Page 75 of Stalked By the Alphas
He slams his fist on the counter, making me jump. “Dammit, Hazel! When will you realise that you are ours? When? What do we have to do?”
“What?” I stammer in shock at his outburst.
Carter’s eyes blaze with intensity as he stares at me. “You’re ours, Hazel. Mine, Noah’s, Zach’s. We made apact, remember? To be together when you turned twenty-five. That pact still stands.”
I gape at him, stunned. “But... but?—”
“No buts,” Carter cuts me off. “The pact is still valid. We’ve been waiting for you all this time. Longer even. Everything we have done has been to ensure you ended up with us!”
My mind reels, trying to process this information. “What is that supposed to mean?” I stand up, needing to be bigger for this conversation. He still looms over me, too tall and twice as wide.
Carter’s jaw clenches as he seems to struggle with what to say next. “We’ve been involved in your life more than you realise,” he admits reluctantly. “Watching over you, making sure you were safe.”
“What?” Anger rises in my chest.
“We never meant to hurt you, Hazel. We just wanted to keep you safe, to make sure you stayed ours, to make sure you came back to us when it was time.”
“By doing what?” Dread wells up in my gut, and my head swims.What is he saying? What have they done?
Carter glares at me. “We have made mistakes. I know that. But everything we did was out of love for you.”
“Love?” I croak. “What are you talking about?”
“We have loved you for as long as we can remember, Hazel. You are ours. No one else’s. No other fucker gets to take you from us.”
I back away, shaking my head as he all but says thewords I don’t want to hear. “I’m not yours! I’m not some possession for you to claim.”
“But you are,” Carter insists, his eyes blazing.
“No! This is insane. You are insane! You are no better than them!” I lunge for the doorway, but Carter is too quick.
His hand grabs my arm before I can escape. “Hazel,” he warns.
“Let go of me! You can’t keep me here! I am not your prisoner, and I am not yours!”
Tears are stinging my eyes, making his face blurry. He releases me, and I lurch forward, needing to get out of here. I run upstairs and throw what little belongings I had unpacked back into the suitcase and zip it up. I grab the bear, the pills and my handbag and struggle downstairs with them, my head pounding and my breathing erratic.
Carter is waiting at the bottom. His expression is pained, his body tense but restrained as he watches me struggle down the stairs with my belongings. “Hazel, please,” he says softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I snap, my voice shaking. “You practically admitted to stalking me, to interfering in my life. How is that any different from what those monsters did?”
Carter flinches at the comparison. “We never meant to hurt you,” he insists. “Everything we did was to protect you, to keep you safe.”
“Safe?” I laugh bitterly. “You call what happened to me safe? You didn’t protect me from anything!”
“We saved you,” Carter argues, his voice rising. “We came for you when those bastards took you. We killed them to keep you safe!”
But I don’t want to hear it. I’m already pushing past him, dragging my suitcase behind me. I fumble with the front door, my hands shaking so badly I can barely turn the handle.
“Hazel, wait!” Carter calls after me. “Please, just let me explain!”
I ignore him, finally managing to wrench the door open. I stumble out into the hot summer day, gulping in the fresh air and slam straight into the other two alphas, which I’ve just learned have ruined my life.
45
HAZEL
The scentof summer rain and the ocean hits my senses so hard I reel backwards. Zach reaches out to grasp my upper arms to stop me from falling on my arse.
