Free The Real Italian Alphas by Bonnie Burrows Page A

her?”
    “Alphas,” he explained. “At least four of them. Her brothers, I think. They may intend to end us both.”
    “Do you really think so?” she asked worriedly.
    “Yes,” he whispered in his gravelly, wolfish voice. “They believe I have betrayed the pack. I should have seen this coming. I should have known better than to get you involved in all of this. I am sorry for being so very selfish, Betsy.”
    “No, Gabriel, don’t say that,” she insisted. “I wanted this, too. Please, just bite me. We can get it over with. Besides, we may even be able to survive. I have at least ten bullets in the pistol.”
    “You won’t be able to reload without gloves once you’re bitten,” he told her. “Make them count.”
    Betsy nodded as she cocked the gun. Gabriel moved forward and bit into her shoulder again, this time spitting into it instead of taking his time. The rafters began to shake, and the ceiling broke open as a group of six wolves burst through.
    “Rico!” Gabriel growled.
    “They made me tell, Gabe.” he said, and then he fell to the floor, clearly bleeding from one of his furry legs. He managed to crawl across the floor to join the other two. The three of them prepared to fight off the others with determined scowls.
    “Hello, brother.” growled the largest wolf in the room. “I see you decided to elevate your whore. Big mistake.”
    “Betsy is my wife.” Gabriel growled. “My only true wife. Not one forced on me by your father.”
    “Do not disparage my father.” he growled in a warning tone.
    “Don’t come any closer, or I will shoot you.” Betsy told him.
    “You might shoot me, but you can’t shoot us all at the same time,” he scoffed. “Face it, woman, you chose to marry the wrong man, and now you are going to pay for it.”
    Betsy didn’t bother to respond, since she knew the big, brutish wolf was going to signal to the others once he tired of their banter, anyway. She pulled the trigger and shot him right between his eyes. The others surged forward, and both Rico and Gabriel leaped to stop one of them, which unfortunately left two of them to try for Betsy. She couldn’t even tell which wolves were which, so she simply fired bullets into each one, and then fired two more bullets into the wolf Rico had in a grapple. None of the fallen wolves was Lucretia, meaning the last wolf standing had to be her.
    “And now we dance, little one.” she laughed playfully as she skirted Gabriel and moved to strike at Betsy. She barely nipped Betsy’s ear, making her yelp in pain as she realized she, too, was beginning to transform.
    “Oh, you want to play rough?” Lucretia grinned. “That’s good. I will wait.”
    Betsy pulled the trigger, but she missed her mark, firing just to the side of Lucretia’s face. The she-wolf’s eyes grew round as she looked at her more closely.
    “You’re a rather ruthless bitch, aren’t you?” she said as she swiped at her with a claw. Gabriel caught her arm and yanked her backwards so that she fell on top of him. She turned and punched him in the snout. “I’ll deal with you later, darling. First things first.”
    Gabriel was clearly dazed by the blow. He shook his head to clear it as Betsy watched the exchange. She did not hesitate to shoot again, this time hitting Lucretia’s shoulder. She hissed with pain and indignation, and lunged again, baring her teeth. Betsy shot her in the face, and she fell to the floor, unmoving.
    “Is there anywhere on this bitch’s body I could shoot that would make her stay down, Gabriel?”
    “No, mi amore .” he said. “Only a direct order from Lupo himself would make her leave you alone, I’m afraid. And she is his granddaughter.”
    “Well then, I suppose we’ll just have to go and get him to give one.” Betsy growled.
    “Are you crazy?” Gabriel asked. “You want to just walk into the den of Lupo the Wolf and ask him to tell his granddaughter to stop trying to kill you, when he’s probably the one