Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella
Chapter 52

Evan knew something was wrong the moment he walked in.

The subtle shift of light in his sharp eyes betrayed his wariness, and when he closed the door behind himself, it was far quieter than usual. It was as if he were tiptoeing, gently grazing the surface of the pond, waiting for the shadow underneath to rise and reveal itself. Was I that shadow? Was I really something for him to be wary of? I was Claudia, half-breed werewolf, small and no threat at all. Most of my life, I'd been a slave. No one had ever been wary of me, ever.

But there Evan was, staring at me instead of wrapping me up in a hug as he usually did whenever he returned home, whether it had been five minutes or two hours. I stared back.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"It's not on the websites for the local news channels, but I've been learning to use social media a little lately." I searched his face, pausing so he could interject. He didn't. "I still get confused by all the hashtags and all of that so I was ready to just dismiss it as hearsay, since I know better than to believe everything on the internet. But then I realized. Channel 6, 8 and 12 do a daily headline article every day. But there were none yesterday. It's almost like they forgot. Or maybe they had those headline articles after all, but then removed it." "What are you getting at, Claudia."

My ears pounded. My face was hot. Evan was getting gruff when any other time, he would smile and humor me, asking me what was wrong.

He already knew.

He knew that I knew.

"You didn't," I breathed. "Torturing? Killing? I thought..."

"You thought what?" He stepped toward me, and a jolt of fear ran through my body like someone had splashed ice water all over me. "You thought I was doing what I have to do? What I've been doing ever since I became Alpha? This is how I got here. This is how I'm keeping my power, the power I earned. And I'm going to get to the bottom of this whatever it takes."

He took another step forward. I was frozen to the floor, feet refusing to move.

"Whatever I'm doing, it has nothing to do with us," he said. "This is about getting revenge. I found out that the same people circulating these drugs are the same people connected to the people who killed my family. I'm not letting them go. I came this far, I'm going to finish it."

"Kids! You'll hurt kids who don't know any better!"

"They're teenagers and even if they didn't know better, they should have!"

"How old were they?" I demanded. "Eighteen? Seventeen? Or is it true you beat a fifteen year old boy unconscious? Just to get the names he was afraid of telling you!"

"He should have been more afraid of me than them," he snarled. "And what are you defending him for anyway? You think he's innocent? That he went around dealing drugs and learning how to shake down addicts from the older punks for a good reason? He's a criminal. He's part of their world. And he deserves what he got."

"So? What about the next one? The next kid who has names you want to know but can't tell you? If he was part of that world because he had no choice, no way to get out, if he was trapped because that's the world he grew up in, what are you going to do then? Are you going to beat that one too and punish him for something he couldn't control?"

"That would just be his s**t luck then, wouldn't it? I don't care if it's a kid who gets in my way, I don't care who's guilty or innocent enough in your eyes. I will hurt and kill anyone in my way to get what I need."

I froze. For a long moment, we stared at each other in silence, neither of us moving.

"You don't mean that," I said softly. "If you did, you would still be raiding packs and killing families, doing whatever you want to keep them in line. But I haven't heard of you raiding anyone in days. Maybe weeks. I didn't know you stopped, but you did, didn't you? Because you know it's not right."

"Stop trying to read my mind."

"I'm not. I can't do it right now anyway. I'm hearing nothing from you except..." Tears sprang to my eyes. That black cloud that always clung to him when he was furious or sunk deep in misery, it had returned. I couldn't feel Evan's warmth past it anymore. That warmth we had worked so hard to find together, that love, that need to be with me and feel me and have me - it was hidden now behind that curtain, and I couldn't reach him anymore. "But if you thought I was reading your mind, then it means I'm right, aren't I?" His jaw tightened, but he didn't object. Maybe he thought I wasn't telling the truth when I had said I couldn't hear his thoughts. Was he blocking me out? Was he going to remain this silent all night and say nothing?

I was just Claudia. I couldn't be anyone else. I couldn't become persuasive enough to turn Evan away from his dangerous obsession, his madness, and I couldn't become strong enough to pick him up and carry him somewhere safe and far, far away from this place. All I had was this heavy, hurting weight in my chest, this raw love, every agonizing ounce of the ache I carried for Evan when he was happy, when he was sad, when he was in pain or angry or had woken from a nightmare. That was all I could give to him. Myself.

"I love you," I said softly, voice breaking. "I love everything you are. But this isn't it. This isn't you. You were never meant to hurt other people the way you were hurt."

"I'm good at it," he barked. "You can romanticize me all you want, but there's no one better at it than I am."

"If that's the way others forced you to be, it's not your fault. They hurt you. Of course it'll scar. But if that's all you were, you wouldn't have saved me. I would have just become another body, Evan. But that's not what happened. You took me away from Dark Moon and brought me here. You took care of me."

"I saved you because you saved me first."

"And? Can I ever save you again? Even if it's true that we met when we were young and I just don't remember it, what do you gain from giving me a place to stay? From spoiling me with whatever I want? You could have gotten me out then given me enough to make my own way in the world after. That would have made us even."

"You saved my life. I'm not going to shove you out onto the streets-"

"But you could have. We weren't together. You were still looking for your mate. You could do that still, right now."

It was the first break in the darkness. A flash of emotion shone in his eyes, hard and hurt. "I'm not. I won't. Claudia, I haven't looked for my mate since..."

My heart dropped. Not from fear, but relief. The ugly, coiling tightness that had tormented me for weeks freed itself at last, and I took a small, tentative step toward Evan. I reached for him... slowly.

And he pulled me into his arms.

I was so tired. I wanted to cry, I wanted to shout, I wanted to tell him all the other things buried in my chest that I hadn't gotten a chance to say yet, but I was too, too tired. As his strong arms wrapped around me, I could only hug him back, sinking into his warmth. "I didn't want you to know," he muttered. "I didn't... I just wanted answers, and I-"

"I know. As soon as I realized the articles were gone, I realized what must have happened."

"I didn't mean to hurt him like that. I was so angry, Claudia. I grabbed him by the throat when he wouldn't talk, and I held on too long, and I didn't realize he was passing out. I let go, but I..." He squeezed harder and dropped his forehead to rest on my crown. "I was so close. They knew... They knew something, and my parents..."

"We'll find the truth, Evan. I promise."

It must have sounded ridiculous for me to say something like that. What could I possibly do? And yet the black, choking cloud around his thoughts cleared a little more, dissolving into nothing. He sighed and held me tight, running his lips over my temple. "Evan. Promise me. Let's try to do this right, the way your parents would have wanted. We don't have to hurt everyone just to get what we want. We can do this right, so we can make your parents proud from wherever they're watching. And to give you real peace, not more blood. Okay?" I looked up and leaned the side of my face on his shoulder. His eyes were closed, his brow furrowed. Pain... Sadness. So much of it. But the darkness wasn't here to stay. I would lift it up as many times as I needed to, if that was what it took to save Evan.

"I love you," I whispered.

He kissed me gently, lips brushing my forehead.

"I love you, too."