Ch. 241..245: The Alpha Contract Chapter 241-245

Chapter 0241

Neah

The twins didn't wake up once. Not one single time. It was a good thing, I should be happy, but a part of me had hoped that their first night in their own room wouldn't be so perfect. And while they slept, Dane made up for the lack of time we had been alone since their

arrival.

So much so, that I could still feel the aftermath this morning.

"It's a good thing they slept." Raven mutters as she bounces Evrin in her arms

"I know, I'm just being....." I sigh.

"You are being a mum." Her dark eyes flash up to mine and I knew the question was coming. "You're really meeting with her?"

"Yes."

"Are you worried?"

"Worried that I will shift and kill her." I joke but she stares at me, alarmed. "I'm joking, I'm joking. I kept calm when Blair was here yesterday. I can do it again, I think." "Damien said that he...."

"I know, and I'm grateful, but this is something I have to do alone. I have been fighting with my head and my heart over this for so long." I sigh, because I didn't talk about it to anyone. As far as everyone was aware, I hated Mallory. But that wasn't true. I just didn't trust her and her motives.

"You never said."

"I... I feel like I'm supposed to hate her. I mean, I did. She almost killed me. She thought she had killed me. I thought I would never see her again" I shake my head as I pull Logan from the high chair. "I could have killed her several times, but I haven't. She's Damiens best friend. He sees something in her that I don't or maybe it's just because he has known her for longer." I shrug my shoulders. "I thought I would give her this one chance. To get everything out in the open." "If you need anything." Raven mutters. "You know where I am."

I sit Logan on the floor with a bunch of toys and kiss him on the top of his head before kissing Evrin too. "You sure you are okay to watch them?"

"Of course."

Taking a few deep breaths, I pull open the back door and head towards Mallory's house.

Mallory flings the door open. A big smile plastered on her face. Her dirty blonde hair tied up into a half up, half down style. Dungarees covered her body with a white vest underneath. A cleaning rag in one hand. "You actually came." She seems genuinely surprised and tosses the rag out of sight

I nod and she steps back to let me in. I had stayed as far away from her small house as I could until now.

Her eyes dart behind me. "Uh, no Damien?"

"No."

"Oh." She sucks in her cheeks.

"I wanted to come alone."

"Right." She gestures to the small wooden table. A steaming teapot sits in the middle with some cups and biscuits.

"I didn't know what you would prefer. I have coffee too." She gestures to the pot on the kitchen side. It was the most nervous I had seen her. A far cry from the bitch she once was.

"Please sit." She whispers, chewing on her bottom lip. "You can ask me anything and I promise, I will tell you every single detail."

I took the chair that faced the front door.

She slips quietly into the chair opposite me. Her brown eyes don't settle on me right away. Like she is trying to decide how to start the conversation.

"You ran away." I mutter. "After you thought you killed me, you ran away."

She nods. "I always promised myself I would never end up like my father, but it happened and I knew when I stood over you as you were bleeding out, that my life was over. I had become just like him and I hated myself."

"It's something that we have in common." She adds quietly, "Neither of us wanted to be like our parents."

I swallow the lump forming in my throat, trying to bury the irritation that rose from her thinking we were the same. "You killed your father?"

"I had too." "After me?"

She nods her head and sucks in her cheeks. "I had become the very thing that I least wanted. At the time, I was more bothered about that than becoming a monster. Becoming a Lycan was supposed to have been a fresh start for me. To become part of a pack that wanted me, a pack that saw my value."

I snort but she continues. "In reality I became more of the very thing I hated. So I hunted him down and killed him and then ran away."

"You watched your father kill your mother?"

"I saw more than that growing up. He raped her. He beat her." Her tone grows darker by the second but tears prick at the edge of her eyes. "He put cigarettes out on her. There was even one time where she dropped a plate of his food on the floor and he made her lick it up. The list goes on and on."

The bottom of my stomach drops out. That was degrading and one thing I was never made to do.

'Fucker.' Nyx mutters

Chapter 0242

"Her miserable life ended when he killed her. And maybe that was one good thing that came out of their marriage." Her shoulders drop and her hands shake as she fills her cup with tea. "I certainly wasn't."

It takes me a second to realise what she is telling me. "You... you were a product of rape?"

Her shoulders hitch up as she takes a deep breath and bobs her head.

"Did he...did he ever....."

"No. There was one time, where I thought he was going to hurt me, but he turned on my mother instead. Do you see why I thought Cassandra was offering me a better life? She made me promises. She made me feel worthy. She made me feel safe." Exactly how she made me feel before her and Trey set me up and destroyed me.

"I know now that she was a bitch to you. But at the time, she gave me the opportunity to have something better. To not be waiting for the day when my father finally decided I was old enough for him to rape me. And I took it. And that is when everything fell apart." I could feel Nyx's sorrow as we listened to her story

"I believed every ounce of information that she fed me. I believed every damn lie she told me about you. I should have been smarter. I should have realised after my upbringing that trust is more than bribes. I see why you don't trust me, Neah. I see why you don't want to trust me. I wouldn't either but I swear that I will never stop trying. You can keep hating me. You can keep acting like I'm the scum of the earth. But I will not stop trying to make up for what I did."

"I don't hate you."

Her hand taps the table, my words catching her off guard. "You...you don't?"

"I used to wish that you had actually killed me. That you ended my existence."

"I'm sorry." She reaches out to take my hand, on instinct, I recoil and she she looks heartbroken.

"The hardest part of having you here, is that you are a constant reminder that you could have ended my suffering and you didn't." I shake my head, half a smile creeping across my face because my reasoning sounded ridiculous. "Stupid right? Especially when my mate is the Alpha of this pack. If you had killed me. My sons wouldn't exist."

"No." She mutters, her brows knitting together. "No, it's not stupid. You were looking for a way out. Even if the way out was death."

We fall into silence. Mallory nibbles on a biscuit as I try to find a way to move forward with this uncomfortable conversation.

'We should give her a chance.' Nyx mutters

"Was killing your father what turned you Rogue?" I splutter

"No, it was what I did to you. I had already turned by the time I killed my father." She smiles. "He tried to repent for his sins as I tore him apart. Fucking bastard thought that praying to his stupid God would save him from all his crimes."

She jams the rest of the biscuit in her mouth as I see the moment of enjoyment on her face. I wasn't the one to say it was wrong to enjoy it. There is just something satisfying about taking the life of someone who doesn't deserve one. "There's something I don't understand. You told me that Damien was the only one you had helped to turn back, successfully. Who helped you?"

She scrunches up her face. "Rogues love the lifestyle. It's a simple life. I'm sure Damien has told you that. The darkness drags you in. For me, something just felt...wrong. Like my darkness wasn't natural. Like I was trying to be someone or something that I'm not. If you ask Damien, he will tell you that apart from me being able to shift, I'm more human than most."

"I don't follow."

"Cassandra turned me because I told her exactly what she wanted to hear. I wanted to make sure she didn't pass me up. So I did what I needed to do to ensure it would happen. I had to pretend to be someone I wasn't. When I hurt you, something else took over. I think more than anything, I was trying to prove a point to her. Now that's stupid."

'It sounds like she was brainwashed.' Nyx mutters. 'Cassandra played on her desperation.'

I had been there. For years I thought Trey was my brother. For years I believed that I had been solely responsible for my parents death.

Her brown eyes flicker up to me. "You wish that I had killed you back then. I wish I had never met Cassandra."

"You wouldn't be a Lycan."

"I know." She shrugs her shoulders again and I stare at her, surprised by her announcement.

"Hurting you and letting Cassandra bite me are two of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life and I can't change either of them. But I can use one to help you in any way I can, if you let me. Starting with that bitch that calls herself your half sister."

 

 

Chapter 0243

Mallory

Neah hasn't said anything for about five minutes. Her silence makes me more nervous than when she is talking.

I pour myself another cup of tea and slowly take a biscuit from the plate. No sudden movements, that was my best bet. Or maybe she didn't believe a single word I said. I really hope that wasn't the case. It had taken a lot to reveal my history. Only Damien knew what I had told her.

I nibble on the biscuit, watching her. Her eyes weren't black. Another good sign I hoped, but then again, they hadn't changed colour when she tortured Roan.

Another few minutes pass and the panic is really sinking in. This was it. I am going to die.

"Okay." "Huh?"

"One chance." The words are slow to trickle from her tongue but she said the thing I least expected. I guess I was more certain than I thought that she was actually going to kill me.

"Sure." I nod my head frantically. For years I had felt in control of my own life until I had come here. But I never truly was while my past played havoc with my head.

"I can't promise that I will find your presence easy." She furrows her brow, unsure that she had made the right choice. "But I will try as long as you don't fuck me over."

"Yes Alpha."

There's a sudden flash of darkness in her beautiful blue eyes. A warning from her Lycan I hope. Rather than a sign the darkness is pressing forward.

"I will do anything." I had been so against the idea of Damien sending me here with Dane and his brother. It was the very last place on Earth that I wanted to be. But in my heart I knew what I had to do. She is the Alpha and she probably would have found me eventually and then, everything could have been so much worse.

She rises from her seat. But she still looks as though she has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"I can track her down." I murmur. "I saw the car, the registration plate. I can find her. My bet is she isn't that far outside the pack."

Her brows knit together and she sucks in her cheeks.

"You don't have to do anything, but it could be beneficial to know where she is hiding. Maybe I can do a little more digging on her for you."

"She might shoot you." Neah mumbles.

"We both know you are not worried about that."

She hesitates and lifts her eyes to meet mine. "You can't tell anyone, including Damien."

"Of course." Though I'm pretty sure if Damien gets a whiff, he will be on to me. Sometimes, he knew me better than I knew myself.

Neah heads to the door, pausing her hand over the handle. "Thank you for answering my questions." She leaves without looking back and I find myself tearing up. Maybe there is a chance for us.

In the afternoon, I take my mug and head out to sit on the stone porch. My heart no longer felt so tightly wound up, but I still had to be careful. There was still a chance that Neah could decide I wasn't worth it. Damien is heading my way with Dorothy skipping along beside him. She is a cracking kid, but just like the rest of us, she came with her own issues.

She throws her arms around my hips as she reaches me. "Mallory." She beams as she stares up at me with her bright green eyes.

"How did it go?" Damien eyes me as though he was expecting the worst.

"Okay."

He cocks a brow at me.

"Seriously Damien. We talked for hours. She asked me questions and I told her as much as I could."

"Everything?"

I nod my head. "I wasn't risking keeping anything hidden. She probably would have seen through it anyway.

"Time makes a difference." He mumbles

I shake my head at him. "Actually, Klaus gave me some good advice."

"Klaus?" He mutters in surprise.

I nod. "Apart from you. He's the only person that seems to like me being around."

"I do too." Dorothy yells as she picks some of the flowers from the small patch of garden.

Damien narrows his dark eyes at me. "Are you and him....mates?"

I shake my head almost laughing. "No. No he is not my mate. I'm just saying, he isn't as annoying as I first thought."

Dororthy brings me the bunch of daisies that she had picked and I start putting them together to make a daisy chain. She stares at me in amazement, telling me that I'm so clever.

"Did you really come to check on me?" I ask Damien as Dorothy dances around with the daisy chain on her head like a crown.

"I had to check if you were still alive." He bumps his shoulder into me, laughing. "So she has accepted you?"

 

Chapter 0244

"She's giving me a chance to prove myself." I shrug my shoulders. "It's all I can ask for."

Damien and Dorothy stay for a little while. It was funny to see how far he had come from the beast I had first met. Never in a million years did I think we would end up in a life like this. And there was no way I was losing it, not now she was giving me a chance.

I wait until after dark before slipping out. Climbing up into the trees of the forest without being seen. Up high, it was easy enough to move from branch to branch all the way to the edge of the pack. There were some guards on duty, but the second their backs were turned as they looked for me and my scent. I jump and run. The sooner I got information for Neah, the better. But I was doing this the old way. No tech. I needed to witness things with my own eyes.

Breaking into a parked car was children's work. It was an older red nissan. It didn't really draw the eye because it wasn't fancy and that was exactly what I needed.

I head towards the city. That was where Damien had last seen her. Though, she was probably smart enough to know that staying in one place won't do her any favours. Yet from what she was wearing, it wasn't like she was hiding in a cave or a run down building. She had somewhere she called home. Somewhere to fix her makeup and store her overly expensive clothes.

I was just about to head back to Black Shadow when I see her car poking out from behind some bins. They had tried concealing it on a drive next to a quaint house.

Quietly moving around the bins, I check the plate. This was definitely it and for now, it was all I needed.

I turn and head back up the street towards the stolen car when I catch a whiff of a familiar scent.

Jenson steps out of the shadows by the parked car. His arms folded across his wide chest. A crisp black suit covered his frame. Something I never expected him to wear. "Mallory." My name leaves his tongue like a poison as he rolls the last few letters of my name. "What are you up to, Mallory?"

My eyes narrow and he starts tutting at me with tiny head shakes as he steps closer, towering over me. Though I could make him look like a child if I shifted.

"I see she has you wrapped around her manicured fingers."

"Why are you here, Mallory? Did lover boy send you?" He chuckles to himself at the sad comment. Some things never change.

When had he turned so dark? Damien was right about one thing, Jenson would have fit in perfectly with the Rogues. Maybe that's what Blair saw in him.

"I came alone." I had no idea if he had linked her yet. My best bet was to keep him talking. "I was curious."

"About?"

"Blair. She looks just like Neah, are they twins?" I lie. He had seen how short tempered Neah was with me. Even the other day when Blair had turned up and he had been in the car., he could see Neah looked pissed with me. "It's none of your business." He curls a lip in annoyance that I had even asked

"You are right. It's my downfall. Curiosity has always gotten the better of me." I keep lying. I could lie to anyone as long as it isn't my Alpha.

He presses his lips into a thin line and glances at the old red car.

"I stole it." I blurt out. "Dane would never let me bring a car out to look for you."

He nods. He seemed to actually believe me.

"You were stupid to come alone, Mallory."

"It's not like I have anyone on my side anymore." I shrug my shoulders. "Damien has Raven. The pack hates me. I wanted to find somewhere I would feel welcome." Every lie feels like fire burning my insides. "Then why did you stop Blair?"

"I was still trying to help. I've spent so long trying to help, but it's time to give up." I drop my shoulders, trying to look defeated. "Is Mallory here?"

"She's working."

"Oh." I deflate even more. Trying to keep the look of surprise buried. What work did she do and why was her car still here?

"Get in the car and go home."

"It's not my home." I mutter. "But I will go."

He watches me slide into the car and start the engine. Only backing onto the pavement when I start to move. I had got what I needed for now.

Share to

Chapter 0245

Blair

"You want to have another person help me?" I seethe, throwing more wine back my throat. Jenson stares at me with his dark eyes. He still hadn't grasped on to the fact that besides him, no one else worked for or with me. "Neah hates her. You saw it yourself when Mallory jumped down from that tree. The look in Neah's eyes said it all."

"Then why hasn't she killed her yet?" I refill my glass as he thinks of something to say. "According to you, they have been in the pack for how long? A year?"

"Something like that." He shrugs his shoulders as though the length of time didn't make a difference. "Maybe my brother isn't letting her."

I snort, holding back the hysterical laughter that was trying to bubble from my throat. "It hasn't stopped her before." Jenson had told me about the all the others that my darling sister had killed, so what made this Mallory so damn special? "Wouldn't it be beneficial to have someone on the inside?" He presses.

"And you think she is the one. How do you expect her to get information if Neah hates her."

"She's best friends with Damien."

"And? That doesn't mean anything if they are not willing to share information. But I am impressed that she found my home. She's the first to have ever done that." I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Tell me again what she said to you?"

He rolls his eyes at me, repeating everything Mallory had told him. "Why didn't you just link me?" I ask when he is finished.

"You know I'm not a complete idiot. It was what she was hoping for. I wanted to question her first. Try to figure out where she stands."

I roll my eyes at him and take another mouthful of wine. "What I mean is that if I had heard the information first hand, I could make a proper decision. Second hand information doesn't tell me if she was lying."

"She wasn't." He sounds so sure of himself, but that doesn't mean he is right. I had spent years around liars. Very few were convincing. "If Dane had sent her, he would have sent her using one of the cars from the pack. Not a beat up rust bucket that she broke in to. I know how Dane works. He has always been about flashing his power."

"Unless it wasn't Dane who sent her." I suggest

It was his turn to roll his eyes. "Why does everything I say have to be met with resistance?"

"Oh honey, I've been playing this game a lot longer than you. You may be a little older than me, but all your war based tactics are what you learned from pack life. You see what you need to see. You solve what you need to solve. You fail to see the bigger picture. You were barely surviving when you were on your own."

I pause while he huffs. Why did men never like hearing the truth? Why did they feel they always had to have control and assume their ideas are the correct ideas?

"If she turns up again, and no doubt she will. You call me."

He dips his chin in acknowledgement as I try to figure out if she was genuinely curious or if she was trying to get information to tell Dane and Neah.

Mallory turns up again the following evening. Her dirty blonde hair tied up into a loose messy bun on top of her head. Strands hung down around her pretty face. She gives herself a once over in the rear view mirror before stepping out of the old red car. "Hello Mallory." I mutter from the shadows.

She doesn't falter at my voice like so many others. "I really wasn't expecting you."

"You were hoping for my mate?"

"Yes," She folds her arms across her chest. "Given that he was here yesterday, I expected it to be him. Besides, he wouldn't let me speak to you." Her chocolate eyes move down to my hands. "I see no gun, I hope this means you are not going to shoot me