Page 24 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

GREY

T he second I pull into the driveway, I know I’m too late.

My father’s striding out the front doors like he owns the place, dressed like a fucking politician and smiling like a snake who just swallowed the mouse.

He’s buttoning his suit jacket slowly, like he has all the time in the goddamn world, and when he sees me leap out of the passenger seat of Crow’s car, his grin sharpens.

“The knight in shining armor here at last,” he calls across the gravel, tone slick with malice. “Too fucking late. Meeting’s over. You missed all the fun.”

I stop cold, realizing I don’t see a single member of my pack. Or Lexi.

My vision tunnels.

The beast inside me roars.

If he hurt Lexi, I’d know. I’d feel it. Still… I need to know she’s okay. To see her with my own eyes.

A figure moves in the door behind him.

Lexi stops short at the sight of me facing off with my father. But I don’t care that she looks stricken with fear. She’s unharmed from what I can tell. That’s what matters.

“Did he touch you?” I demand.

“No,” she says, and I nearly sag at the relief in that single word.

“Not yet,” my father adds, and I snarl, my skin hot with the effort of holding my human form.

Whatever darkness that’s been gathering inside me is threatening to unleash itself here and now. I’ve never felt so unbound to my wolf before.

“Security, hold your positions,” Lexi commands sharply, not even flinching as half a dozen of her guards pour out of the house behind her and surround us all. Elena comes to stand in the doorway, guarding Lexi’s back.

Seeing her pack surround her helps ease the raging inside me just a little, and for a moment, I think I can let him walk out of here.

My father stalks closer to me, undeterred, eyes glinting as he snarls, “Tell that bitch you’re all going to pay for double-crossing me.”

My fists tighten, and any hope of letting him walk evaporates with the words he just spoke.

“She’s your high alpha now,” I growl. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

He laughs—sharp and humorless—and shoves me.

Hard.

I don’t think. I slam both hands into his chest and send him flying back into the hood of his black SUV with enough force to dent the grill. The satisfying crunch his body makes barely registers before I’m closing the distance to rip him apart.

My wolf surges to the surface, and I barely manage to yank it back into my skin when I see Lexi running toward us, barefoot, hair flowing out wild behind her, eyes wide with panic.

I move to position myself between her and him, but my father is a split second faster. He peels himself off the grill of the car and stands. His gaze shifts from me to her. And then?—

He lunges.

“Lexi!” I shout, but she’s already reacting.

She spins to meet him head-on, arms up.

Except that she doesn’t shift. Doesn’t call on the wolf I know must be clawing beneath her skin. She fights him as a human.

Thanks to the strength and speed of her wolf, she gets a few hits in—one solid punch to his jaw that would’ve dropped any human. But my father’s not human.

He’s fast. Strong. Not just a wolf but an alpha.

Before I can get between them, he backhands her so hard she stumbles sideways and then hits the ground with a choked sound that punches the air out of my lungs.

“Shift!” I scream. “Lexi, shift?—”

She pushes up on her palms, blood leaking from her mouth and pure defiance burning in her gaze. “No.”

She’s trying to win on her own terms.

But she’s losing.

I launch myself at him with a roar, but he’s ready for that and sidesteps rather than facing me head-on. Lexi’s security surges forward, shifting as they come. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rocco and Alvaro rush to block them.

In the second I split my focus, my father slips past me. He yanks Lexi up by the throat, her feet barely touching the ground, and I snap.

My wolf surges.

Control shatters.

I crash into him like a freight train, but not before he tosses Lexi so hard through the air that her back slams into the marble column behind me. My fists find bone. His ribs, his face. I don’t hold back. Not this time. Not with Lexi bleeding on the ground, brutalized by this monster .

I hit him again.

And again.

And again.

His blood splashes across the gravel, and still I want more.

The darkness inside me is a living, breathing thing. It’s managed to shove even my wolf aside, filling me with this obsession for death.

When I’ve all but lost myself in it, my father shoves me off with a burst of strength. Then he climbs to his feet and stumbles back, lip split, eye swelling, blood streaked across his shirt and face.

“Grey.” Dutch’s voice is sharp enough to break through the haze, and I glance over to see every single guard lying dead on the pavement. Rocco and Alvaro are covered in blood, but one whiff of the scent tells me it’s not their own. “Are we doing this?”

He’s tense. I know what he’s asking.

If we fight now, it’ll mean Dutch against his father. Razor and Crow against theirs. And their pack will come. My father will call them, and they’ll come, and they’ll destroy us.

Lexi refuses to shift. I don’t know where that leaves us in a fight like that.

I hesitate, breathing heavy and blood dripping from my knuckles.

Rather than answer, I reach down and help Andy pull Lexi to her feet.

My father’s eyes lock on mine—and something clicks behind them.

Realization.

He staggers, spitting blood, and looks from me to Lexi and back again. “It wasn’t her,” he breathes. “It was you. You killed Franco.”

I don’t answer.

I don’t need to .

He sees it.

Sees the truth in every drop of alpha power radiating off me, in every inch of my stance as I step between him and Lexi, chest heaving, ready for round two.

“You’re an alpha now,” he says, wonder and hatred twisted into one low snarl. “And still, you tied yourself to her. Let her take the credit. You’re hiding behind her. Like a fucking coward.”

Despite her injuries, Lexi snarls.

He wipes his face with the back of his hand, blood smearing across his cheek. “I should’ve known. Should’ve seen it sooner.”

Lexi leans into me. She’s limping, but she’s upright. And her eyes are pure fire. “You would have seen if you’d bothered to look at him. You never saw Grey for who he really was,” she snarls at him.

But my father is long past pretending to care about me. His eyes narrow as he says, “It looks like I’ll be coming for both your titles then.”

“You won’t get either one,” I tell him.

He laughs, low and bitter.

“So be it. If you won’t give me this city…

” He looks around, taking in the sight of all of us gathering now—Dutch on his left just behind Alvaro, Razor flanking Lexi silently, Crow stalking toward where Rocco stands beside the SUV, Mia striding through the courtyard with purpose in her eyes, more of Lexi’s guards behind her.

“…I’ll burn it down with all of you inside it. ”

His confidence confuses me, considering how outnumbered he is. But then I catch movement at the tree line and realize what he already knows.

Wolves—dozens at least—emerge from the woods that border the back of the property. Not Giovanni pack.

Diavolo pack wolves .

My father has used his alpha power to call his pack.

And even with my newfound alpha power and my pack at my side, there’s no way we can win against this many wolves. Not today.

My father smirks like he knows what I’m thinking.

Before I can say anything, Lexi steps forward so that she stands on her own rather than leaning against me. Her shoulders are squared. Lips bloodied. But she’s standing. And her expression is set with ferocity.

“You can threaten us,” she says coldly. “You can throw your tantrum, call your wolves, bring your wrath—but it won’t change anything. And if you let your pack kill us rather than taking that victory for yourself, you won’t get our alpha power—and you won’t be crowned king.”

A flicker of irritation passes over his expression. He knows she’s right, and he’s pissed about it. But rather than give that away, he merely straightens his jacket like he’s about to walk into a board meeting. “Looks like we’ll save our war for another day.”

“Looks like,” I growl, stepping up beside her. My hand finds hers, and she laces her fingers through mine without looking away from him.

I watch as my father’s gaze flicks between us.

He sees it now.

What we are.

What we’ve become.

Those cold, hollow eyes gleam with something dangerous, but he says nothing more. He turns, climbs into his car with his generals, and peels away in a spray of gravel and smoke. Along the tree line, his wolves fade slowly back into the forest and disappear.

The moment they’re all gone, Lexi’s knees buckle. I catch her before she can hit the ground.

“Lex,” I whisper, sinking down with her, cupping her face .

“I’m okay,” she breathes, but her voice trembles. “I just… I couldn’t let myself lose control to her. I know it sounds crazy, but…I don’t know if she’d give it back.”

“I know,” I whisper, brushing hair from her face. “I know, baby.”

Her fingers curl into my shirt.

Everyone else stays back, silent and still.

We sit there in the center of the driveway—Alpha and High Alpha, bloodied and breathless—and I feel the weight of everything that’s coming settle on our shoulders.

War with my father and his pack is no longer a possibility.

It’s a guarantee.

I look over at Crow, whose frame still trembles from the rage he’s trying to hold back. “Okay,” I rasp. “No more waiting.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asks warily.

Rocco and Dutch take a step forward. Dutch looks hungry; Razor looks hopeful, which probably means they’ve filled him in on what we found out at the lab. Then again, Razor always wants a fight, so maybe not.

“Go get your answers,” I tell him. And with a glance at Razor, I add, “Together as brothers. Tell me when it’s done.”

“What are you…?” Mia looks back and forth between us. She might not have been there for our conversation earlier, but she knows what I mean. They all do. They’ve been waiting for me to give the order all along.

“There’s no coming back from this,” she warns, but it’s not a reproach, only a reminder. “If you do what I think you’re going to do?—”

“There was never any going back,” I say, and then I pull Lexi into my arms and carry her inside.