Chapter 54|Reborn.

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The De Luca Pack Manor.

Lucas returned to Staten Island immediately after hearing from his mother about what not going on in the Pack. It wasn't like she gave him a detailed explanation, Lucia thought her words "The Pack is in total chaos" sufficed. It didn't, Lucas thought grimly.

His return wasn't planned, it cut right through the vacation he took for reprieve and to rid himself of the pain that always seemed to slice through his chest whenever he came across his brother with his mate. Whenever his eyes fell on his mate's hand attached to his brother's, and, whenever he smelt their scent mixed together.

He knew there was no intimacy shared between them but his nerves nonetheless never fail to break into sweat at the thought of what if's that always had him bordering on insanity. His thoughts were fucking harmful to himself.

"Are we staying for long?" Kate, the short but greatly endowed girl with a pert nose and inquisitive mind he unceremoniously arrived with asked, taking off the large sunglasses that were covering a huge portion of her face and sliding it unto the top of her violet dyed hair. The girl was supposed to be his lay of the month, ever since he found Arabella, his wolf has been relentless to have them mating. The human in him Lord knows was equally aching for a taste of his mate but her unspoken rejection of him made him back off, the formidable barrier created between them was what inspired Luke to move away from her, if not for the sake of his sanity, then he should for the sake of his aching manhood.

There was an ache in him he badly wanted, needed even to satisfy. It was the longest he'd gone celibate in his life and it definitely wasn't an event worth recounting. The longest he'd used his hands to satisfy himself and it was getting old. No kidding.

He didn't know if his mother's call coming in the moment he was tearing off a condom packet ready to spring out of his forced celibacy and interrupting them mid action was a blessing in disguise or a blalant curse on his balls. He was taking it as both, both sharing equal standings. That was how he found himself flickering the unused condom into a bin, donning back his abandoned shirt, throwing her underwear at her and briskly telling her to dress up without further explanations.

It wasn't even part of his plans to take her with him to the Staten Island, her attempt to deafen his ears by asking a thousand questions at the same time had him pulling at her wrist and next thing he knew they were in a chopper making their way back to New York, the little gettaway trip they took to Seychelles wasted.

Kate looked up at him when her words were met by mere silence. She was a human who knew about the existence of wolves. His friend Jake linked them up when he prattled about his predicament with Arabella on a drunken night. Jake immediately thought to remedy the situation by providing the most willing, most smart and most effective girl. Jake's words.

At the moment, Lucas was vehemently wishing she was using the smartness she was commended for to take it into her head that he wasn't up for speaking. His mind was in shambles on what exactly was going on. He had to find his brother first before any explanation could process its way into his head and have him clarifying his reason for whisking her away from Seychelles to New York without giving them the satisfaction they both sought after.

"Luke," She rounded a hand firmly on his arm stopping him in his tracks. "Wait, there's something in your hair." Her hand inched closer to his head, she couldn't reach her desired spot until she was standing on the tip of her toes, to lessen her agony of not being able to properly reach, he crrouched slightly, tipping his head low to her probing fingers. "A-ha! Gone." She smiled so brightly at him he felt like ruffling her dark emo like hair.

She suddenly looked adorable.

The scent that provokes his senses and has him always reacting in a thousand ways simultaneously got him raising his head from Kate's head to the narrow corridor before them. His shoulders tensed as he felt the movement behind him before she made her presence to them known.

Arabella stood a few steps behind him in a short baby pink dress, Kate's hand was still circling his head when she caught sight of the audience they got. From her vantage point, all Arabella could see was two lovers embracing and engaged in a liplock. She recognized his broad shoulders at first glance and felt the sudden drop of her heart to the pit of her stomach. Her body heated up as he stared at her with a perusing gaze which she returned with equal fervor.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd put him in her eyes and the reaction the sight of him struck in her made her release a sigh of longing? Relief? Or was it frustration? Mixed feelings, she settled on, fighting the urge to release the battle cry bottled up in her throat and backing up the cry with a move that'll have the girl plastered to his body move a thousand paces away from him. Hurt.

The girl in his arms, the girl who held his arm possessively turned towards Arabella and smiled up at her, her beam was friendly much to Arabella's displeasure.

Her heart constricted tightly as to what the other girl's relation to him might be. Arabella felt the air she was breathing in cutting off, feeling the need to rid herself of the pain coursing through every single part of her body she turned to the opposite direction, where she was coming from and fled as though the hounds of hell were at her heels. She didn't stop until she was in the confines of her allocated room. Arabella slid the locks into place, turned the keys and slid to the floor, the hard mahogany door squeaking loud at the action.

She felt her lungs constringe, breathing became hard for her as she conjured up images of Lucas and his lover in an embrace and some more carnal positions much worse than the one she's seen. Arabella let the tears pleading to be released forth and bawled her eyes out on top of her bed at the mess that was her life.

First, she was losing Alexander. She'd lost him already and there was no going back.

Her heart ached at the thought of loosing Lucas too. Her rightful mate, the man whose arms she was supposed to have wrapped around her and not around some floozy with no right to feel the heat of her mate nor the feel of his skin on her body.

The thought ignited her ire further, she felt like clawing her own eyes in agitation.

She couldn't lose, not without a fight.

How could she lose the man she sacrificed her own mate for and then lose her very own mate within the time span of a mere two days.

No. It couldn't be. She thought, hardening her resolve after thinking her predicament meticulously. She weighed the pros and cons of the decision she had every intention of taking. When the latter weighed harder than the former she slipped into her bathroom, wiped off her tears and the dark trails left by her mascara that had her looking like a zebra, changed, returned to the room and switched her phones off before walking out of the room a re-born version of herself.

And hopefully, a happier version.

She was sick and tired of being used as a puppet, of sacrificing her basic and dire needs without recompense. She was tired of being jaded, frustrated at every point in her life.

Arabella vowed to do a thing or two solely for herself, to be selfish for once. With that thought in her mind she made her way to the Alpha's solar where she knew he was waiting for her hoping in her heart she doesn't meet the couple she met earlier when she was initially on her way there the first time again.

When she got into the room without catching a glimpse of them along the way she released a sigh of relief and took in the number of people gracing the room with their presence already.

Three, she counted releasing another sigh of relief. She'd rather speak with less people around because she herself had no idea how many members of the De Luca Pack her grandfather had infiltrated their minds with his vicious plans and had them supporting him in his movement. She took a silent oath to find out and for once, to follow her heart and not her mind.

There were things that just couldn't be resisted and to her, Lucas was at the top of the list. But first things first.

Whatever happens, the bottomline was to be marked by him as his mate in every single way that counts with or without her grandfather's approval.