Page 66 of Broken Wolf Heart
I watch her, waiting, sensing there’s more. After a pause, she adds quietly, “I remember watching my father come home bloody one night after carrying out Franco’s orders against someone he deemed a threat. My mother started crying, telling him to leave, to run, so we could start a new life somewhere else. But he knew that wouldn’t work. We’d seen it.” She flicked a glance at me. “Your parents’ death sent a message to anyone who’d considered trying to get away. And my mother died feeling like a prisoner here.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, my heart breaking a little at what it must have been like to grow up that way.
“I decided early on that I would never be weak like that. I wouldn’t be made to feel like a victim or a pawn.” Her voice is steady, but beneath it, the pain is evident, old wounds reopened just slightly.
I nod slowly, understanding more clearly why Andy acts so hard, so controlled. Survival. Just like me.
“I grew up in foster care,” I tell her. “Never had a real home. Never belonged anywhere. I got into some bad homes, bad situations, and did what I had to so I could stay safe. But families saw my file, saw a troubled kid, and sent me packing orpassed me over entirely. I learned early that no one was coming to save me.”
Andy meets my eyes, something flickering in her expression. Respect. Understanding. “We both learned that lesson early, then.”
“Yeah,” I breathe out, relaxing slightly. “Guess we did.”
She leans forward, offering me a slight smile. “Maybe now we get to rewrite those rules for someone else.”
The unexpected kindness catches me off guard, warms a place inside my chest I usually keep locked down tight. “Maybe,” I agree softly.
When I catch Razor’s eye, there’s sorrow and fury reflecting back at me. “You’re both fucking badasses, you know that.”
“Thanks,” I tell him, his words healing a few more of those wounds I still carry.
Before I can say anything else, Elena bursts through the office door. Razor stiffens, instantly alert.
“Alpha.” Elena bows her head only slightly. “You have a guest,” she announces.
“Another interview?” I ask, glancing at Andy.
Andy shakes her head sharply, lips pressed tight. “There’s nothing else scheduled until tomorrow.”
“Who is it?” I ask.
“It’s Vincenzo Diavolo,” Elena says. “Here to give his update.”
“What update?” I ask carefully, heart thudding now. There’s only one thing that man wants an update about. But they don’t know that.
Elena sniffs. “Mr. Diavolo had a standing monthly appointment with Franco to report in on pack business and financials. I expect he’s here to do that with you.”
Razor snorts.
A second later, Mia appears behind Elena. She’s breathless,and I wonder if she ran here all the way from the guardhouse where she was auditing the patrol schedules by shadowing the guards.
Our eyes meet.
There’s no way Vincenzo is here to resume anything he had with Franco. Not when he’d rather kill me than pledge his loyalty to his new alpha. The deal we made hangs like a noose around my neck. The alpha title he wants, the blood sample I promised. Both things I refuse to hand over now.
“Send him away,” Mia says.
I take a deep breath, steadying myself. “Let him in.”
“Lexi—” Razor protests sharply, stepping closer.
“I’ll handle it,” I say firmly, cutting him off.
Mia turns away, sliding her phone out and speaking in a low, clipped tone. Grey. Fuck. I don’t have much time before the cavalry shows up.
Razor hesitates, wincing as he says, “If he looks closely at me, he’ll know I’m not his pack anymore. Same with Mia.”
“Stay in the hall. Don’t let him see you when he comes in. Be ready if I call for you, but do not come in unless I say.”
