Ch. 226..230: The Alpha Contract Chapter 226-230

Chapter 0226

I wasn't even aware Ashburn had a problem. I had to choose my words carefully. "My brother found a way to help you?"

my orders. He didn't want to follow in Roan's footsteps and I respected that.

"Yes! And as I said, I appreciate them for killing off the Rogue, it means the young girls in the pack are safe and the parents are no longer panicking." His voice quivers a little bit. Like he was trying to find a reason to keep his hands clean. To keep himself from falling under "Was it my brother that made the final kill?" I ask, trying to not let on that I didn't know anything about what he was doing.

"Uh, no. I believe it was his lady friend, Blair."

"I'm not asking anything of you." I cut the conversation short. "No contract this time." I mutter so he wouldn't question it. "I'm happy they could be of service to you."

He is quiet, but I hear him breathing down the phone. "Are there more?" he asks after what felt like an eternity.

"When I last spoke to you. I told you that there are Lycans. I even told you my mate was one. Though we did believe that there were very few. But now," I pause. It was only fair to be clear with him. "There is a possibility. What I didn't tell you is that my mate is the Lycan Alpha."

I watch Damien cock a brow at me, a smirk appearing on his face.

Ryan pauses again. And I can only imagine the questions running through his head. "Can she control them?"

I didn't know how to answer that. She did have a hold over the ones trying to attack us but Salem had fought against it and I wondered if it would be the same with the others. I didn't even know if she had a hold over Damien or Mallory.

"Time will tell." I mutter into the phone.

"And Rogues? Are there more? Jenson and Blair left without saying another word. I didn't even get to ask any more questions. Do I bury the Rogue?"

I glance over at Damien, knowing that he could hear both sides of the conversation. He mouths the word 'burn' at me.

"Burn the Rogue and as for asking me if there are more, the truth is I don't know."

"So what do I do?"

"Train your guards to be better."

"Right." I hear the hesitation in his tone. The same hesitation I had heard from many others. It won't be long until he is asking me for my help. It had been a longtime since I had forced anyone into a new contract. But if it worked in my favour, I was never going to say no. "Thank you for calling me Ryan. I hope you are settling into your Alpha duties. If you need any assistance, don't hesitate to let me know." I put the phone down before he had a chance to reply.

"So I was right." Damien mutters.

"It appears so."

"She does." He mutters.

"What?"

"His question about Neah. She does have a hold over us. She has never used it, but in the same way as your Wolves feel your power over the pack, she has it over us."

I had felt it. I had felt the lingering power when I first laid eyes on her. When I watched her thin frail frame slide down that door until her ass hit the floor. The power radiating from her was one of the things that drew me to her. Well other than her being my mate. "If it's present, then how could Salem fight it?"

He scowls. "What was she like when she forced the others to obey her orders?"

"Confident. She had been upstairs, hiding with Jess. The pair of them came out when Cassandra made Jess bring Neah to her. But it was a plot." I smile, "I could feel her power, but....it's not always present now. It's the strongest when she is around our boys."

 

 

Chapter 0227

He grins at me like a fucking idiot. "She's found her beacon of light."

'Beacon of light?' Aero quizzes

"What are you talking about?" I demand

Damien shakes his head at me, "She's surrounded with a darkness that she is constantly fighting off. The darkness slowly crushes you. It takes over every inch of you when you are least expecting it."

"While Neah fights it, there is no space for her to have the ability to be a strong and powerful Alpha. We can protect her, we can give her the tools to help her stay in control, but we can't fight it for her. That's something she has to do on her own. And she can only do that when she finds the thing that gives her hope. And it sounds like she has found it. She just doesn't realise it."

'We didn't give her hope?' Aero sounds defeated. 'We are her mate.'

'I don't think that's what he means.' I mutter back

"There must be something else we can do for her, that I can do?" I ask the Lycan staring back at me.

His dark eyes hover on me as he slowly shakes his head.

When it came to Neah, I often felt powerless. It was a shitty feeling, watching my mate struggle and not being able to do anything to help her. She was having more good days then bad but the darkness was still there, seeping into her thoughts.

Sometimes I would catch her staring into space. Her dark thoughts weighing heavily on her as her mind shifted through them.

"So you are saying that the twins will be the ones to save her?" I press

"The ones to save her. The ones to give her her strength. The ones who will make her really understand who she is. Raven is my light just as those pups are hers." He gets to his feet. "This could be her turning point, Dane. This could be the thing that really puts her in power. She just needs to hold on to that light."

I had questions about Raven being his light. From what I understood he had broken free of rogue life long before he met Raven. But the questions were not relevant right now.

He reaches the door and turns his head back over his shoulder. "I will be your Beta, Dane. But at the end of the day, my priority will always be protecting Neah. Oh, and you can be the one to break the news and I will not be referring to you as Alpha." He smirks before heading out the door.

I tidy up the office before going to find Neah. It buys me some time, trying to decide what I should say, in the end I opt for the truth. Lying could have an even worse outcome. And I want to grow old with her. Surrounded by our kids and grandkids.

She's sat in the large armchair in front of the window of our bedroom. The twins are cuddled into each side of her as she reads them a story. I recognised the book too. It was one of the first that Klaus had given to Neah to help her learn to read. A children's book about animals. It had been flung across the room multiple times when she struggled.

Her eyes flicker up to me, but she continues to read as though she never once struggled.

Both boys are asleep by the time she is finished. She closes the book and smiles at me while hugging them tighter but her smile slowly fades. "What's happened?"

"Salems dead."

"That's good isn't it?"

"Blair killed him."

 

 

Chapter 0228

Blair

Alpha Ryan will call Alpha Dane to tell him that the Rogue is dead. He might even have already done it before we had even left Ashburn city.

It would blow mine and Jensons cover considering i told him and Neah that I hadn't seen Jenson for months, but it will be worth it because his death should confuse them.

Maybe I could put a spin on it, make Neah and her mate believe I did it for them, to make them think they could trust me. They would be fucking stupid if they fell for it, but sometimes, its the simple ideas that work. I just needed to get close enough to turn her world upside down.

"I still can't believe you just shot him." Jenson is muttering more to himself than me. His dark eyes settle on me. "He can't heal and come back?"

"No one can when their brains have exploded out the back of their head." I smile. It always brought me such great joy.

He places my dinner down in front of me and slides into the chair opposite me. "Do you always shoot them? It's just...guns are rarely used in packs."

"I'm not in a pack. The gun is a last resort." I add. "I prefer to slice them and rip them apart, but Rogues predict that."

He doesn't say anymore as he starts to shove roast chicken into his mouth. We really were worlds apart, but he had gotten to the point where I just couldn't let him go. What the fuck was wrong with me?

"Can I ask you something?" He mutters with a mouthful

"You don't normally hold back."

"Why didn't you shift? Do you ever shift? Because I have never seen you in Lycan form. You've seen my Wolf. You know about Aspen. But I still don't know that much about you, other than your ability to ride my cock."

"That's more than one question." I smirk, "But I will play along. There wasn't a need for me to shift. There rarely is. I have better control in human form."

"You lose control?"

"Eat your dinner."

He pauses over his potatoes, eyeballing me but chooses not to say anything. And he doesn't bring it up again for the rest of the evening.

In bed, he lays with his hand resting just above my pussy. Deep snores echo against my neck where his face is currently pressed.

I hadn't let anyone get this close to me ever. To even consider that there was a possibility of me having a partner for life had always seemed like a dream or maybe a nightmare. Though his questions at dinner had made me realise he was getting too close. Bringing up things I never talked about. A past that was long buried and one that I wanted to stay buried.

Would he even understand, given what happened to his first mate? Maybe it was time to let him go.

His lips graze my neck and his hand moves further south, cupping my pussy. "Why are you still awake?" He whispers in the dark, his breath fanning out over my skin. "Did I not fuck you enough earlier?"

He slides the tip of his finger across my folds. My arousal speaks for itself. I part my legs a little to give him better access, but he continues at an agonisingly slow and steady pace of stroking his finger back and forth.

I push my hips up towards his hand and still the rhythm doesn't change.

"I want more, Blair." He mutters against my neck as his lips leave tantalising kisses behind.

"More?" I whisper back, thrown by his demand.

"I want you to be mine." His teeth scrape against my skin and I still. Claiming me means more than just being his partner. It means being tied to him for life. Knowing my every thought, including my past. A past that goes so much deeper than my father abandoning me and my mother.

I slide out from under his hand. As much as I could do with a good fucking, I just couldn't let him mark me.

 

Chapter 0229

"Seriously?" He asks with a raised brow, bringing his fingers to his mouth to taste my juices that covered them.

"You have made it very clear that you want me to be your mate." I mutter, pulling on a pair of workout leggings. "I'm not ready." Shit, wrong choice of words.

"Every day that you don't let me claim you, we risk the chance of finding our actual mates. And then we won't stand a chance. When will you be ready, Blair? Six months, a year, five years? You know we are good together." "Don't push it!" I snarl through gritted teeth "And I've travelled the world, my mate doesn't exist!"

"Are you scared, is that what it is?"

I pause as I pull on my workout top. "Scared? You think I'm scared."

"Something is holding you back!" He snaps at me. "Every moment that I think this is it. That I have found someone I can be with. You throw it back in my face."

"Right, let's say you do mark me. What happens when I die? What I do doesn't guarantee my life, Jenson? You could mark me and I could die tomorrow. Do you really want to lose another mate?"

I know I was deflecting. But he wasn't ready for the truth. I grab the yoga mat and strut towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He asks

"To fucking work out. Is that okay with you?!" I was so angry. Why did he always have to push? Why did I let him get away with so much shit?

Any other man would be buried six feet under if they tried to pull the same crap.

Just as I flick out the mat, he appears. His arms folded across his wide chest as he leans against the doorframe, naked.

"I make you feel something that you've never felt before, don't I?"

I jab the headphones in his direction and abruptly pull them over my head, silencing him, but it doesn't make him leave.

Ten minutes into my yoga session, I rip the headphones off. "You think you know everything Jenson."

"I never claimed to." He frowns "And I don't see what your problem is. We want the same things. We enjoy each other and I know the very idea of me being with someone else puts you in a bad mood. That's why you walk away." "No it isn't."

"Then what are you not telling me? I'm sure I can handle it. Is it something to do with Neah and your father?"

"No."

His brow dips as he tries to think of another reasonable explanation. The sad thing was, he had missed all the clues. Clues that I hadn't intentionally told him, but ones that slipped out when talking about other things. He steps forward, taking my hands in his. "I can handle it. Whatever it is. We can figure it out if it means you are mine and I am yours."

Stepping away from him, I feel my stomach tying itself up in knots, something I hadn't felt since I was a kid. He was the only person to make me feel like this. The only person to see something other than the hardened exterior. "You might want to put some clothes on." I sigh. Someone would find out eventually. It might as well be him.

"I'm good." He goes to sit his bare ass on my sofa.

"You will probably leave. So you might as well be prepared."

He goes to say something, but decides against it and heads back to the bedroom. Returning in a white tee and some sweatpants. He settles onto the sofa with a smile like a kid waiting for santa. "Jenson, have you not worked out how I know why it's easy to kill Rogues?"

"I just assume it's years of training and practice."

I try another tactic, "You asked me why I don't shift."

"You mentioned control."

Could he really not see what I was trying to tell him?

"Jenson, I was a Rogue."

Chapter 0230

Blair

I was expecting his dark eyes to be wide with my announcement. Instead he just stares at me like I have just asked him if he had a good day. "Are you not going to say anything?" I demand.

"What do you want me to say?"

"This isn't one of those times where you wait for my instructions, or you need to follow my orders. I just gave you the answer to why I don't shift. Why I mentioned losing control. Why I find it easy to kill Rogues, well, kill anyone. And now you are just staring at me!" He continues to watch me.

"There have been hints for months and you have been too dumb to see it!" I snap, sudden rage boiling through me. This is why I never let anyone get close. I never wanted them to figure it out, but Jenson has been here for months and he still hasn't figured it out. "Dumb?" He cocks an eyebrow at me

"It's fine. Just pack your things and go." I hide any emotion that I'm feeling. I knew it would come to this and I had been prepared for this moment since he snaked his way into my heart.

He gets to his feet and doesn't move any further. He jams his hands into his pockets. I was expecting his heart to be thundering in his chest. A Rogue had killed his mate. That's what had led him to me.

"I knew the moment you sniffed out Damien. I've just been waiting for you to tell me."

"What? That was months ago!"

"Damien once said being Rogue heightens your senses, allowing you to sniff out other Lycans, differentiating them from the Wolves. You sniffed him out when he followed me. You knew he was there when I didn't. I knew then that at some point in your life you had been a Rogue."

It takes a lot to surprise me, but he has my jaw hanging open.

"If I hadn't known about Lycans and unaware of the information I know about Rogues. I wouldn't have put two and two together. But you are right about one thing. Little bits of information have slipped through. Which probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't fallen for you and stuck around. I've been waiting for you to tell me Blair. For you to feel safe enough with me that you could finally announce it."

It's my own heart that is rampaging as I clutch the rolled up yoga mat to my chest. He had known and he hadn't said a word. Letting me keep my secret, letting me decide when to share.

"You...you still want to claim me?" I was pretty sure if the window was open and a breeze passed through it would knock me off my feet. No one, not a single person had wanted anything from me other than to kill something or someone. They hadn't ben interested in my life in any shape or form.

"I'm still here aren't I?"

"Why?" I splutter, still in shock.

"You are the first person I've loved."

"But we are not mated."

"And? Why should that stop us? If I claim you, you are mine and I am yours. I don't care if you were a Rogue in the past."

I turn away, because he just didn't see the seriousness of what being a Rogue is or was.

"That's why I don't shift, Jenson. I told you I lose control. You think that bastard was bad. When I was Rogue, I was a hundred times worse. It's why I made it a mission to hunt them down and get rid of them. And not shifting allows me to keep control." "Okay."

"A Rogue killed your mate." I don't even know why I was trying to push him away. He was probably the best thing that has happened to me in my whole life. Even if he did annoy me half the time." "You didn't. And maybe that's a sign. Because if he hadn't, I wouldn't have met you."

It was too much. I walk over to the hooks by the door and grab my keys. His hand grabs hold of me, spinning me around and pressing me into the wall, his warm body flush with mine. "Don't run away." "I'm not. I just...." I don't even know what I need at this point. To kill, to drown myself in wine, a good fucking. I don't know. I just need to clear my head.