Page 58 of Alpha's Redemption

Turning my car off, I twist the house key off the ring before heading inside. I grab one of the moving boxes from the shed and load up some of Taylor's toys I know she won't leave without, then grab her school clothes, my work uniforms, and our documentation. The rest, I’ll organize to pick up later. If not, I'll just dip into my savings to replace it. I know how this works; it isn't the first time I let myself get my hopes up.

Once I have my bag packed and a box full of Taylor's stuff under my arm, I flick off the lights and lock the door.

After dropping the key in the mailbox, I pop the trunk and drop everything in before climbing back into my car. My mind is a mess as I drive to Everly's, angry with myself. If I had told him from the start, I could have avoided all this. We would still be perfect strangers that fucked once on a desk—how it should have remained.

Yet, as I pull up at Valen's and Everly's place, I can't bring myself to get out of the car. My mind is plagued with what I’ll tell Taylor. She really likes Tatum, and he was good to her—the first real father figure she had. Her own father was a dropkick.

Taylor's father, Preston, beat me when I told him I was pregnant; he hoped I would lose her. My mother warned me not to get involved with him. She was right. He was no good. Mom patched me up, and we waited to see if I would miscarry. But my girl was a fighter.

My next encounter with Preston was at the shopping center when I was with Valarie. I lost sight of Valarie as I wandered down an aisle with Taylor in her stroller. The panic I felt when he walked into the same aisle with his pregnant sister nearly made my heart stop. He’d looked into the stroller and snarled when he realized he didn't successfully abort his child.

I had left the aisle, searching for Valarie, but when she couldn't be found, I went to the parking garage. I had just gotten Taylor into her car seat when he attacked me from behind. He slammed my head into the door frame, splitting my forehead open. Luckily, the keys were still clutched in my hand, and all I kept thinking was that I needed to lock the car. I needed to protect her from him. So I hit the lock button on the key fob and got to my feet as he tried to rip the car door open.

Me or her.

And I chose her.

I will always choose her, even if it costs my life. That's what being a parent is. You give your last breath so they can take another. I was a rogue, and Preston was Slasher pack's Gamma's son. His reputation was on the line, and Taylor could destroy it.

So I did the only thing I could at the time: I hit the speed dial on my phone, which was Valarie's number. I dropped the phone when he smashed the windows, trying to get to Taylor. Until Valarie could get to her, I needed to keep him distracted. And that's what I did. Taylor was screaming her head off in the car, but I just kept thinking I couldn't let him touch her, so I kept getting back up, no matter how much he hurt me.

As he reached through the driver's seat window to unlock her door, I picked up a broken piece of glass and plunged it into his neck. Valarie came out moments later, frantic, with a stolen bat she grabbed from one of the display stands. Yet, it was too late, Preston was bleeding out at my feet, and I was looking at prison time.

Or so I thought.

Valarie had grabbed my arms and shook me because all I could do was stare at his dying body, choking and gasping for air as he stared at me helplessly.

“You didn't kill him,” Valarie said to me. “I did!” I remember staring at her when she raised the bat and hit him in the head.

One.

Two.

Three.

“Now get in the car while I clean this up,” she’d said.

However, I couldn't function and she ended up putting me in the car, as she made a call. At the time, I was in too much shock for it to register who she called, yet he came.

“Get home. I’ll take care of it,” Kalen told her, and that was the end. Kalen took the rap and said it was self-defense. The camera footage miraculously disappeared, and it was splashed over every newspaper about how Slasher pack's Gamma's son attacked the Blood Alpha's father.

Only four people really knew what happened. Valarie, Kalen, me, and Everly, because when Valarie brought me back to the hotel, she called her to help clean me up and we never spoke of it again. After that, she put me in self-defense classes and watched Taylor for me while I went to every class, determined not to feel helpless again. I still have the bat—the bat Valarie gave me.

Yet right now, as I sit in the parking lot of Valen's hotel—one so similar to that mall lot—I’m reminded of that helplessness, only this time, it’s my fault.

My phone vibrates in my bag and Everly's ringtone plays. Reaching over, I grab it out and answer it.

“Where are you? Did you pick up Taylor?”

“No, I didn't want to wake her or Zoe,” I answer.

“Okay, where are you?” she asks.

“In the parking lot,” I admit. I just can't make myself move and destroy their good night while mine falls apart.So stupid! So, so stupid!I think when the phone hangs up. I can't remember if I said goodbye or not, or even if I hung up on her. I feel numb, stuck in memories of so many men's worst and the one good one I just drove away.

The driver's side door opens.

“Move over,” she says, and I undo my seatbelt and slide into the passenger seat. She climbs in, starting my car and leaving the underground lot, winding her way up the ramps to the rooftop lot. She parks up top and swings her door open.

---