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Page 49 of Stalked By the Alphas

48

HAZEL

A quiet but insistent banging jolts me awake. I sit up, heart racing, disoriented in the darkness. The knocking continues, becoming more urgent. It takes me a moment to realise it’s coming from my front door.

I glance at my phone. It’s past eleven. Who the hell is pounding on my door at this hour?

Fear grips me as I remember everything that’s happened. But then I rationalise that a stalker, an abductor, wouldn’t be knocking like the devil was on his tail. Right?

Suddenly, a muffled voice calls out quietly. “Hazel. It’s Carter. I know you don’t want to see me, but it’s urgent. Please, open up.”

My anger spikes, and it gives me the courage to get out of bed and march over to the bedroom window. I fling the curtains open and shove the voile aside with such vigour that the telescopic pole comes down, draping me in a veil. Fighting with the damned voile, I get it off my head and open the window. Sticking my head out, I growl. “Go. The fuck. Away.”

Carter looks up at me. He is frantic. He looks like he’s been crying. It squeezes at my heart, but I harden it when I think of everything they’ve done and might have done. “Hazel, please,” he pleads. “It’s Zach. He’s in trouble. He needs your help.”

I gulp but try to remain strong. “What do you mean he’s in trouble?”

“He’s on the bridge over the motorway,” Carter says, his voice cracking. “He’s going to jump. Please, Hazel. You’re the only one who can stop him.”

All the blood rushes from my head to my feet. I grip the windowsill to stop myself from falling over. This has to be a trick, right? A manipulation to get me to open the door?

But what if it’s not?

“Hazel, I’m begging you.” Carter’s voice breaks. “I know we’ve hurt you. I know you have every reason to hate us. But please, he needs you. We need you.”

I stare down at him, torn between my anger and the desperation in his voice. I don’t want to believe him, but the raw fear in his eyes seems genuine.

“Why me?” I ask, my voice shaking. “Why would I be able to stop him when you can’t?”

“Because he loves you. We all do. But Zach has always felt things more intensely. You know that. You know how he is. The thought of losing you forever, it’s breaking him.”

Overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, I stare down at him. Part of me wants to tell Carter to go to hell, to let them deal with their own mess. But another part, the part that still cares despite everything, can’t bear the thought of Zach jumping, and I did nothing to stop him.

That would be my fault.

“Give me two minutes.”

I don’t wait for his response before shutting the window. My hands shake as I swap my pjs for jeans and a tee. I grab my phone and keys, and then I march downstairs, stopping in the kitchen to grab the corkscrew from the drawer. I shove it in my back pocket as a weapon. Just in case.

When I open the front door, Carter is standing there, stiff as a board, looking wretched.

“Thank you,” he mutters.

“Shut up and drive,” I say, striding past him and getting into the massive black SUV parked on the kerb.

Carter jumps into the driver’s seat and peels away from the kerb, tyres screeching in the late night, making me wince and think about my neighbours.

The urgency of his driving matches the frantic energy radiating off him.

Gripping the door handle as we take a turn too sharply, I let out an angry sigh. I’m going to have to talk to him. “What happened?”

Carter’s knuckles are white on the steering wheel. “After you left, we argued. Zach stormed out. We thought he just needed to cool off, but then...”

“Then what? ”

“We thought he might do something stupid. The last five years have been trying for him. He spirals quickly now. It’s been getting worse lately. The guilt… It’s getting to him.”

“Guilt,” I snap. “You know what? Fuck you and him and Noah.”

“No, please, Hazel. Please get him to come down, and then we will leave you alone. I swear. You will never see us again.”

My stomach lurches, and not just from Carter’s erratic driving. I’m torn between wanting to hurt them, but the shame and guilt of that eats me up.

“Noah’s with him,” Carter adds quietly. “But we need you, Hazel. You’re the only one who can talk him down.”

We screech to a stop near the bridge. In the distance, I can see two figures—one perched precariously on the railing and the other standing nearby.

“Thank fuck,” Carter mutters, and I realise how badly this is affecting him. He is their prime alpha, and he feels powerless, hopeless and alone. Yeah, I know how that feels. Welcome to the club. I feel almost vindicated, but at what cost?

“Go,” Carter urges. “Please.”

I nod, my heart pounding as I get out of the car. As I approach the bridge, I can hear Noah talking to him.

But as I get closer, I realise he isn’t talking. He’s singing.

My heart lurches. It’s a sweet lullaby that takes me completely aback .

The lullaby is hauntingly beautiful, filled with a desperation that makes my chest ache. My heart races, fear and adrenaline coursing through me.

“Zach,” I call out softly when I’m close enough.

He stiffens at the sound of my voice but doesn’t turn. Noah stops singing and looks at me with a nod, and steps back.

“Hazel,” Zach whispers. “You shouldn’t be here.”

I take a cautious step closer. “Neither should you, Zach. Please, come down from there.”

He shakes his head. “I can’t. Not after everything we’ve done. You deserve better.”

“Maybe I do,” I say, my voice shaking slightly. “But that doesn’t mean you deserve this. Please, just talk to me.”

“How can you even stand to be near me after what we did?”

I swallow hard, pushing down my own anger and hurt. “Because despite everything, I still care about you, and I don’t want you to do this. I want you to come down from there.”

“Why?” he asks bitterly. “So you can tell me how much you hate me? How disgusted you are by what we’ve done?”

His words sting, but I push past the hurt. “I am angry, and hurt and disgusted,” I admit. “But I don’t want you to die.”

Zach’s shoulders slump at my words. “Maybe I deserve to,” he says softly. “After everything we’ve done to you... ”

“No one deserves this, Zach. Not even you.”

He laughs bitterly. “You don’t know the half of it, Hazel. The things we’ve done, the people we’ve hurt... It’s unforgivable.”

“Then live with it,” I say firmly. “Face the consequences of your actions. Jumping won’t solve anything.”

“It’ll end the pain,” he whispers.

My heart clenches at the raw anguish in his voice. Despite everything, I can’t bear to see him like this.

“And what about the pain you’ll leave behind?” I ask softly. “What about Noah and Carter? What about me?”

“You’re better off without me. Without all of us.”

“That’s not for you to decide. Please, Zach. Come down from there, and we can talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he says, his voice hollow. “We’ve ruined everything. The things we’ve done… it’s unforgivable.”

“So tell me. Tell me, Zach. Tell me what you’ve done, because at the moment I’ve got speculations and some half-arsed confessions from your leader. To truly be able to forgive you, tell me what you’ve done.”

I see Noah take a step forward, and I snap my head to glare at him to stay back. He is not happy about this in the slightest. Carter, even less so. But tough.

“Let’s hear it. Let’s hear this confession of your sins. I’ll start you off, shall I?” I’m getting into this now. I hold my finger up even though he can’t see me. “One, you’ve driven away every alpha I tried to get close to, am I right? Yeah? What for? All it did was make me run away from Cornwall, from all of you. Two, you somehow tried to fuck up the sale of my bookshop, but that was tough shit because it went through, anyway. Three, and this is a stab in the dark, so do correct me if I’m wrong, you broke into my house while I was in the middle of my heat and had sex with me? Is that right? Am I close? Or was that another ‘figment of my imagination’?”

“Hazel,” Noah warns as Zach lets out a loud whimper.

Zach’s shoulders shake as he lets out a choked sob. “Yes,” he whispers. “All of it. We did all of it.”

My stomach churns at the confirmation. “My heat.” I hadn’t wanted to believe it, but I knew deep down it was true. It wasn’t delirium. It was real.

“We broke in and came to you. You consented. We asked, and you wanted us. I know how that sounds, but we told ourselves you wanted us.”

“I was in heat!” I snap. “I would have wanted anyone with a knot. That doesn’t make it okay! It’s like the furthest thing from okay! I didn’t know what I was saying or doing. You didn’t give me a choice!”

Zach flinches. “I know.” He shuffles closer to the edge of the railing.

“Hazel, please, not now—” Noah starts, but I cut him off with a hiss.

“Don’t ‘not now’ me. You wanted me here. Well, here I fucking am, learning all your dirty secrets.”

“You’re right,” Zach says. “We took advantage of you. We justified it to ourselves, but deep down, we knew it was wrong. I’m so sorry, Hazel. For everything.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. Part of me wants to rage at him, to scream and cry and maybe even give him a push after I tell him how much he’s hurt me and throw the other two lying bastards over the railing with him. But another part sees how broken he is, teetering on the edge of that bridge, and how my anger doesn’t make me a killer. Not even a secondary one. If I walk away, he will jump. I know that in my soul.

“Zach, please,” I say, my voice shaking, trying to control the anger and pain. “Come down from there. We can talk about this, but not like this. Not with you up there.”

He shakes his head. “I can’t face you. Not after what we’ve done.”

“Then don’t face me,” I say. “But don’t do this. Don’t jump. It won’t solve anything.”

“What else is there?” he asks brokenly. “We’ve ruined everything.”

I take a deep breath, steeling myself. “Maybe you have. But that doesn’t mean it has to end like this. Come down, Zach. Face what you’ve done. Make amends if you can.”

“How?” he whispers. “How can we possibly make amends for this?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “But you can’t if you’re dead. Please, Zach. Give yourself a chance. ”

He turns his head slightly, looking at me for the first time since I got here. The raw pain and anguish I see there makes my breath catch.

“Why do you care?” he asks brokenly. “After everything we’ve done, why are you even here?”

“I—I don’t want this to be how it ends.”

Zach’s shoulders slump. For a long moment, he’s silent, and I hold my breath, terrified he’s going to jump anyway.

Then, slowly, he turns and slides off the railing back onto the bridge. My knees go weak with relief.

As soon as his feet touch the ground, Noah rushes forward, wrapping Zach in a tight embrace. I hear him murmuring soothing words as Zach breaks down, sobbing into Noah’s shoulder.

I stand there awkwardly, unsure what to do now. Part of me wants to go to them, to offer comfort. But another part, the part that’s still reeling from all the revelations, wants to run far away from here and never look back.

Carter approaches cautiously. “Thank you,” he says quietly. “For coming. For talking to him.”

“Shut the fuck up. You don’t get to say anything to me,” I snarl and storm off back to the car. But I don’t want to get back in an enclosed space with them right now. I can’t. So I start walking.

And they let me go.