Chapter 3 Tick-Tock Alpha

CAELLUM'S POV.

"Move." She said to my men who stood like a shield around her. "Don't underestimate me."

I finished my little match with Alek and proceeded to the Car where I met one of my men at gunpoint.

I blinked, unable to wrap my head around how they got into such a position, and that in the hands of a woman. My woman. "What the fuck is going on?" I asked no one in particular, and my eyes rested on my mate, who was brimming with anger and fire in her eyes.

I had got off the phone with Matteo, who gave me a run-through of her background. I couldn't lie, seeing her holding a gun so perfectly stirred something within me.

The idea of her thinking she could cross me and go free made my face turn soar. "Drop the gun, Naledi," I ordered and didn't miss the brief widening of her eyes.

"I see you've done your homework." She said, pressing her gun in my guard's head. "Let me go or I will blow his head off."

Her tone was firm and I could tell she meant every word. "You must be stupid to think you can threaten me," I slid my hand into my pockets. "Don't be silly. Drop the gun and get inside the car."

Naledi tutted and held him tighter. I could see the faint mark of a bruise on his neck and I wondered just how stupid and unreliable he was to get caught by a girl.

"This gun is loaded." She began, "Do not for one-second think I would hesitate to blow off his head. You'll be in for a rude awakening."

My eyes went through this woman with a gun, and a confident smirk plastered on her lips. Her body was slim, but curvy and full in all the right places. Her thigh-high slit revealed so much skin than I would love for my woman to be showing, and her audacity made me want to bend her over a table and fuck manners into her system.

All I hoped to do in due time. But first, she needed to submit to me. My eyes found hers and I spoke slowly. "There are four bullets in that gun. If you kill him, you would have three more to spare." She tilted her head in confusion while I continued. "Let's say you kill three other useless guards of mine, it changes nothing."

I stepped closer to her, but she didn't back down. "I'll say this one more time, drop the gun."

"I thought you had regard for the people that worked around you," She pushed her captive forward, and in one second, placed the gun on her head, taking me by surprise. "Since you are so obsessed with taking me, perhaps you wouldn't care about taking my dead body." Her eyes boiled with fury but she spoke lightly, "Because the only way I will leave with you is over my dead body."

With an amused glint, I gauged my mate, standing in a threatening stance as she placed a gun on her head and threatened suicide. I wondered if she was going to do it if she had the guts to take her own life.

"Is that supposed to move me?" I asked with a smirk. "You said it yourself. I don't give a fuck about my guards. Life is insignificant to me. What makes you think I value yours?"

"Then let me go. Let us go our separate ways and forget this ever happened."

"No such luck, sunshine. You belong to me. I own you. The earlier you realise that you have no say in the matter, the better for you." I stretched my hand with a grotesque look on my face. "Don't be stupid now, give the gun to me."

She smiles, and the next thing I see, she shoots the ground very close to me and before I can speak, she pulls the trigger on her own head.

For the first time ever, I felt my spirit nearly leave my body.

"NO!" I yelled, only to be rewarded with a deranged smirk when I saw that there was no bullet in the shot. "You must be out of your goddamned mind." I gritted, trying and failing to compose myself.

"I have one more bullet, Alpha." She suddenly said. "Do not think I would miss it this time. Let me go."

I gauged her and I could tell she meant every word. She was willing to risk her life in order not to be with me. The thought of her blatant rejection of me despite being my mate bruised my ego.

I was the Alpha of the largest pack and mafia family. Women crawled at my feet, begging to have a taste of me. And here was the lucky bitch the mood Goddess thought to pair me up with and she was rejecting me at the detriment of her life.

"Tick-Tock, Alpha." She said again, applying pressure on the trigger, and for the first time, I felt stuck. I didn't know how true it was that there was a bullet inside, and I couldn't risk her life.

To thoroughly sever our mate bond, it had to be done under the full moon, which I presumed to be in the next hundred days. If she kills herself, I would most likely be affected due to the bond.

I didn't need a weakness. The last thing I needed was something my enemies could use as leverage on me. I let out a huff, a ghost of a plan forming in my mind.

"Fine. You win." I said with a smirk. "You can leave."

She shook her head. "You should leave first." She gestured at my lineup of luxury cars. "You and your people, get in and get going. I'll find my way after."

I hated being ordered by anyone, to talk less of a woman, but I swallowed it. "Start the cars," I ordered my guards and they did exactly that.

Soon enough, we were set and ready to move. They opened the door, and I spoke before I entered the car. "This is not goodbye. I promise."

She didn't utter a word, she remained aloof, unbending. I shook my head and entered the car, taking out a smoke from my car. The fleet of vehicles suddenly started moving, and soon, it was my turn to move.

I wind down the glass with the smoke in my mouth, and with a press of a button by the side of the cigar, a pin shot out and hit her in the neck.

Her eyes were frantic when she realised what I had done, Naledi let down her gun, and with her other hand, sought for the pin I'd fired her way.

It was already too late. The poison had gone into her body, and I knew she would be shutting down in a matter of seconds.

I stepped out of the car just in time to catch her as she fell unconscious. "I told you, mia cara, this is not goodbye."