"Alex, it wasn't me," he said, his heart sinking. "It was my brother. My twin, Seth."
"Oh, please." She scoffed. "How convenient for you to just remember him now. Let me guess, you're Dr. Jekyll and he's Mr. Hyde."
Kade understood her doubt. He understood her anger, and her disdain of him. Her emotion swelled in his own chest, squeezing his heart as though it were caught in a vise. "Alex, you don't understand. I didn't want to tell you about Seth because I am ashamed. Of him, of what he's done. Of myself, too, and the fact that I have not put a stop to his madness before now. I didn't tell you about him because I thought you would think I was just like him." He blew out a harsh sigh. "Shit ... maybe it was only a matter of time before you realized that I was like him."
She was silent for a long moment, her footsteps halted. In the background, he could hear Luna's soft whine. "I'm hanging up now, Kade."
"Wait. I need to see you. Where are you, Alex?"
"I don't ..." She inhaled a deep breath, blew it out in a rush. "I don't want to see you. Not right now. Maybe not ever again."
"Alex, I can't let you do this. I want to talk to you, in person, not like this." He closed his eyes, felt some of his hope drifting away. "Tell me where you are. I can be at your house in a few minutes--"
"I'm not at home. After what I saw today, I didn't know what to do, or where to go. So I went to Zach's."
The human police officer. Ah, fuck.
Panic drilled into the center of Kade's being. "Alex, I know you're upset and confused, but do not tell him any of this--"
"Too late," she murmured. "I have to go now, Kade. Stay away from me."
"Alex, wait. Alex!" The cell phone beeped as the connection ended. She hung up on him. "Goddamn it."
He tried her back again, but there was no answer. Three rings, four ... her voicemail picked up and he hung up.
Tried again. Same result.
"Shit!" Kade roared with anger, frustrated and raw with self-directed fury for what Alex had been through. Trauma he'd had a hand in, and which had likely lost him the one woman he hoped would be at his side for the rest of his life.
When he pivoted around, Tegan was standing there. "That doesn't sound good." Kade gave a vague shake of his head.
"A female, obviously," Tegan said. "The Breedmate from Harmony?" Kade held the grim gaze of the Gen One warrior. "I am bonded to her. I love her." Tegan, also a mated Breed male, grunted. "There are worse things."
"Yeah," Kade agreed. "There are worse things. She thinks I betrayed her. I didn't, but I wasn't honest with her, and I let her down. She said she never wants to see me again."
"Go on," Tegan said.
"Alex knows about the Breed," Kade said. "She knows about the Ancient, too. Shit, she knows everything. And I think she may have told it all to the state trooper stationed in Harmony." Tegan didn't blink. His stare was bleak, calculating. Ruthless. "That would be unfortunate." Kade nodded, blew out a curse. "I think it's too late to stop her. She told me she went to his house today. She's upset, and scared. I think she might have gone to the human for help."
"I see." Tegan's growl was so deep it was hardly audible. "Then it looks like we're going to Harmony now. We need to contain the situation. And if need be, we'll have to contain your female, as well."
Chapter Twenty-six
Come on, Luna. Let's go."
Alex sat on her snowmachine outside Zach's house and waited for Luna to get situated in front of her on the sled. With her cell phone turned off after the repeated calls from Kade, Alex pocketed it and could only sit there for a moment in the snow-flurried darkness, willing herself to simply breathe in and out.
She couldn't talk to him anymore. Not now. Her heart felt weak, and even as she'd been telling him to stay away from her, there was a part of her that wanted to let him back in, even though everything around her was in turmoil. Perhaps because of that fact, she still wanted the comfort of Kade's strength around her. She still wanted his love.
But she didn't know if she could trust her feelings right now. Nothing seemed clear. Since meeting Kade, gone was her comfortable black-or-white, good-or-bad world. He had changed everything. He'd opened her eyes, and she could never go back to living as she had been.
She was changed forever, most significantly because no matter how much she wanted to fear him, to hate him for what he was, her heart refused to let him go.
Alex started up her snowmachine. She just needed to get away from everyone so that she had some room to think, and clear her head. She needed safe haven, and could think of only one place to find it now-Jenna's cabin. In all the upheaval of the past few hours, her plans to check in on her friend had been derailed. If there was one person she could trust right now, Alex knew it was Jenna.
Behind her, the door to Zach's house banged shut.
"Hey, where are you going?" he called to her, coming down across the yard at a brisk clip. "I said I wanted to take you home, make sure you got there safely. I don't think you're in any condition--"