Piercing My Heart

27

"Is she gonna be okay?" I heard Mila ask for like the tenth time. I chuckled at how worried she was. It was cute. I'd be fine, but she still worried about me.

I kind of tuned out the conversation between her and the wolves. I was more trying to see if I could sense any other vampires here. I heard them speak about heading to Amalfi. That made sense since that's where the Ricci residence is. I wonder how Mila's going to react when she finds out her family is the most powerful mafia family in Italy.

I would have rather run to Amalfi, but Mila thought I shouldn't stress my body too much. I told her I was fine, but she wasn't convinced. Ugh! We were forced to endure a 10 hour train ride! It wasn't bad since I got to see the beautiful Italian coast.

When we finally arrived, Mila insisted we take a cab up the mountain because she didn't want me to walk. I'm fine! I just had an enormous amount of blood loss, sliced my organs up, and got poisoned with silver. Not my worst day.

We arrived at the private villa. One of the wolves buzzed the call box.

"Chi è la?" (Who is there)

"Mi chiamo nicolo e sono qui con Mateo e Gianni." (My name is Nicolo and I am here with Mateo and Gianni.)

"Non sappiamo chi sei. Va via." (We do not know you. Go away.) I've got to admit that the directness was funny.

"Posso assicurarti che vuoi incontrarci. Abbiamo qualcuno di grande importanza (I can assure you that you'll want to meet with us. We have someone of great importance)

I guess the higher ups decided to allow us entry. The gate opened and we were met with security. Got to love the mafia. The security were all dressed in expensive suits and watches.

"They are a part of the mafia." I whispered.

"What?!" I chuckled at Mila's outburst. "You're lying."

"Nope." I smirked. "We shouldn't keep the royals waiting." I gave her a teasing smile.

We continued following the leader into a study. Dante sat at the desk while looking at us in interest. I ignored the other people because I didn't consider them to be important.

"Dante." Mila whispered.

So... Dante and his men like formalities and respect, Mila. You can't just call them by their names. Cue eye roll. Some of the men began reprimanding Mila. One was getting extremely angry and I was about to rip his tongue out if he continued disrespecting my Mila.

"I meant no disrespect. As you can tell, I'm not from- well, I technically am from here, but I didn't grow up here." Mila paused. "I didn't have the opportunity and privilege to grow up here. I was supposed to live here, but the war..." I could see Mila choking up. "The war took my dad from me... and left a widowed mate to fend for herself in a world where she was hunted down. Her only chance of survival was to plead with a witch to bind her child's werewolf side." Dante's features began to widen in shock. "And she grew up protected by guards who pledged loyalty to her late father. And she's now figured out her heritage and has returned." Tears were falling from her eyes while tears lined Dante's. "So here she is. Hoping that you'll accept her... uncle."

Dante then jumped out his seat and embraced Mila. Mila clung to Dante while he rubbed her back. He also couldn't bring himself to let her go.

"Welcome home, my beautiful niece." He had teary eyes. "Ha! My niece has returned! Prepare a feast!" He shouted in excitement.

"Uncle, these three men brought me here." Mila gave credit to the three wolves.

They were distracted so I began picking up stuff on his desk. I found a snow globe and shook it. I watched as the the snowman got littered with the snowflakes.

"Then they shall be handsomely rewarded and recognized. Please, join us in feasting as well." He clapped their shoulders.

"Mr. Ricci." A guard called out to him. "What should we do about the vampire?" He pointed at me.

I smirked when his eyes connected with mine. Dante then had me by my throat and slammed me into the wall. He was seconds away from ripping me a part with this fangs.

"Pureblood!" He raged.

"I could refer to you as the same thing." I snarked back.

"You killed my father and brother!"

"I did no such thing. That was my father's doing. Not mine." I corrected.

"Please, uncle." Mila held his arm. "She's my mate." A collective gasp was heard around the room.

"Well, I was expecting we'd just tell him privately but..." I trailed off.

"How can this be?" Dante lowered his arm and released me.

"I don't know, but she is. I was attacked in America, so we decided to travel here. But, we knew you wouldn't believe us so we stayed at the residence in France while Matt talked with you. We waited for the signal from Matt to tell us it was safe to come. We were going to leave, but then the king came and imprisoned me. She helped save me and bring me here." She rushed out an explanation.

"We want the same thing, Alpha." I decided to be a little respectful. "We need to end my father's reign once and for all." I stated.

"Why should I trust you? You are cunning and manipulative." Great question, Dante.

"I agree I can be a cunning little cunt, but my soul is bound to your niece and I will see to it that my father never harms a hair on her head." I said.

"Very well. We'll just have to take you at your word." He then turned to Mila and smiled. It appeared he was more interested in partying than punishing me. "Enough with the heavy mood. It's a glorious day as it marks the return of my niece. Let's eat!"

I watched a Mila played with her cousins. It was nice to see her meeting her family for the first time. It was beautiful to watch the reunion.

"No food for you, vamp?" Dante quipped. I shook my head no and continued drinking the wine. I saw his eyes widen in recognition. Ugh!"You can't have food." No, shit. "That means you're a powerful pure blood. More powerful than your father since he consumes food with no discomfort." I simply poured another glass. "You could've beaten your father if you wanted to, but you chose not to. He's no competition to you." Dante was angry as expected. "Why didn't you fight him?!" He slammed his hands down on the table. I gritted my teeth when I saw Mila jump.

"Relax, love. Werewolves have trouble controlling their anger." I explained to Mila. "As for why I didn't annihilate him right then and there, something that I'm regretting to be honest, is because I didn't want Amelia witnessing my dark form." I sipped my drink.

"Dark form?" She questioned me.

"You know... like that man." I didn't want to refer to him as my father. "Abyss colored eyes and white hair." I averted my eyes. I didn't want to see her reaction.

The rest of the night consisted of me following Mila around like a lost puppy. I could feel the hostility from everyone, but I bared it for Mila. I'd gladly enjoy the uncomfortable atmosphere as long as she was safe.

When Mila was engrossed in a conversation with her friends, I slipped away to shower. I returned to find her still engaged in conversation.

I waited until Mila was ready to retire for bed. She went to take a shower, so I went to the bed. I picked up a book and started reading it. Mila finished showering and jumped onto the bed. I smiled and placed the book down to cuddle her. A thought occurred to me while I was running my fingers through her tresses.

"May I tell you a brief history of my family?"

She immediately looked at me.

"Y-Yes."

"Okay." I briefly collected myself. "If you and I are to become one someday, then you must know everything about me. The good and ugly." I took a deep breath. "Let's begin with the marriage between my parents."