Chapter one.
Six months ago.
Nala.
I woke up from my sleep from the loud noises in my room. I slowly opened my eyes and I saw my father storm into my room angrily and he started throwing my clothes on the bed.
Completely in shock, I immediately sat up wondering what was going on when he grabbed my arm roughly pulling me off the bed. He dislocated my arm in the process and I shrieked in pain as tears started running down my eyes. I looked up at him in pain trying to see if his face gave away anything about what was happening but his face was expressionless and a little irritated.
"You are leaving today Nala." he finally said tossing my already in pain body on the ground as he pulled out my suit case.
"Pack up all your stuff and come to the dining room in the next twenty minutes. And you better hurry up." he said before he stormed out of the room.
He is usually grumpy and always uses any opportunity to mishandle me but this was different. It was a lot more than his usual disgust by me.
Where could I be possibly going? I asked myself while holding my dislocated arm. I was barely allowed to go outside of the compound, let alone go to the market or to town. I was always home bound, my job was to do the cleaning. I was never even allowed to go to school.
I sat back up still holding my arm as pain once again coursed through my body. This wasn’t the first time I had been hurt, or he had hurt me. And it was definitely not the last either. I needed to do as he had said before he came back in and it would turn ugly. My father had no patience, especially when it came to me.
My name is Nala Liam, the daughter of Liam. For a while our family used to be among the most feared mafia families in the south. My father owned most of everything. That was until he started gambling and drinking too much and owed alot of people money.
I can't remember a time my father was nice to me. But sometimes i don't blame him.
I just tuned eighteen years old, that makes it eighteen years since my mother died. Am the third born, I have two older sisters, Nova and Naya but during my birth, our mother lost too much blood and she died, but I survived. Everyone hated me and blamed me for her death, but no one hated me more than my father for taking away the love of his life. He used every moment he got to remind me of being a murderer and killing the love of his life. My sisters resented me too, especially Nova. Naya alwyas tried to hide her contempt for me but not Nova, she made it clear I will never be her sister am a murderer.
And when our father started drinking and gambling and put us in debt, somehow it was still my fault. They said if I hadn't killed our mother, our father wouldn’t have been so depressed. So the only person that ever showed me any compassion growing up was the caregiver, Sofia. She had need with our family since my mother married my father and she took care of all of us when mother died.
Sofia would sneak me in some food, and clothes and she would sometimes teach me how to read. She usually told me one day everything will be okay I just had to be strong.
Unlike my sisters, I wasn't beautiful, I had all kinds of freckles all over my face. My sisters were both very beautiful with glowing skin, sometimes I wondered if really we were related. How could we be, when we were so different from each other.
I was lost in thought, I didn't hear Sofia come in until she switched off the lights on.
"You shouldn't keep your father waiting Nala, you know how he gets when he is impatient." she said as she sat up next to me.
“He dislocated your shoulder again, didn’t he?” She said to me as she took my hand, her eyes showing how hurt she felt. I shook my head up and down in response.
“This is going to hurt.” She said without slowly. She grabbed a discarded shirt and put it in my mouth for me to bite down on. She then counted to three and at three she pulled my arm, rotating it around the shoulder joint to pop it into its place once again. Tears began to fall freely down my cheeks as I bit down extremely hard on the shirt. The pain was overwhelming and hurt without any sedatives.
“There, better now?” she said getting up. I then used my hand on the non-injured arm as I balled it into a fist, shaking it up and down for yes.
“Do you know what is going on, where am I going?” I asked her hopefully, but there was a sad look on her face at the question. That can’t be a good sign, I thought to myself.
“Sofia?" I called her name again, *what's going on?"
“I can’t say, your dad wanted to tell you.”
She then started to gather my belongings packing them in the bag laying open on my bed.
I cleaned my pufffy eyes and slowly headed out to go downstairs as I left her still packing my stuff.
As soon as I entered our dining room, I immediately knew what was happening. There was two other men with my father, one the same age as my father and I could recognize him anywhere. Damian, the most feared man in our region. His reputation proceeded him, he killed anyone who dared go against his orders, he was the biggest druglord and rumor had it, his oldest son Salvatore was set to take over his empire as he was thinking of retiring.
I had never seen Salvatore personally, and from where he was sitted I could only see his back. He had broad shoulders, that's all I could tell so far.
“Ah, she is a beauty indeed, she will do.” Damian said as soon as I approached the table laughing proudly. "She looks like she will give me a grandchild very soon. She had wide hips good for child birth." he added and they all laughed, except for his son, Salvatore.
The two older men shook hands as my father handed Damian a couple of documents. He then handed them over to Salvatore who slowly and meticulously put them back into an envelope.
"This is Damian and his son Salvatore. You will be going away with them." my father said with finality written across his face.
"What does that even mean?" I asked almost afraid of the answer.
"That means, he is your husband and you are to give him an heir in the next one year." my father said smiling.
"Father, please! Don't do this to me, I will do anything else please!" I begged immediately going on my knees as tears fell freely down my face.
"It's done Nala, the contracts are signed. You are to be Salvatore's wife. You will give him a heir as soon as possible,otherwise you are going to be in trouble."
"But am only eighteen." i finally said having nothing else to say. My two sisters Nova and Naya were all older than me and we're not married. Why was he marrying me off.
"Stop embarrassing yourself and me Nala. I taught you better than that. Now get up and go get your bags."
Chapter Two. Nala. Present. It was amazing how fast a pregnant woman could run with the right motivation, and I was very motivated to get away from Salvatore. I bolted into the kitchen, barely avoiding one of the runners and i winced when the Chef roared his displeasure.'Pregnant women do not belong in my kitchen. Go, go! Get out!' Of course, that same ornery chef slipped me a meal at the end of my shifts eachnight. Not one from the menu, but a dish he prepared just for me. The baby needed good food to grow big and strong, he always said. Chef was a true Italian through and through.I dipped past busy waiters and a sous chef or two as i rushed towardw the back door. When i slipped past Chef, hoping that his gruff demeanor coated a good heart, i patted his back with a low apology and a few desperate words.“Stall him. Please.” I said breathlessly. The swinging door to the kitchen slammed against the wall, the boom overriding the sounds in the busy kitchen.“Nala!” Salvatore's a
Chapter Three. Nala. Olive skin, midnight hair, strong features and heavily muscled body… all so familiar. Even the gray fur that peppered his flesh and the yellowed eyes that overtook the normal chocolate hues were familiar. I knew his body almost as well as i knew my own. We had touched, tasted, and loved each other for three montjss before it all came crashing down. And now he was back. Would he destroy me all over again?Probably.Fury coated his features, and i knew it was only a matter of time before his roars echoed off the walls. Rather than causing the spectacle in the middle of the hallway, i brushed past him and carefully made my way into my home.“Salvatore,” i murmured as i passed by him. I didn’t miss his growl.I would brave this out. I would explain my position, tell him exactly what would happen, and then he would leave. I thought to myself, giving myself the strength I so desperately needed. “Nala,” he snarled my name.I ignored the violence in his tone and looked
Chapter Four. Nala. I wasn't sure what to expect when I woke up, but it sure as hell wasn't to find myself flying across the ocean in Salvatore’s private jet. The interior was well known to me, with its slick surfaces and plush leather seating. The soft carpet always gave way beneath my bare feet, and i had more than one good memory of flying the skies with Salvatore at my side. He had introduced me to so much in so little a time, and It had only taken a few choicesand deadly words to end thefairytale. Well, it was gone but he seemed intent on dragging me back into hisworld.I carefully glanced around the room, closing my eyes when dizziness overtook me again. I didn’t need to see him in order to know Salvatore was nearby. His scent permeated everything around me, and it was clear he had been at my side very recently. Gathering what little strength i had, I forced my lids to part once again and i blinked against the brightness that invaded my eyes.The low murmur of voices reached
Six months ago. Nala. It was way past midnight, she hadn’t seen her husband in days. The gala was tommorrow and they were hosting some of the most powerful drug lords in the region. So he had to come home at some point. Nala looked out from her window over the Hamptons view as the sun set. Tears streaming down her eyes like a downfall. She slowly stepped away from the window closing the curtains and lay in her bed in tears. She was drifting off to sleep when she heard her, she could recognize that condensensending laugh anywhere. Nova?! What was she doing in her house? Wasn't she supposed to be in London? Or was she finally losing it. Halucinating her. She heard her again, this time louder. Nala quickly got out of bed rushing downstairs without thinking about putting on a robe or something to cover her skimpy night gown. Sofia had gifted her the sexy black dress, she had said she should wear it for her husband. Men like that. From above the stairs she could see half the livi
Six months ago. Nala"So I guess she will be coming to the gala too?" Nala found herself saying out loud as Salvatore opened the limo door for her. "Are you jealous?" he asked casually catching her off guard. "Why did you agree to marry me if you didn't want me?" "You ask alot of questions.""Humor me, why marry her sister." Luna said sitting back in the limo as Salvatore joined her. "You must have known I was her sister.""She suggested I marry you. Okay?" "What? What sick games are you people into?" Nala asked shocked. Why wouk her sister want her boyfriend to marry her. "My father is sick Nala, he wants to see his grand kids before his time comes. And your father owed us a lot of money. There was only one solution.""But you could have married her, Nova. Why bring me into it.""Because she can't have children and yoo can.""What?whaat do you mean she can't have kids?" "Nova was diagnosed with cervical cancer, she had her womb removed. I wanted to marry her still, but she wan
Six months ago. Salvatore. The rest of the ride to the party was spent in silence. I was busy on my phone while Nala just sat there in silence. Today everything had been different, when we had sex it was like I loved her, I couldn't deny the intense connection between us which made me want to pull away from her. This couldn’t happen. I had too much at stake to care about her like that. As soon as we got to the party I ditched her and immediately went to Find Nova, she was the one I loved, the one that I would rather come to such events with it. But my father could not accept a woman who could not have kids as my wife Which is why he set an arranged marriage for me. "There you are, you look flushed are you okay?" Nova asked as soon as she saw me. "Yeah am fine, just missed you thats is all." "i missed you too baby." she said kissinge and in that instant I saw Nala looking at us with tears in her eyes. I quickly looked away. "Shall we dance?" Nova suggested moving to the da
Six months ago. Nala. I cleaned myself up and slowly walked to the already waiting limo. Paul was outside and he immediately opened the door as soon as he saw me. The sexy strange man I had been dancing with had disappeared on me. I never even got his name, I slowly got into the car and we left. After the nigh that we had, I expected my husband to come back home, he had promised. We needed to talk about everything including who he was. I quickly went upstairs to clean up as soon as we got back to the house. I still believes we had a moment earlier in the car. I soaked my tired body In a warm bubble bath, as I tried to imagine what it would be like living as a family. After a thirty minute bath, I got out of the shower and put on a roe seeing how much time had passed. Despite everything, I had a feeling Salvatore was about to open up when he had been rudely interrupted, so I went downstairs and prepared a meal for both of us. Me being the servant of my family growing up
Present. Nala. I slowly opened my eyes, taking iny surrounding coming back to reality. Clearly still in an airplane. “Alpha?” The male’s voice wasn’t hesitant in the least. “What?” A snarl was on Salvatore’s lips. “The bearing one?” The bearing one. The doctor couldn't even say my name. I was basically being referred to as the incubator. Nice. Salvatore returned his attention to me “Have you been seen by a Doctor?” “Of course.” As if i would endanger my child, i was six months pregnant now. “One that specializes in werewolves?” I snapped my jaw shut, refusing to answer the question. “I thought not.” Salvatore gestured towards Dr Martin. “He will attend to you since your examinations have been lacking.” I had no response to that autocratic statement and instead met the doctor’s gaze. “I’m ready whenever you are.” Despite the circumstances, i was looking forward to being examined by a werewolf physician. I knew mixed pregnancies were different than traditional humans, but