Page 69 of Criminology of a Character

“Bear?” Olivia repeated. “What are you talking about? Why do you keep saying Bel’s alive? I was at the accident site. I saw how the car destroyed her body. My friend is dead, and now you’re talking about drinking from her.” She broke down sobbing. “Please go before I call Griffen.”

“Olivia, this won’t be easy to hear.” Eamon shifted to block the door so she couldn’t escape. “You can freak out later, but right now, you need to listen to me. For Isobel. I’m sorry this isn’t coming from Ewan, but he failed to follow through, so you’re stuck with me.”

“Ewan?” She threw her boyfriend a pleading look.

“I’m sorry, babe. I should’ve told you. He is the alpha of this territory, and I disobeyed him.”

“Ewan, you’re scaring me.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” He sagged against the couch. “It’ll be okay. I promise. Eamon has been kind to me. Most who are as powerful as him would’ve killed me for trespassing, but he’s different.”

“Killed you?” Olivia eyed the blocked door, calculating the best way to escape the apartment. “I’m leaving now. Don’t either of you follow me.”

“Ewan isn’t human, and neither am I,” Eamon said before she could move. “He’s a bear shifter. During the Abel Reus case, a bear killed a hiker in the woods. Only he wasn’t a hiker. He was a hunter on a mission to wipe out Ewan’s pack. Ewan dealt with him to save his family from genocide and planned to move on, but I promised to coexist with him if he told you the truth. He swore he would, but that responsibilityhas now fallenon my shoulders. I am sorry, but for Isobel’s sake, I beg you to listen. We might be monsters, but we are monsters that love you both, and there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you.” Eamon stepped closer to her. “Someone went through a lot of trouble to convince us the love of my life is dead, and I need Ewan to help me find her before something worse happens.I need you to believe me.To trust me when I say that I am evil, but I’m not the evil you seek.”

“Shifters don’t exist,” Olivia whispered.

“They do, baby. I can show you,” Ewan said.

“Don’t call me that,” she spat. “You killed that man. You’re a murderer.”

“It was self-defense,” Eamon interrupted. “But you guys can fight later. We need to go.”

“Stop!” Olivia sidestepped him and planted herself before the front door. “You do not get to push me around. I don’t care that you own half the town or that you are so massive you could probably kill me with one hand.”

“I would never harm a single hair on your head,” Eamon said.

“Whatever,” she shouted. “You don’t get to push me around. Not in my house.”

“I’m not pushing you around. I am trying to save your partner’s life.”

“Did she know?” Olivia asked. “Did Bel know what you are? Did she believe this insanity?”

“She does,” Eamon answered, correcting Olivia’s tense.

“How could she? Bel is the smartest woman I know. How could she fall for your psychotic delusions?”

“Because they’re the truth.”

“They can’t be.”

“They are. She’s witnessed what we are first hand.”

“Then why didn’t she tell me?” Olivia asked.

“Because they weren’t her secrets to tell.” Eamon threw a glare at Ewan.

“So, Bel knew, and she still loved you?”

“I hope she loves me. She has yet to say the words.”

“But she trusted you? You drank her blood, and she still trusted you?”

“Trusts,” Eamon corrected. “She’s alive. Treat her like it. And yes, she does because I would die for her. There’s no life more important to me than Isobel’s, and I hide nothing from her. She knows the truth and accepts me for who I am. So fight with your boyfriend later because she needs us.”

“I can’t believe you,” she said.

Eamon stared at her with an unreadable expression as he weighed his choices, andthen without a word, he strode into the apartment’s kitchen. “I apologize for this,” he said as he grabbed a knife from the block on the counter, and before Ewan or Olivia could stop him, he thrust his arm over the sink and slit his wrist.

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