Chapter 43

FREYA

^~THE PRESENT DAY…~^

Room 101—the one that Luca had sent me to—was on the bottom floor of the house and was absolutely freezing. It was no wonder this room was free. The window was broken and wouldn’t close all the way, allowing the cold New York winter air to come in and drop the room’s temperature below anything livable.

There was even some snow piling up on the floor next to the window.

And to add to that, it seemed that people had started to use the room for storage. It was filled to the brim with boxes and various old, dusty objects. I had to dig out the small creaky bed in the corner just to lie down.

After about an hour of trying to sleep in the cold, I decided that there was no way I could stay in this room and got up to find somewhere else to spend the night. The house was much calmer at night with everyone in their beds.

It was the first time I was really able to get a good look at the place without feeling overwhelmed by the number of people constantly surrounding me. After poking around for a while, I eventually came across a living room filled with couches and a huge TV. This would have to do for the night. I lay down on a big leather couch.

With no blanket, no pillow, and tears staining my face, I finally drifted off to sleep.

***

I awoke to the feeling of someone violently shaking my shoulder.

“Hey, wake up!” a voice said. “You can’t sleep here!”

My eyes flew open; standing above me was an older woman with a vacuum in her hand.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said as I quickly sat up.

“You need to leave so that I can clean,” the woman said.

“Yes, of course. Sorry.” I stood up and was out of the room within seconds, feeling my face heat in embarrassment.

I wondered what she thought of me, and if she knew that I had been kicked out of my ~destino~’s room. With my shoulders slumped and hardly any energy in my body from not eating for two days, I made my way to the kitchen, desperately hoping that I would finally be able to snag some food and water.

Once there, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Matteo and Elio making breakfast with the rest of the family.

Elio was the first to see me, and his face lit up. “Donna!” he yelled.

I approached them slowly, looking warily at the other people, who seemed to be ignoring me instead of glaring at me. ~Strange.~

“Hey,” I said quietly.

I looked longingly at the food they were making, hoping that they would be willing to share with me. Matteo turned from the eggs he was frying, and his jaw dropped when he saw me. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me to look at him.

“What the fuck is that?” he said, gesturing to my beat-up face.

My hand immediately flew up to my chin, and I winced when it connected with the tender bruise that Luca had left there last night from gripping me too hard. The pain in the left side of my face was still astronomical.

I felt panic rise in my chest as I tried to come up with an explanation that didn’t involve Luca so that I wouldn’t have to face his wrath again.

“Oh, I slipped on ice last night when I was exploring outside,” I said quickly, hoping that they’d believe me and not ask more questions.

Elio nodded his head in understanding, obviously believing my story, which I was grateful for, but Matteo’s eyes just narrowed in on my bruises as he studied my face some more.

I shifted nervously.

“Did the Don lose his shit when he saw you? I can only imagine how upset that must have made him,” Elio said, shaking his head.

I nodded. “Oh, yeah. He was pretty mad. He made me put ice on it all night,” I lied.

It was easy to come up with a story as I remembered how he’d cared for my bruised face when my mother’s ~destino~ had hit me in Naples.

Elio laughed. “Yeah, I bet he did.” He looked at my bruises again.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say a hand made those. But I know that no one would dare to hurt the Don’s ~destino~ unless they had a death wish,” Matteo said.

Interestingly, it didn’t seem to occur to him that the Don himself could’ve done this to me. I wouldn’t have thought that either before seeing Luca’s true colors.

“Huh, yeah, that’s funny. Definitely not a hand,” I said as I fidgeted.

“So you’re telling me that you fell on your face when you slipped?” Matteo asked.

I nodded quickly. “Yeah, it was a pretty nasty fall,” I said.

Matteo didn’t look convinced. In fact, he looked at me with a worried expression that made me think he wasn’t buying my story.

“I’m surprised the Don didn’t want to stay with you all day today with that massive bruise on your face. Your face is swollen up like a balloon. “You’d think he would be going insane knowing that you were hurt,” Matteo said suspiciously.

I shrugged and looked down at my hands. I hated lying to them, but knew I had no other choice—unless I wanted Matteo to go and talk to Luca.

“He said he had a lot of really important work to do today and that he would check on me later,” I said feebly.

Still not seeming convinced, Matteo continued to watch me as Elio took over at the frying pan.

“Hey, do you think it would be okay if I stole some of your eggs?” I asked Elio. “I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.”

Elio smiled widely. “Of course! We have more than enough.”

“Say, Donna, can I talk to you for a second?” Matteo asked.

I nodded my head slowly, nervously. Matteo gently put a hand on my back and ushered me to the side where nobody could hear me.

“You were right,” he said once we were alone.

My brows furrowed. “About what?”

Matteo crossed his arms over his chest and looked around to make sure that no one could hear our conversation. “The Don is acting strange—really strange.”

My eyes widened. “Really?” I asked in relief. “You’ve noticed it too?”

Matteo nodded. “He’s been making some really…odd decisions.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Matteo hesitated, obviously deciding whether or not he should tell me.

“He’s contemplating letting some very questionable characters into our territory. I’ve never disagreed with any of his decisions before, but some of the commands he’s been giving have been... Well, absolutely insane.”

“What do you mean, ~questionable characters~?” I asked.

“He…he…” Matteo hesitated. He sighed. “Rossis. He wants to let Rossis into our territory to ‘discuss our relationship with them’ or some shit like that.” Matteo shook his head in disgust. He studied my face, a deep scowl twisting his features. “And then you come in here looking like that. There’s no way he would be okay with you being hurt like that.”

“He isn’t!” I said quickly. Our conversation from last night ran through my mind. If Luca found out that Matteo and I were talking about him behind his back, who knew what he would do?

“He was really mad when he saw me last night,” I continued. ~Well, at least that’s not a lie.~

“He…he, um, held me in his arms all night and gave me pain meds and made me ice my face. He took really good care of me.” I looked down at my hands, wishing it were true.

Matteo watched me with an intense expression, one I couldn’t read.

I panicked. “I’m sure everything is fine with Luca. Really. I haven’t really noticed anything off since a couple days ago.”

Matteo nodded slowly, but I could tell he still wasn't buying it. “Okay,” he sighed. “Let’s go get some food.”

He walked back to where Elio was, and I followed behind eagerly.

At the thought of food, my stomach let out the loudest growl, turning my face bright red. Both men looked at me.

“Donna, when was the last time you ate?” Matteo asked.

My eyes widened. “Last night,” I said quickly. “I ate dinner with Luca.”

Elio and Matteo exchanged worried glances and then looked at me.

“I know that’s not true, Donna,” Matteo said. “We ate with the Don last night, and you weren’t there. He said you were asleep.”

My eyes widened further as I realized I’d been caught in a lie. “Oh, um…well…” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Donna, I’m going to ask you again, and don’t you dare lie to me. When was the last time you ate?” Matteo asked.

I looked down at my hands once more, knowing I could no longer hide the truth. “The night I first got here,” I whispered.

“What?” Elio snapped.

“What the fuck do you mean, ‘the night you first got here’? That was two days ago!” Matteo yelled. “You haven’t eaten in two days?”

Tears were starting to form in my eyes. I looked around the kitchen and saw that people were watching us. We were starting to make a scene.

“It’s just that every time I came to one of the kitchens, they would always be so full of people and everyone would snap at me when I tried to grab some food. I didn’t know what to do.”

Matteo ran a hand through his hair.

“Stupid territorial assholes.” He sighed. “You can’t take it personally, Donna. In this family, people get territorial around their food and don’t like sharing. It’s just the way we are.”

I nodded in understanding. That made sense.

“And the Don didn’t feed you? He didn’t know that you were starving yourself?” Elio asked.

I shook my head frantically. “No, he’s been super busy. It’s not his fault. I don’t want to bother him,” I said.

“What the fuck do you mean?” Matteo snapped. “This isn’t making any sense. A Don takes extreme pride in providing for his ~destino~. There’s no way he wouldn’t want to feed you, no matter how busy he is. You’ll always be his number one priority.”

The panic in my chest grew. I was really making a mess of things.

Luca would be so mad if he knew about any of this. “I’ve been telling him that I’ve been finding my own food,” I lied. “I feel like I’ve been too clingy. I need to be less dependent on him while I’m here. I can’t be distracting him all day with my stupid problems. Too many people are counting on him.”

“That’s it,” Matteo snapped. He grabbed my hand and began to pull me away.

“Elio, you stay here and make some more food. I want there to be enough here for her to be on the verge of sickness. I’m going to put an end to this nonsense.”

Matteo continued to drag me out of the kitchen and toward Luca’s office, despite my objections. My mind replayed the conversation with Luca from the last time I had been in his office—when he’d told me to stay away. I could only imagine how upset he would be if I went back there.

“Matteo, stop!” I yelled. “Really, I’m okay! We don’t need to bother Luca!” I tried prying his hand loose from my wrist, but he was too strong for me. “Matteo, please! Please stop!”

It had occurred to me last night that if I didn’t start to get back on Luca’s good side, then I was going to lose him forever. He already seemed to not want me, and I didn’t know what I would do if he never came back to me.

What I did know was that I’d have to stay out of his way if I wanted to remain in his life—even if that just meant getting a glance of him every once in a while. I decided that would be enough for me.

I loved Luca. I knew I did. I would do whatever I had to do to stay in his life.

Seeing him right now after he had specifically asked me to stay out of his office would only make him upset. I couldn’t afford to have him hate me any more than he already did.

“Matteo, please stop! I can’t go in there!” I tried saying more forcefully, digging my heels into the ground.

It was getting hard to talk with all the sobs coming out of my mouth. Through my tears I could see people stopping and watching us. They probably thought I was insane.

Suddenly Matteo lifted me up and threw me over his shoulder. I gasped.

“I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you, but we are fixing it right now. You will not go on thinking like this,” Matteo said as he continued to march toward Luca’s office.

I pounded on his back and yelled, demanding that he put me down, but he just ignored me. I knew that it was no use anyway.

When we finally made it to the door of Luca’s office, Matteo knocked twice and then threw it open without waiting for a response. He set me down on the ground in front of him and placed his hands on both my shoulders so that I couldn’t run away.

Luca was sitting behind his desk with a phone held up to his ear, obviously in the middle of a conversation. His eyes snapped up when we entered, and they immediately narrowed at me.

“I’m sorry to disrupt, Don, but this is an emergency,” Matteo stated.

“I’m going to have to call you back,” Luca said, and quickly hung up the phone.

He was in front of me within seconds, causing me to flinch.

“What the hell is going on? Freya, ~il mio amore~, why are you crying?”

He cupped my face in his two large hands and began to wipe away my tears, careful of the bruising. It confused me that he was acting so kind when all I had done was bother him since I’d gotten here.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to him. “I tried to tell Matteo that I didn’t want to bother you, but he dragged me here.”

“What are you talking about, Freya?” Luca asked. He turned to Matteo. “What the fuck is she talking about?”

“The Donna hasn’t eaten in two days,” Matteo said.

“She told me that she didn’t want to bother you with it, and instead chose to starve herself as she couldn’t seem to get food from the kitchens with the other wolves around. I thought you would like to know.”

“What?” Luca snapped. He looked down at me. “You haven’t been eating?”

“I—” I tried to explain, but I wasn’t sure what to say. So instead I just nodded and looked down in shame.

Without any warning, I was thrown over Luca’s shoulder and marched out of his office. My head spun from all of the sudden movement and no food in my system.

I tried not to move while he carried me, not wanting to upset him any more than I already had. Luca brought me to the kitchen, where he placed me down on the ground in front of everyone and pulled me in so that one arm was snuggly wrapped around my waist.

“Listen up, everybody!” Luca yelled.

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him.

“You will all stay out of Freya’s way when she is in here and allow her to take whatever she wants. If I hear about anybody keeping her from the food inside any of the kitchens, there will be extreme consequences! Am I clear?”

A chorus of “Yes, Don!” rang out through the room.

“I want everybody out of here! Now!” Luca said.

Everyone immediately filed out of the room, keeping their heads down. It amazed me how much power Luca seemed to have over his family. They did exactly what he said the minute he said it. I hadn’t been expecting him to defend me or to put on the show of possessiveness that he just had. I watched in shock as the last person left the room.

Before I could say anything, I was lifted up and placed roughly on the kitchen counter.

A moment later, my head was sent flying backward as Luca’s hand forcefully connected with my cheek. My eyesight went for a few seconds as complete pain overtook the upper half of my body and I cried out in shock.

“Can you not do anything right, you fucking bitch?” Luca yelled. “Can’t I just get one day without you messing something up and bringing more conflict into my life? You can’t even feed yourself!”

I cried some more, completely unable to think through the pain. My whole body was shaking, and I was having a hard time sitting up straight.

“I’m sorry!” I managed to get out, my voice breaking from my sobs. “I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah, whatever,” Luca spat. “What did I do in my past life to get stuck with you as a ~destino~? I didn’t even realize how pathetic a person could be until I met you. And you never fucking stop crying!”

More sobs shook my chest at his words.

“You will stay away from Matteo from now on, am I clear? You will avoid him and his ~destino~ at all costs, as you seem to only cause problems when you’re near them,” he said.

I sobered up a bit. “What? Matteo and Elio are my only friends here! Everyone else hates me!”

Luca grabbed my face with both hands, and I whimpered as he made contact with my very tender skin.

“I don’t give a fuck,” he said. “You will do as I say or face the consequences, got it?”

I nodded quickly, looking deep into his expression that only seemed to get darker and darker with every second. It was hard to remember their true color; I hadn’t seen them as anything but black since the morning after we’d gotten here.

His grip on me tightened. “I want words, Freya. Tell me you understand.”

“I understand,” I said quickly. “I’ll stay away from them.”

“Good,” Luca said. “I don’t need you messing everything up. Now, you’re going to get yourself cleaned up and cover those ugly bruises on your face.

“I can’t believe that you even came out here with that on display.” He pressed a thumb into the bruise on my cheek.

I whimpered as excruciating pain spread through my system.

“You will not leave your room until you stop crying. Then you will come back here and make sure that everyone sees you eating. And I don’t want to see your face in my office ever again.”

I nodded again. “Okay,” I said quietly.

Luca looked me up and down with disgust in his eyes. “Who knew having a ~destino~ could cause me so many problems?”

Then he left me alone.