Page 93 of Stalked By the Alphas
“It didn’t feel like a mistake,” he whispers.
“That’s the problem,” I snap, anger rising to mask my confusion and vulnerability. “It felt too good. Too right. But that doesn’t change anything, Zach. It doesn’t erase what you all did. Don’t you see? This is how it was meant to be. Not what you took from me, but this.”
He flinches at my words but doesn’t argue. “I know. Thank you, Hazel, for giving me this. It means the world to me.”
He turns and strides out of the office before I can take my next breath. Staring after him, feeling his cum sliding down my inner thighs, I close my eyes. “Damn you, Zach Thorpe. Why did you have to say that?”
53
CARTER
“Knew you’d come here,”I say to Zach as he scampers out of Hazel’s bookshop like the devil is on his tail.
He glances at me, his gaze fearful and almost like he is in shock.
The scent of sex and Hazel’s sweet omega scent cling to him, telling me exactly what transpired inside. Jealousy and anger surges through me.
“What did you do?” I growl, grabbing his arm and yanking him away from the shop front.
Zach’s eyes are wide, his expression dazed. “I... we... Carter, I didn’t mean for it to happen. I just wanted to apologise, to explain?—”
“And you ended up fucking her instead?” I hiss, my grip on his arm tightening. “What happened to respecting her? To giving her space?”
“It just happened. She wanted it. She told me she wanted it.”
I freeze, processing his words. Hazel wanted it? After everything, after her anger and hurt, she wanted this to happen?
“Tell me everything,” I demand, dragging him towards a nearby alley for privacy. “Every detail, Zach. Now.”
As Zach recounts what happened, my emotions swing from jealousy to anger to confusion, but a spark of hope battles for dominance.
“She called me back,” Zach says, his voice filled with wonder. “I was leaving, and she called me back. We kissed. It was perfect.”
I clench my fists, fighting the urge to punch something. Or someone. “And you just went along with it? After everything we’ve put her through?”
Zach’s expression is distraught. “I should have stopped it. But God, Carter, when she kissed me back, I couldn’t think straight. All I could focus on was Hazel, her scent, her touch.”
I growl low in my throat. “And after? What did she say?”
His face falls. “She said it was a mistake. That it felt too good, too right, that it was how it was supposed to be all along, but that it doesn’t change anything.”
My heart clenches at his words. Of course it doesn’t change anything. How could we expect it to? We violated her trust in the worst way possible. One moment of passion doesn’t erase that.
“Did you grovel to her? Did you appeal to her sweet nature?” I demand.
He nods. “She cares, Carter. But we hurt her so badly. I don’t think all is lost. But we have to make this up to her somehow, even if it takes until the day we die. I’m not walking away. Not now, not ever. Not after that.”
I run a hand through my hair, struggling to process everything Zach has told me. Part of me wants to shake him for being so reckless, for potentially ruining any chance we had of making things right with Hazel. But another part understands all too well the pull of her, the overwhelming need to be close to her.
“We need to tell Noah,” I say finally. “And we need to come up with a plan to keep you and your dick on a leash. We can’t keep ambushing her like this.”
Zach nods, looking sheepish. “I know. I’m sorry, Carter. I needed to see her. I didn’t, even in my wildest dreams, think it would end up the way it did.”
I sigh, my anger deflating. “I get it. But we have to do better. For Hazel’s sake.”
As we walk back to the car, my mind races. Hazel responded to Zach, wanted him even. Does that mean there’s still hope for all of us? Or was it just a moment of weakness on her part? Did she give in to him because of last night on the bridge, or because she truly wants him? How big a part did the omega side she tries to squash play in this? All these questions are bouncing around in my mind, and I don’t know the answers. Only Hazel does. And I can’t go to her to ask her. Not yet. It could ruin everything.
The drive back to the bridge where Zach’s car is stillparked up is terse. Zach looks up at the place where he nearly took his life only last night and shakes his head with a grim determination. “She didn’t do it because she felt sorry for me,” he spits out.
