Page 69 of Broken Wolf Heart
My father stalks closer to me, undeterred, eyes glinting as he snarls, “Tell that bitch you’re all going to pay for double-crossing me.”
My fists tighten, and any hope of letting him walk evaporates with the words he just spoke.
“She’s your high alpha now,” I growl. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
He laughs—sharp and humorless—and shoves me.
Hard.
I don’t think. I slam both hands into his chest and send him flying back into the hood of his black SUV with enough force to dent the grill. The satisfying crunch his body makes barely registers before I’m closing the distance to rip him apart.
My wolf surges to the surface, and I barely manage to yank it back into my skin when I see Lexi running toward us, barefoot, hair flowing out wild behind her, eyes wide with panic.
I move to position myself between her and him, but myfather is a split second faster. He peels himself off the grill of the car and stands. His gaze shifts from me to her. And then?—
He lunges.
“Lexi!” I shout, but she’s already reacting.
She spins to meet him head-on, arms up.
Except that she doesn’t shift. Doesn’t call on the wolf I know must be clawing beneath her skin. She fights him as a human.
Thanks to the strength and speed of her wolf, she gets a few hits in—one solid punch to his jaw that would’ve dropped any human. But my father’s not human.
He’s fast. Strong. Not just a wolf but an alpha.
Before I can get between them, he backhands her so hard she stumbles sideways and then hits the ground with a choked sound that punches the air out of my lungs.
“Shift!” I scream. “Lexi, shift?—”
She pushes up on her palms, blood leaking from her mouth and pure defiance burning in her gaze. “No.”
She’s trying to win on her own terms.
But she’s losing.
I launch myself at him with a roar, but he’s ready for that and sidesteps rather than facing me head-on. Lexi’s security surges forward, shifting as they come. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rocco and Alvaro rush to block them.
In the second I split my focus, my father slips past me. He yanks Lexi up by the throat, her feet barely touching the ground, and I snap.
My wolf surges.
Control shatters.
I crash into him like a freight train, but not before he tosses Lexi so hard through the air that her back slams into the marble column behind me. My fists find bone. His ribs, his face. I don’t hold back. Not this time. Not with Lexi bleeding on the ground, brutalized by this monster.
I hit him again.
And again.
And again.
His blood splashes across the gravel, and still I want more.
The darkness inside me is a living, breathing thing. It’s managed to shove even my wolf aside, filling me with this obsession for death.
When I’ve all but lost myself in it, my father shoves me off with a burst of strength. Then he climbs to his feet and stumbles back, lip split, eye swelling, blood streaked across his shirt and face.
