Page 15 of The Alpha

I took a deep breath and just said what needed to be said. “I didn’t come back only because I missed you and Knox,” I said, keeping my eyes on the worn wood of the table just up ahead of me. “I came back, because I had no choice. For years, I stayed away, thinking it was for the best. But deep down, I knew I was wrong. But running didn’t stop the evils and dangers of the world from finding me.”

I looked at my brother then. He was silent and still and just listened to what I had to say.

“Trouble had a way of finding me, no matter how far away I went.” I twisted my hands in my lap. “This man… he started showing up wherever I worked and wherever I lived, even after I would move on to somewhere else and keep my shit private. Notes on my windshield, calls from blocked numbers.” The air in the room changed instantly, growing frigid as my brother listened. “At first, I thought I was being paranoid, but I knew the truth. I knew he followed me, and at my last place, I realizedhe went even further than that. He’d been coming into my apartment and watching me sleep.”

This low growl left Carter, and I placed a hand on his, willing him to just listen.

“I didn’t plan what happened next.” My throat closed as I remembered that night. “I just reacted when I caught him following me home after work one night. But I was prepared. Had pepper spray and a knife.”

“Jesus Christ, Kelsie.” The genuine concern in Carter’s voice was nearly tangible.

“There was a struggle… and he didn’t make it out of it. I left him in the alley behind a dumpster.”

“Holy fucking shit. You sure he’s dead?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yeah. I stood over him, watching as he bled out and took his last breath.” I knew in that part of the city, in that section of town, there were no cameras, no witnesses to put me there. “I’m no different from Knox, from you… hell, from any other killer.”

“Kelsie—”

“No, Carter,” I said, cutting him off. “I’m not, and you know what?” I stared into my brother’s eyes, ones just like mine. “I’m fine with it. I accept it. This is who and what I am, and it’s what saved my life that night. And last night.” I breathed out, feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

“You gotta tell Knox this.”

“I know. I will,” I whispered. “So, yeah… I not only came back for Knox and what I feel for him, but also because I was too damn empty out there alone. It was all too much, Carter. I needed to come home.” I shrugged. “I don’t know if I came back to find closure with him… or myself. Or to just accept that I am meant to be here. Either way, it’s that last one that ended up happening.”

Carter stood and helped me to stand. Then he pulled me into a hug. Before my arrival, it had been years since I felt my brother’s strong arms wrapped around me and keeping me safe. Now, I never wanted to go a day without them ever again.

“I should’ve protected you better,” he said into my hair.

“I needed to learn to protect myself in this world, brother.”

We stood there in the middle of the clubhouse like we were kids again, knowing that at the end of the day, the only ones we could count on were ourselves.

But now? Now, I was ready to start my life and actually live it.

10

KNOX

They fucked with the wrong man’s girl.

All I could think about was how scared Kelsie had been.

All I could picture was her telling her story to all the patches in the meeting room just hours before.

I was gonna get my vengeance, and I was gonna saturate the ground in their blood because of it.

Someone would die tonight. Many would. My brothers knew it too.

We rolled out that night. No hesitation. No mercy. But Kelsie was always on my mind. Always.

Through snitches and contacts, we found out easily enough—thanks to my woman’s foresight to read the cut of the asshole who was currently taking his last breaths on earth—where the three fuckers were who had started this shit.

The warehouse was on the outskirts of town, right outside of our territory. We’d been told it was a place where a lot of vagrants, criminals, and undesirables hung out, because it was lawless.

The intel had come in fast—and we heard the three of them were holed up within those broken-down and debilitated walls right now. The Reapers had known about this rogue MC, a shit-stain of a club that was an annoyance to society.

They could have stayed alive if they’d just been that—an irritant. But they fucked with the wrong group of men, and we’d take care of these three tonight, then deal with the other MC members later.

---