“I never knew Primo had a son.”
Pasquale swung his attention back to Dominic. “He didn’t want anyone to know. I had the chance to take his place, and he wasn’t interested in sharing his power. If I stayed compliant and hid who I was, he wouldn’t take it out on others.”
Dominic frowned. “His pack?”
Pasquale was finally able to share what he never had before, not even with his mate. “It wasn’t his first. I was … young and thought I could challenge him. I thought I could stop him from treating our people like his personal harem and stable to send out against others. I was so sure the ones who said they were on my side believed in me.”
“They didn’t,” Romano surmised.
“Oh, only until their loved ones started dying. He destroyed the whole pack, except for me and his mate—Fabiana hadn’t been born yet. And then he rebuilt. I learned to hide. And when Fabiana came … I couldn’t let her face that.”
“Fabiana could take anything. She was cut from your father’s cloth.”
Pasquale’s warning growl filled the room. “She was beaten and controlled by my father for years. She was too afraid not to be just what he wanted—all so she could survive. She was a child made to play as a woman who was useful.”
Dominic returned Pasquale’s growl. “Be careful, pup.”
“I won’t let you disrespect her. I know what part she played in mating with you, but she was forced into it just like they tried to do with you, and she would have had even less choice than you.”
Dominic nodded. “It wasn’t exactly a normal mating. I can agree to that. But now, it’s about what you want. Do you intend to take your pack?”
And that was the question, wasn’t it? Pasquale been trying to come to the answer since his father’s death, but he couldn’t find one that didn’t make him think he was stepping into shoes he didn’t want to fill.
He shook his head. “I’m not ready to be Alpha.”
Romano scoffed. “Sort of felt like it to me.”
“I may be an Alpha male, but taking over a pack is a different story. I don’t think I can do it. I can’t be the Alpha my people need. All they remember, all we remember, is my father. His cruelty, his abuse. Even now, we are on the outside of the Lombardi. We don’t belong, and I don’t know how to change it.”
For a few minutes, the room was silent, the three men studying each other. Dominic looked to his Capo. “He could be Made.”
Pasquale scoffed. “I’m already Made.”
“Not in my pack, you aren’t. As far as Lombardi, you are a scenter on retainer, but things can change.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can be made a Capo.”
Pasquale shot a look at Romano. “You already have a man for that.”
“But he is not an Alpha. Taking the position, you’d be my second, and I would train you. When the time came, you’d take over your pack.”
Pasquale shook his head. “I’m mated to Giuliana. I won’t take her from her pack again. She is family here and looks to you as her brother. I don’t want her separated from you.”
“There is another option,” Romano offered. “Let Pasquale become a Capo and have him run the Bianchi under your leadership, Alpha. He wouldn’t have to take his pack away, but they’d be an extension. Really, they’d be Lombardi in every sense of the world, but they’d be his soldiers under you.”
Dominic turned to Pasquale. “Could you do that? Give up a chance of a pack of your own to truly merge with mine and work under me?”
Snow?
I’m not against it. I’ve never wanted power like that, Alpha wolf or not. Red would be hurt.
She needs to stay home.
Agreed.
Will you be able to bow to another?
