“So how did you get over it? How did you decide that he would have been okay with you and Cini?” I asked, hoping he had some sort of magic answer for me.
But Elio just offered me a sheepish smile. “I didn’t. I don’t know what Alesso would have said and neither do you. That’s the shitty part about death, I guess. Sometimes you just need to follow your heart and hope for the best.”
“That is…sounhelpful, dude,” I groaned, scrubbing a frustrated hand over my face.
“That’s life, my friend,” Elio said, bumping me with his shoulder. “Just be glad you’re alive and able to make choices like this.”
I opened my mouth to complain some more, but before I could, Nico thumped down the stairs looking half-crazy.
“It’s starting, El, you better get up here.”
‘It’ being Cini’s heat. Apparently, my time to waffle over my decision was up.
Elio waved him off. “I’ll be right there.”
Once Nico had disappeared again Elio turned his attention back to me.
“Look, I can’t make this decision for you, Ranieri. You have to be the one to climb those stairs yourself. Alesso is gone now, but his treasure—the thing he loved most in the world—is right upstairs and she wants you.”
“It’s just a lot…” I trailed off, already halfway to making my decision.
Elio nodded. “It is because once she gets her teeth in you good luck getting away from us. It gets pretty loud in our heads these days.”
With that Elio turned to head up the stairs, the soft sounds of moaning already floating down to us. But before he put his foot on the first step he paused and turned to me. “Just so you know, no matter what you choose you will always be family. Just like Alesso had always meant for us to be.”
Then he was gone, clomping up the stairs and leaving me alone in the kitchen to my thoughts.
I stood frozen, staring at the steps that seemed a million miles long.
Needing a distraction, I checked the perimeters of the property on my phone. All one hundred and thirty-two were up and running. If anything bigger than a deer crossed through the laser one of the paired trail cams would turn on and alert me.
We were safe. Safe enough to lose ourselves in Cini’s heat and safe enough that we didn’t need to worry about a squad of Amante’s goons bursting in at any moment.
It was actually almost the ideal time and place for her to go into heat.
A thump came from overhead followed by a growl and I stared up at the ceiling, my leg bouncing as I continued to lean against the kitchen table.
Alesso’s face flashed in my mind and he had a huge smile and mischievous eyes. That was the memory I had preserved over the last time I’d seen him when he’d been covered in his own blood.
I missed him, even still to this day. I missed having someone to talk to about the things that I wanted to do and my hopes and goals. He’d always listened despite the fact that we both knew that getting out of our sort of lifestyle was nearly impossible.
Then Cini’s face took over with her full lips and a soft, open expression. Somehow, even with all of the shit that had happened to her, she still managed to look at the world around her with a wonder that I wanted to drink up like it was the finest wine in the world.
There were so many new memories that we’d made in just the past few weeks and I couldn’t help but wonder what other reactions she would have to things.
Would she like to travel? Or go to school? Or even raise a family with us that would be protected from the horrors of what we had gone through growing up in the Amante family.
Just the thought of not being around to see it all—whatever it was—made me want to go outside and howl at the moon like a man gone insane.
With that thought, I stood up straight and walked to the steps.
The heady mixture of my pack’s scents emboldened me and the desire to inhale a lungful of it made me put my foot on the first step.
There would be no going back after this.
Alesso’s face flashed in my mind one more time, almost like one last farewell for the past that had long since faded.
Taking in one long, deep breath, I climbed the stairs.
