Page 68 of Stalked By the Alphas
Sure, we meant to; it was our goal, but it looks like fate stepped in and did the job for us before we could finish the job.
I stand there for a moment, letting the implications of this new information sink in.We didn’t kill Hazel’sparents.It was truly just a tragic accident. Part of me feels relieved, but another part feels... disappointed. Cheated? I shake my head, pushing those thoughts aside. This changes things, but I’m not sure how yet.
A knock at the door interrupts my musings. “Noah?” Zach calls out quietly.
I open the door and let him in, quickly closing the door behind him. I quickly pull on some clean clothes before I speak. “Just got some new information. It’s big.”
Zach, his hair still damp from his shower, raises an eyebrow at my expression. “What’s going on?”
“It turns out we didn’t kill Hazel’s parents. It was just an accident, as they claimed.”
Zach’s eyes narrow. “What? How do you know?”
“I’ve had someone looking into it for a while now. Something never sat right with me about it. The timing, the way no one even looked at investigating a crime, has taken place. Why? Why didn’t they if we blew up the boat? Because we didn’t. The engine overheated, probably minutes before the timer was set to go off and blew up the boat. Any evidence either went with it or sank to the bottom of the English Channel.”
Zach processes the information. His temperament has been very different from the rest of the day, during which he has swung from high to low to back again. He appears stable now.
“So, what does this mean for us?” he asks finally. “For Hazel?”
“I don’t know. On one hand, we’re not responsiblefor her parents’ deaths, so there’s that we don’t have to come clean about. But on the other hand...”
“We still stalked her,” Zach finishes grimly. “Scared her, tampered with her medication, went to her during her heat without her knowledge... Jesus! We are no better than those two fuckers. We deserve to be dead and buried.”
“No,” I say calmly as he starts to spiral again. “Our motivations are different. We love her. Yes, we were punishing her for leaving us, but we are done with that now.”
“Are we?”
“We are,” I say firmly. “Now it is about making everything up to her and hoping she still remembers that we saved her.”
“That isn’t much to bank everything on.”
“I know.”
“My dad abused me,” he blurts out suddenly, and I freeze.
I don’t even breathe, not wanting to put him off whatever cleansing is about to come out of his mouth.
Zach takes a shaky breath, his eyes unfocused as he stares at a point on the wall. “I’ve never told anyone this before.”
I nod slowly, encouraging him to continue without pressuring him.
“It started when I was young. Too young,” Zach says, his voice barely above a whisper. “He would come into my room at night. Tell me it was our little secret.” His hands clench into fists. “I was so scaredand confused. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
My chest tightens with a mix of rage and sorrow for my packmate. I want to say something comforting, but I stay still, letting him get it all out.
“It went on for years,” Zach continues. “Until I was big enough to fight back, and then it stopped, and it never happened again.” He takes a shuddering breath. “It was too late.”
“Zach, I’m so sorry,” I say softly. “I had no idea.”
He shakes his head. “No one did. I never wanted anyone to know. I was ashamed. Felt like it was my fault somehow.”
“It wasn’t,” I say firmly. “None of it was your fault.”
Zach’s revelation hangs heavily in the air between us. I know nothing I say can erase the trauma he’s endured, and I don’t think he wants to hear platitudes. I don’t think he wants to hear anything. He wanted to talk, not listen. But there is one thing I want to ask him.
“Is that why you reacted so strongly to what happened to Hazel?”
Zach nods slowly. “Seeing her like that, knowing what those monsters did to her... it brought everything back. All the fear, the helplessness, the rage. I couldn’t save myself back then, but I could fucking well make sure that bastard never laid a hand on her again.”
