Chapter 275
Chapter 275
ALEXANDER
+25 Points
I was checking my wristwatch every passing minute, wondering if I had made the right decision not to go after her. Then I felt her presence.
Not the sharp spike of panic I’d been bracing myself for all afternoon. Not the hollow drop of dread that had been sitting in my chest since Irene found out she wasn’t in the room.
I looked up from the training field, where dozens of soldiers were sparring under Kyle’s barked commands, and there she was–walking toward me at an unhurried pace, hands clasped loosely in front of her, posture relaxed.
Relief hit me so hard it almost made me dizzy.
I hadn’t realized how tightly I’d been holding myself together until that moment–until the constant recalculating, the second–guessing of my earlier decision to let her be, suddenly stopped mattering. She was here… back home. Whatever else existed could wait.
She stopped a few steps in front of me and smiled… genuinely smiled.
“How is your day going?” she asked, like it was an ordinary day and not the aftermath of everything that had nearly torn us apart.
For a second, I just stared at her.
It was disorienting–the simplicity of her, the calm in her eyes. This was not the girl who had been breaking down yesterday. Not the girl who’d looked at me like the ground beneath her had disappeared. If I didn’t know better, I might’ve thought I’d imagined all of it.
I didn’t ask.
I liked this version of her too much to question it.
“Tiring,” I said honestly, exhaling as I leaned back against the bench. “Long.”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense, her gaze drifting briefly toward the training field before
returning to me. She sat beside me and sighed.
“And,” I added after a beat, “Diana was here.”
Her brow lifted slightly. “Oh!”
“Causing a scene,” I went on, keeping my tone even. “I had her arrested. For trespassing… harassment.”
That got a reaction.
Her eyebrow arched higher now, lips curving into something between a smirk and disbelief. “Arrested?”
“Yes,” I said. “The police took her not long before you arrived.”
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She laughed softly, under her breath–as if the idea amused and confused her in equal measure.
+25 Paints
“You involved the police?” she asked. “Why not just ban her from the pack house? Or Crescent Dynamics?”
I turned fully toward her then.
“Because it doesn’t work like that here,” I said gently. “And you already know that.”
She watched me closely as I spoke, really listening.
“In Blood Crescent,” I continued, “even as Alpha, I don’t have the right to banish a born member for personal reasons. Not unless they commit something serious–treason, violence against the pack, things
that threaten the peace of the whole structure.”
Her expression softened, understanding beginning to settle in.
“And even if I barred her from the pack house,” I added, “I couldn’t enforce that authority in public or
mundane spaces. I can’t use Alpha law to keep her out of offices, streets, restaurants.”
I shook my head slightly. “She would’ve kept showing up. Everywhere. Unless I treated her for what she is.”
“A threat,” Faye said quietly.
“Yes,” I replied. “Legally.”
She nodded slowly, absorbing it all.
For a moment, we sat in silence–the sounds of training filling the space between us. The clash of fists,
shouted commands, the rhythm of a pack that kept moving regardless of personal storms.
I reached for her hand without thinking.
She let me take it.
“Faye, ” I said, my thumb brushing lightly over her knuckles, “I feel like I need to spell this out again.”
She looked down at our joined hands, then back up at me.
“I’m sorry for what you saw at the office,” I continued. “I promise you–there is nothing going on between
me and Diana. There never will be.”
Her face didn’t change, but her grip tightened just slightly.
“I’m also sorry,” I added, “that everything happened the way it did. None of it should’ve reached you like
that.”
She didn’t speak right away.
When she did, her voice was soft… calm.
“I believe you,” she said.
The words settled deep in my chest.
< Chapter 275
+25 Points
“And,” she went on after a pause, her gaze dropping briefly, “I realize that I overreacted. It was my fault. I-”
I lifted my finger and pressed it gently to her lips before she could finish.
“No,” I said firmly.
She stilled.
“I’m not letting you do that again,” I continued, my voice low. “I’m not going to let you tear yourself apart trying to carry blame that isn’t yours.”
Her eyes searched mine for a second, then softened.
She smiled… relieved.
She nodded once.
I stood, still holding her hand, and held the other out to her. She took it, letting me pull her up beside me.
“I told Martha to prepare something special for dinner,” I said. “You’ll like it.”
FAYE
I tightened my grip on his hand before he could take another step.
“Wait.”
Alexander stopped immediately. He turned back to face me, concern flickering across his features–subtle
but there. The easy calm he’d been wearing around me cracked just enough to let it show.
“What is it?” he asked.
For a moment, I just looked at him.
“You didn’t ask me anything,” I said finally.
His brows knit slightly. “About…?”
“About where I went,” I clarified. “You didn’t ask where I disappeared to all day.”
That gave him pause.
I watched the realization cross his face–not guilt, exactly, but awareness.
“Right,” he said. “I just didn’t want to push.”
‘I tilted my head, waiting.
“I figured,” he continued, “if you wanted me to know, you’d tell me. And if you didn’t… then it wasn’t my place to pry.” His thumb brushed against my knuckles, gentle. “For now, I’m just glad you came back in one
piece.”
“I need to tell you,” I said quietly. “Before you hear it another way.”
Chapter 275
His expression shifted instantly. Alert now… focused.
“All right,” he said. “Tell me.”
I drew in a slow breath.
“I went back,” I said.
His brows furrowed. “Back… back where?”
+75 Pemts
“The house,” I replied. “The one Patrick took me to. The one you came to get me from. That was his
mother’s house.”
Understanding dawned–slow, disbelieving.
He stared at me like I’d just told him I’d walked into a burning building for air.
“Faye-” he started.
“I know,” I cut in calmly. “I know what you’re about to say.”
He shook his head slightly, disbelief giving way to tension. “You have got to be kidding me… You went back
there?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you-”
“Patrick is dead,” I said casually.
The words dropped between us like a bomb.
Alexander went completely still.
The air seemed to thicken, the sounds of the training field fading until there was nothing but the quiet rush of blood in my ears. His mouth opened slightly, then closed again, as if his mind was struggling to catch
up with what I’d just said.
I didn’t give him time.
“I killed him,” I added, just as plainly. “And his mother is dead too.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
Not shocked shouting. Not immediate rage.
Just… nothing.
“His mother tried to poison me,” I went on, steady. “She brought me a drink.”
His jaw tightened.
“I made her drink it.” I said.
His eyes snapped back to mine.
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“She had to go anyway,” I continued. “If not today, then later. When Patrick collapsed, she saw everything. She would’ve talked. She would’ve screamed murder. She would’ve run straight to North Ridge.”
I swallowed, my voice still even.
“And that would’ve meant war,” I finished. “A real one. Over a man like Patrick.”
I lifted my chin slightly. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Alexander’s grip on my hand tightened–not painfully, but firmly, like he needed something real to hold on
to while his world rearranged itself.
His eyes searched my face, as if looking for cracks. For hysteria… for regret.
There was none, I was sure.
“Okay…” he began, then stopped. His voice changed when he tried again, lower this time. “Back up.”
I waited.
“You’re saying you killed Patrick?” he asked.
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