Page 42 of Stalked By the Alphas

41

NOAH

Zach and I trudge back to the car, exhausted and covered in dirt, sweat and blood. The grim task of burying the bodies weighs heavily on us both. Throwing the shovels back into the false bottom of the boot, I slam it closed, and we climb into the car. I pull off my mask, finally able to breathe freely.

“We can’t go back to the hotel looking like this,” I remark. “And we can’t pitch up at Carter’s either. We’re going to have to clean off in a river somewhere.”

“Yeah,” Zach mutters, staring out the window, his mask still in place.

I think he likes it behind there.

We drive in silence for a while, and finally, I spot a secluded area near a small stream and pull over.

“This will have to do,” I say, cutting the engine.

Zach nods mutely, and we climb out of the car. The moon provides just enough light for us to see as we strip down and wade into the cold water. Zach finally removes his mask, his face grim and haunted in the dim light. We scrub ourselves clean in silence, the gravity of what we’ve done settling over us.

“What do we do now?” Zach asks quietly as we emerge from the water, shivering.

I sigh, running a hand through my wet hair. “We go back to the hotel, get cleaned up properly, and then figure out our next move.”

“And Hazel?”

“We give her time,” I say firmly as I turn my clothes inside out. It’s not great, but it will have to do to hide the stains. “She’s been through hell. The last thing she needs is us bombarding her with our presence and explanations right now.”

Zach nods, but I can see the pain in his eyes. He wants to go to her, to comfort her, just as much as I do. But we both know that’s not what’s best for Hazel right now.

Re-dressed in our inside-out clothes, feeling uncomfortable as fuck, I drive back to the hotel. When we pull up, we sit there for a moment, contemplating our entrance.

“We might as well just do it,” Zach says eventually.

“Agreed.”

We climb out of the car and casually make our way inside. No one particularly notices us, even with our river-water hair and turned-around clothes. Luckily, the lift is empty as we ascend, and minutes later, we are back in our rooms, breathing sighs of relief.

Well, I know I am .

No stranger to death and violence, over the years, it has only become easier. But we have always worked in the shadows. This was a too-overt entrance for my liking. Stripping off, I shove the clothes into a bin bag I pull from my holdall. Then I hit the shower.

Just as I’m finishing up, my phone rings. Hoping it is Carter to give us news on Hazel, I leap out of the shower and grab a towel, slinging it around my waist before I snatch up the phone.

Frowning at it, I recognise the number, but it isn’t Carter.

“What’s up?”

“Wasn’t you.”

“Really?”

“Hmm.”

“Interesting...”

“It was a coincidence, I’ll give you that, but it was an engine overheat, like they claimed at the time, not the C4.”

“You’re sure?”

“Hundred per cent.”

“Thanks.” I hang up and ponder that.

Weirdly, it feels like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders. One I didn’t even know was there.

We didn’t kill Hazel’s parents.

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’s parents. 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 responsible for 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 scared and 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.”

“You did save her, Zach. We all did.”

He looks up at me, his eyes haunted. “Did we, though? We might not have killed her parents, but we still hurt her. Scared her. How are we any better than them?”

I sigh heavily. “We’re not perfect, Zach. We’ve made mistakes. But our intentions were never to truly harm Hazel. We love her.”

“Do we?” Zach asks quietly. “Or are we just obsessed with her?”

His question hits me like a punch to the gut. I’ve never allowed myself to examine our feelings for Hazel too closely. Love, obsession, possession - where does one end and the other begin?

“I don’t know,” I admit finally. “But I do know that we want what’s best for her. Even if that means letting her go,” I finish quietly.

Zach’s head snaps up, his eyes wide. “What? No, we can’t just let her go. Not after everything.”

I hold up a hand. “I’m not saying we will. But we need to be prepared for the possibility that it might be what’s best for Hazel. After what she’s been through, she may not want anything to do with us—or any alphas—ever again.”

“I can’t lose her, Noah. Not again.”

“I know,” I say softly. “I don’t want to lose her either. But we have to put her needs first this time.”

We sit in silence for a long moment, each lost in our own thoughts.

Finally, Zach speaks up. “So, what do we do now?”

I sigh. “We wait. Give her time to process and heal. And when she’s ready, we’ll be there. To explain, to apologise, to do whatever she needs us to do. ”

Zach nods slowly. “And if she never wants to see us again?”

“Then we respect her wishes,” I say firmly, even as the words tear at my heart. “No matter how much it hurts us, this isn’t about us. Not anymore.”

Zach looks like he wants to argue, but he just nods again. We both know it’s the right thing, even if it’s the last thing we want to do.