Forbidden

Submission

Luca

Luca warmed beneath his father's praise, but he shook his head. "Not yet."

"No," Father replied, "but you will be. One day."

"How can you be happy?" Mother's crying spree was over, and she stormed to her husband's side with fists clenched. "You know what this means for him. The Forest family has made it very clear what would happen if he was appointed as the heir apparent. They will kill him."

Father put a gentle hand on her shoulder, but she pushed it off. "Maria, stop this. Luca was chosen because he is powerful. A man who could easily be killed would not have been chosen."

"He is my son, and you are celebrating his doom."

Lines creased Father's forehead. "He is our son, and we have been preparing for this day since his first shift. Consider this a blessing. Had he not been chosen, he would have remained a target. The Forest family would not have allowed such a powerful male to go about his life, a constant threat of challenge."

Mother waved her hands in front of her face. "Luca would never."

Sophia, the sister just above Luca in birth order, spoke up. "But they don't get that Mama. People who think like the Forests don't understand there is another way to live. Papa is right."

Mickey nodded while rubbing her round stomach. Her husband, Kade, stood at her side, his arms wrapped around her while his eyes darted around the room. He wouldn't be pleased to have such drama unfolding so close to his child's impending arrival. Mickey's pregnancy hadn't been smooth.

"There's no point in worrying now, Mama," Luca piggybacked off Sophia's argument. "It's done. What's important is that we present a unified front."

She opened her mouth, but Father cut her off. "Enough Maria." Every woman in the room sucked in a deep breath. A man speaking to a woman like that was commonplace in their world but not in their home.

"Papa," Hanna hissed and tugged on her thick braid.

When he spoke again, his voice was gentler, but Luca didn't miss the edge that remained. "Your son has spoken, and one day, what he says will be law. You would do well to behave that way."

"No, Papa," Luca insisted. "Mama can speak her mind. She's just worried."

"No, my son. Your father is correct." She folded her hands in front of her and dropped her eyes to the floor. Luca's heart ached. This was not what he wanted. Never what he wanted. "I will speak nothing else on this topic. In fact, I may not speak at all."

"Well that went well," his father growled after Mother stormed out, followed by his sisters. Kade cast a helpless look at Luca, but he followed his wife. Now, only Luca, Father, and Price remained in the room.

Price joined the Brooks family nearly ten years ago when he married Hanna, and he was the closest Luca had to an older brother. What he thought carried almost as much weight as what Father thought.

"Papa, that wasn't necessary. Mama won't talk to you for at least a week."

"Son, it may be longer than that. I've never seen your mother so angry." Father shuddered. "Not even that time I let Nora go fishing with that James boy."

"Damn," Price muttered. Everyone had walked softly after Mother cornered Nora sneaking in the house at dawn, a hickey the size of a tennis ball on her slender neck. "If it makes you feel better, the couch in the game room is the most comfortable one in the house."

Luca punched his brother-in-law in the arm. "Why would you know that?"

A wolfish grin shaped Price's lips, and he winked at Luca. "Your sister and I like to fight because the making up is so good."

Father and Luca both shuddered. Shifters were not shy about their love life- part of their animal nature- but no one wanted to hear about a daughter or sister "making up" with their significant other.

"Anyway," Father said, shuffling papers on his desk, "the sooner everyone learns to see this as a positive thing, the better. Besides, you know our family will receive guards once they make the official announcement. We will be safer soon than we've been in many years."

"Hmph."

Luca looked at Price. "Care to explain that noise?"

"Maybe we will be safe in here, but what about the Helsings?"

He tensed at the mention of the slayer family in town. "No one has broken the contract so I don't see how they will be a problem."

Price ran a hand through his curly blonde hair. "Before they didn't have the manpower to do anything about it if we did. They were dying out. Now that-"

"Why are you borrowing trouble?" Luca interjected, earning a frown from his father. No one in the pack made their distaste for Abe Helsing a secret. Refusing to discuss him was tantamount to defending him, but it wasn't the man who was in his head.

"Trouble will be knocking on our door soon."

"Until it does, leave it alone. We have a bigger problem. One I'm now equipped to fix." A choking silence fell on the room. Father looked as if he might cry, but after a hard swallow, he threw his shoulders back and nodded at his son. "I want Isabella to come home."

"Unless you intend on killing her husband, I don't see how that's possible. She is his to command. The law makes it so."

Luca felt his canines lengthen, the simple truth of Price's words stirring the anger in his stomach. "Then I will change the law."