Ch. 311..315: The Alpha Contract Chapter 311-315

Chapter 0311

I had learned quickly to practise in the nude. Ripped clothes would be suspicious and only draw questions.

Dane grabs a blanket from the bed and quickly wraps it around me. His crimson eyes give me the once over. "Why?" He asks

"I've been practising." I mutter back, stretching myself out and feeling a few more bones crack. There was no point in lying, he would be paying close attention to my mind now.

"Too fucking right." He stares at me with his crimson eyes.

"Practising? As in you are letting the darkness in and then pushing it back?" Damien asks.

"No." I frown, because I still couldn't fully explain it. "You said it was hard. You told me that once the darkness gets in it's difficult to get back out. That it's almost impossible. That's not true. Mallory did it, Salem did and so did you." "With a lot of hard work." Damien replies in annoyance

"Hard work for you." I mumble and he glances to Dane. "It's not for me, not anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Damien, you told me that there is a reason the Rogues have a darkness in them before they turn. You told me that it's different for everyone. That it was something from their past that made them that way. But me," I snort, because it has taken me far too long to see it. "I was born with this. It makes me who I am. I am not dark and I am not light either."

"Neah, that's Nyx talking." Dane frowns at me

'Of course he blames me!' Nyx mutters

"No, it's not. I spent so long fighting her. Thinking of ways to free myself from her. But I finally stopped to listen and I learned something." I shake my head and get to my feet, tugging the blanket around me, I tie a knot to keep it up over my chest. "I'm not supposed to get rid of her."

"Neah..." The men look at each other like I had lost it.

Dane shakes his head, "Neah, Brax said..."

"Abraxas said a lot of things. He told you that the darkness fills my cracks. And he's right, but his reasoning for why Nyx does is wrong. I was trying to block Nyx, she was filling in the gaps to try and make me whole, make me strong. To help me function better. It has never been about controlling her or her controlling me. I had to accept her. I had to accept what I am."

"None of us really know what Brax sees," Dane shakes his head. "But he has enough exper...."

"He's not dealt with a Lycan Alpha before." I say in a hurry.

I move in front of my mate, staring up into his crimson eyes. "There was a reason my parents had me bound as a child. Don't you see, it all adds up. They were afraid. When the bindings failed, they pretended that Trey was the next in line, not me. But they created me. The last female Lycan Alpha."

Nyx cheers as I make it clear who and what I am.

"I'm not scared anymore. I know who I am."

"Show me." Dane mutters.

'You've got this.' Nyx chatters. 'Clear your head, stand tall, don't fucking fall over.'

My eyes shift to Damien. "Can you turn around?" I didn't care f Dane saw me naked, he was my mate and had seen me naked more times than I can count.

Damien turns and I pull the blanket from me. Keeping my eyes locked on Dane, I feel power surge through me. It almost sends me forward and I have to fight to stay up right. Claws are the first to appear. Breaking through the skin on the tips of my fingers. Everything cracks, my bones stretch and fur appears again. It's painful but tolerable and keeps going until I'm standing over him and he stares at me with a smile. "There you are."

Chapter 0312

Mallory

"There you are" I beam at Damien as I enter the packhouse. He was making his way down the stairs, but he had an air of confusion surrounding him. "You good?" ""She did it."

"Huh?"

"She has control. She shifted."

"Seriously?" I feel myself grinning from ear to ear. "That's awesome, we have been waiting for this for so long. How did she do it?" I stare at him expectantly, waiting for the amazing news.

"Neah's different." He mutters. "She's bonded with her Lycan." His eyes settle on mine, "Which is good, right?"

"Of course it is. What's wrong with you? Why wouldn't it be good?"

Damien smiles at me, "Nothing. I guess, on some levels, I never thought it would happen. She's been battling her darkness for a long time. So long that I thought it would eventually win. The darkness has always won before." "You're wrong. You and I are living proof that it doesn't always win."

He nods, "You're right. I'm just overthinking it." He looks over his shoulder up the stairs. "And she seems happy. They both do." His eyes return to me. "You were looking for me?"

"I need your help."

He follows me to my house and I point to the table. He sighs and steps up to it. His eyes scan over the items.

"Are these..."

"Yes!"

"And they..."

"Yes!" I snap

"And I'm the first person you are telling."

"Clearly. You are my best friend. Who else am I going to tell first?!"

He cocks a brow at me, and picks up one of the dozen pregnancy tests, "How about the father?"

I blow out my cheeks. "I've not told him yet. He asked me before about having one and I told him no. That it was too early, after what Salem did to his boys. And now, I'm pregnant anyway."

"I don't really think you have a choice, Mallory. You can't hide it from him......" He knits his eyebrows together, "Please don't tell me that you wanted my help to get rid of it?!"

"No, no, of course not. I was hoping for some words of wisdom. you are normally full of them!"

"You will make a great mum."

"That's your wise words?" I mock, "Anyone could have told me that?"

"But you wouldn't have believed them." I roll my eyes because it was true. Eric was my mate, but he still didn't know me as well as Damien did, no one did. "Congrats Mallory, I'm happy for you." "What about you and Raven?" I ask. I knew she had suggested trying, but he hadn't confided anything to me.

He presses his lips into a thin line and sighs. "We would have to be having sex to make a pup." I watch his shoulders drop. "Since Jenson ended up in a coma, she hasn't been in the right frame of mind and now he's gone, I don't even know where we stand." "Where is she?"

"Sleeping, finally."

"Maybe a good amount of sleep will help her see more clearly."

"Here's hoping." He mutters and his dark eyes move up to the clock. "I have to go and check on the Lycans." He points to the tests. "You need to tell him Mallory, because you know who will work it out and blab his big mouth to everyone. And I'm sure Eric would rather hear it from you."

I watch him leave and let out my own heavy sigh. He was right. Abraxas was the last one that I needed telling everyone.

I thought I would get used to Abraxas after all this time, but knowing that he is mated to Maddie and not doing anything about it, made me so angry that I wanted to smack him in the face. Repeatedly

It made it a hundred times worse that only Neah and I knew the truth. Maddie didn't want us to say anything, she thought the other Lycans would turn against her if they knew the turht. Neah had suggested leaving the pack, but Maddie insisted that it was the first place she had felt safe.

I grab a cup of tea and take it out to the porch. Before I even have a chance to sit down, Abraxas is making his way towards me. He stops a few metres away from me. "Have you seen Klaus?"

"Not since earlier." He nods and turns away from me. "He isn't like you."

Chapter 0313

Klaus had been open when telling us what he found out about his past. And thankfully, Klaus and Abraxas were nothing alike and I wanted it to stay that way. Klaus was a kind guy, he wasn't an asshole like the Hunter standing in front of me and I didn't want him to change.

"I didn't say he was. And I'm not sure I care for your attitude."

"My attitude?" I snort and inhale too much tea at the same time, forcing it to erupt from my nose like a volcano as I splutter

He smirks at me and my fingers tighten around the cup, ready to launch it at him. His hazel eyes move to my hand and the smirk turns into a grin. "That pup seems to have got you worked up already." "What the fuck did you say?"

He stares at me, yet doesn't repeat his words. Surely he couldn't tell already, I was barely pregnant.

Abraxas tilts his head to one side, "You heard me." He winks and turns away, I launch my cup at him anyway, only for his hand to reach out and catch it.

He turns and walks right up to me, carefully placing the empty cup on the stone porch next to me. "I will let that one go, this time."

His eyes flicker in past the open door.

"She's not here." I mumble

"Who?"

"Your Lycan mate."

"I don't have a Lycan mate." He mutters as his forehead wrinkles into a frown. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

"Why are you denying it?" I push, "Just reject her."

"Rejecting her would imply that we are mated. As we are not, I cannot reject her. I have told Neah the same thing."

"It's not the truth." He denied any ounce of it being a possibility. Maddie was clear though. She knew exactly who her mate was and had no reason to lie about it.

He grins at me. "It's my truth, Mallory. My mate was a huge part of my life. I can not just move on."

"How long were you together before Blair killed her?" I ask. Abraxas never spoken about his mate, his unborn child or his parents.

"Twelve years."

"She was a Hunter too?"

"She was, and a fucking good one."

"I'm sorry that Blair took them away from you."

"It's not your apology to make. You weren't involved."

"Your child, the one who didn't make it...."

"He died in utero. Had already passed before I made it home. I couldn't save him. My advice to you. Don't do anything reckless, protect that little one. We all know you rush into things and think about the consequences later. Now is the time to change that." It felt like he was trying to find a way to not talk about his family, but not in a way that involved telling me to shut up.

Damien has always said people have secrets that they don't want others to discover

"Why do you care? You don't like our kind?"

"I didn't say I cared." He wanders away without even looking back and quite quickly, a trail of young female wolves appear, following him as they giggle until they all disappear out of sight.

Linking Neah, I ask if she is free to talk. I wanted to tell her about the strange interaction I had with Abraxas. She tells me she will be over as soon as she can.

Getting to my feet, I smell smoke and burning wood. Peering around my house, Wolves and Lycans are running out of the forest, scooping up younger children and hurrying them out of the way as flames lick the tree trunks.

Many of the Wolves threw themselves into action, making sure everyone was as far away as possible while others charged into the trees to tackle the blaze. But the fire grows, spreading like crazy through the forest.

A hand locks around my wrist, pulling me back as embers fall on my house, igniting the roof in seconds. Everything I had built in the last couple of years goes up in flames right before my eyes. "You need to move." The man holding my wrist mutters.

I look up to see Ryken, Blair's stepfather, I don't even know where he came from, but he tugs me backwards, away from the fire when I see familiar waves of red hair backing in to the fire. "MADDIE!"

 

Chapter 0314

**** Trigger warning. Suicide. **** Abraxas

Fire licks at my own skin as I rush forward to help. I wasn't even within touching distance of the fire, and nothing was happening to me, yet it burned me as though I am in the middle of it. This has never happened before.

I see Ryken holding on to Mallory, stopping her from running into the flames as she screams out for Maddie over and over. She tries to pull herself free, though Ryken keeps a firm grip on her.

Act first, think later. Mallory was prone to it and I'm almost grateful there is someone keeping her from running into the fire.

She was one of the few Lycans I could tolerate.

Sweat drips from me as my skin heats up. Smoke leaks up into the atmosphere as the Wolves and Lycans surrounding me rapidly try to put the fire out or pull young Wolves and Lycans away. Any time something dies down, something else goes up in thick orange flames, sending more dense smoke into the air.

If we weren't careful and quick. The smoke may draw the attention of unwanted bypassers.

Neah and Dane run past me. He joins the chain with others, throwing water on the roaring flames. Neah grabs hold of Mallory and with the help of Ryken, drags her further back, away from her burning home.

There is something different about Neah. The black ring around her soul isn't as dark and it isn't pulsating like it usually is. But every crack is filled with black, almost making her soul look as if the cracks had cleared. She had let her Lycan win or she had given up. I didn't want to put a bullet in her, but I can't allow another Rogue to wander this Earth.

Mallory's scream refocuses my attention "She's your mate!" She cries at me. "You are just letting her die!"

Ryken frowns, confused by Mallory's declaration

"She isn't my mate." I say for the thousandth time and turn my attention to the forest. I see Madison's red hair, she's close to the ground and more fire runs up my back.

"Mallory. Mallory, look at me." Neah mutters, grabbing the Lycans face and forcing Mallory to look at her. "This isn't your fault."

As Neah talks to her, I slip away. Entering a part of the forest that had already been put out.

Madison's jasmine scent is easy to pick up, quickly followed by the sound of her crying. She lets out a scream and I feel the flesh on my back burn.

"Madison!" She doesn't answer and I'm forced to call to her again. Even if it momentarily stops her from hurting herself.

Her chestnut eyes briefly pause on me. "No, not you. I don't need you. Go!" She whimpers from the ground. She's laid on her stomach, the back of her shirt almost completely burnt off, while her back is laced with black seared flesh and wide open wounds that are fighting to knit themselves together.

She rolls over, pulling faces through the pain and purposely forces her own arm into the fire. Madison lets out a gut wrenching scream that makes my heart freeze as I feel the fire smoulder up my own arm. It was strange, feeling something that wasn't happening to me. I hadn't even felt this with Dorothy's mother.

Grabbing Madison's feet, I drag her from the flames. She needed time to heal. But she tries to kick me. Shouting at me and demanding to let her go.

"You have to stop!" I snap

"I can't live like this. It's to hard!"

I pull the small hand gun from my hip and thrust it at her. "Go on then, be my guest, do it." I was calling her bluff.

Her eyes widen as they dance between the gun, my face and the fire.

"It will be a lot quicker and less painful. Well, if you do it right."

She reaches up for the gun. A move that I wasn't expecting, though I manage to pull it just from her reach. She was willing to kill herself over all of this

"Screw you." She growls at me, "You've been torturing me for over a month, do you know how it feels, knowing I'm mated to you of all people. Now let me go!" She tries to kick me again, I block her with ease, already anticipating her next move as a foot comes towards my dick. "Just let me go. Please!"

Chapter 0315

"I'm not letting you go anywhere."

She stares at me with her wide chestnut eyes, trying to understand me. I spot the matches nearby with a small aerosol can.

"You started the fire, didn't you?" I ask as the flames move from one charcoaled tree to the next.

"No." She mutters, but her answer comes out full of desperation and sadness. As if she was a child being scolded over spilt milk

"Your soul tells me differently. The evidence tells me differently"

She turns from me and starts crawling back towards the fire, dragging herself across the forest floor and ignoring every bit of pain she is feeling.

Pinning her to the ground, I straddle her hips as she lets out a sob.

"Why?" I demand. "Why would you do this to the person that took you in?"

"What do you mean?" Tears trickle over her soot smudged face.

"You've burned Mallory's house down."

"I didn't...."

"I've seen it. You've taken away the home of a pregnant woman."

"No." She whimpers. "That wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be me."

Her heart races and she squeezes her eyes tight. Her sorrow and her pain weighed heavily on her.

"It wasn't supposed to get so big." She pushes against me, but she's weak and exhausted. The flesh on her arms is already healing. "You should have killed me when you shot Enzo. Please, just do it." She struggles against me. "Or let me go. It will be easier for you." "So you can walk into the fire, never to be seen again? I don't think so Madison. Not while I feel the fire licking at my skin like it is me that is walking through the flames."

She manages to grab my hand with the gun, and pulls it under her chin, locking her hands tightly over mine. "I can't live in fear anymore. Please just kill me?" She tries to squeeze my finger over the trigger, though her weakness barely makes my finger move. Death is what she is hoping for. Death was a way to escape me, but I wasn't letting her go anywhere. Not yet.

"I am not going to kill you, not yet. But you keep your mouth shut about what happened and how the fire started. Do you understand?"

Lifting her from the ground, I cradle her in my arms as she hooks a burnt arm over my shoulder. It had been years since I had held another female like this. Her jasmine scent invades every inch of me. I hated it and I loved it.

I couldn't admit what she was to me, but I couldn't let her do something so reckless either.

Raven and Neah come rushing forward when they see us. Raven demands for me to put Madison down so she could check her over while Neah stares at me with a knowing look.

She pulls me to one side. "You saved her?"

"Clearly." I mutter back, throwing a glance over my shoulder to check Madison.

"Didn't think you liked Lycans?" Neah blocks my gaze as she folds her arms across her chest and narrows her eyes at me. She wasn't going to let this go anytime soon. "I don't."

She rolls her eyes at me. "Have you accepted her?"

"Why the fuck would I do that?" She gives me that same knowing look. I turn the conversation to her. "What about you. What happened to you?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Cut the crap, Neah."

"You don't want to talk about Maddie. I don't want to talk about what you claim you can see. But what I can do is order Maddie to tell me what happened in the forest. Actually, I think that is a good idea. I do need to test myself a bit more." She smiles at me and her brilliant blue eyes widen with excitement.

"Is Nyx in control?"