Ch. 261..265: The Alpha Contract Chapter 261-265

Chapter 0261

Dane

Grabbing some water, I throw it on his body. Jenson groans but doesn't move.

"Get the fuck up." I demand.

More groans, and there is a tiny bit of movement. He raises his hand and gives me the middle finger. for the water or my presence, I didn't know.

"What the fuck do you mean she is coming?" I snap. My temper was hanging on by a very thin thread.

"She's coming for me." He croaks

"Is that what you want?"

He doesn't answer me.

Silent treatment I was used to from my sister. But not Jenson. He wouldn't know what silence means if it bit him on the ball bag.

Even interrogating him. He may not have given us any information about them, but it didn't stop him making every shit remark possible.

His eyes open and he stares at me from the ground. "I...fucked up, Dane." He mutters breathlessly. His breaths sound hollow and raspy, I had a feeling it wasn't just his wolf he was killing.

Our wolves are part of us. Created from the Alpha blood that lives in our body. To try and kill Aspen's spirit would be like trying to kill himself.

"What does she want?"

His gaunt face stares back at me. Raven was right, I had been too caught up in punishing him to see how ill he looked. Like he had one foot through deaths door.

"I can help you Jenson, you just need to give me the information I need."

He rolls onto his back, his eyes fixate on the ceiling as he presses a hand to his chest. "It's weak. Aspen is gone."

His chest doesn't rise much when he tries to take a deep breath. And he ends up coughing on it.

"Neah." He splutters

"I know, but what does she want from Neah?"

He rolls his face towards me. "Everything. Her life....her power... her family."

His lips still and his chest stops rising and falling.

I am not letting this happen. Quickly opening his cell, I link Raven to come as I slam my fist down over his heart. I hear his ribs crack, but I don't care about that.

Pressing my ear to his chest, I hear nothing and start compressions.

Raven and Damien crash through the door just as Jensons heart begins to beat again. But it is still weak, still barely hanging on.

Klaus appears shortly afterwards with supplies from the hospital which Raven almost rips out of his hands. She tells everyone to get back while she works, only allowing Klaus to pass her certain things.

We watch her inject Jenson with multiple medicines and force a tube down his throat with a bag thing attached that she tells Klaus to squeeze at a steady pace. She may be a bit of a mess sometimes, but when it comes to medical shit, she knows her stuff. "He needs to go to the hospital." She mutters. "Now."

Damien and Klaus move him as she gets to her feet. Her dark eyes are one me. "You didn't let him die." She whispers as the men disappear.

"No, but Aspen...." I had to tell her.

"I know. Midnight is struggling. Can he survive this?"

I didn't know how to answer her.

"Go, keep him alive." I tell her and she throws her arms around me. "Don't worry, Dane. This is what I'm good at." She heads towards the steps. "I will let you know when you can come by."

"I will be at home, preparing."

"Preparing?"

"Before he passed out, he said she was coming." I see her hesitation. The last Rogue that she had dealt with was Salem and he scarred her for life. She isn't a fighter, she's a healer. "Keep Damien and Klaus close."

"Damien's your Beta." She mutters nervously.

"It's fine. He is also your mate."

She nods and runs up the rest of the steps.

In the office I find Eric. He's standing in front of my desk, his hands in his pockets.

"Eric." I mutter in surprise.

"Dane." He dips his head.

When I sit in my chair, he moves to the door and closes it with a sigh. "You figured it out." He murmurs without making eye contact. "She told me."

"Secrets rarely stay secret around me. Besides, there were a few giveaways. You marked her."

"It wasn't what I was intending. I was drunk. She made a few comments and then told me she might be leaving the pack."

"Because of Neah?"

He nods. "I lost it. I still don't know what came over me."

"Exactly how I feel when something happens to Neah. What about Kelsie?"

"She was never my true mate, was she?! We got together when we were kids, long before we were old enough to even shift. Stayed together because of the boys. Boys that weren't even mine. If she had been my true mate, she would have died from what she did with Jenson. Same as how you almost killed Neah by kissing her."

 

Chapter 0262

He shakes his head, "Honestly, I hated the idea of Mal being my mate. I fought against it and yet I could never bring myself to reject her. She showed up constantly, making sure that I wasn't drinking. Even when I told her to fuck off she would still come back. After that, I would find myself watching her. I can see her front door from my kitchen window and she does the same thing every evening. Sits outside with a mug of tea and watches."

Now I understood what Mallory was saying when she said she likes to watch.

"When she didn't follow her usual routine a few nights ago, I followed her scent into the forest. I heard her link that wasn't supposed to be for me and felt my heart fall out my ass when I realised she was in danger."

"A matebond will do that to you. You knocked Jenson out?"

"Yes. But he didn't seem himself. And he didn't wake up like I expected him to."

"He's in the hospital fighting for his life." I mutter

"It's that bad?"

"Yes."

"Mal told me what's been going on. I know I'm not your Beta anymore, but she has been keeping me in the loop as much as she can. I want to help if I can." "Where is she now?"

"I believe Neah is letting her meet the twins."

That news surprised me more than anything. Neah had point blank refused to let Mallory near them or even be in the same room as them until now.

"Have you really stopped drinking?"

I couldn't smell a drop on him. "A couple weeks." It matched what Mallory had said. "I'm in a much better place,"

I imagine Mallory had a lot to do with that.

"Good, I need a second Beta." He cocks an eyebrow at me. "Damien is a great Beta but he won't take the blood oath yet. It makes it difficult for him to get information to the rest of the pack. You would be able to do that, just like before. Though I expect you to work alongside Damien."

"Of course. Where do you need me?"

I catch him up on the very few things that Jenson said before he basically died.

Eric has a small smile on his lips, "Mal is smart."

"A lot wiser than what any of us give her credit for."

He nods. "I will speak to the guards, get a new rota going. Upgrade training again I guess."

"It needs to include weapons. From what I've heard, Blair is well trained and maybe it will be something she doesn't expect."

He leaves and I head upstairs to the nursery. Logan and Evrin are both staring at Mallory in amazement as she plays peekaboo with them. Giggles escape both of them each time she 'appears'.

Dorothy is sitting on Neah's lap with her lips almost pressed to Neah's ear as she whispers something.

"You know where the snack box is." Neah mutters back with a smile.

Dorothy had been here for a while now and she still asked permission for almost everything. Still afraid that she was going to be told 'no' or starved. It pulled on Neah's heart because of her past so she always made sure the snack box was full of all Dorothy's favourite things and she never said no.

She skips past me and towards the stairs but Neah's eyes are on me. "What's happened?"

"Jenson is in hospital."

"Wait." Mallory mutters, "You were going to give me forty eight hours."

"It turns out that he didn't have that left." I sigh. "The forced shifting has killed his wolf and Jenson died with him. We restarted his heart, but it doesn't look great."

"Can he survive that? Like how does that work because it's only Alpha blood that has an extra spirit right?"

"I don't know, but you were right, Mallory. He said he fucked up. But his stubbornness to ask for help means we might be too late. Raven is doing what she can."

The twins are oblivious to our conversation and are pulling on Mallory's sleeves to get her to keep playing. She plasters on a smile and plays with them as she asks what we are going to do.

I repeat the same things to her as I did Eric.

"She's really coming?" Neah asks quietly

"I don't know, but it felt like it was a warning."

"Don't let the darkness in now, Neah." Mallory warns her. "It might be exactly what she is looking for." Her head flips to me. "We need to find more Lycans."

Chapter 0263

Neah

"We already know that there are more out there, but we haven't got the time for that!" Dane snaps at Mallory. "For all we know, she might be here already, skulking around."

The twins have fallen quiet and are staring up at Dane. From the moment they were more aware of their surroundings, they had always been able to feel his anger, but it never made them cry. It just seemed to fascinate them. "WE don't need to do anything." Mallory mutters and turns her eyes to me. "You do."

"Right." I snort. "The last time I spoke to Lycans, they were the ones that had been bitten, marked, whatever you want to call it. And not only that, you struggled to link me."

"I think something is holding you back." She shrugs her shoulders

"I know, the darkness that sits inside of me." I mutter sarcastically.

"No. You." She points a finger at me. "I thought it might have been Nyx not wanting you to listen to me."

'Not me.' Nyx mutters in annoyance.

"But now I think it's you. You've focussed so much on keeping the darkness at bay that you are not letting your natural bloodborn ability in."

"It didn't work with Salem or Blair."

"Neither of them were around when Cassandra had it in for you. But what had started was the very thing that you are fighting every day. I think that has something to do with it, but it's not what is stopping it."

"I accepted who I am." I mutter in defense

"But a lot has changed since then." Dane stares at me

"Neah, you are the last female Alpha, a descendant of Aldous Kitson. Every Lycan in the world belongs to you, Rogue or not. If it's true that there are more. You need to find a way to link them. To bring them here."

"And what if I bring more shit to our pack? What if they hate the idea of me? What if they hate the idea of having an Alpha? I understand what you are trying to say Mallory, but the twins." I look over to Dane who had picked them both up and was pulling faces at them. "I can't risk anything happening to them."

"You would be doing this for them. And if anyone tries to fuck us over, we will bring hell down on them."

I stare at her, it was less than a week ago that she was telling me she would happily give up being a Lycan. Maybe the possibility of feeling like she belonged had changed that.

My eyes move to familiar crimson ones. He doesn't speak, he just stares back at me. The look that said it was all up to me. Sometimes, I liked it better when he took the decision away. The last time I made a choice, Mallory was almost killed.

I look at my boys nestled in his arms. They were unaware of what was happening. Unaware of what they had been born into and my only goal was to give them the best upbringing. Because as much as I am the last female Alpha. They are future Lycan Alphas. Set to rule both Lycans and Wolves.

"If I figure this out, there is a good chance Blair will seek the others out. Try to bring them to her side. What if she succeeds?"

"I have an idea, but it's a bit out there and we would need Raven on board." Mallory tells us

""What is it?"

"We ask them if they would die for you."

"What's that going to prove? They could just lie." Dane asks

"We give them blood of wolfsbane."

"WHAT?" I had nearly died when I had been drugged with it. Raven had barely saved my life and if she had never got the antidote from the Witch, I wouldn't even be here. I saw what it had done to my parents. Every now and again I still see their blood soaked faces. "Because Raven knows how to make the antidote." Dane nods, ignoring my reaction

Mallory nods.

"Am I the only one that sees a flaw in that plan? Say we do that, then the news gets out that we have the antidote. That it's just a test."

"You order them not to tell anyone. Neah, I think sometimes you forget how powerful an order can be." Dane tells me

"I'm not poisoning them. I'm sorry, but there has to be another way."

Everyone falls into silence as Dorothy skips back into the room, carrying a bag of popcorn. "Do you know where Daddy is?"

Chapter 0264

"He's working, but he will be back soon." Dane smiles at her and steals a piece of her popcorn

"Because he is an important man?" Dorothy asks with a pout.

"He is. And when you are older, you will understand why?"

"Okay." She climbs up into the window and presses her face to the glass trying to look for Damien. Frowning when she can't see him.

"Mallory, will you stay here with the kids while I speak to my mate." Dane asks

"Yes of course, I love kids."

I cringe when she calls herself Auntie Mallory and tells them she will be staying a little longer, but I don't have time to correct her as Dane is pulling me out the room.

"I know you don't like it, but I think she is on to something. I also know it's bringing up shitty memories, but it will be a fast and quick way to weed out the bad. To find out who is really on your side."

"I won't be able to do it." Even talking of killing so many was making me fidgety. I needed to find a way to get rid of this darkness. I can't live like this, constantly worried that it's going to rear its ugly head. "You can't grow it anyway. Well, at least I don't think you can. It needs wolf blood."

He starts making a plan. Talking about growing it in a safe place where no children had access to it. A part of me hated it, but something deep inside me bubbles with joy at the thought of killing more people. I hated the looming darkness. While Dane is checking in on Jenson, Mallory sits on the floor opposite me. We had been talking through mind link and each time seemed to get clearer and stronger.

'Tell me how you linked them all before?' She asks, her high pitched voice echoing in my head

'I'm not sure. I was hiding with Jess. She made me feel like I could do it and it just happened.'

'No, there's more to it than that. To be able to link that many at once, you need power, strength. Something you already have. But for some reason, it's stopping you now.'

'I guess I wanted to protect the ones I care about. Jess was like a little sister. We were finding our way together. She was newly bitten, I was newly unbound. But I didn't have this darkness. And the twins help my head stay clear."

"I'm not saying you need to shift. You accepted your position right? Well now it's time to truly believe in it. Believe that you are a fucking strong female Alpha. You have been bound four times and survived. That in itself shows that you are more than just any Alpha. So tap into it!"

"Stop telling me what to do! Stop talking. I need to think!" The words come out in a really strange tone. A voice that isn't Nyx.

Mallory stares at me with wide brown eyes, patting her throat. "What's wrong? Are you having trouble breathing?" I panic as she continues to point at me and then point at her throat. Her mouth moves but no sound comes out.

There are footsteps hurrying this way. The last person I expected to see was Eric. "You've ordered her to stop talking." He tells me

"What? No I didn't. And how would you know that, you weren't even here?"

"She linked me."

"I don't know how I did it. How did she link you? She's a Lycan. Hold on, you're her mate?"

"Yes," he flips his head to Mallory and then back to me. Frowning, "Mal said it happens when you are flustered."

"You were flustered about keeping Jess safe." I know he is just repeating her words, but it's weird. "You were flustered with her working you out. You're flustered with making decisions."

"So how am I supposed to undo it?" Dane needed to explain a bit more about the Alpha order.

"Just tell her she can talk."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." He winks at me. I had missed Eric, he wasn't the same man when he drank.

"You can talk." I mutter to Mallory.

"And I have just cracked your problem." She smiles at me

 

Chapter 0265

Mallory

"She's not angry." Eric tells me as he walks me home. "You have to remember that she hasn't been a Lycan for long. A lot of things are still new for her."

"I know. They lied to her, convincing her that she is a Wolf." They kept reminding me of that every chance they got. But she also needed to know that her past didn't define her.

"It's more than that. Imagine what it's been like to be lied to her entire life. To be thrown into something she knew nothing about. To have had everything taken from her. From where I'm standing, she's handling it pretty damn well."

I smirk. "Klaus said something like that."

"We are not wrong. Compared to what she was like, she's a different person now."

""You think she's frustrated?"

He nods with a sad smile. "Frustrated with herself, because trust me, you would know if she was angry. Everything is a learning curve. Not everyone settles into something so easily. I know she is capable of doing what you are asking her too. I was there when she ordered hundreds of Lycans, bitten and pureblood to bring her their own leader."

"Okay, but we are running out of time."

"You don't know that. Blair showed up once and then didn't show up again for months."

"Right." I frown, but my gut instinct was telling me we didn't have months. "How come you were in the house?"

"I was speaking to Dane."

"And?"

"He has asked me to be a second Beta."

"Alongside Damien?"

"Yes. And I have agreed. I need to get back some normality."

We stop outside my house and the light catches his eyes. He had beautiful eyes that were different colours depending on how the sun caught them. Right now they were almost an aquamarine, but if he turned his head a little more, they looked more honey coloured. Strange yet fascinating.

"Not tonight. I need to work."

"Right." I try to keep the disappointment out of my tone. I knew he could feel it. But he doesn't say anything and that frustrates me.

He kisses my forehead and turns away, telling me he would see me in the morning.

We had slept together the day he marked me and then again when I was in heat. That took place when Neah believed I was avoiding her. When the reality was, I was in bed with Eric having the best orgasms ever. It had to be something to do with the mate bond connecting us to make it feel so damn good.

Since then, nothing but a few kisses and I feel like my insides are clawing at me to pin him down.

Time together was limited because he still didn't seem to know how he felt about our situation. One minute he wanted me nearby, the next he was telling me to leave.

Now, there were just two reasons for me to stay here. At least that is double the amount from when I last checked.

Following my usual routine, I make a cup of tea and take it outside, settling on the stones that make up my small porch. Only tonight I wasn't watching people.

Klaus had lent me an old laptop and I was determined to find something to do with other Lycans.

I didn't know exactly what I was looking for. Maybe strange sightings, strange animal related deaths. I might as well put my mind to some use if I wasn't going to get laid tonight.

The grounds of the pack get quieter and quieter until darkness completely sets in. I had already refilled my cup three times and still, I had found nothing. I should have expected it really. We kept our location hidden when we were protecting the Rogues and Klaus had mentioned something about Lycans going into hiding according to this Aldous Kitson.

Plus humans were naive to what happened around them. Those stories of wars were just myths to them, unless someone brought you in, like Cassandra.

Just when I'm ready to give up, I find a story from around twenty years ago about a teenager saving a woman from a monstrous beast.