Page 16 of The Alpha in Alcatraz

She shuts me up with a kiss. “You’re out now. Why don’t you run? Escape from this city, the asylum, the demons holding you back.” Sedona presses her forehead against mine. I can hear the tears in her voice before I see them roll down her cheeks.

“Why would I go and do a stupid thing like that?” I wrap her in a tight, warm hug.

“Because you can have a chance at a normal life.” She sniffles.

“What kind of life would I have without you?” It stings to say, but it’s the truth.

As much as I hate to admit it, she’s changed something in me. She hasn’t quenched the fire of my crusades nor the want towatch any piece of shit who hurts a child suffer an inconceivable fate. But she has made me realize that the path I’m on is long and lonely. She’s given me reason to keep fighting beyond simply wanting my victims to suffer as they have caused so many others to suffer.

Fuck. She’s made me want to be a better person.

“Haven’t you realized it, Doc?”

She turns her head up to meet my beaming smile.

“You’re the only thing that matters to me. I’ll stay in the asylum for the rest of my life as long as it’s with you by my side.” I cup her cheek in my hand and wipe away a tear with my thumb. “For the first time in years, I was afraid tonight. And can you imagine why?”

She shakes her head and wipes her other cheek dry.

“Because I’m so madly in love with you, the thought of dying in that room and never seeing you again nearly broke me.”

There it is. The brutal, honest truth.

And it makes Sedona smile a gentle, honest smile. “I’m in love with you too, Victor. Madly so.”

EPILOGUE

VICTOR

Two Years Later

This world was never meant for men like me. Cold, hard monsters who lurk in the shadows and get off on other’s suffering. But there is always light at the end of every dark tunnel. Mine is Sedona Quinn.

“You don’t know how happy this makes me, Dr. Quinn.” Erik Peterson is giving her congratulatory handshakes. The old fool has a tear in his eye. Pathetic. “In honesty, I never thought I’d see the day.”

I’ve spent a lot of time with him the past year as an evaluator of my mental conditioning. Under Sedona’s strict supervision, I played the fool and gave him the best impression of my rehabilitation.

And there is a deep desperation to escape this place. Fucking Sedona in her office is great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not going to pump her belly full of my seed and bare my lineage while trapped in prison.

“Us too,” Sedona says, and her cheeks burn a deep shade of crimson. “The road hasn’t always been easy, but we made it to the finish line without any problems.”

They share pleasantries before getting into the work that comes with my release. Press meetings across the United States, books penned on my story, and if all that bullshit goes well, there might even be a movie deal in the making. It’s going to be a nuisance, sure, but how can I complain about my bank account getting fatter just for spending a small portion of my life behind bars?

“I think it’s time,” I cut them off while they laugh about screwing over Hollywood.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Erik runs a hand through the tiny tufts of hair his baldness hasn’t taken. “Are you sure you’d like to see him off, Dr. Quinn?”

“More than anything.” She shoots a smile in my direction. He doesn’t know it yet, but lying on his desk are Sedona’s resignation papers—including, in brief, her commitment to staying on board during the trials and tribulations that I may face during the coming months of tours, interviews, and book signings.

A cheeky way of ensuring she’s going to be at my side through everything. Thank fuck for that.

We say our goodbyes to Erik Peterson and find ourselves alone on the dock. Out in the distance, the ferryman glides across the water to pick us up.

“How are you feeling?” Sedona asks.

“Excited.” I think that’s what the burbling in my chest is.

I crumble onto the bench behind us, and Sedona does the same. Her hand immediately finds the bulge in my tight black trousers that don’t fit right anymore. I’ll never get tired of that feeling.

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