Page 2 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

GREY

W atching Santiago carry my bride away like she’s nothing more than the spoils of war is a bittersweet sort of agony that leaves me both relieved and strangely lost. I’d known it was a gamble, convincing them to let me come with her.

I hadn’t counted on such a public ultimatum, though, and not being able to choose Lexi in that moment gutted me.

If it had been only my own fate hanging in the balance, I’d have let them see the truth in a heartbeat.

My wolf, more powerful than ever, would have torn through anyone who challenged me, anyway.

But admitting my new status as alpha would have exposed Dutch, Razor, Crow, and Mia.

I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to my pack.

Lexi will understand.

That’s what I tell myself as I watch her disappear through the church doors, clutched in the hands of my enemies. Even if my wolf howls inside me, furious I didn’t choose her. But I did. I just chose all of them too.

The moment she’s gone, my father is in my face.

“What the fuck just happened?” he demands .

“Lexi just became the high alpha of Indigo Hills,” I tell him calmly, despite my heart hammering my rib cage. I want so badly to rip out his throat and be fucking done with him. But this church is still full of his pack. And I don’t have nearly the numbers yet to fight them all.

Soon enough , I promise myself, I will .

“She couldn’t possibly have killed that bastard,” my father says.

His face is flushed with rage, but beneath that anger, I see it. The kernel of doubt. He thinks maybe, just maybe, she could have. He also suspects I know more than I’m sharing.

“Couldn’t she?” I ask and allow myself to slip into character.

A confused, erratic mate. A groom without a bride.

The son he lives to torture by taking away the things I love most. “Her eyes were different. But they… The way she looked at me—” I stop and look at him dead in his face. “She felt like a wolf.”

My father blinks with zero surprise at my words. And I almost forget every logical reason not to kill him.

I knew it the moment I’d seen that animalistic flash in her eyes during our vows.

Then again, the way she’d kissed me—with a hunger only a predator possesses.

Not to mention the feverish temperature of her body as it had pressed against mine, like her skin was on fire from the inside out.

But seeing him confirm it now… it’s almost too much.

He triggered her wolf. And he doesn’t look the least bit sorry—or worried—about what will happen to her next.

“What the fuck did you do to Lexi?” I demand, dropping the weak, scared act as I crowd into his face.

“Watch your fucking tone,” he warns.

Mia, Razor, and Dutch press in behind me. They want answers too. But my father clearly doesn’t give a shit what we want. He turns to my mother. “Serena, I need to deal with this. ”

“Of course,” she says, glancing at me.

I recognize the look she wears. It’s a warning, a plea to let it go, to stop stirring his temper. I look away from her and back to the asshole who I’ve hated for so long that I can’t remember any other way.

He doesn’t offer anything else before turning and striding up the aisle.

I start to follow him, but Dutch grabs me, holding me back. “Let him go,” my best friend says quietly.

“He did something to Lexi’s wolf,” I snarl.

“And you’re an alpha with Franco’s power in your veins,” he reminds me in a low voice.

“Excuse me?” Mia hisses, eyes wide as she looks back and forth between us. “Did you just say?—?”

“Yes,” Dutch cuts her off.

“When the fuck were you going to tell me?” Mia demands.

“In about five more minutes when we’re in the damned car,” Dutch tells her. She huffs at that, but he ignores it and levels a pointed stare at me. “Unless you’re ready to play your hand, we should go.”

Fuck.

He’s not wrong.

Using the hex blade to secure our pack’s bond was bad enough.

Killing Franco and taking his alpha power is like having a blinking neon sign over my head.

With Lexi standing next to me, it was easy enough for folks to assume that power was hers, but now that she’s gone, anyone who looks too closely will see the truth.

I’m an alpha now.

A powerful one.

“Get the car,” I mutter.

“Crow’s waiting with it out back,” Razor says.

My pack wastes no time ushering me out the back door and into the car waiting in the alley.

It’s not one of the SUVs from my father’s fleet.

This is Crow’s personal vehicle. For some reason, the sight of it makes me remember the way he drove it as a getaway car the day we rescued Lexi from Altobello’s when Franco tried to toss her into a cage.

Dutch drove Lexi and me while Crow and Razor drove separately to take the heat off.

I shake off the memory of that day—when I’d almost killed Dominic Albero to get her back even though I barely knew her yet—and refocus on today.

My wedding.

Fuck, I’m married to that girl now.

Life is so fucking wild.

And I did end up killing Dominic Albero in the end. For her. I’d do anything for Lexi Giovanni. Even start a war, which I may have just done by killing Franco and naming her as his murderer.

Crow drives, and I sit shotgun. The others pile into the backseat, and Crow chirps tires as he drives away.

“What the actual fuck,” Mia says as soon as we’re moving.

“Mia, calm down,” Dutch warns.

She ignores him, and I can practically feel her eyes drilling holes in the back of my head as she accuses, “You killed Franco.”

“Wait, what?” Crow says, eyes wide as he gives me a double-take.

I blow out a breath and lean my head back against the seat, letting my eyes close for a long moment.

“When? How? Why?” Razor asks.

“Last night,” Dutch says.

“You didn’t call us.” Mia sounds pissed, but I recognize the hurt underneath it.

“There was no time,” Dutch says.

“But there was time to call you ,” she snaps.

“Can we talk about this when we’re out of the car?” I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose to ward off a headache starting to form.

“Uh, speaking of which,” Crow says, coming to a stop before pulling out of the alley onto the main road. “Where are we going?”

“My house,” Mia says darkly before anyone else can answer.

Crow looks at me questioningly, and I nod.

Mia’s apartment is the most secure place for us to talk.

Mostly because it’s one of the few places I know isn’t wired with surveillance.

The only spot more private would have been the warehouse, but since there’s a good chance we’re being followed by my father’s people, I opt for a place they’ll expect us to regroup.

Crow punches the gas, and we speed through the streets, the tension in the car thick enough to choke on.

The moment we pull into Mia’s parking garage, she’s out of the car, slamming the door in Dutch’s face and striding for the elevator like she’s gearing up for a fight.

The rest of us pile out, and we ride up to her high-rise apartment in silence.

I can feel Razor shooting me daggers with his pointed stare, but I ignore him.

My thoughts are on Lexi—where is she now? What have they decided to do with her?

We barely make it out of the elevator and into Mia’s colorful living room before she rounds on me.

“You killed Franco fucking Giovanni, and you let Lexi take the fall for it.”

I don’t flinch. I don’t break eye contact. Because she’s not wrong, even if she’s glaring at me like I’ve committed a cardinal sin. “Yes,” I tell her evenly as the others fan out around us.

Dutch and Razor remain close, more than willing to participate head-to-head. Crow hangs back by the windows that look out onto the rooftop patio, just watching.

“Why the hell would you do that?” Mia demands .

“Why do you think?” I ask her. “To save her.”

“Is that what you call it?” Mia shoots back.

“That’s what it is.”

When I don’t give her more than that, she opens her mouth, clearly ready to blast me again.

Dutch interrupts before she can. “She’s alive because of it, Mia.”

“She’s gone because of it,” she counters, arms crossed, fire in her eyes to match the fiery red of her hair.

Mia’s always been the mom of the group and sometimes even the boss, especially when we’re all being dickheads about something.

But she’s not the alpha. And my wolf won’t let her act like she is.

Not after what we did last night, binding ourselves together with that hex blade. Making me our alpha—officially.

I can feel it in my beast and in my very blood. Our pack dynamic is changing. Mia’s no longer going to be able to pull rank. Not unless I give her that rank as my second.

Shit.

I have to choose a second.

The thought hits me just as Dutch steps between us. “We don’t have time for this. We need a plan.”

“I have a plan.” I rake a hand through my hair, willing the headache away. “We let this play out.”

Razor barks out a laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “Let this play out? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“She’s in their hands, Grey,” Mia says, her voice softer but no less furious.

“A girl whose wolf is inaccessible. Whose namesake wouldn’t even recognize her as his heir.

Whose veins supposedly run with the power of their high alpha.

You think they’re just gonna keep her alive out of the goodness of their hearts? ”

“No,” I admit. “But they need her. She’s their high alpha now, even if they don’t want to admit it. ”

“And if they decide not to recognize her as the alpha?” Mia asks.

“They won’t kill her—not yet,” Dutch adds grimly. “Not until some kind of hierarchy can be established for who gets to do it and take Franco’s alpha power along with hers.”

Mia gawks at him then at me. “ That’s your plan? Hope they don’t kill her yet for a power she doesn’t even possess?” She shakes her head, muttering to herself that we’re all idiots.

“Would you rather I let my father have her?” I snap.

“Your father—” she starts, but I don’t let her finish.