Page 71 of Accidentally Forever

Marion truly had planned everything, down to the last detail so he can walk away, unscathed.

"You’re fucking sick," I snap at him. "You let people trust you. You worked with them. You let them invest in you and now you’re ruining lives just because you got caught? Why the Ashford pack, anyway? You could have dumped this on anyone!" My voice echoes, Marion stepping back as he observes me.

"Oh, sweetheart, you’re acting like I care. Like I wasn’t just waiting for the moment this all caught up to me. I just decided to control the narrative. I can spin this any way I want." He lifts a hand, gesturing vaguely. "Maybe I was pressured into it by bigger players. Maybe I was misled into thinking these pieces were real. Maybe I’m just a victim in all of this, just like you."

The rage that claws through me is blinding. "You’re not a fucking victim," I hiss.

He just shrugs. "That’s for the world to decide."

My mind is racing, scrambling for an out, for a way to flip this back on him. Because fuck that. I’m not letting him play martyr while my pack takes the fall. He’s still watching me, a slow grin overtaking his face as he returns to standing right in front of me. I barely have time to blink as he reaches behind me and slides out my phone. “Whatever did you think was going to happen now, sweetheart? You were just gonna run back to your Alphas and hope that everything you found here was enough to clear them? Bitch, I’m just one player in the game. You still have shit.” Then he drops my phone to the ground and stomps on it with his heel. Glass and metal crack under the pressure, the screen fizzing out as a little tendril of smoke rises from it.

I stare at the mess of pieces, knowing that that was my one lifeline to my Alphas. And now, they have absolutely no idea where the fuck I am. That terror from before returns full force, overshadowing the anger and every other emotion. He’s faster than me, bigger than me, and he might very well grab that gun and shoot me if I try to take off.

There’s no good course of action here.

"Here’s what I propose," he says, voice light like he’s making a simple business deal. "If your Alphas confess—just a simple admission of guilt—I’ll let everything else go."

I blink at him, disbelief slamming through my system. "Let what go?" I ask, my voice flat, void of emotion, because I already know I’m not going to like the answer.

Marion's grin sharpens. "Well, since the twins won that bid," he starts, drawing out the words for effect, "shouldn’t they get the art they paid for?" He watches me closely, like he’s waiting for me to catch up, and when my eyes widen, he lets out a mocking little hum of approval. "Ah, there it is," he murmurs. "That moment when you realize just how bad this could get."

If the twins accept that painting—if they even acknowledge it as theirs—it’ll look like they’ve been involved in this shit from the beginning. It won’t matter that it’s fake. It won’t matter that they were set up. Because there will be proof. Fabricated, manipulated, but still proof.

Worse, Sofie is at home. Sweet, soft Sofie, probably curled up in the nest right now, waiting for me to come back like I promised. I straighten my shoulders, locking my jaw, forcing steel into my voice. "I’m not selling my Alphas out for your fucking agenda."

Marion shrugs, completely unfazed. "That’s fine," he says, slipping a hand into his pocket and pulling out his phone. "I’ll just let the station know that the cute little Omega at the front desk had a hand in all of this. That should be fine, right?"

"You—" My throat tightens, my pulse pounding as I take a step forward, but he just grins.

"Oh, don’t look so fucking surprised," he says, tapping at his screen like he’s just scrolling a menu. "The station needs a fall guy. Someone guilty enough to be believable but small enough that they won’t cause too much trouble. That little thing atAsh & Ivory? Perfect candidate. You should have heard her, Violet—‘I didn’t know, I didn’t realize,’" he mocks, his voice going high and breathy, dripping in fake distress. "Pathetic."

Rage rips through me, so fierce and hot it feels like I might explode from it. "She’s innocent," I snarl, stepping right into his space, seething. "You know she is."

Marion smirks. "And you know that doesn’t fucking matter. All that matters when things are said and done is that I’m not the one in the line of fire."

"You’re a monster," I whisper, and his smirk just widens.

"And you’re out of time, sweetheart. So? What’s it gonna be, sweetheart? Your cute little Omega? Your Alphas? Or maybe you’d like to play the martyr yourself and take all this shit on your shoulders.”

"You motherfucker."

Marion laughs, slow and amused, because he thinks I don’t have an out. That I’ll pick the lesser of the two evils and bend.

"I’ll make it easy for you," he continues, stepping closer, his presence looming. "Confess that you were working with Xavier—say that you knew everything that was going on and this will be over."

I catch the flicker of fear in his expression, almost as if he’s not holding all the goddamn cards. He mentioned that there’s more people in play, that he’s just small fry. Which means that being caught up in all of this, they’re probably hanging him out to dry which is why he’s trying to control the narrative.

Which means as terrified as I am, he’s not really the one I should be scared of. I take a chance, eyes darting across the open floor, looking for somewhere I could hide. Even just a small crevice but there’s nothing that would shield me from a gun and I’m not even sure I could be fast enough.

So, I choose the next best thing and scramble for the metal piece beside me. It was a stupid mistake to leave it there but maybe Marion just isn’t as smart as he thought he was. All I need to do is make sure he has no idea I’ve never held one of these things before. It feels vile in my hands, like I’m holding the power to death but I point it at him anyway, my entire body trembling with the thought of what I might have to do.

Marion’s hands fly up. “Bitch, put that shit down.”

“Why? You pointed it at my Alpha! Why the fuck would I care about pointing it at you?” I fumble with the safety, unsure of how to get it to unlatch or unhook or whatever the goddamn it needs to do so I can shoot the bastard in front of me. I’m too focused on it when a punch lands against my cheek, my head falling back against the door.

I crumble to the floor, Marion turning around to reach for the gun when I grab his ankle. He’s not going to fucking kill me here. I promised Sofie that I’d be back. And I don’t break my promises with her.

He jams his free foot backward, nearly catching me in the face but I’m fast enough to roll over and climb up beside him. Marion is absolutely larger than I am, stronger too but the fear coursing through my veins and what I have to protect makes me better. I throw a punch to his groin, the Alpha doubling over as curses stream from his lips. The next punch hits him in his neck and then his forehead as I let my rage pour out.

---