Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
Alice looked at Selene carefully.
“There is something else you should know about Jackson while he still remained in Winter,” she said.
Selene looked back at her.
“What?”
“About the flowers he gave you while you were in the hospital,” Alice said.
“I already know he was the one that poisoned me. Axel heard him mention it before he tried to kill him,” Selene replied. She lowered her eyes. “I survived it. It was my friend Renee that paid the
price for his actions.”
Alice swallowed and licked her lips.
“I am the one that gave him the poison,” she said.
Selene felt her heart still.
‘Murderer!’
‘Betrayer!’
‘Kill her!’
The voices that had been silent almost the entire time since they had infiltrated the lab suddenly screamed in her mind.
“What?” Selene growled, raising her eyes to settle on Alice.
“I was ordered to give him the poison. I explained to him how to use it. It was only meant to cause a suggestive state. Holden did not tell me that you were the target, or I would have warned Jackson of the danger in placing it near you.”
“You would have… warned him?” Selene asked as she stood and slowly moved toward Alice. “You wouldn’t have stopped him? Just warned him?”
“My orders were to give Jackson the poison and instruct him on how to use it,” Alice replied. “So, no, I wouldn’t have stopped him because I couldn’t.”
Selene clenched her jaw.
“He was supposed to use a small amount, only enough to give a mild reaction. But Holden gave him separate orders. He told him to use way more than was necessary, knowing how it would interact with the wolfsbane in your system.”
“So, it’s all just Holden’s fault, right?” Selene growled. “You just handed Jackson the murder weapon… but it’s not your fault.”
“I gave Jackson the antidote for you,” Alice said. “I didn’t know about your friend until I was already back in this lab.”
Selene growled, moving closer and closer.
“Holden was the one that ordered Jackson to clean up the mess he had made.”
Selene stopped.
“Jackson killed your friend,” Alice said. “I looked at her records. Bell was on the right track. She would have been able to save her if not for Jackson pumping her heart full of adrenaline.”
Selene clenched her jaw and felt her body getting heavy.
“Does that make what you did alright?” she asked shakily. “If it wasn’t for you, none of it would have happened!”
Selene ran at Alice, closing the distance between them in seconds. She swung at the other woman, who blocked her attack. Selene tried twice more to punch Alice, but both swings were blocked.
Alice caught Selene’s arm and twisted it behind her back, locking her shoulder in place painfully.
“I told you before that I will not accept responsibility for the things I had no control over,” Alice said near Selene’s ear. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to know the truth.”
Alice let Selene go, pushing her away gently.
“If you wish to fight me because you don’t like what I have to say, at least wait until these children are safely out of this hell,” Alice said.
Selene snarled.
“How can you be so calm about it all!” she shouted. “You know the things you did, even if they weren’t your choice, you could remember them! How does that not sicken you!”
Though she stared at Alice, her mind was scattered.
She saw flashes of Renee laughing, joking, throwing pillows at Bell. Then she saw flashes of the party in Summer, of the men and women she had torn to pieces, of seeing them in Whiteridge smiling and happy.
‘You killed them all.’
‘Are you even strong enough to lead?’
‘It was your fault.’
Selene covered her ears with a snarl.
“Selene–” Alice called out with concern, but a sound from the computer drew her attention away.
Alice hurried to the computer and looked over the notifications.
As Alice worked on the computer, Selene took slow deep breaths, pushing back against her guilt and memories. Against the voices that she recognized now, were filled with hate and doubt.
“We only have twenty minutes left,” Alice said. “They will start waking up shortly before that.”
Alice turned back and walked over to Selene.
“I know you are angry, but it’s not just about what I told you,” she said. “Whatever it is, you need to find a way past it. I didn’t bring you along for the company.”
Selene took another deep breath and then stood up straight. She looked into Alice’s eyes and pushed back the last bit of doubt in her mind.
“I was wondering,” she said, her voice coming out almost as strong as she hoped it would.
“I need to stay and monitor the children. As they start waking up, I need to remove their IVs and then purge the system of all of these files,” she said. “But once I start that process, Spring will be alerted. The security here will know before that. I will lock down the higher levels so no one can come down. But I need you to open the exit.”
“You stay here with the children while you send me up to face the actual danger?” Selene asked with a scoff.
“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t aware that you knew how to create a virus to wipe out any file remotely associated with these children or me, here and on every other Spring connected network,” Alice replied with a smile and a tilt of her head.
Selene growled.
“Fine, I’ll be a happy little grunt,” she said, heading for the door.
“If I wanted a grunt, I would have grabbed any able-bodied fighter,” Alice said. “I chose you because I knew you would put the safety of those children above anything else. I chose you because, like your father and brother, you are a hero.”
Selene stopped. Feeling a wave of guilt wash over her. She looked to the floor.
“A hero doesn’t massacre innocent people,” she said quietly.
“Is that what it is?” Alice asked, “the voices you hear?”
Selene glanced back but turned away and continued toward the door.
“Selene, the wolves of Whiteridge and Shadowcrest were gone,” Alice said.
Selene stopped, her fingers resting on the door handle.
“Bitter Night is a potent and terrible drug. Those who are exposed to large quantities of it don’t survive. But worse, they spend their last days in a feral state. Their minds slowly eat away at themselves. It is a torturous and cruel death.
“Jackson spent weeks making those wolves crazy. He gave them small doses, watching as they followed his every command and enjoyed the look of horror in their eyes when they knew the things he made them do. And then, because he knew what it would do to you, he overwhelmed them with the drug that night.
“Believe me when I say what you did was a mercy for them.”
Selene felt the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
“If that’s true,” she said softly. “How are you alive? How are these children alive?”
Alice took a deep breath before answering.
“Because,” she sighed. “These children and I are different from most wolves. Our chemistry is different.”
Selene looked back over her shoulder.
“I told you that the people I wanted to save were people that many wolves would not want to be saved,” Alice continued. “I didn’t just mean because they are meant to become dolls like me.”
“What did you mean?” Selene asked, turning completely around.
“These children and I… we were all human once.”
“What?” Selene asked with shock and confusion. “Human? How is that even possible?”
“They saw what worked with me and repeated the experiment,” Alice sighed. “You saw the files. There were supposed to be twice as many in this room.”
Selene remembered seeing the children’s files and wondering what had happened to the rest.
“The conversion from human to wolf, even with the combined DNA, is still incredibly dangerous,” Alice said. “The last time I was here, I was locked in my mind. But I was awake long enough when I entered the room to recognize the conversion in process.”
Selene stared at Alice in horror.
“I saw these children shifting for the first time and many more for the last time,” Alice said with a ripple of anger below the surface of her words. “That is the memory that brought me to you to come here and save the children that remained.”
“Alice…” Selene whispered.
Selene saw how her eyes shook, her jaw clenched, and her hand curled into a tight fist. Alice was witnessing the moment in her mind. Watching as those children died needlessly.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?