6. Leonardo
Leonardo
When suddenly faced with the prospect of having nothing else to do but talk to my mate, I was at a loss.
What did you tell your fated mate? I looked down at the water bottle that he’d handed me, and in that moment, I was thankful that he’d been thoughtful enough to grab one for me, despite me saying no to anything.
I was thirsty. I’d been working for some time at the pride house before I attacked Pietro and took off.
“Do you have questions for me?” Sandro asked.
I shook my head while swallowing the water.
“I should,” I said after I put the cap back on the bottle.
“I didn’t expect to meet my mate. And the thing that keeps running through my head the most is that you’re older than me.
You have lived so much more life, and you have it together.
I went to school, but I never went to university.
I was lucky to be allowed to go to secondary school. ”
“What were you studying for?”
I sighed. “I wanted to go into IT. I wanted to work with computers, and for a time, I thought that Alpha Franco was going to let me continue on at university. Then my parents died, and his entire attitude toward me shifted.” I shrugged while thinking back to the change.
“At first, I was just happy to not be thrown out. I didn’t know what to do.
Alpha Franco took care of the funeral and everything with that.
I was able to grab a few of my parents’ things, but it was too overwhelming to even enter their rooms, so I only grabbed a few pictures and small things.
By the time I was thinking a bit more clearly, the pride had already gone in and cleared everything out. ”
“Did they say where they put their stuff?” Sandro asked.
I focused on Sandro and shook my head. “Alpha Franco said they disposed of everything. They didn’t keep anything.
I don’t even know what happened to their papers or their banking documents.
He just got rid of it all and told me to be thankful I wasn’t out with them because I no longer had ties to the pride. ”
Sandro scowled. “You were born within the pride, were you not?”
I nodded absently. “That didn’t really mean anything when your dad was human.
Alpha Franco didn’t like the fact that my father was human.
Not at all. For whatever reason though, we never left.
I’m not sure why. Dad was an accountant, and Mom used to be a teacher before she had me.
Once I was born, she stopped teaching to raise me. ”
Sandro was quiet for a moment before he moved enough to get his phone from his pocket. “Do you mind if I send some information to Marcello to look into? It’s what he does now, and perhaps he can find out some more information about your parents and what happened.”
I shook my head. “I don’t mind. I’m not sure what all he’ll be able to find though.”
“You would be surprised at what information Marcello and the others can dig up. What are your parents’ names?”
“Emilio and Sofia. Our last name is Mosca. As far as I know, Mom was born into the pride in Rome. Dad was born in Palermo.”
Sandro froze, then looked up at me. “Emilio Mosca. From Palermo, Sicily.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Is something wrong?”
Sandro tilted his head. “Possibly not,” he finally said. “Do you know anything at all about your dad’s family?”
I shook my head. “Just that they’re in Sicily and that we can’t have anything to do with them since they’re all human and we’re not.”
Sandro started typing on his phone again, and I sat there waiting. What did he possibly know about my family that I didn’t? I’d tried to look into them before, but I’d never gotten anywhere. There was nothing exciting or overly concerning about my dad’s family.
“What about your mom’s parents?”
“I don’t know. I’ve asked about them, but they’ve never been mentioned.
Ever. As far as I know, they don’t live in the pride.
If they do, they’re shitty because they could just be silent about being my family all these years and let me be treated like I have been.
” If Mom’s family was still alive, I didn’t want anything to do with any of them.
They’d never been in my life for even a day.
“I’ll see if they can find out anything about either of your parents’ families. Or anything about their deaths beyond the accident they had.”
“Do you think the pride had something to do with it?” I asked.
Sandro set his phone down on the arm of the sofa and looked directly at me.
“It’s possible. I will admit that I know nothing of your pride.
I am part of the Vittone coven, but I was never as involved in things as Marcello was.
I fixed the guys after they returned from assignments with blood oozing from their bodies or bones that were broken and needed to be set in order to heal properly. ”
I winced. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
Sandro chuckled at that. “I can attest from firsthand experience that no, it is not pleasant at all.”
I reached for his hand, and when I placed mine on his, he didn’t pull away, so I took that as a step in a positive direction.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even think…I’m sure that you have horrible memories about such things.
You said as much.” I wanted to kick myself.
That was insensitive. He’d said he’d been held and had been wounded extensively.
“I do, but you have nothing to apologize for. I was captured by a rival family. In part because I became careless while I was away from the coven and also because I was so hung up in my grief over losing my brother still that I simply didn’t care anymore.
It didn’t matter to me that they caught me.
I felt that when Piscano’s men captured me, they would finally end my misery, and I’d no longer feel anything. ”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
My mate needed more help than I knew I could provide.
I knew about grief. I’d dealt with my own, and it had sucked.
It still did because every day that I woke up, I missed my parents.
But I never really wished I would die so that I could join them.
What would happen if Sandro claimed me, and then all of a sudden, he decided he still no longer wished to live?
I’d go with him. If we had children by that point, then they’d be left orphans.
I sat in silence, turning over those thoughts.
That wasn’t something I wanted to do to my children.
“You’ve gone quiet.”
“Yeah. I’m thinking about things.” I leaned forward and set my water bottle down on a coaster on the table before I stood and started pacing around.
“Do you think the view will be nice?” I asked as I looked at the wall of windows.
That had to mean yes, didn’t it? Why else would there be a wall of nothing but windows and a double door?
It was there like that because it was a nice view, right?
“I would assume so.”
I slowly walked toward the windows, but even with my shifter sight, and that of a feline shifter, I could see that the sky was starting to brighten, which told me that perhaps sunrise was not far off. “Do you know what time it is locally?”
“The clock in the kitchen said it was almost six,” Sandro said. He was closer now, and when I peered over my shoulder, I saw that he’d followed me. He leaned against the window and appeared as if he didn’t have a single care in the world. Maybe he didn’t.
“You’ve pulled away,” he said. “I’ve either said something to upset you, or you’ve decided you aren’t comfortable here with me.” I shrugged. “I would never hurt you.”
“You know, I would have thought that normally. When I was younger, I always thought that mated couples were all like my parents. But they’re not.
I’ve seen alphas and sires mistreat their omega mates.
I’ve seen them have little care for the pain they caused their mates and others in their families.
I know nothing about you. I think it’s cool that you belong to a powerful family and that they could probably help me.
But you have also talked about wanting to die.
” I went quiet after that and stared back out the window.
It was a long moment before Sandro spoke again. “Yes, I did. I missed my brother terribly. I still do and always will. He was my younger brother. And I was supposed to watch after him. It was my responsibility to ensure he was safe. I failed that though.”
I shook my head. “You’re two hundred, right?”
“Just over,” Sandro said while nodding.
“How old was your brother?”
“He was a decade younger than I am.”
“So he was not quite two hundred.” I scoffed and shook my head. “He wasn’t your responsibility. You might have felt that way, but he wasn’t. He was an adult who could look after himself. You are not responsible for his death.”
I was an only child, so I didn’t understand the younger-sibling dynamic from a personal point of view. But even I knew that despite him feeling responsible for his younger sibling, he wasn’t his brother’s keeper.
“Despite how it might seem, I do understand that. Our parents disowned Vitto when he joined Master Vincent’s coven. They, of course, knew who he was and didn’t approve of their child leaving his birth coven to join one that was most notably known for its organized crime.”
I smiled at that. “I can understand that. I personally don’t have anything against your coven, but I’m me.
” I just figured that I was paired with Sandro because his coven could provide me protection against Alpha Franco and his brother.
And I certainly wasn’t going to complain about how sexy the older vampire was.
“You have no idea how much of a relief that was to hear the first time,” Sandro said.
“What do you mean?” I asked. I turned fully and leaned against the thin strip of wall that was between the windows.