CHAPTER FOURTEEN
1045 Words
LORENZO’S POV
There are three things I never thought I’d witness in my lifetime.
One: Alessio De Luca voluntarily smiling without having to force it.
Two: A Luna taking actual interest in pack budget reports and not because she is trying to win Alessio’s heart.
Three: Alessio De Luca having a reaction to a woman that wasn’t an eye twitch or an order to get out.
And yet… here we are. Two and a half down, and I think we’re close to a third.
I knocked once on the Alpha's study door before letting myself in, not waiting for an answer. He hated when I did that. Which, of course, is why I always did it.
He knew he couldn't do anything about it, and I would continue to do it just to annoy him.
He was at the same place I’d left him yesterday—sitting in his oversized leather chair by the fire, one leg crossed over the other, staring at nothing like it had just insulted his ancestors.
I dropped a stack of files on his desk with a loud thud.
“She’s more efficient than half your council. Those anziani really don't know anything. It's high time we disband the council.” I announced.
He didn’t move.
“She?”
“Your wife. The Luna. Beautiful, drop dead gorgeous Silver Night, now Silver Cassano. You remember her, right? Tall? Smart? Whiter hair, blue eyes. Definitely not a ghost?”
He turned his head slowly.
“What did she do?”
I sank into the chair opposite him, making myself comfortable.
“Oh, nothing big. Just reorganized three decades’ worth of financial disaster your father created and you never paid attention to, identified where the leak in the supply budget is coming from, requested updated maps, and scheduled two diplomatic meetings with minor border packs. All before lunch.”
He didn’t say anything. Just blinked once.
I leaned forward, lowering my voice.
“I think she might be… competent.”
Alessio narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Use that tone.”
“What tone?”
“That smug tone that says ‘I told you so’ without actually saying it.”
I grinned.
“I told you so.”
He exhaled sharply and looked back at the fire.
“She’s just bored. They always are. Then, the next step is for her to fix me.”
"And you've had... how many Lunas again?"
He just grunted.
“Yeah, bored people always solve decade-long resource mismanagement. Totally normal response to loneliness.”
Still no reply.
I kicked my feet up on his desk, just to irritate him.
“You know, you could actually talk to her. And let's not forget, see her for the first time, instead of staring at her picture that didn't even do justice to that pretty face.”
“Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know. She’s your wife? Luna of the pack? And you clearly can’t stop pretending she doesn’t exist.”
“I’m not pretending. I’m maintaining distance.”
“Well, at this rate, your distance is going to nominate her for Alpha of Cassano, and I’ll gladly vote in favour. #dethronealessiocassanoasalpha.”
He gave me a long, unimpressed look.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you.”
“Immensely.”
“I don’t want a Luna.”
“Well, you’ve got one. And she’s doing a better job running this pack than you are.”
Alessio’s jaw flexed.
I grinned wider.
“She’s not what I expected.” he muttered after a long pause.
“No. She’s better.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to,” I said.
“Your silence screams it every time you stare down the hall like a brooding widower.”
“I don’t stare.”
“Oh no?” I cupped a hand around my mouth.
“‘Lorenzo, do you know where she went this morning?’ ‘Lorenzo, who’s she talking to in the training yard?’ ‘Lorenzo, is she eating?’” I dropped my hand.
“Face it, you’re halfway to simping.”
He looked genuinely offended.
“I do not simp.”
“Yet.”
He stood suddenly, brushing past me on his way to the liquor cabinet.
I watched him pour a drink—dark, expensive, and probably the only thing that helped him sleep.
“Why are you really here?” he asked after a long sip.
I stood, straightening my jacket.
“Because you’re either going to screw this up or get blindsided when she saves the pack without your permission. Either way, I want a front-row seat.”
He turned to me.
“She’s not saving anything.”
“She already is.”
“She doesn’t know how this place works.”
“Neither did you when you inherited it.”
He glared.
I smiled.
I paused at the door.
“Just do us all a favour, Alessio.”
“What?”
“If you’re going to keep avoiding her, at least stop pretending she’s not the most capable thing that’s happened to this damn place since your mother.”
I stepped out and closed the door behind me before he could respond.
Because if there’s one thing I really didn’t want to see today…
It was Alessio De Luca realizing he’d met his match.
And that she was already five moves ahead.
I went to take a peep at the room the Swan was brainstorming in.
I did expect her to still be there, and I was right.
There she was, huddled over many books wearing a small spectacle and her hair tied in a messy bun.
She was so engrossed in the account books that her werewolf senses didn't even pick up my scent.
Was this how she was in her pack?
So... undeniably focused?
I stared at her.
No wonder Night Pack flourished.
It sure looked like her touch.
She didn’t look like someone who was compromised or of loose morals like her father had claimed.
In fact, far from it.
She seemed like a robot at most.
There was no way she could have gone to play seductress.
I wanted to find out more about her.
Things no one ever knew.
- Writer
