Ch. 196..200: The Alpha Contract Chapter 196-200

Chapter 0196

A new scent hits my nose before I even open my eyes. Another Wolf that I didn't recognise. I don't know why, but I keep my eyes closed. Dane must be nearby, he wasn't ready to leave me alone yet. This Wolf couldn't be dangerous. "Let her sleep, Dorothy." Who the fuck was Dorothy? "She has babies in her tummy." Raven tells this Dorothy person. "It makes her tired."

"She's very pretty." A small voice mutters back. I open my eyes to find a young girl inches from my own face. Wide bright green eyes stare back at me. As she smiles, dimples appear on each cheek. "Hi."

"Hi." I mutter, confused. Where had she come from?

She hurries back to the desk and plonks herself in Danes chair, doodling on a piece of paper as she clutches a small teddy bear to her chest.

Raven smiles at me as I swing my legs around and rub my eyes. "Damien is back and he brought us a friend. This is Dorothy."

Dorothy is oblivious to us, continuing to doodle with her tongue stuck in one corner of her mouth as she concentrates. "Does that mean....?"

"No." She cuts me off before I have a chance to finish my sentence.

"He is out there," she points to the door, "with Dane, discussing it." A shiver goes down her spine and she visibly shakes it off.

"What are you not telling me?"

She glances at Dorothy, choosing her words carefully. "The boys weren't Eric's. We think they are....were Jenson's. Remember it all came out about him and Kelsie. It seems that it was going on a lot longer than what he had us believe." "Are you serious?"

"Are they dead?" Dorothy asks without looking up. Neither of us thought she was paying attention to our conversation.

"You don't need to worry about that." Raven mutters

"Was it the monster? The monster killed lots of people." She doesn't even look up as she speaks. "Then my new Daddy found me."

I watch the colour drain from Raven's face until she is whiter than the piece of paper Dorothy is drawing on.

"Your new Daddy?" I ask because I still didn't understand why he had brought her here. I had only been asleep for a few hours and yet, somehow, I had missed so much.

"He broke my bracelet and carried me to a car. And he got me the best food and he told me who you all are." Her bright green eyes catch mine as she looks up. "Al...pha Neah." She puts her pen down and holds up a piece of paper covered in squiggles. "Do you like my picture?"

She had drawn like a two year old. Like me when I couldn't hold a pen properly or control it.

The door swings open. Dane. Damien and Eric stroll in and I watch Damien go straight to Dorothy. "What are you drawing, Dottie?"

"The monster, Daddy"

"Dottie, we have talked about this. I'm not your Daddy, you can call me uncle Damien."

Her face scrunches up as she thinks about it and I see the relief on Raven's face. Being a mother was not something she was ready for just yet and especially not to someone who wasn't her kid. I'm still not even sure if I'm ready, the only difference is, I was already a mother and my boys would be here soon.

"Everyone needs a Daddy." Dorothy grins

My eyes flicker around the room. Only Eric and my sons had a father.

"Please?" I see tears building in her bright green eyes

I watch Damien squat down next to the chair and before he has a chance to speak, she throws her arms around his neck, sobbing into him.

Looking over to Raven, she just seems so stunned by the whole situation.

Damien lifts Dorothy from the chair, holding him against her as she continues to cry. His dark eyes look pained and I wondered how often he had helped other little kids. His past as a human slowly creeping up on him with one little Wolf girl. Dorothy's sobbing stops and an arm falls from Damien's neck. She had cried herself to sleep.

"Do you want to set her up in the room next to Raven's?" Dane offers. "I assume you will be sleeping there tonight and will want her close by."

Damien shakes his head. "Holding her is the only way to stop the nightmares." He sways back and forth with her against his chest.

Nightmares. I had lived with them for years. Fought against them every night. Eventually, my mind had become so used to them, it became a comfort. They stopped a few years before Dane came into my life, minus the odd few. "Where did you find her?" I ask when I hear the subtle snores that confirmed she was actually asleep.

Damien tells us everything. The bracelet that Dorothy had referred to was a chain, keeping her locked up as a pet.

Chapter 0197

"Did they...." The thought sickened me, "Did they touch her?"

"I don't think so, not in that way at least." Damien tells me. "I have asked as gently as I can in several ways. The most I think they did was watch her crawl around like a dog, lapping water from a bowl. Throwing food at her. Made her sleep in the cold. Though she did have a few bruises."

"Her parents?"

"There were no other Wolves there. Everyone Salem killed was human." He sighs, "She was likely there for years. She's six and she has spent most of her life chained up. Honestly, I'm surprised she isn't more feral."

I was six when all my problems started. Imagine being younger and not even understanding what is happening to you.

"You brought her here because of me." I mutter, looking at the sleeping pup in his arms

"Yes." He doesn't even hesitate with his answer

"What about Salem? He will come right back here." Raven mutters

"I figured she would be safer surrounded by Wolves and Lycans than humans. At least this way, she has a chance of learning who she is. Can you imagine her being with humans and then suddenly unable to control her shift." His response takes me right back to Devon. I shake the thought away because who knows how much of what he told me was actually true..

"Okay." I mutter.

"Thank you, Neah, you won't regret it."

Damiens eyes drift to Raven. She hadn't said a lot. "Dane, do you mind holding Dottie so I can spend some time with my mate. We have things to discuss."

"She's your responsibility Damien." Dane warns him

"He will." I interrupt.

Dane glances at me and rolls his crimson eyes as he holds his arms out to Damien. Dorothy snuggles into Dane and something about him holding her makes my heart explode.

He looks alarmed as he stares at me. "Are you okay?"

I smile at him and nod. Maybe everything will be alright.

****

Dane sets Dorothy up on a small fold out bed in our bedroom. Damien and Raven are still busy and it is getting late.

He had missed another pack run, deciding not to go after tonights antics.

Dorothy is still asleep when he lowered her onto the bed. He tucks the blanket up around her and makes sure the little teddy bear is with her too.

I don't know how long I had been asleep before the whimpering started. I sit up, flicking on the bedside light. Dane is already getting out of bed to check on Dorothy. He wasn't particularly happy as he had to wear shorts to bed. She lashes out as he tries to reassure her, her fingers catching his face. Small scratches disappear from his cheek as quickly as they appeared.

Making my way over, Dane tells me to stand back.

"She's not aware it's you." I mutter, seeing how tightly her eyes are closed. Beads of sweat hover along her hair line. She starts to cry, repeatedly calling out for 'Daddy'.

"Dorothy," I speak softly. "Dorothy, it's Neah, you are safe."

"Daddy!" She screams at the top of her lungs and our bedroom door is nearly knocked down by Damien.

Her cries settle into quiet sobs as he pulls her into his arms, muttering softly to her.

"Say what you want, Damien, but you've just become a Dad." Dane smirks at him.

****

Raven paces my room, she was starting to move a little better and the limp wasn't so obvious. "What am I supposed to do Neah? He was gone for a month and he brought another woman back with him." "A kid." I mutter. It was far too early for me to be dealing with this.

"I'm not ready to be a mother. I thought he would come back and we would have the best sex session to date but no, he brings someone else back."

"Again, it's a six year old."

"I can't compete with that."

"I don't think he is expecting you to compete. You are his mate."

"She calls him Daddy."

"I am aware."

"It's fucking insane."

"It's not. Not really. He saved her from a terrifying scenario. One that could probably get ten times worse as she got older. He protected her, like a father should." Not like my father.

"I'm jealous of a six year old!" She groans, settling on the big chair by the window.

"Pretty much. At the end of the day, she is more like you than Damien. She will need help guiding her and understanding that she is a Wolf. Damien won't be able to do all of that. Just let her settle in. Give her time." She nods her head, "Look at you being all understanding."

"I know what it's like to fear each day."

Chapter 0198

Unknown POV

"Yes?" I mutter, swirling the wine in my glass before taking a large mouthful. It had been a long day and I didn't need another idiot in my life.

He saunters up to me like a lost sheep. His dark hair is a mess and he looked and smelled as though he hadn't seen a shower for weeks.

"You better start talking if you are going to invade my space with that stench."

"I'm looking for a favour." He asks quietly

"I don't do favours." I sneer, setting my empty glass down on the circular table.

He slides into my booth anyway. "You are the Lone Wolf, right?"

I smirk. I hadn't heard that term in a long time. "Oh honey, I'm the furthest thing from a Lone Wolf."

"Right. Because you are not a Wolf are you."

The balls on this guy. "You think you know everything." I wave to the bartender who brings me over a fresh drink. His eyes shifted to the trash sitting opposite me and he quickly looks away.

It was a rule in here that I am not to be disturbed. Especially not when I still had blood on my fingers.

"I know enough. One of your kind killed my mate." He seethes. I couldn't hold back the laugh. "And I want revenge."

"Did you piss it off?"

He scowls at me. If he didn't look so filthy, he could probably be quite handsome. Maybe then i wouldn't have minded the interruption.

"No, my brother brought their kind into our pack. A Rogue followed. The Rogue was the one who murdered her."

"So let me guess, you blame big brother and now you want revenge." I let the merlot hit the back of my throat. I preferred something much fuller bodied, but this was the best the bar offered.

"I didn't say big brother."

"You didn't need to. If your brother brought them into the pack. My guess is he is the Alpha, which makes you, poor little brother."

I hit a soft spot. I could see it in his dark eyes

"Oh, was the dream to be an Alpha?"

Fucking alpha's and their need for control.

"And now what? You want to claim it back. I can't help you." Nor did I want to help. He was focussing on the wrong person for a start.

"Our pack was fine until they arrived. And it all started with one." He screws up his hand and slams it into the table, almost knocking my wine glass over. If that had gone all over me, I might have just stabbed him in the neck with the glass. "That's not my problem."

"Rumour has it that you will accept jobs for a decent amount of cash."

"And that's what you have is it? Look at the state of you, you might as well have slept in a hole in the ground."

"I've been a little busy."

"Mourning your dead mate."

He nods, lowering his head as he rolls his neck.

"Right." I get to my feet. "I can't give you the help you are looking for. Correct that, I won't."

"I think you will change your mind." He calls out after me as I strut away.

He catches up to me, standing far too close for my liking. His breath, the only clean thing about him, fanning across my skin. "You are a Kitson, right."

I spin around to glare at him, my hand locking against his throat while pressing my stiletto heel into the toe of his boots. "Where the fuck did you hear that name?" "My brother's mate is a Lycan."

"Impossible. Wolves are not mated to Lycans."

"That's just it, all three of us were. And my brother is mated to the most powerful one. The female Alpha."

My hand moves from his throat to his grubby jacket as I drag him to the ladies room.

He laughs as I slam the door shut and push him back against the pink tiles.

"You better start talking. Because I am seconds a way from ripping your throat out."

Chapter 0199

"Or what?" He chuckles

"You wouldn't be the first kill tonight. Your name?"

"Jenson" He doesn't hesitate, clearly a real name.

"Your brother's pack name?"

"Black Shadow."

A cackle escapes my throat. "So Dane is your brother."

There's disappointment etched on his grimy face. "You know him?"

"I know of him. Anyone would be stupid to not know what he is capable of." And I had kept myself out of ever being involved with him. Besides, it wasn't like I went around broadcasting that I was a Lycan "You're telling me that he is mated to the last female Lycan Alpha." He nods. He had just made my fucking day. Maybe even my year.

"What are you to her?" He asks quietly

"Why the fuck does that matter?" I watched him for a little longer. "Are you prepared to do everything I ask?"

He nods.

"It will tear the pack apart."

His mouth opens and closes like a fish. As it dawns on him what I am asking.

""What is it?"

"My twin, I don't want to hurt her, but she is mated to a Lycan too. The fucker that killed my mate also hurt her."

I lean back against the ugly pink tile. "Then you have a decision to make. But either way, you have given me the information I need."

"This was wrong. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't have said anything." He goes to walk past me. I lift my leg, pressing my foot against the door. His eyes linger on it longer than it should.

"You should have thought about that. You clearly know my reputation."

"It wasn't easy to find someone like you. I always believed there weren't any more of your kind. Just Neah and the couple that were bitten."

Her name sends a familiar feeling through me. Did she even know of my existence? Either way, I didn't care. I am going to take what's mine.

"Oh honey, there are thousands of us. You just need to know where to look."

"Thousands?" His dark eyes are wide

""Thousands."

He looked as though he had just face planted in a pile of dog shit

"Packs?"

"No, what would be the fun in that?" I look him up and down. "Come with me, we have much to discuss."

I lead him to my Porsche, eyeing him up before letting him sit on my clean leather seats.

"How long have you known Neah?" I was curious, how long had she been living happily with her mate?

"A little under a year. I don't want her to suffer." He mutters. "She's been through enough and she's pregnant."

This is gold.

"Jenson, you came to the wrong person if you just want to scare them a little. I'm an all in kind of girl and now, you have just given me news of my target. Besides, if I hurt Dane, she will get hurt in the process." I reach over and grab his thigh, maybe I could reward him for the information.

"Did you know Trey?" He asks just as I pull into my driveway.

"Name doesn't ring a bell. Is he another problem?"

"No, Neah dealt with that." I knew what he was doing, he was trying to work out my connection.

I send him to the shower so his stench didn't settle into the fabrics of my home. When he reappears, the smallest towel is covering his cock. He looked so much better now he had cleaned up.

"Do you have anything bigger?" He asks as the water drips off of him onto the carpet. I watch one particular bead make its way down over his chest and abs, disappearing into the small towel.

"Not right now. It will have to do." It had been too long since someone had given me a good seeing too and though it wasn't my plan. I couldn't help but think of him pressed up against me. He smirks at me, turning around and showing me that firm ass as he walks away

Chapter 0200

Taking a seat in the large chair, I take in the shadows of the grounds. It had been a week since Damien had returned and still, there was no sign of Salem. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe he realised that he couldn't get what he wanted from us. but until I knew more,

the grounds would be guarded.

Turning my head back over my shoulder, I see that Neah is still fast asleep, huddled up into a ball with her hands cupping her bump. Unbothered about me not lying next to her.

'She looks so peaceful.' Aero mutters

'She's beautiful.' I whisper back to my Wolf.

With no sign of Salem, she had been so much calmer. Raven insisted that she was at the stage in her pregnancy where she had more clarity. Even if it was temporary.

And I was more than happy, there was a moment where I thought I would lose her to the darkness.

The very darkness that I enjoyed seeing in her.

Her heart rate changes and she stretches out. "You're watching me again." She mutters sleepily yet keeps her eyes closed.

"I will never stop watching you."

She doesn't answer and the beat of her heart slows telling me that she had fallen back into a slumber.

My eyes move up to the clock, it was coming up to four in the morning and the Wolves on guard would be swapping over soon.

There's movement over the far side of the grounds and as he steps out of the shadows, I see Klaus heading this way, books under his arms as he quickened his pace.

Groaning, I push myself up and move to the bed, kissing Neah on the cheek. She doesn't wake, but a small smile spreads across her face. A kiss was all she would let me have at the moment, insisting that being pregnant made sex uncomfortable. When the twins are here, I will remind her of everything she has been missing out on.

Slipping out the door and down the stairs, I find Klaus with his hand ready to knock on my office door.

"Klaus it is four in the morning."

"I'm sorry, Dane, but this couldn't wait." He is practically grinning from ear to ear.

I gesture for him to enter the office and he quickly drops the books on my desk. "You know how it was really hard for me to find information on Neah and other Lycans. That the only information was from a long time ago and only snippets of literature."

"I remember Klaus." I yawn

"Remember what Jess said, about the humans having stories."

"Get to the point." I snap, exhausted.

"I've been going to the library and book stores in the city and in some of the nearby towns. If the books are even remotely factual, I believe there are more Lycans out there."

"What are you talking about?"

He opens up one of the books. "This one." He seemed really pumped about finding this information. "It talks about how Lycans showed themselves to humans around five centuries ago. That there was a war between them. A lot of both sides lost lives but ultimately, the humans won."

"Okay."

"There is no mention of Lycans being wiped out, Dane. Just that they won. Don't you see, Dane, they survived."

"We can't say that. Not when I have never come across any." I had made deals with a lot of packs and none of them had anything hidden so deeply like Moonshine had.

He shakes his head, opening up the other book. "This one talks about the war too, but this one says the Lycans won the war."

"If Lycans won the war, there likely wouldn't be any humans."

"That's what I thought but there's more. This one says the Lycans won the war, but they knew they didn't have the numbers to take on the world after losing so many in the war." He smiles and then frowns.

"They wanted time to repopulate and they couldn't do that with humans knowing about them. They went into hiding. Leaving the humans to believe that they won."

'Hiding? Where?' Aero mutters and I repeat the question to Klaus

"It's not specific. I've searched the book and there is no mention of it. Just that it was important to keep the knowledge of Lycans quiet."

"Why were we not taught anything about this war in school?"

"Think about it. If they wanted to go into hiding, the last thing they needed was humans or Wolves discovering information years down the line." His deep green eyes flicker up to mine. "We were told about a war, Dane if you remember your history." "The Great Wolf War."

He nods his head. "It was known as that, but what if that was just a cover up. I feel like such a fucking idiot. Of course the Lycans worked to wipe out all information. But then why would someone write a book?"

I cock an eyebrow. "It probably wasn't supposed to end up there. It was likely supposed to stay with the Lycans"

"You are probably right." He taps the book, more excited than ever. "The guy who wrote this book was a leader in the war. He kept talking about the importance of a blood line. His blood line to be precise." He closes the very old book and hands it to me 'The War.' By Aldous Kitson.