Chapter Eleven
Inever knew that I possessed the kind of restraint that I have had to practice tonight.
For a woman that I have only just met, I feel jealous over that Beta in a way that I know I shouldn’t.
Seeing her walk out of the private rooms with him and then kiss him had me seeing red.
I wanted to tear that little cunt’s head off his fucking shoulders. Rip every single one of his finger nails off. Burn the pads of his fingers so he knows the consequences of touching what is mine.
I thought that I would be okay with Valentina being a dancer until tonight.
She may not know that she is mine but she will soon.
I know that both Cal and Olis have been just as impatient with wanting to get their hands on her too.
It's not a want anymore. It's a need.
I need Valentina just as much as I need my next breath of air.
I haven't allowed myself to dive into the feelings of betrayal that have stirred when I have been alone with my thoughts.
I can’t.
I have to believe that my Omega sent this woman to us to help us with moving on.
But the nagging thoughts are still there.
I brush them away just as quickly as they come. I can’t allow them to infiltrate my thoughts. Especially not when my girl needs my complete attention as I follow her home.
We didn’t even bother asking her to allow us to drop her home. Not when we could feel the daggers she shot us during her entire stage set.
The message she was delivering was loud and clear.
But I have never been one for listening. My parents had always said that that was the difference between Cal and I.
He is a people pleaser through and through. Whereas I like the challenge. I love to work people down until I get what I want.
Probably not the best trait to have when trying to win this girl over, but I never claimed to be perfect.
I mean, I’m currently stalking the poor woman. That certainly puts me on some kind of list as some kind of weirdo.
But I can’t stop myself.
I know morally it's wrong, but I know that I will hate myself if I don’t.
If she insists on pushing us away, following her everywhere she goes is the only way I know that she will be safe.
I refuse to allow anything to happen to her. Hence why I am sticking to the shadows the best that I can.
For over a week now, it has bugged me that she doesn't seem to have a car. It’s almost unbearable to think that she is walking home with no protection with the amount of cash that I know she earned tonight.
What if she got robbed?
What if someone followed her home from the club and stole all of her money?
I curse myself, knowing that I am at least one of those things.
But I would never hurt her.
Fuck, just the thought alone of something like what happened that first night we met happening again makes me want to steal her away and keep her protected.
There is just one little hump in the road that I hadn’t expected.
My girl has a daughter.
The thought brings a smile to my face, surprisingly.
I relish at the idea of being able to help our girl raise her daughter. To be able to take care of both of them. To spoil them like they deserve.
What it makes me want even more is to see that beautiful body of hers rounded with my baby. To have our cells merge in the most spectacular way.
How could I not?
Valentina is perfect in a way that it is hard for words to even describe.
And after seeing my boys be brought into the world, it's impossible to not want to feel just a second of that love again.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that I want that with her.
I wonder how obliged she will be to giving her daughter another sibling.
Piccolo, will already be gaining three older brothers and an older sister. What’s a few more siblings?
I shake any thoughts of Valentina swollen with my child as I creep up closer behind her as her apartment comes into view.
I’m lucky that I do as a figure just ahead of me steps out of his shadows and begins following her.
Instantly, I am on edge. Even more so when the dark figure pulls out what looks to be a switch blade.
I immediately see red.
How dare this scum pull a blade on my girl!
On light feet, I hasten my pace up behind him until I am right behind him.
Before he can even know what is happening, my hand is already covering his mouth to muffle his shout of surprise. With the other hand, a knife, very similar to the one he still holds in his hand is pressed against his throat.
I keep my eye on Valentina as I disappear again back into the shadows.
I hate the thought of leaving my girl vulnerable but I know that she will be fine. She has a fire in her eye that I know won’t let her down if she really needs it.
The darkness of the alleyway surrounds us as I drag the struggling man. He tries to break out of my hold but I keep a hold of him.
My anger has given me a strength that I didn’t know that I possessed.
“What did you think you were going to do, huh? You were going to sneak up behind that girl and rob her, weren't you? Steal her hard earned cash that she is going to use to feed her baby.”
The guy's head bounces off the brick wall that I slam him up against. He shouts in pain but I don’t give him any sympathy.
No, I laugh like a fucking psychopath.
“See, the thing you should have known is that woman is mine,” I growl, tightening my grip on his shoulders.
He whimpers like the pussy ass bitch I know that he is.
I chuckle darkly as I step in further into him.
“Not so tough now are you, segaiolo.”
It gives me some kind of sick satisfaction calling this scemo an Italian curse. It's childish and ridiculously petty but I don’t care.
Pulling my blade from his neck, I slowly begin to drag the sharp tip over his scruffy jacket. I can almost hear the way his heart is trying to beat out of his chest. His body shakes beneath my hold like he is some kind of small whimpering dog.
It's pitiful.
Even more so when I get a whiff of this scent; rotting flesh.
It's appropriate, considering he will soon be rotting six feet under.
Although, now that I give it thought, maybe his death needs to be a little bit more … creative.
Deciding to go with the latter option, I pull my cell out of my pocket and dial one of the higher up soldiers.
Only minutes pass before the sound of one of our vans pulls up out the front of the street.
I turn back towards the Alpha, plastering a sinister smile on my face. “It's play time, testa de cazzo.”
The dank scent of the torture room penetrates my senses. The rich copper scent of blood and tang of piss is almost unbearable but I put up with it anyway.
It makes it easier to know I am about to exact my first lot of karma for my girl.
It’s my first time doing this so the nerves are feeling a little bit real.
I need to do this right. This piece of shit needs to feel the hurt he planned on donning on my dolce ciligera.
She may never know what I have done for her tonight, but I need to make sure it’s done properly. I can’t let her down.
My dark chuckle reverberates off the walls of the room. The man’s body tenses before he starts struggling. There is no use in him pulling against his restraints. He will die where he hangs.
I plan on having a little fun while I am at it.
“Not so tough now are you?”
“Why the fuck are you doing this to me? I’m innocent!”
I feel my face redden in anger. It feels as though my body boils as I stare down the whimpering man. He looks fucking pathetic trembling under my gaze.
“Innocent? Do you think it is innocent to follow a young woman on her way home from work? Do you think an innocent man would pull a fucking knife and hurt someone?”
I chuckle as I step toward him.
“No, segaiolo. There is nothing innocent about you.”
He continues to try and plead his case but there is no point. Nothing he says holds any kind of merit anyway. I know what his intentions were and that's enough for me.
I pick up a set of spiked knuckle dusters that I have altered to be a little more … lethal. I turn as I fix them on my fingers.
The guy's face pales as he whimpers. A wet spot darkens the front of his jeans and I sneer at him. Typical that he pissed himself.
He is fucking weak Alpha. He was brave when he thought he had my girl on her own and vulnerable, yet faced in front of a real threat, he cowers.
I don’t bother wasting a single second of my breath again on him. There is no point. He will die no matter what he or I say.
The first hit of the sharp metal on flesh has satisfaction thumping through my body. Blood splatters across the room, some dots of crimson splatter my suit jacket.
I cringe as I look down at the mess he has made on me.
He will pay for that too.
I get lost in my anger as I rain down hit after hit on his body.
By the time I am done, I am panting and exhausted but am still not completely satisfied. Even in his current state, which is far from pretty—his face now completely unrecognizable—it still hasn’t satisfied the beast inside of me.
Discarding the knuckle dusters, I pick up the pliers. He groans as I lift his hand, his head rolling to the side. His eyes are mostly bloody and closed over, the swelling blinding him.
The sound of his nail being ripped from his nail bed would curl the most sensitive of stomachs.
Yet, I just get sick pleasure out of it.
His cries of pain are like a sweet symphony to my ears.
Once each digit's nail beds are exposed and bleeding, his cries turned into moans of pain, I become bored.
Simply beating the man and ripping off his nails doesn’t feel like enough.
The door to the torture room slams open and the face of Olis and Cal greet me. Cal’s eyebrows raise as he looks between me and the Alpha.
He snorts as both of my pack brothers move further into the room.
“What’d he do?”
Standing to full height, I throw the pliers I was using at the Alpha’s feet. Blood splatters but I don’t flinch. I am already a mess.
“Followed our girl home tonight. This testa di minchia thought he could jump out behind our girl with a knife.”
I don’t have to say anything more. Cal and Olis already knew where it was going.
Anger overcomes both of their faces and I watch as their bodies tense. Olis’ fists clench beside him as he takes a step towards the range of implements on the table. There isn’t a second of hesitation when he picks up the blowtorch.
The flame explodes out from the nozzle before colliding with the broken flesh of the hanging man.
His screams are ear-piercing.
He writhes and struggles against the chains in an attempt to get away but Olis is relentless.
There is a reason why he is my Capo. He is brutal. His torture techniques are renowned in the Underworld. There has never been a person that he couldn’t crack.
I’ve seen powerful men piss themselves the moment he walked in the room. Men who have spilled every single one of their secrets without having to say a single word.
It’s fucking impressive.
Even more so when those same skills are being passed onto our sons. Namingly, Ledger. I have a strong feeling he is going to outdo his predecessor.
Abruptly, the screams die out and so do the flames bubbling his skin.
Cal walks over to where Olis is just standing, looking at the Alpha in confusion. He presses two fingers to a pulse point.
We wait for a moment before he steps away and shakes his head. “Couldn’t handle the heat.”
Cal predictably snorts at his pun. It's certainly not the first time he has made a joke like that and neither will it be the last. He seems to have a particular love for them when we are in more precarious situations.
It helps to brighten the mood in the room.
Cal doesn’t waste any more time with his jokes as he sends off a text to the clean-up crew. Either that or he is organizing clean-up with whoever needs to be pulled into line.
It was a particularly good way to discipline the boys when they got old enough to handle the horrors of this world.
He puts his phone back before pinning me with a look.
“It seems our little cherry pop has more than our attention. Good thing we decided to keep an eye on her.”
I nod, agreeing whole heartedly. “Me too. It still doesn’t ease my nerves though. I still hate the idea that she is in that house all alone with her piccola. I want to have eyes on her every moment of the day.”
I run an exhausted hand over my face before looking back up at my brothers. There is a mischievous look on Cal’s face and I already know that whatever he is about to suggest will likely age me years.
“We could always kidnap her and hide her away in the house. No one would be able to get to her then.”
I quirk a brow at him as I mull over what he just said. For the first time in our lives, I think my twin just suggested something I am not completely opposed to.