On The Border - Marry Him or Die

11

Alex’s POV

Night has befallen as I paced back and forth in my room.

Nothing significant happened after we took care of the injured and transferred the dead to the hospital morgue.

The town was in complete lockdown with my men patrolling through the town. Preventing anyone from walking the streets or allowing the Walkers; the ones who miraculously survived being shot or killed, from initiating another confrontation.

We were in a temporary sort of truce. Not that the other clan had much of a choice as we crippled most of their men.

My blood was boiling as the moment that worthless piece of s**t Simon tried to shoot me in the back, kept repeating in my head.

I cursed myself a thousand times for not ending his wretched life on the spot.

He should be dead for attempting to kill me so cowardly like that, but the only thing that was on my mind at that instance was to save my brother, I couldn’t think clearly.

My mom was able to stitch and patch up his wound easily with no problems. She kept his right arm in a sling to prevent unnecessary movements that could rip out his stitches.

I checked on him a few times and found my sister staying with him as he was resting in his bed the remainder of the day.

Keeping the town in complete lockdown and not allowing anyone from entering or leaving the town, prevented news about this scandal to reach the local news of Alaska, thank god.

But I was certain the battle was heard through many nearby towns; including Alcan, where Mel was staying in her father’s house.

I had to physically restrain myself from calling her. She wanted space and I was willing to give it to her as long as it means that she was coming back to me eventually.

It still didn’t lessen the sting of her refusal and hesitation to stand by me during my hardest days. What stung more, was that despite knowing that there was a brutal fight taking place here, she didn’t bother to check if I made it out alive or not.

I let out a heavy sigh for the hundredth time.

We can’t afford to go into another fight like this, for so many reasons.

Peaceful compromise was the only way out of this.

I was willing to accept and negotiate peace now that Patrick was dead, but the other side was a complete chaos.

Jack Walker had little control over his clan, he clearly wasn’t fit to lead like his brother was. His little brat of a son had no sense of leadership whatsoever, and his lack of concern for his own people’s lives and disregard of any human decency was apparent.

My thoughts get interrupted by the ringing of my cell phone.

I went over to the bed where I tossed it a while ago, and looked at the caller’s name.

Finally!

It was Melanie at last.

“Hello” I answered tightly.

“Hey, are you ok?” she asked in concern.

I didn’t know what to say to her. I didn’t know whether to show her how mad I am at her and scorn her for not picking up the phone earlier to check on me, or for not sticking by my side from the start, or for blaming me for being forced to fight with the clan that defended my father’s killer.

In short, I was disappointed in her. I never thought I’d feel this way towards her no matter what transpired between us, but I found myself unable to stop the disappointment and contempt from seeping into my voice as I answered her “Nice of you to finally call and check on me Mel. For a minute it felt like you didn’t care if I lived or died out there”

Silence stretches between us for a while before she speaks in a heart broken tone.

“Alex…I need to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly please”

“Sure” I said hesitantly.

“If I asked you to come with me, somewhere far away from here and leave this dangerous life behind you. Will you do it for me? Will you give it all up for a lifetime of happiness, love, and safety by my side?”

I didn’t like the turn this conversation was taking.

“Mel….I was honest with you about everything from the second we met. I didn’t hide anything or lie about what me and my family do for a living, and despite all that you promised to stay by my side, you said my life is your life, my town is your town. You know how much this town means to me, how much my family mean to me, I can never turn my back on them and run away from my responsibilities and duties towards them. I have so many people depending on me and I can never let them down. That’s not the way my father raised me”

“Alex listen, you have no idea how hard this is for me. I love you so much, I need you to know that. But after what happened to your father, I realized that I made a mistake. This life… your life… it’s not for me, your life can never be my life, your town can never be my town. I can’t live every second of my life scared to death that something will happen to you. That you might be taken away from me at any moment. The smuggling, the guns, the blood, the revenge, the constant non stop worry and fear… I don’t want this to become the rest of my life, or yours for that matter. But you will never let go of this, not even for me. That’s why I made my own decision”

My heart was lurching inside my chest. Is she leaving me? No, she wouldn’t do that. She loves me too much. She would never give up on us that easily, right?

“What are you saying exactly Mel?” I asked in a small voice while praying in my head. Please say you’re not leaving me, please say you’re not breaking up with me, please.

“I’m in Fairbanks airport right now with Mia. My plane for London is leaving in half an hour. I’m starting a new life there and there was this tiny small hope inside me that wished you’d leave everything behind and come after me. But unfortunately, it looks like you just made your own decision too”

I closed my eyes as they started to glisten with tears.

She was leaving me.

The pain of that realization hit me worse than a dozen gunshot wounds would.

I collapsed on the bed as my knees refused to carry me any longer.

My whole body was shutting down on me.

I said in agony “So that’s it? Things get difficult and you just pack up and go to another continent Mel? Is that how much you value the love that we have to each other? You don’t even have the guts to speak with me about this in person, you waited till you were at the airport to dump me, with a freaking phone call?”

I heard her sobbing on the other end as she said in a broken voice “I’m so sorry Alex. I thought our love for each other was stronger too, I really truly believed it was enough to face anything that stands in our way, but turns out I was wrong. Turns out, it probably wasn’t strong enough to begin with. I love you Alex, with all my heart, don’t ever doubt that about me. I love you too much, I’m leaving you, so I don’t have to watch you leave me someday instead because that would hurt me a thousand times more than it's hurting me right now. Take care of yourself”

She hung up the phone before I could say anything else.

And what else was there to even say?

She left me. My angel has left me.

I envisioned my life with her for the past four months since we met, I envisioned us together in this room, her sleeping in my arms, whispering my name and smiling wildly at me as I showered her with my love. I even envisioned our children, two boys and two girls.

But all that just evaporated into thin air.

‘Our love wasn’t strong enough’ oh my love was strong Mel, it was f*****g strong. It was you who backed off and got scared at the first sign of danger.

I kept tossing in bed for the next few hours, trying to keep myself together despite the tremendous amount of pain my heart was suffering from. It felt like it was bleeding. Her leaving me at the hardest moments of my life felt like she took a knife and literally stabbed my heart multiple times with it.

I really thought she was my soul mate.

How will I ever find it in me to love again? To trust someone else with my whole heart again, only for her to leave me too?

Never again.

This pain I’m feeling right now can never be felt again.

This heart was branded with Melanie’s name and her name only.

Even if mine wasn’t branded on hers.

I would never be able to give it to someone else again.

Knock! Knock!

“Go away!” I shouted at whoever was knocking on my door.

“Alex? Are you okay?” my mom’s voice sounded worried at the other side of the door.

Shit! I sighed in frustration for screaming at her like that.

“Come in, mom” I said more gently.

I sit up straight on my bed, as she walks inside slowly.

She takes one look at my face and instantly knows there is something wrong with me, as her face fills with worry.

She sat on the edge of the bed and faced me “What’s wrong Alex? Talk to me honey” she said softly.

The tears threatened to come out again, but I tried my best to push them down.

“Melanie left me” I answered quietly.

“Left you.. As in..” she asked hesitantly.

I lowered my head down and said rigidly “She broke up with me at the airport. She’s moving to London with her sister to start a new life. She wants nothing to do with me anymore”

She takes my head gently and brings it to her chest, hugging me and stroking my hair.

“I’m so sorry Alex. I wish you didn’t have to go through this. I wish Melanie was strong enough to handle living in this town. But you can’t blame her or hate her for it. This town is too much for some people who were born and raised outside it, they can’t all handle living in it” she said tenderly.

“But you did mom! You were an outsider too, and you’re still here. She didn’t see half the things you saw all these years, and you never left dad. Why couldn’t she be like you?” I asked in a broken voice.

“We’re not all the same Alex. We don’t all have the same strength to handle something like this. Maybe this is better for you, you never know. Maybe someone else will…”

I cut her off fiercely as I shook my head “No, there will never be someone else. She was the first and last love of my life. I can’t handle going through this pain again, I just won’t”

She continues to stroke my hair gently but doesn’t argue further with me.

After a while, I lift up my head and look at her seriously.

“You knew about my dad’s will didn’t you?“

“Yes, he told me about it a while ago”

“Why did he do this to me? When uncle Stefan is here, why did he put such a heavy burden on my shoulders mom? I feel like I’m failing him already. Look at what this town has turned into within a week of his death! It’s a disaster out there, a lot of people have died and I wasn’t able to do a damn thing to stop it, I still can’t figure out how to settle all these people down and make them agree to live peacefully together. How was he able to carry all these responsibilities on his own all these years? He made it look so easy, but turns out he was just a natural leader”

She gave me a small smile and said confidently “When I asked him about his reasons. He said there are many, but the biggest one was that you were the only perfect man for the job. He believed in your abilities Alex. And I do too. It’s all new to you right now, especially with the heated atmosphere but it’s not always going to be like this. You will figure this out, because we all have so much faith in you. You can do this, believe it with all your might, because your father did. And whatever way you decide to take to bring the peace into town, just know, we will be one hundred percent with you, all of us. No matter how unreasonable it might look to us, even if we don’t think it's the right way, don’t make that cause you to doubt yourself. Being a strong leader is about making impossible decisions that others won’t be able to make or take lightly”

She kissed me longingly on my forehead, then left me alone to ponder with my own struggles.

I put my own heartache aside for the moment and clear my mind to handle the town problem and find an end to the blood feud.

It takes me fifteen minutes to come up with a perfect solution.

It was a perfect solution for the town, but it was the most imperfect solution for me and my family.

One of my father’s very last words that he said to me before he died, jumped into my head at that moment. It felt like my father sent it to me to remind me that he was really here with me, supporting me with this decision I just made.

‘One day, this will all fall on you. You will have to make extremely tough decisions. Decisions that might put you in the middle between your responsibility to your family, your clan, your town and between our business. It even might come down to choosing between your own happiness and this town’s safety’

I look at the clock on my phone, and find it was almost ten at night.

I pull up Jack Walker’s number and hit dial right away.

I didn’t want to waste anymore time.

“Hello?” Jack’s uncertain voice tells me that he doesn’t know who’s calling.

“It’s Alex Snow” I said tightly and carried on before I could hear his response.

“Do you want this blood feud to end or do you still want to lose more of your men?”

A short silence stretches between us before he answers in a tired voice “I want it to end, but you should know that I don’t have complete control over the clan. They’re blinded with vengeance that even I can’t control them”

“I assume you’re talking about your son. Am I right?“ I said with gritted teeth, I was fighting the urge to call him something else but I resisted.

“He was really close to his uncle. My brother always treated him like the son he never had. His death made Simon lose his mind and defy even me”

I expected that response, that’s why I made a decision that will ensure everyone’s compliance to shake hands peacefully.

“Listen very carefully to me. You will take over the leadership of your clan tomorrow morning and make sure no one steps out of line or attack any Snow in this town, specifically your son. I have the perfect insurance to make them compliant to you”

“What is it?” he asked almost desperately.

“Right before your meeting with them, you will bear witness to my marriage to Jennifer Walker at the town church. She will become my wife and come home and live with me. If any one of your men tries to harm someone from my clan, let it be known that the only one who will suffer the consequences of such actions will be the daughter of their former leader that they loved so much. If they want her to remain unharmed with us, they better go back to minding their own business in town. The Walkers will no longer help us manage our smuggling business, I suppose that goes without saying of course.

We’ll meet in church at 9 a.m. Just you, me, and the girl. Don’t tell any living soul about this before it’s done, especially your son. You’ll meet with your clan at 10 and inform them of what I told you. At noon, we bury all our dead together and have a formal funeral for everyone in the town square. After that, the town goes back to the way it was before my father was killed. Do we have an agreement Jack Walker?“

He doesn’t miss a beat as he answers right away “We have an agreement Alex Snow”

“Can you get the girl to agree to this?“

“Consider her agreed”

“Great, see you tomorrow then”

I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed.

How did my life get so f****d up? In a matter of a week, I lost my father right in front of me, lost my fiancée and the true love of my life, became the leader of a clan I wasn’t ready to lead yet, forced my brother Jacob out of town, almost lost my brother Lucas for good, and now…. I’m forced to marry the daughter of my father’s murderer just to keep the peace in this town.

That girl is going to be a living nightmare to live with, I was absolutely certain of that.

I’ll have to break her into submission right away, do whatever it takes to put the fear of god in her, make her afraid to even gaze up at me, or she will end up tearing our whole family apart.

Could my life get any worse than this?

Something tells me it was only the beginning.