Page 18 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

LEXI

I wake up cold.

Not physically—Grey’s body is still warm against mine, his breath steady at my shoulder, his arm a heavy comfort around my waist. No. This is the kind of cold that comes from the inside. The kind that seeps into your bones and whispers, What if you hurt him? What if, next time, you can’t stop?

The memory of last night’s close call is still vividly clear in my brain. My wolf clawing to the surface while Grey’s mouth was on mine, my nails digging too deep against his back, a snarl rising in my throat.

I hurt him. And the worst part is that I’m not sure how to keep myself from doing it again. Even now, I can feel that uncontrollable monster inside me, lurking in the shadows.

I shift under the covers, trying not to wake him. But he stirs anyway, instinctively tightening his hold. “Stop worrying,” he murmurs against my neck.

“I’m not.”

“Liar.” His voice is still scratchy with sleep, but his hand slides up my ribs, slow and grounding. “You’ve been tense all night. ”

Because I almost killed you. On our wedding night, no less.

“I can’t lose you,” I whisper.

He pulls back just enough to look me in the eye. “You will never lose me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” He strokes my cheek, his thumb gentle on my skin. “You’re mine. All of you. Even the parts you think I can’t handle.”

I want to believe that. I do. But I can still feel the pulse of the monster, raw and restless beneath my skin. I’m not sure whether to be relieved or worried that we’re headed to the one place that might tell me why the beast inside me is trying to take me over.

“Come on, gorgeous.” Grey kisses my cheek loudly then yanks the covers off us both. “If we don’t get out of this bed right now, I’m never letting you put clothes on again.”

“If that’s supposed to be a threat, can I just say you suck at them?”

He laughs, and it soothes my soul to hear that sound. “Noted, Princess. I’ll remember that.”

Capo Research Institute is carved into the side of a mountain an hour outside city limits and less than a mile from the ward line that encases Indigo Hills in hexerei magic.

According to Franco’s records, which Elena delivered to me this morning literally ten minutes after I made my request— damn, she’s scary —it’s shielded by ancient wards and enough glamours to hide a small army.

It’s not on any map, and if Crow hadn’t already done the legwork to find out about the place, I wouldn’t have been sure it even existed.

Now I’m not sure we should’ve found it at all.

“This looks like something out of a James Bond villain’s fever dream,” Mia mutters from the passenger seat. “Ten bucks says there’s a dungeon inside full of the bones of children. Or a cryo-chamber. Or a portal to another world.”

“Twenty says it’s booby trapped,” Crow says from the driver’s seat where he’s scanning the opposing tree line with sharp eyes. The gun my security team issued to him is holstered but within reach.

Andy found us before we could slip out this morning and requested that I meet the grounds security team to decide whether they can all be trusted.

No one challenged me like Cliff did last night, so I greenlit them all and then requested weapons for Grey’s pack so they could act as our personal guard on today’s outing.

Guarding the grounds is one thing. Watching our backs out in the field is another. And even though my wolf offers an added layer of protection, I’m still not sure I want to give in to her after yesterday.

Now, Grey sits next to me in the backseat, silent but steady.

I can feel the hum of tension in him, the way his alpha power coils just beneath the surface.

It’s still new. Not just that Franco’s power is now his, but the fact that I can feel it through our bond.

It pulses out of him like a living, breathing entity.

I shake off how menacing that sounds.

We pull onto the narrow drive, the SUV crunching over gravel and pine cones until the trees give way to a steel door barring entry inside the place. Before we’re fully out of the car, two armed guards step forward, rifles slung over their shoulders, their movements sharp and precise.

The man on the left is lean, late thirties, eyes sharp.

The other is bulkier, younger, but both of them wear matching uniforms—navy blue with silver trim and a silver emblem on the left breast that looks like a strand of DNA.

Definitely not the tactical all-black clothing I’ve seen Franco’s security teams use .

They eye us with outright hostility.

“Stop right there,” says the older one.

“And show us your credentials,” the other adds.

“You know who we are. Open the door,” Grey orders.

“You’re not cleared for entry,” the first one says. “Only authorized personnel beyond this point.”

“We’re not tourists,” Grey snaps, already moving to step between me and the barrels of their rifles. “She’s Lexi Giovanni. Franco’s granddaughter. Your new alpha as of yesterday. Let us through.”

The second guard flicks a nervous glance at me then checks something on a data pad. “I know you who are, ma’am. But as of the last registry update, no other names are on the access list except Franco and his generals.” He gives me a pointed look.

Right. The generals I just murdered.

“Then update it,” Grey growls.

The first guard squares up, eyes narrowing. “Can’t. Only the high alpha can issue access approvals.”

I blink. “I am the high alpha.”

“Thumbprints must be registered from the secure workstation inside.”

Grey glares. “Let me get this straight. We have to go inside in order to register our thumbprint so we can be let inside. Do you know how stupid that sounds?”

The guard starts to answer, and from the look on his face, it’s not going to be the response Grey wants.

Before the man can get a word out, Grey closes the distance between them and wraps his hand around the guard’s throat. The man struggles, but he’s no match for Grey, even with both hands free.

The second guard starts to intervene, but Mia cuts him off. A wicked-looking blade glints in her hand before she buries it in the man’s thigh. He makes a sound of pain as she shoves him against the steel door .

“I don’t think you want to fuck with us.” Mia lowers her voice, eyes flashing. “Or maybe you do. Try me. Please. It’s been a really boring month. I’ve barely been able to kill anyone.”

The first guard, whose face is now purple, claws at Grey’s arm, but he might as well be clawing at a wall.

Grey doesn’t flinch or break his grip as he leans close to the guard’s face and snarls, “You will obey a direct order from your alpha, or you won’t like what happens next.”

Both men sputter, struggling to break free, but there’s zero chance of that happening for either one. The one Mia stabbed flicks a glance at me and then, when I don’t move to help him, he glances past me to where Crow lounges lazily against the hood of the car.

When he realizes no one’s going to stop this, he waves at us, still wincing in pain. “Go,” he manages. “Franco coded his heir’s thumbprint as a secondary access. That will get you in.”

Still, Grey doesn’t release the first guard.

The man’s face is purple, and his eyes are bulging.

“Grey,” I say, sensing that pulsing darkness inside him from before. Except now, it’s the only thing I feel. Like it’s all there is of Grey’s essence.

“Grey,” I repeat, more forcefully this time.

I touch his elbow, and he snaps to attention.

“We have what we need.”

In the next instant, he releases the guard, who collapses to the ground, choking and drooling as he sucks in air.

“Come on.” Grey’s hand lands on the small of my back, and he propels me forward. There’s not a trace of emotion in those two words.

Mia yanks her knife out of the second guard and then yanks him aside. He stumbles then hurries into the woods where he vanishes into the trees, leaving his friend to his own fate .

Mia wipes her blade on her pants before tucking it back into her belt. She catches me watching and says, “What? I didn’t even hit an artery. He’ll be healed in half an hour.”

I shake my head.

Grey takes my hand, and I look over to find his expression still somehow both dark and devoid of feeling. “There,” he says, nodding.

I look over. And just ahead, a silver panel is embedded into the rock, disguised as part of the hillside. My stomach clenches as I step forward. There’s a biometric scanner embedded in the wall.

I hesitate.

Franco never acknowledged me as his blood relation. He killed my parents and then let me rot in foster care. Forced me to spy on Grey and the others. Used me like a pawn. I expected nothing from him. Certainly not…

I press my thumb to the glass.

It flashes red.

Then green.

A low hiss escapes as the steel door begins to open with an ominous groan.

“Well,” Mia mutters. “That’s not creepy at all.”

I shake my head. “Franco never acknowledged me,” I say, staring at the now-open door.

“Doesn’t mean he didn’t see you as his heir,” Grey says quietly. “Maybe he meant for you to have his title in the end after all.”

The idea makes me want to throw up.

Having a monster like Franco’s blessing is almost worse than not having it.

We step into a dim hallway that smells like bleach and wet earth and, beneath it all, something older—a scent I can’t name but somehow know is magic.

The lights flicker overhead, casting everything in a sterile, lifeless glow.

The air feels thinner here, like the mountain itself is built too tightly to let even oxygen inside.

Like, once you go in, you don’t come out.

When the door slides shut, I jump.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Mia mutters.

“Just wait,” Crow says. “I’m sure it gets worse.”

We pass sealed rooms with windows offering glimpses into the tiny space. Inside are tables with leather restraints, monitors that sit blankly, refrigerated cabinets filled with labeled vials. I can’t help imagining that some of them could be marked with my name.

I force myself not to look.