The Lycan Kingpin's Captive: A Baby For The Beast novel Chapter 20

I sit down in my office chair with my hand over my mouth, shell-shocked to shit at what Mia has just told me. All this time I had a mafia princess as my surrogate, an abused illegitimate heir given to my biggest enemy and I was none the wiser.

She’s a fucking Cotroni; the daughter of my father’s best friend and the reason Maxim’s father was considered a failed Alpha heir.

I wasn’t even aware he had a different daughter from Rosalie, but as I looked at Mia better, I could see the resemblance. She’s not lying, I know she’s not fucking lying so why am I so hesitant to believe her?

If she’s Giovanni’s daughter, that means my heir will be even more powerful than I am. If she’s Giovanni’s only blood heir…wouldn’t it be better to keep her as my Luna?

“No. Fuck, no,” I say aloud, shaking my head even as the thought forms in my mind. Yes, it would benefit me greatly to have her as my Luna, but I do not want a Luna, right? No, I don’t…I don’t need…

My office door opens and Maxim saunters in with a bored look on his face. He’s been trying to get me to talk with Mia to find out what she knows, but I’ve been putting it off every day. But now that I’ve found out what her secrets are…I don’t know what to do.

“That look on your face can’t mean anything good,” he says, sitting down opposite me. “What happened?”

I brace my elbows on the desk and steeple my fingers underneath my chin. “I spoke to her, and she had…a lot to say.”

Maxim’s eyes grow wide. “Well, it can’t be anything good if you look as confused as shit,” he says.

I scoff, still not believing what I have been told. “Mia’s father is Giovanni Cotroni; she’s Cecilia’s daughter.”

“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” he exclaims. “Cecilia, his life long fucking mistress? Didn’t she die like ten years ago or something?”

I nod. “Gio kept her and used her before giving her to Mikhail-”

“Who ruined her even more,” he says, shaking his head. “Shit, Niko.”

Something wraps its tendrils around my heart, but I push it down. “I know, and if everything she has just told me is true, then Mikhail is in a world of fucking trouble.”

Maxim looks at me expectantly before I eventually dive into the shitstorm Mikhail has created for himself. The same expressions I tried to hide from Mia as she told me these things, now show on his face as clear as day.

“What the f…”

“I know,” is all I can respond with. I still haven’t wrapped my head around this, either; it’s just too much to take in.

I get up and walk over to the crystal decanters, pour two glasses of whiskey, and hand one over to Maxim. He downs it and shakes his head. “You know what this means for you, right?”

“I have to meet with Giovanni and tell him what Mikhail has done and what he still has planned, according to Mia,” I say with a nod.

“Mirabella; you’re still calling her Mia,” he corrects. “As much as that was on my mind, too, it’s not what I meant, Niko.”

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath while allowing Maxim’s words to swirl in my head and not make sense. Mirabella’s blood is the answer to her freedom. If we do this then I can allow her to be free.

But that means I will have to make her my Luna; I would have to claim her with my bite and let her claim me, too. An icy shiver slips up my spine at the thought and my hand unconsciously touches my shoulder where the twin sets of bites remain.

That’s not something I will ever allow anyone to do - to claim me and make me theirs. I don’t belong to anyone anymore. I am my own person without the shackle of a Mating Bite.

“I’ll have to think about it,” I say in a low voice, not believing that I am actually considering this madness.

But Maxim is right; if I do this, my territory expands. I’ll be the most powerful Alpha in the country, but is all that worth taking Mirabella as my Luna?

Not only that, but will she say yes to it after how I’ve treated her? I wouldn’t expect her to, since I have confined her to the bedroom for now. But if I knew this is what she was running from in the first place…I wonder what my reaction would have been.

“You do that; call Bastien if you need to,” Maxim says, then he gets to his feet. “Think it over clearly, Niko. This could be big for SilverCrest.”

I watch as he walks out before I pick up my cell phone to contact Bastien for advice. He would know what to do; he would give me the advice I need.

But just as I dial his number, I hear the unmistakable sound of a cell phone ringing outside my office door - only for the fucker to pop his head inside and smirk.

“Guess I came at a great time,” he says with that cocky smile that makes me want to punch him.