Page 41 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

GREY

T he moon hangs low tonight. Its glow filters through a thick canopy of trees, casting the small clearing in silver shadows.

The air is muggy with the scent of pine and damp earth.

But beneath it, I scent the tang in the air that is the ward line.

Meeting out in the open is a risk, but it can’t be helped.

The wards still haven’t been changed since Franco died, and I’m not na?ve enough to think Levi and Mac will slip in and out unnoticed.

But we’re far enough out from any roads or even running trails that there’s no chance of other wolves spotting us. It’s quiet here. Peaceful.

My mind is neither of those things.

I wasn’t lying when I told Lexi I needed some time before tomorrow’s inevitable battle.

Somehow, it’s always felt as if my father and I were headed toward this finality.

A moment one of us won’t walk away from.

And while I’ve known it would eventually come to this, and that he won’t be stopped any other way, it’s still a heavy thing to face.

I’ve done a lot of hard shit. Took down a lot of bad people. But taking out my own father is next level. And the worst part is that I already know I won’t even hesitate .

What if that makes me the same kind of monster as him?

I can’t bear to ask that question aloud.

Or to even think about what that kind of kill might do to my wolf or my own sanity.

Not to mention the dark creature whose grip on me grows with every hour.

Destroying my father would satisfy that thing in a way I’m not sure I can come back from.

But the worst part is, even knowing I might lose myself won’t stop me.

Nothing can change my mind about doing whatever it takes to protect my people and my pack.

The soft crunch of footsteps snaps me from my thoughts, and two figures emerge from the shadows. I tense out of pure instinct, muscles coiling, but even before my hands form into fists or my wolf can stir inside me, I know it’s them.

Levi and Mac, walking side by side, moving like extensions of each other. Mates. Partners. Co-alphas.

The Black Moon Pack once thrived on rejecting their own mates as a show of strength, but Mac and Levi fought to change that. Now, they’re the strongest mated pair I know. After five years fighting alongside Levi for his right to choose his mate, I know he’ll understand what’s at stake for me.

“Hey, stranger,” Levi says, his expression friendly despite the cool calculation in his gaze. Levi’s the only other person I’ve known who is constantly assessing the threats in a space and adjusting accordingly.

“Good to see you, Grey,” Mac adds, stepping forward to embrace me, but I hold up a hand, and Levi tugs her back.

“It’s best if you stay on that side of the ward line,” I explain. “Crossing it would bring others, and I don’t want to explain what we’re doing out here.”

Mac looks defiant, like she wants to argue and do it anyway, but Levi nods at me. “We’re on your turf. We’ll do it your way.”

I exhale. “Thanks for coming,” I say gratefully .

“You didn’t give us much notice,” Levi says, the corner of his mouth pulling into a half-grin. “Something big must be going down if you’re asking for help.”

“You’re enjoying this,” I say wryly.

“The first and only time Grey asks me for a favor?” Levi snorts. “Damn right I’m enjoying it.”

I roll my eyes. The fucker is never going to let me live this down. “I’d say I’m owed more than one,” I remind him.

“I owe you my life, brother,” Levi says, instantly serious.

The memories of battles we fought together are a barrage inside my head, but I just nod at that.

“You look good,” Mac says softly, studying me. “Tired, but good.”

“It’s been a rough few weeks,” I say, my voice tighter than I intend.

“Is that why you asked us to consult a hex witch on that research you sent us?” she asks.

“I need to know if alpha power mixed with hex magic can poison someone.”

“Poison how?” Mac asks.

“Make them go mad,” I say quietly, and her eyes widen.

“Grey, what the fuck is going on?” Levi asks.

“It’s better if you don’t know the details?—”

“No way.” He shakes his head. “You kept quiet about your past all these years, and I respected your privacy, but this isn’t something we can help with blindly. What’s happening? Is it your family? Is someone in trouble?”

I exhale heavily, looking away before forcing myself to meet his gaze. “It’s not my family. It’s me.”

I tell them everything as quickly as I can—about how I helped Franco try to kill my old man five years ago but failed miserably, about my father’s orders to kidnap the heir in a coup attempt, about falling for Lexi while I held her prisoner.

Then I tell them about the experiments and the poisoned power I inherited when I killed Franco.

It feels both wrong and right to finally tell them everything.

Levi and I spent years fighting a rebellion together, and even then, I never uttered a word about who I really am.

How I grew up. The shock of it registers on their faces as I talk, but neither of them interrupts.

They keep their shit together, which is just evidence of everything we’ve been through.

When I finish, Levi shakes his head. “I knew you had some darkness behind you, Grey, but the mafia pack? Damn.”

Mac nods, her expression gentle. “It explains a lot. Why you were always so careful, always watching our backs. You've been in survival mode your entire life.”

“Yeah,” I say quietly, throat tight. Their understanding is bordering on pity, and I can’t take that, so I steer the conversation back to what I need most. “But this alpha power—I feel it, twisting inside me. Franco was evil, but it’s more than that.

I think it has to do with the serum that turned on his LAG gene.

It was laced with hex magic, and I think it’s what was killing him before I…

Whatever was wrong with him is infecting me.

Can alpha power do that? Corrupt you? I mean, we all saw Crigger. ”

“No,” Mac says firmly, her voice calm but unyielding. “Alpha power amplifies who you already are. If you’re an asshole, you’re just a bigger asshole. That was Crigger’s problem.”

Levi opens his mouth like he wants to make a comment about their former alpha, but Mac shoots him a glare that has him closing his mouth again. “But you, Grey,” she continues, “You’re one of the good ones. Alpha power can’t turn you into something you’re not.”

Levi nods, the humor gone. “She’s right. You’re strong because of your own integrity and your commitment to protect the people you love. Don’t confuse that with corruption, even if it means you have to get your hands dirty.”

I blow out a breath.

Their certainty helps, but it doesn’t erase my fear entirely. I run a hand over my face. “So, whatever’s causing this, if it’s not me, then it’s something from Franco’s alpha essence. Something in that serum that made him so strong—and so fucking dark.”

Levi exchanges a glance with Mac, something unspoken passing between them. “We showed the research to Chloe from the Forest Hills coven. She’s a hex witch and an herbologist who studies medicines for shifters?—”

“Did she find anything?”

They exchange a look, and something passes between them. Some silent conversation only fated mates can have. It sends my fear skyrocketing.

Levi cocks his head, studying me. “You said you’re already mated to Lexi?”

“Yeah.”

Another look exchanged. I fist my hands to keep from smashing one of them into Levi to get him to talk.

“We can’t really smell her on you,” Mac says.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I growl. Their words feel like some kind of threat against my mate. Or, at least, that’s how my wolf takes it. Because it doesn’t make any sense.

“Your scent is…” Mac shakes her head. “I smell a she-wolf on you, but not like a mated pair.”

“That’s impossible,” I snap. “We claimed each other days ago.”

“But she’s the alpha of the Giovanni pack,” Levi says carefully.

“Yeah.”

“And you’re the alpha of your own pack now,” he adds .

“What the fuck does?—”

“Mates—true fated mates,” Mac says softly, “are meant to share a bond that goes deeper than any pack bond ever will.”

“I know that,” I say, my words clipped. Had they come here to insult and lecture me?

“However,” Mac says carefully, and Levi angles himself closer to her, “a pack bond is still a necessary part of the equation.”

“No shit.”

Mac lifts a brow. “You just said your pack doesn’t include Lexi.”

I blink then shake off her insinuation, even if it does raise my wolf’s hackles that someone is questioning our devotion to our mate. “Lexi is my mate, which makes her my pack by default. You don’t understand our hierarchy?—”

But Mac shakes her head. “Maybe for another wolf, that could be true, but this alpha power you both have with the hex magic woven into it… We think it’s changed the way you bonded. Chloe said the gene mutation elevated your wolf so there would be no equal, so the wolf in power could rule alone?—”

“Lexi has it, too, though,” I say quickly.

“Right. Which is why I think you have to claim each other as pack to fully seal it—to truly share it.”

“Share it?” I echo, “You want me to let this darkness inside her too? No way. Absolutely fucking not.”

“Your bond with Lexi,” Levi interrupts. “Do you feel it right now?”

“Of course I do.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s at the estate.”

“Do you know that in your head, or do you feel it through your bond?”

“I…” I blink, realization dawning. My sense of Lexi’s lo cation points vaguely east and suggests a distance of several miles… but that’s it.

My gaze snaps to theirs. “What the fuck,” I breathe.

Mac’s eyes glimmer with sympathy. “These injections your former alpha gave himself, between the gene mutation and the hex magic…Chloe said it’s too much power for one wolf. Trying to contain it in a singular shifter—even an alpha—is basically only ever going to end badly.”