Page 43 of Unravel Me

Sleep and sex are the two worlds my heat is made of, endlessly flowing into one another. The last thing I feel is…

Stroking.

The green monster is gently, tenderly stroking my hair.

How strange. How wonderful.

What a shame the darkness has already claimed me.

CHAPTER 6: MAURO

6 Years Earlier

Something wakes me in the middle of the night, though I'm not sure whether it's a sound or simply a strange feeling of unknown origin. I glance at the clock and see that it's 4 am, then drag myself out of bed, wincing as I do. My right shoulder is still aching from training, and Luca really put me through hell yesterday.

I head into the security room, where the monitors showing every corner of the fortress are mounted on the wall. I step up to the screens, but nothing seems out of the ordinary, so maybe I imagined it. Still, I sit down at the keyboard and type in a few commands, pulling up footage from the last several minutes on every monitor.

Most of the cameras show nothing. Most residents are asleep at this hour, though not everyone. One hallway, the one leading to Rocco's apartment, shows a scene I've seen far too many times before. My brother is dragging an omega behind him. The omega has a long, pale blond braid.

I clench my jaw, hating the sight of it.

The omega fights back as Rocco drags him down the hallway, bracing himself against doorframes, grabbing random doorknobs, and scraping his nails desperately across the walls. Rocco is like the rest of us, a Ferro trained to fight in underground cages, so no omega stands a chance against him.

I've watched similar kidnappings many times ever since I turned fifteen and took over the fortress's surveillance system. An endless procession of omegas, betas, and sometimes even young, attractive alphas has passed through that hallway. Some walked into his room willingly, others under the influence of drugs, and some were simply dragged there by force, only to stumble out hours later half-dead or never come out at all.

I should stand up and walk away. After years of witnessing this, I've taught myself how to shut my emotions off, at least to a point, though never completely. Something inside me has never stopped clawing at my conscience, no matter how brutally I've tried to silence it, forcing it out of my mind, or getting up and turning my back on the screen.

But as part of the Ferro crime family, I never really had much of a choice.

Sometimes I think Ennio and Luca saved me. If they hadn't taught me how to organize all of this inside my head, it probably would've broken me. Because of them, I've learned to put on a mask, count the days, and keep going, which is why I'm still here, still alive, even though I haven't found the courage to leave this place behind for good.

But I will. One day I will.

I'll throw all of this to hell and go back where my dad's family came from, back to the Santoros, back where I actually belong.

I rewind the recording and let my eyes linger on the omega before watching it again, and then again. Eventually, I put it on a loop.

His face isn't very clear in the footage, yet something about him keeps pulling me in more and more. I've seen so many of them and pitied them all, but never enough to interfere, because if I ever tried, my own fate would become even darker than theirs. I'd be betraying my fucking family. And betraying the Ferros comes with one sentence: a brutal death.

That's how the mafia works.

So why can't I ignore this one?

Something inside me won't let me. Something keeps pushing me forward until I shoot to my feet and stare at the screen, already forming a plan of what I should do now.

Me against Rocco?

In hand-to-hand combat, I don't stand a chance.

He's five years older than I am, and both of us have trained in MMA since we were kids because our uncle, the capo, ordered it. We both fight in underground rings, but he's been the heavyweight champion for two years now, while I've only spent the last year trying to earn some respect in the light heavyweight division.

I'm twenty. He's twenty-five. For alphas, that's a huge difference. I'm still growing into my strength, while he's already in his prime.

And yet I go there anyway.

Something is directing me there, as if a massive wave of energy is shoving me forward. Within a minute, I reach the familiar hallway leading to Rocco's room, and even through the soundproofed door, my alpha hearing catches the screams and the begging.

Jaw clenched tight, I pound both fists against the door and wait.