Page 94 of Stalked By the Alphas
“Who said that?”
“You were thinking it.”
“Well, excuse me for having a fleeting thought that for all we know is accurate. We don’t know why Hazel did what she did. You don’t even know, for fuck’s sake.”
Noah’s car screeches to a halt next to my SUV, and he storms out. “What the fuck is this?”
“Nothing,” Zach says. “Just collecting my car.”
“Zach went to see Hazel and fucked her. In her office,” I snap.
Noah’s face would be hilarious if this situation weren’t so dire.
He stares at Zach in disbelief. “You did what?”
Zach shifts uncomfortably under his gaze. “I went to apologise. Things escalated.”
“Escalated?” Noah repeats incredulously. “You fucked her in her office after we explicitly agreed to give her space?”
“It wasn’t planned,” Zach says defensively. “She called me back when I was leaving. She wanted it too, Noah.”
Noah’s eyes narrow as he processes this information. “She wanted it? Are you sure about that, Zach? After everything that’s happened?”
Zach nods emphatically. “Yes. I asked her. Twice.”
Noah runs a hand through his hair, looking torn between hope and frustration. “This complicates things. A lot.”
“You think, Captain Obvious?” I say sarcastically. “We need to figure out what to do next very fucking carefully. We can’t afford any more impulsive actions.”
Noah sighs heavily. “We have to be smarter about this. Hazel’s feelings are fragile right now. We can’t keep pushing and pulling her in all directions.”
I nod in agreement. “We need a plan. A real one this time, not just vague promises to leave her alone that we can’t seem to keep.”
The three of us fall silent for a moment, each lost in our own thoughts. The situation with Hazel has become even more complicated, if that were possible. Her actions with Zach suggest there might still be hope, but her words afterwards indicate she’s still deeply hurt and conflicted.
“There is only one thing for it,” I state, getting over myself and remembering who I am. I am the prime alpha of this pack, and I don’t struggle to make decisions. “We capitalise on what Zach did. We, Noah, need to go to her on our own with our grovelling apology. If we try to do it together like we have done, it will overwhelm her. She won’t be able to think straight, and maybe she has things she wants to say to us alone that she feels she can’t do with others there.”
Noah nods slowly, considering my words. “We need to approach this individually. Give her space to process each interaction.”
“Exactly,” I say, feeling more in control now that we have the beginnings of a plan. “We’ll each go to her separately, give her our apologies, our explanations. Let her react however she needs to without the pressure of all of us being there. We will take gifts, something personal to each of us that she will hopefully respond to.”
Zach nods along, but I slap my hand on his chest. “Erm, you had your shot. This is for me and Noah. If we have to do this more than once, which I suspect we will, you have to wait your turn.”
“Okay,” he says quietly, but if I didn’t know better, I swear I saw a smug smile pass over his lips for a millisecond before he removed it.
Arsehole.
“I will go to her tomorrow. I ordered something to be delivered to the house for her before all this went to shit. I’ll pick it up and take it to her after she gets home from the bookshop. No more interactions with her while she is trying to work. It’s not fair on her.”
Noah nods, already plotting what he will do and say to Hazel. He gets back in his car and drives off without another word. I glare at Zach and point to his car. “Get in that and drive back to the hotel. If you stop anywhere on the way, I will rip you a new one. Clear?”
He nods and climbs reluctantly into the car.
I get back in the SUV and wait for him to drive off. Then I set off and tail him. He knows I’m here, but that’s good. It will give him pause if he even thinks about going back to Hazel today.
We all reconvene at the hotel and disappear into our rooms.
After a few minutes, I sneak back out and drive to the Victorian house in Hazel’s village. I’m going to be true to my word, but I want to pick up the package which was thrown over the garden fence.
