Why can’t this feel right?

Luciano's POV 

"Monster." I heard Freya whisper feebly as the bricks piled up around her.

A dry smile curved my lips as I moved closer to her.

"Just a minute." I muttered, tapping one of the guard's shoulder, and they immediately stopped working.

Retrieving my lighter from my pocket, I took one step closer to Freya. "Monster, huh? How brazen of you."

She remained undaunted as she kept glaring at me like she would chop me into pieces the moment she was set free.

I knew she couldn't do more than a dead rat because the glare was a look I recognized and had grown accustomed to.

It was a look associated with most captives.

I called it "the cowardice glare" because they couldn't even dare touch me even if I decided to let them go.

The least thing a criminal could do was to at least have a courageous mindset, but they were all feeble-minded punies.

I flicked on my lighter and let it dangerously linger beside Freya's neck, and her glare instantly dissolved into a panicked look, which was exactly the reaction I was aiming for.

"I'm a monster right?" I chuckled. "I will show you what a monster can do." 

"Curse my stupid mouth. I-I shouldn't have said that. I-I'm really sorry, Alpha. P-Please have mercy on me. I-I will cooperate and desperately try to remember everything." She rambled out tearfully as I inched the lighter closer to her.

Seeing her scared of me delighted me in a manic manner.

"You don't exactly have a choice, my darling dear. You must remember everything whether or not you like it." I spat, before allowing the lighter to slightly burn her.

She flinched as a startled yelp escaped her mouth.

"Freya is right. You're a heartless monster. Do you think your mother would be happy with the type of punishment you're meting out on her?" Killian rebuked.

I tightened my hold on the lighter and gnashed my teeth, willing myself to remain unperturbed by my wolf's scathing remarks.

"Tell me everything you can remember. And don't you even dare start with that I can't remember anything. Tell me the last thing you recall doing before you woke up in mother's bedchamber." I muttered, burning her neck again and watching it sear into a reddened burn.

Sniffling, she gazed up at me. "I remember doing the dishes with some maids after the dowager luna's birthday ceremony ended. After that I can't remember anything as much as I try. Please believe me, Alpha."

"She's telling the truth, Luciano. I can feel it. The omega doesn't have it in her to even kill a cockroach." Killian uttered.

As much as I desperately wanted to believe it, I just couldn't because that would mean that my mother's killer was out there freely roaming around while I was torturing an innocent omega.

No, that couldn't be.

Freya was the murderer nothing more.

She had to be.

"Like I said, you're trying so hard to convince yourself that she killed the dowager luna when we both know that she didn't. Deep down in your heart, you know it but you're ignoring it." My wolf said.

"Fuck!" I cursed aloud, flinging my lighter into the wall.

"Are you alright, Alpha?" Reginald asked, coming up behind me.

"Stop asking me useless questions, Reginald," I barked at my gamma who quickly ducked his head.

"I'm sorry, Alpha."

"Continue with what you were doing earlier," I instructed the guards. "Build it past her head and make sure she has no space to breathe. When she's ready to talk, let me know."

"A-Alpha please. I-I didn't do it, I swear by my dead parents. I swear by my life. D-Don't do this to me, alpha. I beg of you, please spare me." She babbled wildly as the enclosure around her got higher.

"What if she dies?" Reginald mind-linked me, raising a brow.

"Then she dies." I said aloud with a shrug.

"Luciano." Darius's voice floated into my ears as he trekked into the dungeon.

"I see you've joined the party, brother. Welcome." I said, darting him a small smirk.

"Beta Darius." Reginald greeted, to which my brother responded with a curt wave.

"What is going on here? Where is Freya?" Darius questioned, with a note of worry underlying his voice.

"She's in there," I motioned to the enclosure. "She has stopped whining now. She's probably contemplating telling the truth now." I chortled.

Darius's face contorted into an appalled countenance.

"Don't tell me she's behind that enclosure? What the fuck are you doing, Luciano? Have you gone mad?" He bellowed.

"Refrain from questioning my method of getting our mother's killer to confess, brother. What is it that you want, why are you here?"

He inhaled deeply. "Mother's funeral procession is ready." 

Right, that day was my mother's funeral.

My hands shook in a mix of anger and despondence as I threw a final stare at the enclosure which had now gone past Freya's head.

She'd confess soon and everything would be over. I reassured myself.

"We both know that will never happen. And even if she does confess, it'd be a lie she confessed to because she was under duress." Killian countered.

I ignored him and swerved my focus to the guards. "None of you must leave here. The three of you will stay put and inform me of any new development, okay?"

"Yes, Alpha." They responded in unison.

"Let's be on our way, brother." I faced my brother who nodded tentatively, although his gaze was on Freya.

Well, the enclosure.

"Don't you think this is a bit too much? We don't even have concrete evidence that she did this. For all we know, she may have been framed." Darius mind-linked me.

"Let's go bury our mother, Darius," I mind-linked him, sending him a warning glare. "I don't have time for your what ifs?"

"Go well, alpha," Reginald said. "I will be with you shortly."

I just nodded before trekking out of the dungeon with my brother, while ignoring the strange feeling gnawing at my heart.