Louis spits blood onto the grass and says nothing, his one good eye fixed on the sky with defiance.
Kristian’s head swings toward Louis, and the fury that twists his face is genuine. “This fucking idiot convinced me.” The words pour out bitter and fast. “He reached out weeks ago, said he had a plan to get revenge on his ex-Omega. I should never have listened to a word out of his mouth.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Louis snaps, jerking against his restraints.
“Nah, fuck you.” Kristian leans sideways, his face inches from Louis’s. “You manipulated me into pushing Trudy away, told me to act like I didn’t care about her anymore, make her feel unwanted, so she’d run to these Alphas and destabilize things with Claire. I was stupid enough to do it. I left footage of her past Alphas around the house so she’d see it and go to them. I acted cold so she’d bolt, and for what? To get fucking arrested?”
Louis unleashes an unhinged laugh, his bloody mouth stretched into a grin. “What are you talking about? You kept going on about how exhausted you were by her clinginess. How you didn’t find her attractive anymore, and all the other chicks you were screwing on the side. Those were your words, buddy, not mine.” His grin sharpens. “And trust me, if you can push her away that easily just because I suggested it, you never loved her in the first place.”
Kristian’s face contorts. He drives his shoulder into Louis so hard that the other man topples sideways onto the grass, wailing, his tied hands trapped beneath him. “You used me the moment you realized Trudy used to date the Alphas your Omega chose. I should never have told you I knew them when you wereshowing me their videos. Wish I’d never met you at that damn Alpha conference run by Dr. Reed.”
“Just fucking shut up,” Louis groans.
I’m grinning so much at seeing how despicable Louis has been.
“Trudy, baby.” Kristian’s twisting toward the doorway where she stands. “Come back to me. I didn’t mean any of it. He got in my head, but I love you. I’ve always loved you. Please?—”
Trudy descends the porch steps. She crosses the garden in bare feet, the blanket falling from her shoulders, and she stands over Kristian on the grass, her chin raised and her hands trembling.
“No more.” Her voice grows steady and strong. “You’ve ruined me twice. You bonded me when I was too young to understand what it meant, and then you threw me away when you got bored. You isolated me from everyone I loved. You used the bark to control me in front of a roomful of people, and now I find out you pushed me away on purpose? As part of his scheme? You asshole!”
“Baby, please?—”
“Don’t call me that.” She steps closer, her shadow falling across his face. “I’m filing a restraining order. And I’m pursuing bond dissolution treatment, which I should have done the day you first rejected me. You don’t own me, Kristian. You never did. You just held the leash so tight that I forgot I wasn’t a dog.”
“Trudy—” His expression falls.
“I’m done listening to you say my name as if it belongs to you. It doesn’t anymore, not ever again.”
My heart swells, as I’m so proud of her, and I rush over to embrace her. “You did amazing.”
She’s shaking in my arms. “Thanks. That felt incredible.”
Corey claps loudly. “Fuck yeah. Well said.”
I find myself moving toward Louis without a word as he lies on his side, trying to get up, and I say, “You’ll never show your face around me ever again, but I doubt that will be an issue from prison.”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
Damien, however, has his own opinions as he pads out of the house and past me, directly toward Louis. He sniffs once. Then he extends one massive white paw and rakes his claws down Louis’s forearm in a single, deliberate swipe.
Louis howls. Jerks against the ropes as blood wells in the parallel lines across his skin.
Damien scuttles back, and Brody scoops him up into his arms. “Good boy,” Brody coos.
“Aww,” Corey says, crouching to scratch behind Damien’s ear. “Best boy.”
“He defended me,” I say, and he chirps loudly, all of us laughing—well, except the two assholes on the grass.
It’s at that moment that the sirens round the corner onto our street. Red and blue strobing across the houses, painting the two men on the lawn in alternating light, and officers are crossing the grass within seconds. Flashlights sweep over Louis and Kristian. Jakob is first, detailing everything that happened, while Corey and Brody are close at my sides, my protectors, my Alphas.
By now, the neighbors are outside too, so there’ll be some explaining to do, but that’s the least of our worries. Especially since I’m going to have to give my story to the police, and I’m ready to tell them everything.
What began as the worst day of my life should have broken me, but instead, it became the day I finally stopped running.
29
CLAIRE
