Page 39 of Deadly Wolf Bite

“Yes,” I admit. “It’s why I haven’t tried it before now. But there are signs that your wolf is in there.”

“Is that what I felt tonight?” she asks.

“Yes.” It’s not the whole truth, but it’s a start.

She bites her lip. “How can the order be undone?”

“Only by another alpha.” Or a mate. “Can I try it?”

She swallows hard. “Okay.”

I brace myself, hoping like hell this works. After tonight, my alpha power is stronger than it’s ever been. If this is what happened to her wolf, I’m strong enough to undo it now.

“Liberum lupus.”

A moment passes.

Then two.

Nothing.

I sigh.

Lexi smiles, but it’s strained. “It’s okay. That would’ve felt way too easy, honestly.”

I shake my head, frustrated. “We’re running out of time. My father’s digging for answers, too, and if he gets them first, it could be dangerous.”

“You think there’s more to his plan than just forcing us to get married?”

“I think the marriage was just another way to take something from me,” I say quietly. “It was more about cruelty than strategy.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we’re married, as your husband, even if you relinquish your title, I’d be next in line for alpha. That means he has to take your title from us both.”

She shakes her head, the disgust in her expression plain. “Why? I mean, I know he’s an asshole, but you make it sound like he has a vendetta against you.”

I hesitate but only to find the right words to tell her this story—one she should know before things get any crazier. “Five years ago, Franco came to me. He knew how I felt about my old man, and he offered a solution. He asked me to spy on my father. To feed him information about Vincenzo’s plans for a takeover.”

She stares at me like she’s seen a ghost, so I look away from her and concentrate on the words. On getting them out without getting sucked into the agony of reliving that time—and everything it cost me—all over again.

“By then, I’d come to know my father for the monster he truly is. It wasn’t just the way he ran his pack or his businesses. I’d seen that and somehow found a way to look past it. But my mother…he hurt her. Many times. I’d always suspected, but when I finally saw it for myself…”

Finishing that sentence would mean letting those images play out in my memory, and I can’t. So, I push past them to what came next.

“If my wolf had been stronger, I could’ve challenged him outright. But I knew I couldn’t win a fight against an alpha. Franco offered another way. But it backfired.”

“How?” She’s riveted on me now. Hanging on every word.

I wish the story ended better for her sake. For all of ours.

“Franco ordered me to lace my father’s drink with some chemical. Said it would weaken him enough for whatever he had planned. Said I would know when to do it. Two nights later, Dom’s older brother Tio challenged my father for the role of alpha of our pack. My father was smug as hell about it. His ego blinded him to the idea that he might lose, but I knew this was the moment Franco had meant.

“The day of the fight, I made my father a drink with the drug in it. He never suspected me. Drank it all without hesitation. By that night, he was too weak to do more than stand. I braced myself for his death. Prepared for it as much as one can, I guess. Told myself the city would be better, safer. My mom would be safer.”

“Then what happened?”

“Right before the fight began, my father announced that he was nominating a champion to fight in his place.” The bleakness closes in around me as I remember it all over again. The shock. The horrible realization that I would have to face Tio for him. That he would survive this, and I might not.

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