Chapter Forty-Four

N I C C O L O

“I will never do that,” I hiss, pushing back Alpha Amos and gazing at him with disgust. “Your daughter got captured and what did you do, huh? You did nothing! And now you advise me to do the same to absolve you of any guilt?”

He shakes his head and tries to put his hand on my mouth again, but this time I manage to push him off me successfully. Now we’re face to face. I can’t see his expression very clearly in the darkness, but I can feel the tension emanating from him in waves.

“I am not being a coward,” he says in a shaky voice, which I find extremely ironic. “I am looking out for her. For both of you. You need to go and come back for her—”

“I will go to wherever she’s been taken myself,” I insist. “I will take her with me and never come back to this fucking place. I know she won’t come looking for you either...”

I trail off when I hear Alpha Amos sobbing. The sound of it brings a stab of pain in my heart even though I don’t particularly feel fond of him right now. I just find myself just backing off of him, trying hard not to let my feelings of disgust overweigh the emergency.

I take another step back, but just as I’m about to leave the shed, Alpha Amos comes running toward me again.

“You can’t go in there,” he says, and this time I can very well hear the fear in his tone. “We will have no chance if he gets you too.” He swallows hard and sighs, and for a second it seems that he manages to compose himself. “If you go there, your power will merge with Florence's, and that is exactly what he wants to happen. He wants to take both of you for the power you both can give him—or at least the power he can forcibly take.”

Despite my anger, I find myself clinging to his words. “What? He wants our power?”

“Florence knows the truth about you know, and he’s the one who told her.” Alpha Amos grabs my shoulders. “You and Florence make a deadly team. You gain power from her, that’s why she was able to lift the curse of your pack, even for a little while. She heals you. But if her abilities are used, she will die. And for her to unlock her power, you should be there. That’s why you should never get caught together.”

I stare at him, my body suddenly feeling cold. The flashbacks of the prophecy that the Moon Goddess gave me when she cursed me are starting to play in my mind. It all makes sense. I draw strength from her, and I become an outlet for her powers. That’s why I never get exhausted or spent even when I shift without rest, because she sustains me.

Alpha Amos reads the realization in my eyes and points me to the door.

Just then, I begin to hear distant footsteps. People are coming to find me. Alpha Isaac’s men are searching for me now.

“Go,” Alpha Amos says, and this time I don’t need to be told twice.

With one last look at him, I run out of the shed and straight into the shadows, promising I will come back with all the strength and power that my pack possesses.

And when I’m done here, Alpha Isaac will be dead.

* * *

F L O R E N C E

The shock that reverberates in my body is so extreme that for a moment I forget to breathe. I even forget where I am and what happened to me for one brief moment.

Luna Vera, Alpha Isaac’s very own wife, is sitting in one of the prison cells in his basement.

And she’s not moving.

Her eyes are closed, her body tilted against the wall but she’s sliding down very slowly. She’s dirty all over, and her clothes are tattered and matted with stains that I think are from blood. She might be emaciated and bony, but there’s no mistaking who she is.

The question right now is, is she even alive?

Slowly, I make my way toward her. My heart is beating so fast in my chest that I can hear it in my own ears; my hands are almost numb because of the nerves. Still, I scoot closer to her, extending my hand to feel the air coming out of her nose.

Before I can get close enough, her eyes fly open. An expression of anger immediately invades her features, and before I know it, she’s already lunging toward me, her hands aiming for my neck.

Instincts win out—I grab her wrists, pull her to her feet, and twist her arms behind her back as I push her down on her knees.

Once subdued, she stops struggling. “It’s just you,” she spits out, then she lets herself fall over face first.

As I stand back in the corner again, she just turns around and stares at me. “Why are you here?” I ask. “Did Alpha Isaac put you in here too?”

She scowls at me. “Don’t ever mention that name. He fucked me over. I really thought I was the one he was looking for. I thought I changed him.”

I don’t sit or let my guard down even as she closes her eyes again. “What do you mean? What did he do to you?” I ask.

A bitter smile appears on her face. “He used me. Simple as that. That man—if you could even call him that—s hungry for power. He will do whatever it takes to take over the state. When I met him I knew he was ambitious, but I thought I could change him. He pursued me, you see. Only when we were married did I find out that he only wanted me because he thought I was the object of some prophecy.”

My heart sinks. I admit, I never would have guessed any of that before. They always seemed so in love and so caring for each other.

It seems that she knows what I’m thinking because she scoffs. “I know. No one would have ever thought that he was using me. I never knew either, but when I did, I thought I could change him. I gave him a son, an heir, and when he realized that our son was just an ordinary boy, he changed. He still tried to keep up the image, but then he sent our boy to the Sacred Grounds to test out a theory that he read about. And you bit into that trap and got into the pack he grew to be so obsessed about: the Ombra Nera.”

I open my mouth to speak but no sound comes out. I feel like the air is being sucked out of the room.

Luna Vera opens her eyes and stares at me again. “That’s when he found out that the prophecy was already realized in the form of Alpha Niccolo, the cursed son. Isaac now wants what power Alpha Niccolo has, the strength to conquer lands, alongside the mate who will supply him with power. Isaac now knows that he must take on the source himself. And that is you.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Alpha Niccolo takes his powers from you and together, you will be unstoppable.” Luna Vera slowly gets to her feet to stand in front of me and look directly into my eyes. “Isaac wants that. He wants what power you can give. He's wanted that for many years, now you are here.”

“He can’t use Niccolo,” I whisper back, not willing to believe it. “He can’t.”

“Isaac is after you, Florence. He will make you his bride.”