Page 22 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

LEXI

I pace in front of Franco’s old desk, polished wood glinting sharply beneath the overhead lights in the study.

The vaulted ceilings echo my every move, amplifying every step I take, every breath I force myself to draw.

The grandeur of this place feels oppressive, like it’s still fighting against me, still whispering that I don’t belong.

No one else has challenged me or spoken against me since that first meeting, but the house is constantly full of people coming and going.

Security changing over their shifts or doing patrols.

Lieutenants reporting in. Andy meeting with various leaders or city officials.

The house feels more like an office than a place to live.

And I’m on display the entire time. I’ve already shaken more hands and made more small talk than I’ve done in my entire life combined.

And that’s just since returning from the lab.

I immediately shove aside thoughts of what happened there. It’ll only upset my wolf, and I’m barely leashing her as it is. She feels suffocated inside these walls. She wants the forest again. Freedom. She wants me to shift.

Later , I promise her .

She snarls back at me.

From a chair near the fireplace, Andy flips through the pages in front of her, scribbling quick notes with narrowed eyes and tight lips.

All morning, she’s been grilling the pack leadership—interviewing them, determining who stays loyal and who needs to be culled.

Whoever doesn’t pledge their loyalty—and prove it—will be banished from Indigo Hills.

It’s brutal and cold but necessary.

I still can’t decide if I admire or fear how easily she slips into the role I’ve given her. Sentencing her pack—her people—to banishment can’t be pleasant, and yet she hasn’t questioned it. Or me.

“You’re pacing again,” Andy remarks dryly, without looking up. She flips a page, sighing heavily. “You’re also making me dizzy.”

“Sorry,” I mutter, forcing myself to stop and drop into the chair opposite her.

I glance at Razor, standing silent and stoic against the wall by the door.

His eyes dart to mine briefly, assessing, reassuring, before returning to his careful watch.

Knowing Razor is here, guarding me, should be comforting, especially considering I don’t know who I can trust in my own pack yet.

At the same time, it reminds me how vulnerable I am—how much I still need protection from others, even after everything I’ve gone through to access my wolf.

I need to get her under control.

Before she gets me under her control instead.

“You look like someone waiting for the firing squad,” Andy says quietly, finally setting down her pen.

I sigh, bracing my hands on the back of Franco’s chair—my chair. Ugh. “Maybe I am.”

She tilts her head, giving me a considering look. “Want to talk about it?”

I open my mouth to answer but am cut off when a pack member appears in the doorway.

He’s in a security uniform, but I can’t remember his name.

I need to work on that. “Alpha,” he says, offering me a respectful dip of his head.

“We’re finished with the shift change. Do you need anything else before my team and I head out? ”

“No, we’re fine,” I say a little more sharply than I intend.

Razor snorts.

The guard glances at Andy then Razor. Neither one offers any kind of explanation, so he clears his throat and says, “Right. I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow.”

When he’s gone, I find Andy looking at me with an arched brow.

“This house is just so freaking crowded,” I snarl.

She offers a tiny smile like she gets it. “They’re more scared of you than you are of them, Lexi.”

“I doubt that.”

Andy shrugs. “Believe what you want, but I see it in their eyes when I interview them. You killed Franco. And then you executed his generals in front of the entire pack. Some might resent you, but most are smart enough to respect your power.”

Right. Franco.

They all think I killed him, including Andy.

Guilt tugs at me for lying to her, but I shove it aside. As for the generals…

“I didn’t exactly do it on purpose,” I admit, my words more vulnerable than I like.

Andy’s gaze softens slightly. “Intent doesn’t matter to these wolves. Only outcome.”

“Is that why no one’s even batted an eye about finding out Dom’s dead?” I ask.

Her gaze flashes with an intensity I haven’t seen often from her. “Dom had no friends among us. He burned every bridge and left hate and violence in his wake wherever he went. No one’s sorry to see him go. ”

“So, no big fancy funeral for him, then?”

“Elena suggested a simple memorial stone in the pack cemetery to appease any family. I approved it,” she says wryly.

“Wow. Okay. Thanks for taking care of that.”

“Elena did most of the legwork. She’s really good at what she does.”

“Scarily good,” I agree.

Andy grins.

The silence hangs between us, growing warmer, less tense.

“How do you handle it so easily? The violence, the having to be on your guard constantly—the pressure of it all?”

Andy glances at Razor, and I realize I’m asking a personal question in front of someone she probably considers her enemy. But she doesn’t brush off the question, and when she speaks, there’s a surprising amount of openness in her tone.

“Franco recruited my dad before I was born, so I grew up with violence and power games as the norm. My father used to take me to work with him. Said it would bring us closer. Make me stronger.”

Razor snarls at that.

Andy gives him a look. “Yeah, we’re a lot alike.”

“It’s fucked up,” he says.

“It was,” she agrees.

I shake my head, thinking of Grey. His dad did the same thing. So did all Vincenzo’s generals. It’s horrible.

“Did it?” I ask. “Make you stronger?”

“Sort of. Believe it or not, my dad was a good guy, all things considered. Better than any of the current regime—on both sides. I came to realize he did bad things for what he considered good reasons. When he died, Toros took his place, and Franco decided a marriage between us would unite those divided about Toros’ quick promotion to general. ”

“Toros led the Bane though,” Razor says. “He fought against Franco. I still don’t get why he gave that up and joined the fucker.”

“Power is a heady thing to dangle in front of someone. Regardless of their principles or morals. Although, I think Toros was always in it for power more than he was in it for the cause.”

Razor scowls.

“You didn’t have a choice?” I ask. “About marrying Toros?”

She shrugs. “I wouldn’t have said no despite not wanting it.”

“Why not?”

“This pack has always been my world, brutal as it is.”

I watch her, waiting, sensing there’s more.

After a pause, she adds quietly, “I remember watching my father come home bloody one night after carrying out Franco’s orders against someone he deemed a threat.

My mother started crying, telling him to leave, to run, so we could start a new life somewhere else.

But he knew that wouldn’t work. We’d seen it.

” She flicked a glance at me. “Your parents’ death sent a message to anyone who’d considered trying to get away.

And my mother died feeling like a prisoner here. ”

“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, my heart breaking a little at what it must have been like to grow up that way.

“I decided early on that I would never be weak like that. I wouldn’t be made to feel like a victim or a pawn.” Her voice is steady, but beneath it, the pain is evident, old wounds reopened just slightly.

I nod slowly, understanding more clearly why Andy acts so hard, so controlled. Survival. Just like me.

“I grew up in foster care,” I tell her. “Never had a real home. Never belonged anywhere. I got into some bad homes, bad situations, and did what I had to so I could stay safe. But families saw my file, saw a troubled kid, and sent me packing or passed me over entirely. I learned early that no one was coming to save me.”

Andy meets my eyes, something flickering in her expression. Respect. Understanding. “We both learned that lesson early, then.”

“Yeah,” I breathe out, relaxing slightly. “Guess we did.”

She leans forward, offering me a slight smile. “Maybe now we get to rewrite those rules for someone else.”

The unexpected kindness catches me off guard, warms a place inside my chest I usually keep locked down tight. “Maybe,” I agree softly.

When I catch Razor’s eye, there’s sorrow and fury reflecting back at me. “You’re both fucking badasses, you know that.”

“Thanks,” I tell him, his words healing a few more of those wounds I still carry.

Before I can say anything else, Elena bursts through the office door. Razor stiffens, instantly alert.

“Alpha.” Elena bows her head only slightly. “You have a guest,” she announces.

“Another interview?” I ask, glancing at Andy.

Andy shakes her head sharply, lips pressed tight. “There’s nothing else scheduled until tomorrow.”

“Who is it?” I ask.

“It’s Vincenzo Diavolo,” Elena says. “Here to give his update.”

“What update?” I ask carefully, heart thudding now. There’s only one thing that man wants an update about. But they don’t know that.

Elena sniffs. “Mr. Diavolo had a standing monthly appointment with Franco to report in on pack business and financials. I expect he’s here to do that with you.”

Razor snorts.

A second later, Mia appears behind Elena. She’s breathless, and I wonder if she ran here all the way from the guardhouse where she was auditing the patrol schedules by shadowing the guards.

Our eyes meet.

There’s no way Vincenzo is here to resume anything he had with Franco. Not when he’d rather kill me than pledge his loyalty to his new alpha. The deal we made hangs like a noose around my neck. The alpha title he wants, the blood sample I promised. Both things I refuse to hand over now.

“Send him away,” Mia says.

I take a deep breath, steadying myself. “Let him in.”

“Lexi—” Razor protests sharply, stepping closer.

“I’ll handle it,” I say firmly, cutting him off.