Ch. 186..190: The Alpha Contract Chapter 186-190

Chapter 0186

I fucked up.

I could hear her heavy breathing coming from the otherside of the door. She was so angry with me. It might have been funny if I hadn't guessed what her thoughts meant.

I was an idiot.

I push on the door a little. It doesn't budge and from the shadow under the door, I would say she is leaning against the door to make sure I don't come in. Though I could if I wanted too. It wouldn't take much to make her body slide across the tiles. "Raven."

"I have nothing to say to you." Her answer is short and sharp. Her words laced with spite. She was so angry that there weren't even any tears.

"I..." Would she believe me if I told her the truth

Jealousy was not something I had really felt before and everytime her mind went to him, I just wanted to remind her that it was me she was mated to. That the spawn who rejected her, did just that.

It wasn't even him that I was jealous of, it was the fact she was thinking about another man, if you could even call him that.

"I'm sorry." I mutter through the door. I already knew it would take more than a couple of words to make it up to her.

She shuffles away from the door, and I watch the handle turn. She pulls it open no more than an inch. Peering through the small gap at me. "You are shit at apologies."

"I don't usually apologise."

I wanted to push the door open and pull into my arms, though the way she is blocking the door tells me she would either be thankful, or she would punch me and poke my eyes out. It was impossible to tell.

"I don't want him. You have to understand that. He is on my mind because he is fucking with my head. The blood on the windows and seeing him... He is not the man I remember which makes it even more confusing. And that definitely does not mean I want to sleep with him!"

"I know that now."

"How could you even think I would want him?" Her voice falters. "He damaged me in more ways than just my leg."

"Just come out the bathroom."

She opens the door a little further and I see that she has wrapped herself in a robe, hiding away her gorgeous body. Her arms fold up under her tits as she hugs herself. Her dark eyes meet mine.

"I am yours Damien. Not his, not anyone else's, yours forever."

I use the moment to pull her in against me. She doesn't pull away. Resting her cheek against my chest as our heartbeats slowly fall in sync.

"What didn't you want to tell Neah?" she asks quietly once her anger fades.

"Maybe it's best if you sit down."

"Why?" She leans back in my arms, her brow wrinkling into a frown. "I've seen some pretty bad stuff."

"It was a box of dismembered body parts."

She screws her face up. "Someone from the pack?"

"That's just it, it was human and I'm guessing, what was thrown at your window was also a part of that same body."

She pulls back from me and hobbles to the bed, slowly sinking herself down into the mattress. I watch her try to compose herself. "Uh, he would have had to leave the grounds to find a human." "Unless they wandered into the forest."

"No, that doesn't happen. We are too far......" she trails off, looking at my face. "I have lived here all my life and humans don't just wander in. Has Dane told you that has happened?" I nod.

"Did he kill them?"

"No, at least I don't think so. He said he tells them that it is private property and they will be sued for trespassing if they don't leave."

Chapter 0187

She sticks her tongue out to the corner of her lips, deep in thought. I was just grateful she wasn't mad at me anymore.

"Do you have any idea why he is doing this?"

"At this point, I think tormenting everyone is his game. He told Mallory he wanted to bring death and a load of other crap. But the one thing I know about him is that he likes to play games. This has to be a game."

"Could he be working with someone else?"

"The other Rogues are dead."

"Dane has enemies left and right. And now the contracts are well and truly completed with other packs, what's to say there isn't someone else helping him."

"Rogues are not pack creatures. They wouldn't even work together to take down a kill."

She puffs out her cheeks, "It must be hard for you. Living here, in a pack."

"Actually, no." I sink onto the bed next to her. "I spent years working alone, being a hitman for people to hire. Being a Rogue was freeing, but I felt like I was missing something. Then I found Mallory, she helped to free me from that life. But being welcomed into this pack and finding you, it was like coming home."

She smiles at me and opens her mouth to talk but we are interrupted with Mallory opening the door.

She is half hidden by the door frame and is visibly shaking. It wasn't like her at all. She was pretty much unafraid of anything

She holds her shaking hands up, blood dripping from each of them. "I....I'm....I'm sorry."

"Mallory?"

"I....I went down." She turns slowly, looking back down the hallway from the direction she came. "I was...I was too late."

She steps in the room. I see her top isn't just coloured red, instead blood is dripping from it. "I tried," she whispers.

"Who Mallory, who is dead?"

"The office." She mutters, completely lost in shock.

"Noooo.. No. No. No, please tell me it's not." Raven mutters

"Who is in....." Eric's boys had been put in the office.

I charge out the room, smacking my hand on Dane's door as I run by, racing down the stairs to the office, I see Eric on his knees, frozen like a statue with his boys in his arms. Blood coated almost everything, including the curtains blowing in the breeze

Dane practically crashes into the back of me.

"Eric?" Dane mutters quietly, his eyes roam the room. He moves around me and crouches next to his Beta. "Eric, we will make him pay for this."

I move over and close the window, finding the tip of a finger. He had been in human form and the boys had probably gone to let him in, thinking he was in danger.

I look back at the boys in Eric's arms, both of them had all ten fingers which meant the one left behind had belonged to Salem.

The boys weren't even old enough to have their Wolves, they had been defenceless. They never stood a chance.

Raven, Mallory and Neah appear. The three of them turn their faces away from the scene.

I walk to Raven and kiss her forehead. "Stay here with Mallory and the others."

"Where are you going? You can't leave, we don't know where he is."

"I'm going to fucking find him and kill him."

"He's dangerous."

"I'm worse."

Every inch of me regrets not killing him that day. Just causing enough damage to bring him to the dungeon was my mistake. I won't be making that mistake again. Even if it takes days, weeks or months. I won't stop until he is dead.

Chapter 0188

Two weeks he had been gone and it was absolute torture. He wasn't dead, I knew that. If he were, I would have felt it and Salem would likely have returned.

It must mean he is chasing Salem. He had to be. There had been no sign of Salem here, though most nights, me and Mallory bunked together, just in case. Eric was a mess and rightly so. Klaus had sort of stepped into his role, helping my brother in any way he could while Eric spent his days at his parents house, grieving.

And thankfully without Salem's presence, Neah was calm.... to an extent. She cried the other day because she cracked an egg. An egg she wanted to crack so she could cook it. I had to leave the kitchen before I burst into laughter. Damien could shoot me if I was that bad when I eventually got to carry his pups. One day! I sigh.

"Please come back to me."

'He will.' Midnight mutters. 'He has too.'

I drop my empty cereal bowl into the sink and lean forward, looking at the Wolves carrying on like nothing had happened.

Less than two days of no problems and Dane had them back to duty, it didn't sit right with me. One, we didn't know for sure where Salem was. And two, there were alot of people grieving over Eric's boys but Dane insisted normality would help. What part of kids being killed was normal?

I had tried to argue with him. Asked him if we should expect him back to duty if something happened to his twins. He hadn't answered, but I could see the fury in his eyes.

'He's just trying to keep the pack occupied.'

"I know." I mutter back to Midnight. "I know. It doesn't mean it has to sit right with me."

I touch the mark on my neck, Damien hadn't even linked me or anything. Not a single whisper of his voice. Maybe he thought it was best this way. To keep me in the dark until there was something to tell me. Maybe I would be a distraction.

"He will be okay." Mallory interrupts my thoughts as she bursts into the kitchen. She had told me the same thing, multiple times a day for the last two weeks. It didn't make it any easier to hear.

"How can you be sure?"

"It's Damien." She gives me a tight lipped smile, almost turning her lips the same white as the scar just above her lip. Even she was starting to question it. "He survives everything." Surviving wasn't the only issue.

I turn as she starts pouring herself some cereal. She had practically made herself at home now. I didn't mind. It was nice to have another female in the house. I was so used to being outnumbered by the men.

She shovels it in like she is never going to eat cereal again. "Sorry," she splutters, spraying pieces of half chewed frosties across the table. "Dane wants me in training today."

"Seriously?" She had asked, but he had always said no. What has changed about today?

Her head bobs up and down as she shovels in another spoon "With Damien chasing Salem, Dane wants me to help guard Neah."

I had to hide my surprise. He had made it quite clear Neah was to be with him. "How does Neah feel about that?" She had accepted Mallory's help, but she still barely tolerated her.

She shrugs her shoulders at me. "Probably hates it."

"I could join ....." I watch as her eyes drift down to my bad leg before I even finish my sentence. I had stopped using crutches but I was still hobbling everywhere as I couldn't straighten my leg properly without intense pain licking up my bones.

Whereas Salem, somehow walked with half his thigh missing. He ran too. That day I had seen him, he disappeared into the trees at breakneck speed. Like the injury was non-existent, but I had seen it myself. Maybe pain was nothing to him. Maybe that's why he gets a kick out of playing with his food, listening to the screams, because he found their pain hilarious.

Mallory washes up her bowl super fast and hurries out the door without even a goodbye.

'We could go hang out with Neah.' Midnight suggests

As much as I loved Neah, I would rather not right now.

Instead I found Klaus sitting in the freshly decorated office. It had to be done after the blood bath that took place.

Chapter 0189

Klaus has his head buried in books. He smiles at me as I plonk myself on the chair. His long dark hair falling around his face. He is quick to tuck it back, letting his deep green eyes catch mine, "You okay?"

"Frustrated." I mutter

"We both know if there was something wrong with Damien, you would have felt it."

"It's not that."

He tilts his head and smirks at me. "Really?"

"I just have a bad feeling."

"About what?"

"That's the problem. I don't really know."

"You are in a mood, but you don't know why?"

"Exactly." I let myself slope against the backrest. "Did you know Dane has asked Mallory to join in the training today?"

Klaus bobs his head at me. "It was actually my idea."

""Yours?" I splutter in surprise

"Look, she is in the house the entire time and as much as Neah has accepted her help with her other problem, she feels caged in by Mallory. Dane wants Neah to have a break and this is the best way." "So you are sending her to training and have told her it's so she can protect Neah."

"We never told her that." He scowls at me. "Maybe she just got the wrong idea of what's being asked of her." He pauses. "Maybe she made a mistake. Maybe she misunderstood."

He was probably right, though it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. Mallory had spent most nights telling me how she was grateful that Neah was finally talking to her. Maybe she had just misheard. "You miss him?"

"Of course I do." I mutter, surprised by his comment

"I'm not talking about Damien."

No one had spoken to me about Jenson. If I mentioned him in front of Dane, he would either roll his crimson eyes, or leave the room. As far as he was concerned, our brother was dead. But it never stopped me wondering. He is still my brother. "He made his choice." I sigh. I didn't want him to think anything else.

He rocks in the chair as he studies me

"Do you know something? Has he been in touch? Does he regret rejecting the pack?" The questions topple from my mouth without another thought.

He shakes his head and I feel my stomach drop. For a fleeting moment, I had something to look forward to instead of being trapped, waiting.

I'm not sure what I was even hoping for. Jenson had made it very clear that he blames Dane for Jess's death and that wasn't going to change.

Klaus returns to reading his books, unphased that I was still sitting here, watching him. He was like that. Company or no company, he was content. I didn't know how he did it.

"Do you think you will ever find your mate?" I prod, trying to start a conversation with him

"Huh?" He doesn't even register what I say. I repeat my question and he shrugs his shoulders. "Who knows?"

"Do you not wonder, if they are out there, wondering where you are?"

'He won't tell us.' Midnight muses, already predicting the outcome of this conversation.

"No." He slowly closes the book and looks up at me. "Not all of us view life in the same way, Raven."

And that was the end of that conversation. I had tried so many times to get information over the years, but it was always the same answer. I didn't even know if he was into men, women or maybe even both. He kept all that close to his chest. I didn't even know if there was anyone in the pack that he liked.

I twiddle my thumbs, and eventually push myself up to leave. As I get to the door, Klaus tells me that he is sure Damien will be back soon. As though he knew why I was really asking questions. A distraction from my own mind.

But what if something bad has happened? What if that control he has, stopping him from turning back to a Rogue, breaks? What if he is so angry with Salem that I lose him for good?

I limp to the bottom of the stairs, but instead of climbing it. I sit there, willing and hoping that he walks right back through the front door.

Chapter 0190

Neah

"Stop it!" I snap, staring at my belly. The twins were growing fast and had also taken to kicking each other or my bladder and it was driving me nuts.

Dane raises an eyebrow at me with a small smile as Mallory comes running towards us. I sigh, I had forgotten she was taking part in training.

She comes to a stop in front of us. Her eyes narrowed at my belly. "Is it wise for you to be training?"

"I'm not. This is the only way I can get out of the house!" I snap at her and she lowers her gaze.

Years I had spent trapped inside a house because of Cassandra and Trey. Going no further than the back garden to having almost complete freedom. And now, now I would do anything to feel the grass on my bare feet, to lie in the sun without being monitored every second of the day. But until Damien sends news, I wasn't allowed out of Dane's sight. The fake grass of the training ground will have to do.

I knew it was to protect me and the twins. I knew he was doing it to keep us safe, but all I wanted to do was break away, to not feel so.... trapped.

Dane knew, and he would talk to me in a reassuring tone, reminding me it was only temporary and for the best. Promising me that I could still do most things, as long as he could see me. But to me, doing the best thing meant losing a part of my sanity. If I even had any at this point.

But it wasn't just about keeping me safe. It was to keep an eye on me, to make sure I don't become the monster I feared.

"Where do you want me?" Mallory beams at Dane. I really wanted to wipe that smile off of her face. It felt fake and forced. And I bet behind closed doors she has an excellent resting bitch face. Though I was yet to see it, deep down, I could feel it was there.

Dane sends her over to a group of well trained guards. He had already told me he wanted to test her abilities. I questioned why, because I was living proof of her abilities. I had felt what she could do if she put her mind to it. And that was just after she had been turned. What was she like with years of training under her belt?

"It's better to know what everyone is capable of. There may be a time when we need to use it or prepare for it." Dane winks at me

I look up at him, but he keeps his crimson eyes focussed on the groups as they start to spar. Did he secretly not trust Mallory either?

Nyx mumbles and starts to talk. I tell her to shut up. It was easier not to have her weighing in with her own opinion and this way, I could focus on keeping the monster at bay.

I lower myself onto the grass, watching everyone fight. Training had been a no go for me since finding out I was pregnant. Though training had never been a concern when I was face to face with someone and fighting for my life. I had just shifted and destroyed them in seconds. Taking their heart, just like Salem did to Jess.

Was that a Rogue thing? Going for the heart? Surely that was just the obvious choice? But then again they play with their food. The heart wouldn't be the first thing they went for.

It was just me in the moment. I never thought about my aim. My hand or rather my claws just went straight for it. Except for Roan, I tortured him.

I feel a smile creeping up my face and have to force it away when Dane clears his throat. He is staring at me with his crimson eyes. "You've been listening?" I whisper

"It's pretty hard not too." His tone is low and he squats down in front of me. "Mallory told you that you have to stop the dark thoughts seeping in."