Page 3 of Broken Wolf Heart
The remaining guests go still at the steel in his voice.
But Santiago doesn’t listen.
With a malicious grin, he hauls me off my feet and begins carrying me away, his grip unyielding. My wolf strains inside me, desperate to free herself. To fight them. To kill.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Dutch demands, the words laced with a growl. He and Razor surge toward the steps—toward me.
My panic escalates at the inevitable brawl coming. I make a sound that’s more animal than human, and it’s enough to make Santiago stop in his tracks.
Dutch eyes me with suspicion, but it’s Grey who speaks.
“Put her down, or I swear I will kill you and everyone you’ve ever loved,” Grey snarls.
“This is Giovanni pack business,” Toros tells him. “You have no authority here.”
Grey stops struggling then. He blinks as if letting those words really sink in. “You’re taking her to Franco’s.” It’s more of a question than a statement.
“We’re taking her home,” Toros snarls. “Where she belongs.”
Grey looks at Dutch and Razor and gives a swift nod. They back off.
My stomach twists as I realize they’re going to stand down.
Santiago carries me down the steps.
The crowd, mostly Franco’s people on this side, parts for us.
“Wait.” Grey surges forward. He yanks out of Conrad’s grip hard enough to send the man staggering. “I’m coming with you.”
“That’s not your call to make,” Toros shoots back.
Grey’s eyes narrow. “I’m her fucking husband.”
The air between them thickens, the tension slicing through the ruined sanctity of the church like a blade.
“Husband or not, you know the price,” Toros tells him. “Denounce your father. Publicly. Swear allegiance to us.”
“Like hell,” Vincenzo snarls. He’s watching this unfold like he can’t decide if it’s a good thing or a nightmare. But at the mention of Grey defecting, he looks like he’s settled on the latter.
Grey’s breathing is ragged, his hands curling into fists at his sides. He wants to do as they demand. I can see it in the way his entire body strains toward me. In the way his chest rises and falls like he’s seconds from shifting and ripping them all apart.
Mia appears at Grey’s side. She gives him a look that conveys something I don’t understand. Grey’s eyes flick to mine, stormy with anguish, apology, fury. His jaw clenches. The growl that rips from him is pure rage, his wolf so close to the surface that his pupils blacken, his body trembling with the force of his instincts.
And then—he goes still.
Toros watches him, waiting.
Grey doesn’t speak.
He doesn’t have to.
The decision is made.
Toros nods. “Didn’t think so.”
Then they carry me out.
And Grey lets them.
