Alpha alec's redemption (Sadie) novel Chapter 318

Alec.

I freeze.

For a moment, it’s like the world forgets how to move. The only thing I can hear is my own heartbeat. Loud, heavy, and uneven, pounding against my ribs like it’s trying to escape.

Lola.

She stands there, looking perfectly fine. Her dark hair falls the same way it used to, and her eyes glint with the same wild fire I once thought was magic. But it’s not the same. It can’t be the same.

It’s been three years. Three fucking years.

My throat feels tight. The air in my lungs turns to stone. I had searched for her, begged, hunted, lost sleep, and lost myself until I finally gave up. Until I told myself she was gone. That I needed to move on. That she wasn’t coming back.

I remember the heartbreak I felt when she rejected me. The pain that almost crushed me when I realized she wasn’t ever coming back. That she must have gone to great lengths to make sure I didn’t ever find her.

And now she’s standing here like she just walked out of a dream…. Or a nightmare.

“Lola…” The word comes out rough, surprised.

Her face lights up. “Alec!”

Before I can say another word, she’s running toward me. The movement jolts me back to reality, but my body still doesn’t react fast enough. She throws her arms around my neck, pressing herself against me like no time has passed.

“I missed you,” she breathes, voice trembling against my skin. “I missed you so much.”

My arms stay frozen at my sides. I don’t hug her back. I can’t. My mind is a blur—shock, confusion, fragments of memories I thought I buried. Her laughter. Her rejection. The day she walked away and never looked back.

The scent of her floods me, sharp and familiar, and it makes my stomach twist.

I finally move, hands gripping her shoulders as I pull her back enough to look at her.

“What the hell is going on?” My voice is harsher than I intend, but I don’t care. “Where have you been? And why are you back?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, eyes wide and wet. “I didn’t mean to disappear like that.”

I expect more, but nothing. She doesn’t say anything else.

“You didn’t mean to?” I echo, disbelief scraping my throat raw. “Do you have any idea what I went through looking for you? What you...”

I cut myself off, stopping myself from continuing as I remember she wasn’t even my real mate. She was never what my pack needed.

Looking back, my need to search and find her was because I believed she was the cure my pack needed. I thought we needed to survive and I was going to do everything to make sure we did, even if it included scouring the whole damn world.

Too bad I wasted my time and energy on someone who deceived me.

Her lip trembles, but then she smiles, a soft, practiced smile that used to undo me once. “You still care,” she says quietly.

That sentence knocks the air right out of me. Because the truth is, I did care. Once. But the man who cared for her is long gone.

“I cared,” I correct, voice cold. “Past tense.”

Her smile falters for a second, but before I can step back, she closes the distance between us again. Her hands slide up my chest, fingertips pressing against my jaw.

“Lola…” I growl the warning.

But she doesn’t listen.

Her lips crash against mine before I can react.

“Fuck.” I start pacing, my pulse hammering in my ears. I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s thinking right now. After everything… after I spent weeks trying to show her that I want her, and now this?

I drag my hands over my face, inhaling sharply, forcing myself to focus. This isn’t the time to fall apart.

Lola takes a hesitant step toward me. “Alec, please, I didn’t mean—”

“Stop talking.” The words are ice. My voice, my expression… everything about me hardens. “You don’t get to show up out of nowhere, kiss me, and expect me to pretend like you didn’t disappear for three years.”

Tears well in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I ignore that.

“Don’t even get me started on the fact that you fucking lied to me…”

The silence that follows is suffocating. Every breath feels like glass in my lungs.

When I finally speak again, my voice drops low, dangerous. “Whatever the hell brought you back, you’re going to explain it. But not tonight.” I take a step back; muscles tense with barely contained rage. “Right now, I have to find my mate.”

The word mate makes her flinch. And maybe that’s the only small satisfaction I’ll get out of this mess.

I turn away, the smell of her perfume still clinging to my clothes like a stain. My wolf, Knox, stirs restlessly inside me, a deep growl rumbling in my chest.

We need to find her, he snarls. Now.

“I know,” I whisper back, jaw tightening.

Because no matter how much chaos Lola’s return brings, none of it matters more than Sadie.

And this time, I’m not losing her. Not for anyone.