Page 6 of Broken Wolf Heart (Mafia Pack #3)

“All who recognize Lexi Giovanni as the high alpha of the Mafia Pack,” Santiago begins, and very few hands begin to rise.

My heart pounds.

Conrad grins. “Time’s up, you stupid, entitled bitch.”

At the sight of that smile, a voice inside me whispers, We will bathe in his blood.

And I suddenly know I’m going to lose myself to my wolf. And I can do it here—in front of this asshole. Or I can run and hide first to make sure I don’t hurt anyone else.

But I’m done running. And hiding.

“You want the title, Conrad? Then take it.” I step forward, the challenge thick in my voice even though I know I’m a trembling mess. Seconds, I have only seconds before I’m not human anymore. “Right here. Right now,” I add in nothing more than a whisper.

A wicked grin spreads across his face. “With pleasure.”

He lunges.

I expect my instincts to take over, to let me dodge, to find an opening. But what happens next is not instinct.

It’s something else entirely.

Heat erupts beneath my skin, like molten fire pouring through my veins. My breath stutters. The room sways. And then—pain. Blinding, unbearable pain. It shatters through my bones, stretching, snapping, twisting me apart from the inside out.

I scream, dropping to my knees. My nails gouge the carpet as my spine bows.

“Don’t fight it, Lexi,” I hear Mia say. She doesn’t have to worry. I couldn’t if I wanted to.

Something inside me tears loose .

My wolf.

My fucking wolf.

For the first time in my life, I feel my wolf rising to the surface of my skin—and she’s out for blood.

A furious snarl rips from my throat, but it’s not my human voice anymore. It’s a raw, guttural thing. A predator’s growl.

Power and strength flood my muscles, my cells.

Conrad stops mid-lunge, his face paling as his eyes go wide.

Too late.

I don’t hesitate.

I launch.

The shift is seamless, muscle and bone reshaping as I slam into him.

His body crashes against the wall, his bones snapping with a deafening crack, my claws slicing through his chest. He screams as he slides to the floor, but the sound barely registers beneath the pounding of my heartbeat, the rush of blood in my ears.

His hands shift—his own wolf trying to emerge—but he’s too slow. Too weak. The beast inside me revels in knowing that. My fangs find his throat, and I tear through flesh, through sinew, through everything.

Santiago comes for me next. He half-shifts before he reaches me, his rage and grief contorting his expression. But he doesn’t even fully change before my claws are raking down his flesh and his torn body is lying at my feet.

Power runs hot in my veins. The kills make me stronger. Deadlier. Hungrier.

Not me.

Her.

I can’t even find me anymore.

If I could, maybe I’d hear Mia screaming for me. Or Razor and Dutch trying to get to me in the panic of the crowd pushing at them as they try to flee.

But all I see is Toros coming for me at last. I want to tell him he shouldn’t, but I don’t have a voice, nor do I have any sway with the wolf whose body I now inhabit.

Franco’s scariest, most deadly general of them all shifts into an enormous wolf right before me.

He leaps, claws and canines out. This fight isn’t as easy as the others.

His claws snap too close to my throat. It both terrifies me and enrages my wolf.

She fights harder, and he does too. But in the end, my wolf cuts him to ribbons.

He falls at my feet just like the others did.

I can hear the moment his heart stops. The stillness where his breath has left his body.

My wolf tips her head back and howls, the sound echoing off the auditorium walls.

When I’m done, the panic subsides, and everyone in the auditorium is suddenly still. They watch me with wary eyes, as if trying to guess who I’ll target next.

My wolf basks in their fear as she scans the room, daring anyone else to challenge us.

No one does.

Instead, they bow.

A glimpse of red hair draws my eye. I watch as Mia kneels first, but then, one by one, every member of the Giovanni pack drops to one knee. Even the Diavolo crowd, including Rocco, Alvaro, and Charlie. Then Vincenzo himself, though his reluctance is clear.

When he refuses to lower his eyes from mine, my wolf nearly goes for his throat. I don’t know how I manage to hold her back. Maybe it’s the silence or the sort of violent reverence of it all. A quiet room decorated with the blood of my enemies.

It’s disgusting.

But my wolf seems placated by it.

Slowly, Vincenzo rises again and steps forward, his expression unreadable as he surveys my wolf—his new alpha. I growl just so he knows who the fuck he’s dealing with. Just in case Franco’s dead generals aren’t enough indication.

He doesn’t challenge me, but I can see him warring with the desire to try. When he speaks, his voice rings through the auditorium like a death knell. “Lexi Giovanni is the new high alpha of the Mafia Pack.”

And just like that, I am no longer a girl caught between two warring families.

I am the alpha wolf at the head of them all.