9 Book 1 : Chapter 9 Una Lezione Di Storia

'A history lesson'

October 11th

I could hear Leonardo downstairs cooking but he'd left me locked in the bedroom. Apparently, he was still pissed about the whole trying to escape thing.

He said when it was ready, he would let me free but by that, I don't think he meant free. He just meant slightly less not free.

I was having none of that. Leo had locked the door from the outside and after he had left, I locked it from the inside and laid down on the bed with a book I had found in his nightstand.

When I heard him try to unlock it, I looked up and smiled to myself complacently.

"Ella, open the door," he said.

"No thanks," I answered.

He bumped his fist on the wood hard.

"You know that I could break it down, right?"

"But then you won't have a door."

I had the upper hand this time.

"If I have to, I will and when I get in there, I won't exactly be fucking delighted," he replied.

"You aren't scaring me," I sung looking back down at the book which was about 12th century France and was oddly fascinating.

"Do you want me to make your life a living nightmare?" He snarled.

"Two can play at that game, Leonardo," I replied. "You're easily irritated and I can be pretty fucking irritating, case in point: right now."

He let out a short laugh.

"Ella, sweetheart," he said, "you do not know the definition of a nightmare. I have warned you that you do not want to see me at my worst, do not provoke me to show you."

His voice was deep and rough. I glanced up from the book and stared at the wall.

"You have so many weaknesses and I will exploit them," he added, "or... you could just simply open the door."

There are so many things he could have meant by that. Connor? My friends? My feelings?

He was right, I didn't want to find out.

I walked up to the door but paused when I heard the heaviness of his breath on the other side of the wood.

I froze, my hand resting on the key but not daring to turn it.

"Can you just take a few steps back?" I asked.

"... Why? Are you scared of me?"

"No," I snapped.

"Then get a move on and open this fucking door," he hissed, "I'm getting impatient, Ella."

I bit my lip and unlocked the door, slowly inching it open and peering around to see his raging expression.

I immediately tried to slam it closed again. Unfortunately, he placed one hand on the door and effortlessly pushed it open while I heaved with all my might to close it.

He then lurched forward and I flinched as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the stairs.

"Why are you so angry? I opened it, didn't I? And you locked me in there in the first place?!" I protested, trying to fight his grip on my wrist.

"Because I have had enough of you doing everything you can to be difficult. I already have an entire pack to control. The last thing I need is a mate that acts like a toddler," he said, wrestling with me as I fought him on the stairs, "the immaturity is driving me insane."

"Then let me go," I spat. "Then you won't have to deal with me."

He let out a deep rumbling growl before he lost his patience with my struggle and threw me over his shoulder once again.

He carried me into the kitchen and forced me into a chair in front of a bowl of spaghetti.

"Eat your food and stop acting like a child," he ordered.

"Eat your food and stop treating me like a child."

He gave me a glared, "I am the one who gives the orders, sweetheart. Remember that and we'll have no more problems."

"You know what I hate? Being controlled," I began. "I hate being controlled. I hate this entire situation because you are trying to control me. I hate it and I hate you. Or maybe I don't hate you. I want to hate you and I really should hate you. Even so, out of all the people in the world, why did my mate have to be you? I don't know what the Moon Goddess was thinking when she paired us because our personalities don't match in the slightest."

"Don't worry. As soon as I've got that attitude out of you, we'll be compatible," he replied.

I glared up at him and stood up.

"Sit down," he ordered deeply.

I scoffed and just continued to walk away from him.

With that, I heard his chair scrape back and his footsteps pound towards me. Before I could even think about running, he lifted my feet off the ground and hauled me back towards the table.

He threw me back down into the chair, but in the corner of my eye, I spotted a knife on the table. On instinct, I grabbed it and pointed it directly at him.

He raised an eyebrow, serving me a look of sarcastic surrender as he raised his hands and stepped back. I put on my scariest face and gripped the knife tighter.

"Do not manhandle me, Leonardo," I hissed.

He wore an amused yet irritated expression.

"And what are you going to do with that? Stab me?" He teased looking down at the knife. I stayed quiet my hand trembling. "Go on then. Do it," he dared, stepping closer again.

I had to lean back as he came closer, nervously adjusting my hold on the handle of the knife.

His heart was millimeters from the blade but I couldn't do it. Killing him would solve so many problems but I just couldn't.

"That's what I thought," he growled taking it out my hand.

He then brought his hand to my throat and lightly ran the tip of the knife down my cheek to my lips where he pushed them apart.

His eyes then slowly trailed back up to my eyes.

"Don't ever pull a knife on me again," he said.

I swallowed and nodded before he lowered his lips agonizingly slowly to mine and left a firm, dominant kiss.

"So let's try this again. Sit down and eat your food," he said.

As soon as he let go of me, I dropped into my chair and watched intently as he walked back around the table to his place.

"I'm not hungry anymore," I said quietly as I prodded the spaghetti around my plate.

"You have to eat," he said, "just try."

"You can last up to 2 weeks without food. I think I'll survive," I answered, putting my fork down.

He then took a deep breath and looked at me and said in a relatively calm voice, "pick your fork up and eat, Ella."

I lifted my feet onto my chair and hugged my knees, "no."

He let out a heavy breath.

"Why do you care?" I asked, "you don't give a shit about my emotional well being but I refuse to eat one meal and then you get all uncomfortable?"

"I know it's been hard on you so far. But everything will work out in the end," he said.

"Hard on me? You dragged me away from my family, friends and education!"

"I plucked you from a perfect, happy life, huh?" He asked.

"Don't," I warned.

"Your family was already broken, you're 17 years old and were working almost every day just to pay your bills, you were never going to afford college anyway and you were a wolf living in a human world," he continued, his fist slamming on the table.

My stomach squeezed in anger.

"So you're saying you didn't fuck up my entire life because it was already fucked up?" I hissed, "go to hell, Leonardo."

I then shoved my plate across the table towards him and folded my arms before staring out the window, taking a few deep breaths.

"I'm not eating your fucking food."

With that, he threw down his cutlery and picked up my plate.

"Fine. Whatever," he said, walking to the sink. "Starve."

"Happily," I remarked, slinking further into the chair.

A couple of hours later, Leonardo told me to find my shoes.

"Why?" I questioned.

"Because you've been sulking for hours," he said, "time to do something."

I frowned even more than I already was.

"You also don't have a choice in the matter. Just put your fucking shoes on."

A few minutes later, I was back in the front seat of his car.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he drove down the long drive that led away from the house.

"My mom is desperate to meet you," he said, "and I thought she'd cheer you up more than me."

I scoffed, "at least you're self-aware of how much of a dick you are."

It had been dark when I arrived here the previous night and in the last streaks of evening light, this was my first time getting a proper look of his pack. We followed a small track surrounded both sides by tall pine trees. Their trunks were branchless and spiny but when you looked above, up to the far reaches of their height, there were bushy masses of green spindles branching out into a thick canopy. Still, the orange hue of sunset filtered through, creating flickering patterns dancing at the tip of the wind, giving each wildflower that littered the undergrowth the occasional burst of glorious sunshine.

Then there were the lakes. We drove for only a short time but passed countless. Each was as blue and glimmering as the last and despite the coldness of these October days, they enticed me to imagine the cool refreshment a dip in their waters would provide me.

Before long the setting sun brought dusk and with it, the orange turned to grey and the green to black. It was strange how only the absence of a little light could transform what was a peaceful forest to one that's stillness brought an eerie sense of gloom rather than any kind of comfort.

"Why do you speak Italian?" I asked, diverting my eyes away from the darkness of the trees.

"And a bit of Latin," Leonardo replied. "The roots of this pack are in Italy. Legend has it that the Goddess of the stars, Astraea, and the Goddess of Neptune, Ennosigaeus, brought a wolf named Potestas Loren to this land and gave him extraordinary power. He used his power to form this pack and named it Stella in honour of Astraea and the factions that divide the people are named after Neptune's 14 moons in honour of Ennosigaeus."

"Factions?" I asked.

"There are fourteen divisions each with its own Megestanis, Latin for leader, that governs and keeps the peace whilst carrying out the Alpha's orders. It makes my job far less laborious. There's also a faction hierarchy. Triton, named after Neptune's biggest moon, is the best to live in whilst Lissauer, Neptune's smallest moon, is the most deprived. Promotion and demotion help the Alpha motivate his people to have loyalty, bravery and provide good service."

"What happens if you get demoted from the bottom?"

"You get kicked out the pack," I asked.

"Has that ever happened?" I asked.

He paused for a second.

"Not whilst I've been Alpha," he replied. "I don't use demotion as a punishment."

"Right... you just skip straight to death," I murmured.

"Yeah... something like that."

Quiet soon returned to the car and I took to looking back out the window. It was now almost completely dark and I found staring into the gloom amongst the trees a little unnerving.

A few minutes later, Leonardo's hands gripped the steering wheel tighter as his eyes flickered left to right, scanning the forest.

I opened my lips to speak but he quickly brought his hand to my mouth to stop me and slowly brought the car to a silent stop.

He sat silently for a few moments before he got out the car without a word, leaving me in an enormous amount of confusion which only grew with the clicking of the door locks as he walked away with the keys.

Knowing that it would be a pointless action, I brought my hand to the silver handle and pulled it. But not to my surprise, it didn't open. Instead, I just sat in the car, waiting for Leonardo's return.

He'd disappeared into the trees and five minutes later reappeared and got back in the car with as much explanation as he had left it.

I examined him. His face gave little clues but he carried the odd and greatly unpleasant scent of another wolf on his clothes and a slight trickle of blood dripped down the top of his right hand but there was no wound.

"There's been a change of plan," he said as he drove again. "I'll drop you off at my parents' but I can't stay... I have to clear something up."

"Are you going to tell me what just happened?" I asked.

"No," he said bluntly. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask."

"About why you just got out of the car without a word and walked into the forest? Or whose scent that is on you? Or why there's blood on your hand?" I questioned.

"I've got to make a phone call," he said, completely adverting the questions.

Judging by the voice, I would guess that he called Blair but they spoke in Italian and I didn't understand a single word.

"I'll be gone a few hours," he said.

"Can you not just call Luca to stay with me?" I asked.

I was anxious to be dumped at the doorstep of his parents. I'd never met them but they were the two responsible for producing the monster next to me.

"I tried that yesterday and it ended in disaster remember?" He replied.

"So you're just going to leave me alone with people I've never met?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Leo-"

"It isn't a choice. You are going whether you like it or not."

"In case you were wondering, I don't like it."

"Really?!" He remarked.

We soon were making our way along another long drive with a large house at the end. It stood tall and intimidating with the emerging moon glowing behind it.

I slowly got out of the car and rested my arms on the frame of the half-open door and looked upon the house. It was quiet and far too still to have any inhabitants. I doubted for a second that Leonardo had brought us to the right place, but then a face in one of the upstairs bedrooms appeared. It looked down on me with a curious expression, but as soon as I looked back, it darted behind the curtain with a faint giggle.

"Don't get too spooked," Leonardo said with amusement. "That was just one of my sisters."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"They're the scariest things you'll find in this house," he added. "Come on."

He led me up to the steps to the large front door and lifted the large brass knocker with a wolf's face carved into it up and brought it back down on the wood.