Page 15 of Tamed By the Alpha Wolf

Bright gold churned with an intensity that made my wolf want to see how many times we could pin her before she made us bare our throat.

“Well?” she asked, arching a brow. “Care to explain why you’re pawing through my things?”

CHAPTER FIVE

NICO

“Your—” I coughed to clear the hoarseness from my voice. “Your security’s shit.”

Elise snorted. “Not like I have anything worth stealing.”

Silence fell between us. Thick. Tense. I could feel her eyes on me, waiting for an explanation. My skin prickled with anticipation, but I stayed frozen. What could I possibly say?

“It’s me.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth.

Elise’s eyes hardened. “Explain.”

I gestured helplessly at the photos. “It’s still hazy. Like a dream remembered in a dream. I did this. Locked in my wolf, I did all of this.”

“How long?” Elise’s voice was stronger now, edged with steel. “How long have you been trapped as a wolf?”

I closed my eyes, trying to sort through the tangled mess of memories. “Three years,” I said finally. “Since my sister’s wedding.”

Another long stretch of silence. I listened to the sound of her heart beating. Slower now, calmer. When I opened my eyes, it was to find hers narrowed. Assessing the threat.

“Sit,” she commanded, pointing to the small table pressed against a wall. “You’re going to tell me everything.”

I did as she commanded, unable to resist my alpha. Even though she wasn’t my alpha. The contradictions swam through my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the rising tide of my inner wolf.

He wanted out. To escape the painful memories. To hunt those that needed hunting.

To claim the female glaring a hole between our eyes.

She disappeared momentarily, only to return and toss the quilt into my lap. “Now, spill. From the beginning.”

“I grew up in the Bassani shifter syndicate,” I started, my voice halting. Hard lessons to never speak of our vows were tough to break through, even after so long and so much betrayal. “We were deep into organized crime. Protection rackets, smuggling, money laundering—you name it, we had a hand in it.”

I risked a glance at Elise. She’d moved closer, leaning against the counter. Her fingers tapped a restless rhythm, nails clicking against wood, but she nodded for me to continue.

“I was always big for my age. Good with my fists. I fell in with the enforcers before the end of high school.” A bitter laugh escaped me. “Turns out I had a real talent for cracking skulls and breaking kneecaps.”

Shame burned through me at the admission. I’d been so proud of my strength back then. So eager to prove myself to the family.

“My sister, though... she was something else. Cunning. Gorgeous. It was no wonder she caught the eye of a Calafiori—a rival’s son.” I swallowed hard, pushing back the tidal wave of grief that threatened to sink me back into madness. “The head of our family saw an opportunity. He arranged an alliance through marriage.”

Elise’s brow furrowed. “But you didn’t approve.”

“No,” I admitted. “I had a bad feeling about the whole thing. So, I... I started feeding rumors and information to the Varano family. I thought if I could destabilize the match, maybe we could break free. Start over somewhere new.”

Fuck, it sounded stupid now. Like some kind of fairytale ending instead of the train wreck it turned out to be.

“But I played right into their hands and sparked a war instead,” I continued, hot anger coiling in my gut. “The groom’s family double-crossed us. After hearing about my deal with the Varanos, the Calafioris cut their own. The combined forces attacked during the wedding celebrations, after we’d had time to get good and liquored up.”

I could still hear the gunshots. The screams. The sickening crunch of bones as shifters tore into each other, human and animal forms alike.

“It was chaos,” I said flatly. My palms ached, and I realized I’d clenched them into tight fists. “Blood everywhere. I saw my father go down, his throat torn out. My mother... she didn’t even have time to shift before they gunned her down.”

Elise’s hand twitched, as if she wanted to reach out to me. But she held back, her eyes wary.

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