Chapter 4

“I need you. Let me taste you. Let me sink my teeth into you.”

“Anything you ask. I’ll do anything. Anything at all.”

“Perfect so perfect. I can taste it in your scent. Come to me...”

“Wake up, Gabriella. They’re back.”

Gabriella sat up straight in her bed, her father’s knocking jolting her out of her dream. The heat on her skin disappeared, as though a wave of cold water had splashed over her. She stumbled to stand, knowing if she closed her eyes for even a second, she would fall back asleep. Instead, she grabbed her water bottle from her bedside table and forced herself to swallow, glancing at the time on her clock.

Four in the morning. Who would be back at four in the—

The assignment from the night before clicked in her brain, and she shoved her feet into her slippers and grabbed for her robe.

Right. Matthew’s team, the double crosser, them.

She couldn’t go down there like this! Dressed in a nightgown and a robe, with slippers on her feet. How was that appropriate? She needed to get dressed—and quickly. She needed to get moving. She needed to stop plumping the pillows—because how the hell was that going to help?

She needed deodorant, to brush her teeth, and to find clothing.

“I’m opening this door.”

Her father didn’t wait for an invitation, so it was a good thing she hadn’t slept naked. She turned away as she tied her robe around her waist, ready to find an outfit. Something easy to pull on and—

“Good, you’re decent. Let’s go.”

Turning, she saw her father was dressed similarly, although his pajamas and robe covered far more of him than her nightgown. This was appropriate to him? Her night clothes? Fuck, after her dream, she needed to at least change her underwear, but he was still staring at her, so she had no choice but to follow. Her heart pounded from her dream, her blood still running hot despite the chill on her skin.

“Do they often return at this time of night?”

“Not always but I did not expect them to return at this hour. Something either went very wrong or very right. As these are my best men, I trust they have handled the situation, with hopefully not too much loss.”

Something about the way her father said that pricked at the back of her brain, as though he had expected losses. Given the time the men had left, why would it be unusual for them to return in the middle of the night? She hadn’t anticipated a report until the morning, so maybe something had gone wrong. Was someone dead? Had they been expected? Was retaliation on the way?

“Do you really think it’s possible they failed?” she asked, remembering her father’s warning from the night before.

Matthew’s team had been the only one with the qualifications. She had made the right choice. She was sure of it. But what if she hadn’t?

“Failed? No. If any have returned, then the target is dead. They would not return if they had failed. They would die to complete their mission. The loyalty of these Alphas is absolute. Without question.”

“But last night, you warned me—”

Her father waved as they reached the bottom step.

Why was he contradicting himself, and why was he refusing to talk about his contradictions? This didn’t make sense. Did he trust the Alphas or not?

“They are Alphas, Gabriella. No intelligence in their brains. They serve their master, do as they are told, and only bite back if their chain becomes loose. But we will not allow that. They will complete their task or die trying. Do you understand?”

She didn’t understand. She understood none of it. How could her father call them members of the family in one breath and then stupid beasts the next?

A side door opened, revealing Alessandro and the other two members of the team, whose names Gabriella couldn’t recall. They all filed in, heading into her father’s office with a nod. Her father followed, leaving her to stare at the closed door.

Where was Matthew? Why was he not with them? Was he—

The door opened once more, and through it stepped the Alpha in question. A bruise dotted his cheek, and his sleeve had a gash in it, which revealed a healing cut. Although covered in blood, he was standing tall and looked alive.

The breath she had been holding escaped as she looked up at him, not understanding why she was so relieved or why she cared so much.

“You’re back,” she breathed out, trying to calm her racing heart.

She hadn’t taken her medicine, as it was too early, but she was regretting it. Maybe she really did need to talk to her father’s doctors if she was going to be keeping random hours.

“I’m... back.”

She waited for him to say something more but then he was looking at her, at her body, and she studied his injury. “Are you okay? That’s a lot of blood on you.”

“I’m fine,” he answered, his voice gruff as he straightened, looking even taller. “I’m sorry you must see us covered in blood. I hope the sight of it doesn’t make you queasy.”

“I’m a woman. We deal with blood a lot more regularly than men do.”

“Not in my line of work.”

“It’s my line of work now as well.”

He stared down at her and took a deep breath.

When his eyes opened wider, horror slapped her across the face as she remembered his sense of smell and what she had been dreaming about only a few minutes earlier. He would smell it, and that was beyond horrifying because he was an Alpha and she was a Beta and she was his employer and—

“Gabriella!”

Startled out of her embarrassment, she sprinted past the Alpha and into her father’s office. He was already seated at his desk, and she took her place behind him, her hands resting on his shoulder.

“You’re all alive.” Her father rested his hands on his desk, fingers interlocked. “I trust our former friend is not?”

The other Alphas all looked toward Matthew, the head of their team.

He stepped forward, taking a place at the corner of her father’s desk, as if having done it hundreds of times. “We completed the mission as assigned, Boss, but there’s a—”

“A problem, yes, go ahead.”

“No, Boss, not a problem. A concern, if you will.”

“A concern?”

The cut of his voice made her want to raise a brow.

They were all shifting, peering at their feet, save for Matthew, who was staring her father. He licked his lips, then looked up at her before eyeing her father again.

“You know I do not like guessing games, Matty. Tell me what happened.”

Matthew nodded. “It’s just, none of it made sense, Boss. We expected extra layers, the normal shit. Some of the Marino guards, maybe a few cameras, listening devices, you know. If not for his protection, then to see if Delgado was going to sell them out as well, you know? Something , but there was nothing. The only thing in there was our stuff and his but nothing more. Not even Fed stuff.”

The room was utterly silent as her father’s hands unlocked to settle flat on his desk.

Gabriella regretted her current position, as she was unable to see his face, yet asked, “Are you saying the Marinos left him out to dry?”

“No.” He laid a hand on top of her hand. “No, the Marinos treat their informants better than we do. Part of why I wasn’t surprised he would flip. We offer surveillance, sure, but he pisses off the wrong guy, and he’s on his own. The Marinos, they guard their guys. Maybe we moved too soon before they could add in protection. But still, there should’ve been guards.”

“We checked, Boss,” Alessandro added. “Every entrance. Thought for sure they’d be sitting on Delgado’s couch when we busted in, at the very least, but he was in there alone. And when we got there, he was...”

“He was confused. Delgado was confused about why we were there. Asked if he had missed a meeting or something. Then asked what he had done wrong,” Matthew said.

Her father’s fingers interlocked, and Gabriella straightened, raising a brow. She could no longer remain impassive.

Matthew had confirmed the target was dead, but if Delgado had been confused, maybe he should have been questioned before taken out.

“Boss, it’s not my job to figure things out like that and you sent us in there to take him out but—”

“Are you saying that you doubted the information my father had?” Gabriella stared at Matthew. “And yet, you moved forward with the operation anyway?”

They had no right to alter a plan, but if there were no guards, they could have at least held the Fed until they contacted her father and asked for instructions. Maybe they were as stupid as her father insisted.

Matthew looked at her father and nodded. “When he realized we were there to take him out, he started shooting. Didn’t even have a chance to call in and ask. Like I said, it’s not my job to think this stuff out, even though it was weird but when someone starts shooting at me, I shoot back but I shot to incapacitate. He finished himself off before I got a chance to get the gun out of his hand. Probably feared what we would do to him, if he was taken in.”

Gabriella took a slow breath before looking down at her father, waiting for what he had to say. Matthew’s answer was perhaps the best she could have asked for—shoot to incapacitate, then ask. If she had to choose between a quick ending and being ripped apart by Alphas, she knew what she would pick.

“The Marinos wouldn’t leave their informant out to dry, Papa. Like you said, it’s not their way. And not one so recently turned. They would have wrung him dry before leaving him out in the cold. Who gave you the intel on him—”

Her father shot her a look that demanded silence.

She didn’t like it.

“There’s more,” Matthew said, interrupting the staring contest.

“More?” Gabriella asked, lifting her chin. “How much more could there be?”

Matthew scoffed as he crossed his arms, then shook his head at her. “A lot more. You don’t think we got hit this many times by one man, did you?”

“Explain.”

Her father’s single word was like a knife in the room, cutting off Gabriella’s next retort.

Was she about to flirt with the Alpha?

“When we were leaving, Boss,” Alessandro asked. “Someone tried to jump us. That’s how we all got scratched up. They were expecting us and it’s not my ego telling you that they didn’t follow us there. They were already waiting across the street, set up and ready. Nearly took Tommy’s head off.”

“It’s a pretty head, Sir. Wouldn’t want to lose it.”

Tommy, the one who had just spoken, was chuckling as he nudged Alessandro, who was smirking at him.

Gabriella, however, looked at the men in horror, trying to maintain composure. They had nearly died and were joking about this? Alphas really were a different breed.

Her father seemed to agree, as he stood and pressed his hands on the desk.

Her father’s rage forced her to step to the side. He could barely even spit out his words, his teeth were so clenched.

“Someone... jumped my guys... while we were handling... our informant...”

“It wasn’t the Feds, Boss,” the silent one—whose name was Richard or something—said. “Not a badge in sight and none of the rounds we pulled out of us were from any standard issue weapons. In fact, the rounds look a little familiar. Too familiar, Sir.”

“Are you suggesting our own guys—”

“No, no,” Matthew said, stepping back in again. “The same guns and the same bullets. Same supplier.”

He had been staring at her the whole time while others spoke, and she only realized it as his staring broke away from her.

Gabriella whirled on her father, ready to say the words. Same supplier? Well, she had met the man in question two nights before, and even pointed out that if Morcan was the only supplier in the city, this was a possibility. And to think, her father had thought to put Morcan’s son forward as a possible husband for her.

“Don’t say it, Gabriella,” her father muttered, not looking at her.

Gabriella took a deep breath before crossing her arms under her breasts, hoping her robe covered them. “I’m assuming you shot back.”

“We did,” Matthew confirmed, crossing his own arms, although wincing. “Took a few out but there were more of them than us. Realized pretty quick that if we were going to tell you what happened, we had to get out of there. Ricky was going to set up a few listening devices, maybe a camera or two but the building was already set to blow so there was no going back for them later.”

“No, no, you did right,” her father said as he ran a hand through his hair. “Would rather have you boys back, so I can know someone is going after my men. My Alphas.”

Gabriella waited for her father to say something more, and he seemed to mull things over. He glanced back at her more than once, and she could tell it wasn’t in expectation of anything from her but was still considering what to say or do next. She simply waited as he nodded to himself and sighed.

She hated when he got like this. She could never tell where his mind was going.

“You’ve done me a great service and brought to our attention a new threat. With my daughter now by my side, security is more important than ever. If someone wants to get to me, they’ll do it through her. She’s new. The unknown. They’ll see weakness in her.”

“Papa, I’m not—”

“Say the word Boss and any of my men will—”

Her father raised his hand, cutting them both off.

She bit her tongue, then looked up at Matthew, who was staring at her.

“You have never failed me, Matty. Even at your weakest point, you superseded every expectation. I have none among my enforcers I trust as much as you. You have always been welcomed at my side but now, I’m going to ask you to take a more permanent place at it. Think of it as a reward but it comes with a hefty punishment, if need be.”

Gabriella finally peered back at her father, wondering what he had up his sleeve. There had never been any mention of a reward. What sort of permanent place could he offer to the Alpha?

“I have always trusted my personal safety to you and to your team but now, I will have to place that trust in someone else. Your work at my side has always been unofficial. Informal. I liked keeping you close beside me, watching as you grew but now, I have a far more important task for you and your boys. Our enemies, they’ve never been able to get close to me but now there’s a new target for them to chase after. A far more precious one. You will now be guarding my daughter as her personal protector. With this, you will now take a place at my table, always one step behind her, keeping her safe.”

His table... He was placing Matthew in charge of her security and giving him a place at his table. Not theirs. He should have said our . Or better yet, a place at her side.

Gabriella looked up. Matthew was, once again, staring at her, a curious expression replacing his hardened one.

“I will have to talk to the others tomorrow about what has transpired but tonight, I think I will return to bed. I’m old enough now, I need all the sleep I can get and I can still catch a few more hours rest. And besides, if I try to awaken Marco, he’ll probably suggest blowing up half the city in retaliation and be done with it. Crotchety old bastard, he’s worse than me. Gabriella, when you are in command, fill your high table with those who ask questions before they shoot. It will save you a world of headache.”

Gabriella nodded as her father walked out of the room, leaving her behind with the four Alphas. She followed after him, but stopped just outside the door, not ready to follow. She waited until he reached the top step and disappeared down the hallway before turning, not at all surprised the men had followed her.

She lifted her chin immediately, hating that, on flat feet, she was even shorter than she normally was, while they were all so big and tall. Matthew stood at the front, with Alessandro behind him on his left and the other two at the rear. They were studying her, waiting for her to speak, only she didn’t know what to say.

“Thank you, again, for the job you performed this evening. And for returning quickly to notify us of the new threat. And for guarding me, now. I know it’s likely not a job you would choose—”

“It’s an honor,” Alessandro said. “We’ve been trusted with the care of the most important member of the family.”

She wanted to tell them she wasn’t the most important, nor was she the weakest, but her words wouldn’t matter. It was what they and her father believed. They thought her weak yet somehow important. She would have to prove them wrong, at least about the first one.

“So, what now?” she asked.

She had had a driver before, but at university, she had always been her own person, with no one watching or tracking or protecting her. It was why she had taken her own self-defense measures—not that they knew that. But now, she had a whole security team.

Matthew was no longer looking at her.

Alessandro, Matthew’s second and seemingly the more eloquent of the pair, said, “When you have somewhere to be, we’ll be there. Always. Any time you leave this house, we are your drivers, your escorts, your companions. And if you need anything, anything at all, we will fetch it for you. Just make the call.”

She didn’t have anyone’s numbers, but she would ask her father. In fact, she didn’t have many beyond those in the family she had known personally. Suddenly, she questioned whether she knew anything.

“Even if I need tampons?” she teased, trying to break the tension and to get Matthew to look at her.

That seemed to do the trick.

“Yes, even tampons,” Matthew said as his gaze focused on her. “It would be my pleasure to do anything you ask. You only need speak the words.”

All at once, Gabriella forgot everyone else in the long corridor and saw only him. Saw the way he was staring at her, studying her, licking his lips. She remembered the deep vee of her nightgown and the split of her robe, her dreams, and her underwear...

Anything you ask. I’ll do anything. Anything at all.

Alessandro cleared his throat. “May we be dismissed to clean up? I think there might still be a bullet or two in me, so it can’t quite heal, and Tommy here needs his beauty rest.”

“Yes, of course,” she answered, unable to pull her gaze from Matthew, hoping the other Alphas wouldn’t notice.

Her skin too tight, she was on fire and couldn’t breathe. Her heart raced, and Matthew was moving toward her, every step cutting into the distance. He stopped an arm’s reach away, and she brushed the cut in his shirt with her fingers, studying the wound.

It wasn’t healing, as she had originally thought. It was trying to, but she was pretty sure a bullet Alessandro had just mentioned was stuck in there. He was injured, unable to heal, and here she was, doing nothing to care for him. She could care for him, clean his wounds, and ensure there were no others. She could heal him in a way no others could. Her poor Alpha was injured, in pain, all while serving her, doing her bidding. She had done this to him, and he had gone willingly, proudly.

“You still have a bullet in you,” she whispered and gazed at his eyes. He was studying her, focusing on her, and she wanted to touch his brow and soothe the wrinkles there. “I’m so sorry I sent you there to be attacked. Are you in pain? Of course you are. I can—”

“It hurts no more than a pesky thing,” he assured her, his warm, smooth voice seeping into her skin. “Any other team would be dead, even with our Alpha genetics.”

“You’ll heal quickly, right?” she asked.

She should learn more to care for him. Them. Care for them .

“Anything you ask of me, I will always do gladly. I will always serve you. My loyalty is to you and you alone.”

Not to her father. His loyalty was to her .

“I’m pleased to hear that.”

Gabriella smiled up at him, amazed by their height difference. He was so big , and she somehow felt so small . He could easily pick her up, toss her around, and she would love every second of it.

“Matthew, let’s go.”

Alessandro’s shout cut into the tension, only to be drowned out by a growl from Matthew. It was low and dark, something that would make a grown man cry, but it made Gabriella’s heart flutter and knees go weak. It was beautiful, just like how the pheromones rolling off of him were delicious.

This was why people feared Alphas. Because they could drive a person insane with just their mere presence.

Because Gabriella was going insane.

“Good night,” she breathed out before forcing herself to pull away from him. She walked awkwardly sideways. At the bottom of the stairs, only then did she turn, but her eyes stayed on him as she held the banister for guidance. She needed it to give her legs stability, lest they become gelatin.

“Sweet dreams...”

She was at the top step, and her heart nearly burst out of her chest.

Her dreams would be anything but sweet. They would be demanding, on fire, and filled with every dirty thought she could possibly imagine based entirely around him.