Chapter 268
Chapter 268
FAYE
I was standing by the window when the night finally swallowed the last trace of dusk.
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The glass was cold beneath my fingertips, grounding in a way nothing else had been since everything fell apart. Outside, the trees swayed softly, shadows folding into one another like secrets the dark was determined to keep. Somewhere beyond them, the world continued as if it hadn’t taken something from me–something it could never give back.
I stared anyway.
I wasn’t really seeing the night. I was seeing flashes. The road, the headlights, the sickening jolt, the scream that had torn out of me before I even understood what was happening.
I wanted to blame Alexander.
God knew it would have been easier. Easier to aim my grief at him, to tell myself that if he hadn’t hurt me, if he hadn’t let Diana into his life the way he did, if he hadn’t shattered something fragile
inside me, I wouldn’t have driven angry. I wouldn’t have been reckless. I wouldn’t have been trying to outrun my own thoughts on a stretch of road that demanded focus and calm.
But the truth was crueler.
The truth was that when it mattered most, my hands had been on the wheel. My foot had been
heavy on the accelerator. My mind had been somewhere else… Because I let anger get the best of
I had done this.
My breath hitched, but no tears came. I’d cried all of them out hours ago–screamed them out until
my throat felt scraped raw. Now there was only a hollow ache, a grief so dense it felt like it had weight, pressing down on me from the inside.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind….
There’s a price for everything.
The words crept in uninvited, settling into my thoughts with unsettling clarity.
My pack healer in Silver Hollow had warned me. She’d looked at me with eyes far older than her
face, her voice quiet as she told me there would be a price for bringing Alexander back. Life didn’t
bend without consequence. Death didn’t release what it claimed without taking something else in
return.
And now-
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Chapter 266
My stomach twisted violently.
Maybe this was it.
Maybe this was the price.
+25 Points
The ultimate balance. The universe correcting itself. A life restored… and another taken to even the
scale.
My hand pressed instinctively to my stomach, fingers curling into the fabric of my clothes as a sob finally clawed its way up again, stopping just short of escaping. My child. Innocent, unaware. Gone before I could even hold them properly.
A sharp sound cut through the quiet, suddenly.
A growl.
Low. Powerful. Familiar in a way that made my entire body react before my mind caught up.
My head snapped up.
Another growl followed, closer this time, vibrating through the walls, through the floor, straight into my bones. My heart lurched painfully as recognition hit.
Alexander.
He came.
For a brief, fragile moment, relief washed through me so intensely it almost buckled my knees. He
hadn’t abandoned me. He hadn’t ignored Patrick’s word or decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. He’d
come for me, just like he always did…. Even though I had refused to speak and confirm that I was
with Patrick.
And then the other emotions surged in, tangled and sharp.
I didn’t know if I could look at him without seeing Diana’s face in my mind. Without remembering the way betrayal had settled heavy and cold between us. Without remembering that he didn’t
know.
He didn’t know I’d lost the baby.
What would his face look like when he found out?
I didn’t have time to wonder.
The house shook violently, as if something massive had slammed into it from the outside. The floor jolted beneath my feet. A deafening crack split the air, and before I could even scream, the wall opposite me exploded inward.
Dust and debris filled the room, choking the air, shards of plaster raining down around me. I
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Chapter 268
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staggered back, coughing, my arms coming up instinctively to shield my face as the sound echoed
like thunder in an enclosed space.
When the dust began to settle, my vision cleared slowly.
And there he was.
Alexander stood in the ruined opening, breathing hard, his presence filling the space like a storm given form. His eyes burned with something wild and dangerous, his nails elongated into claws, faint blood streaking his skin. Just beyond him, Patrick lay on the ground, the floor beneath him smeared dark with blood, his body marked with deep gashes and bruises that spoke of a brutal
fight.
Patrick groaned and pushed himself up, spitting blood as he struggled back to his feet.
Alexander growled again, the sound vibrating with intent, his body shifting as if he was ready to collide with Patrick all over again–to finish what he’d started.
“No!”
The word tore out of me before I realized I’d moved
I rushed forward, placing myself between them, my hands gripping Alexander’s arm with everything I had. The moment he looked down at me, really looked at me, something in him snapped back into place.
His rage vanished.
Just like that.
His claws retracted. His posture softened. His eyes cleared, flooding instead with shock, relief, and something dangerously close to devastation.
“Faye,” he breathed.
He pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly, as if letting go might make me disappear. His body trembled, the violence he’d unleashed moments ago retreating completely as he buried his face
against my hair.
I didn’t hug him back.
My arms hung stiff at my sides, my body refusing to respond even as his warmth surrounded me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t bring myself to close the distance between us, not with everything inside me fractured and raw.
Behind us, I heard Patrick take steps back, probably steadying himself against what was left of the
wall.
I looked at him through the corner of my eye, my face still pressed against Alexander’s chest.
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Chapter 268
Patrick was still breathing heavily, blood dripping from his mouth onto the floor.
And I understood something with chilling clarity.
I hadn’t stopped Alexander because I cared about Patrick.
+25 Points
I’d stopped him because if Alexander kept going, Patrick would die here… Tonight. By Alexander’s
hands.
And that wasn’t how this would end.
Patrick was going to die. Of that, I was certain. But not like this. Not now. Not by Alexander.
If my innocent child had been taken as payment for restoring a life Patrick once tried to steal, then balance would be restored properly. Deliberately this time.
Patrick’s life would end by my hand.
The thought didn’t horrify me. It steadied me.
I would do it. And when I did, I would finally rest, knowing my child had been avenged.
Alexander pulled back slightly, his hands still firm on me as if afraid I might collapse. His eyes searched my face desperately, full of questions he didn’t yet know how to ask.
Before he could say anything, he scooped me up into his arms, lifting me with effortless strength.
He didn’t look at Patrick again.
Not once.
As he carried me out of the ruined room, past broken walls and shattered furniture, I stared ahead blankly, my body cradled against his, my mind already far away.
Behind us, Patrick coughed, blood hitting the floor. I guess we’re done,” he shouted.
No, Patrick. We’re not.
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