Page 39 of Hybrid Heroics

Prior to this experiment, I had doubts about if I was ready to battle Alric, but now I knew I was.

While he admitted the druids’ realm was a trap, I had already wondered as much. Young, I might have been, but stupid, I was not.

The bonds between my guys and me weren’t completely closed. I could still feel what was going on with them. And yes, there had been some tension. But no, they weren’t fighting each other.

This was Alric’s way of trying to isolate me. He wanted me to believe that no matter what I did, he would have power and control over me. The thought was laughable, yet he had put his all into this stunt.

He may have cursed people in the druids’ realm; however, I knew my guys weren’t part of that group. I would have felt Alric’s presence through the one-sided bond, though he didn’t need to know that.

There were only two things I intended to show him when we met again: He wouldn’t make me feel like I couldn’t trust my mates, and no one had control over me.

Few people held power over me, but again, I trusted them. My guys. Jack and Grim. Hyde and Dolyn. So many new friends… Power and control were two very different things, though.

Jack and Hyde could wrangle me.

That wasn’t the same as controlling me.

Knowing who held that power wouldn’t grant Alric anything in the long run. If he tried to use one or more of them as leverage, he would see the worst side of me. He thought the people I cared about made me weak, but they didn’t.

They gave me something to fight for.

Because the gods fucking knew I didn’t want to save the entire supernatural race.

But I would, because the people I cared about were supernaturals. They would be affected if Alric were left alive. That wasn’t something I was willing to stand by and let happen.

So, he had to die.

It was that simple.

I would fight for them before I would fight for myself. Sometimes, I was a good person like that… But being good to them didn’t mean that I was good in general.

I wasn’t.

And I was more than okay with that.

It didn’t stop me from looking in the mirror every day and loving the person I was.

Though it had taken me a long time to get to that point, to know I didn’t deserve to have my life sacrificed for me. To know I could take the cards my parents dealt me and still come out a little richer on the other side.

Material wealth meant nothing to me.

Friends and family?

That was where my abundance of wealth came from, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Alric had me fucked up if he thought he would get anywhere by targeting them.

All I could do was smile as a new emotion bubbled up from the ground in my circus, taking the form of a new Sloane that hadn’t existed before this moment.

Pity.

I pitied him, because I had something he no longer had.

People who loved me.

Despite my flaws.

Unconditional was a big word to swallow, but I knew it was true. The people in my life loved me for me. At my best, at my worst, and every version of me in between.