Page 55 of Broken Wolf Heart
I force myself not to look.
Then Grey goes still beside me.
I catch the shift in scent too—ozone, body odor, a touch of blood. Someone else is here.
A door slides open just ahead.
A man steps out, tall and sharp like a scalpel. White lab coat. Salt-and-pepper hair. A smile that belongs in nightmares. If he’s a wolf, I can’t sense it. Not like I can with the others.
“Ah,” he says. “The prodigal subject returns.”
The name on his jacket lapel says Severin.
“Hello,” Grey greets coolly. “I’m Grey Diavolo. This is Lexi Giovani, the high alpha of Indigo Hills. These are our friends.” He gestures to Mia and Crow, who don’t look inclined to offer their names or any other bit of manners.
I stiffen. Charlie told me he’d seen the name Severin in Franco’s research files.Lead researcher. High clearance. Ruthless.
“You’re Dr. Severin,” I say, ice settling in my spine. “The one who experimented on me.”
He smiles without warmth. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
“I read your name in a file,” I say, my shock slowly turning to fury. “Didn’t expect to meet the monster in person.”
“Monster is a bit dramatic,” he says, bemused. “I prefer architect.”
“And psychopath,” Mia mutters. “But hey, tomato, tomahto.”
Before I can say anything else, a second figure appears beside him.
She’s young. Early twenties, maybe. Long dark braid, confident smirk, eyes like a storm. She wears a white lab coat too, but there’s something less intimidating about hers. Maybe it’s the stain that looks a lot like ketchup near the third button.
“Hi, I’m Davina,” she says before I can ask. “Hex witch. Technically, Severin’s lab assistant.” She leans in and drops her voice to a whisper as she adds, “Not his biggest fan.”
Severin doesn’t react despite the fact that she said it loud enough that he clearly heard her.
“You’re a hex witch?” Mia asks, not bothering to hide her surprise.
“What are you doing here?” Crow chimes in.
He makes it sound like hex witches are scarce in Indigo Hills, and from everything Grey has told me about them, he’s not wrong. Witches might have created this city—and especially the magic that hides it from the human world—but they didn’t stick around to live in it. And the wolves don’t seem particularly mad about that last part either.
“Franco got me out of a bit of a clusterfuck with a coven I’d rather not name,” Davina explains. “In return, I have to work off my debt here.”
Mia’s expression turns mildly suspicious. “Work—as in manual labor or…?”
“Magic,” Davina says, and Grey tenses at that.
“What sort of magic?” he asks gruffly.
“The kind that powers this place,” she says as matter-of-factly as if she were explaining how a light switch works.
But I can’t help but gawk. “Your magic powers this entire facility?”
She nods warily, and I note the others looking less impressed and more unsettled.
“What else do you do for him?” Grey asks her.
I can’t help but feel that this interrogation has now become about Davina rather than Severin.
