’s doing.”
Luca hid a wince and quickly changed tack, being careful to keep the discussion to safer topics for the rest of their lunch. Ones that wouldn’t haunt him with everything he had to leave unsaid—be that the presence of a traitor in their midst, or what Gio’s son Emilio was really getting up to in Europe. Luca loved his uncle, but Emilio was like a brother to him. If Emmy wanted to hide his incredible talents from his father, that was his choice.
“You almost told him about the traitor,” Angelo pointed out as he drove them back to his brother’s mansion after lunch.
“Gio would never betray me,” Luca growled.
“Marco’s orders are not to tell anyone. The fewer people who know, the better,” Angelo reminded him .
“I know that. That’s why I didn’t fucking say anything,” Luca snapped.
Angelo jerked his head in acknowledgement, and they drove the rest of the way in silence. The sooner Angelo pulled his head out of his ass with his mate, the better. Then maybe Luca could get a rest from his overbearing bullshit.