Ch. 441..445: The Alpha Contract Chapter 441-445

Chapter 0441

"You thought we would just allow a complete stranger into our home?" Dane asks

"You are both Alpha's. I hoped... I hoped one of you would understand."

"He used the word bloodbath. Told us that you would get out and slaughter everyone."

She locks her fingers together, twisting them around as she struggles to find an answer. Her words are barely audible as she mutters that Cooper told her she was dangerous.

"Did you kill someone at the prison?"

She bobs her head. "I had too."

"You had too?" Neah presses

"Yes. I..." She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "It wasn't what I told Blair. It was a nurse, that was true. He used to come in at night." Her lip curls up and her eyes harden. "Touch me when he thought I was sleeping. I saved a fork, when he snuck in my room again, I waited for the perfect moment and stabbed him in the throat."

Her eyes flicker up to me. "I pulled it out and made sure he never left the room as he choked on his own blood."

It was a little surprising she wasn't a Rogue.

"I ran. Coop found me. He didn't make me go back though. I was too much of a risk" She lowers her gaze and blinks a few times. "He made me like this, didn't he? Coop made it so my mind is not my own."

"Yes." Neah mutters. "It's what abusers do, especially when they have been doing it for a long time." She turns around to look at Dane and disappears up the steps. Dane follows her, leaving me alone with Samara. "Why do they keep saying that?" Samara asks quietly.

"Because it's true and if anyone can confirm it, Neah can. Cooper has used you. He has you doing his work for him and he does that with the promise of keeping you safe and protected. Only he hasn't kept you safe at all."

"He talks to me. I hear him. It's because I'm no longer stripped. Obviously I have my abilities back, I wouldn't have just turned into that... Lycan. And the Alpha wouldn't have been able to hear me." "What does Cooper say when he speaks to you?"

"That he will get me out. That he is working on it." She pulls her shoulders up around her ears. "Something about a mate. Sometimes he sounds angry. He blames me for something." ""For what?"

"I don't know. His voice can be loud, sometimes it is barely a whisper. Other times it isn't even there."

"Have you always heard him?"

She shakes her head at me. "Only when he wanted me too."

I move towards the steps

"Don't go. I don't like being alone down here."

"You were alone on the farm."

"It was different. I had freedom. You don't have to talk to me. I can just sit quietly."

I sit on the wooden stool, folding my arms across my chest and she lowers her eyes. "How do you expect us to believe anything you say?"

Her forehead creases as she frowns. "I don't expect you to. I tried to play a game. I tried to trick my own brother. If someone here doesn't kill me, he probably will."

Samara lets out another whimper. "It's happening again."

Frantically, she pulls her clothes off as she screams. Trying to curl herself up into a ball but the cracking bones won't allow it. I watch her roll onto her stomach and push herself up onto her hands and knees. The screams are hard to listen to and I have watched the living be ripped apart by Rogues. The screams mix with roars of pain as her body contorts itself in ways it hadn't done last time. I couldn't stand to listen to it any more.

""Hey, listen to me!"

As her body continues to jerk about, her eyes find mine.

"Stop fighting it."

"I can't." She cries through a scream. "It's not me."

"Samara, it is you. It is your Lycan, no one else's, you have the control. Let it out or shut it down!"

Tufts of black fur begin to appear along her legs as they lengthen and widen. She throws herself back against the wall, her claws scraping along the ground. "STOP STOP STOP. You can't do this to me!" She lets out a final whimper and stills.

The tufts of fur disappear and her legs begin to shrink. She slides over until she is laid on her side and draws her knees up to her chest, crying and hyperventilating.

"There's a blanket right behind you."

Without looking, she reaches behind her, fumbling for the small piece of fabric and drags it over her naked frame. A few more of her bones slot back into their rightful place but this time, she only cries. "Were you talking to him? Was that who you were telling to stop making you shift?"

She pushes the blanket down just enough for me to see her eyes. "No."

"You were telling yourself?"

"No, I was telling the voice in my head."

Chapter 0442

Neah

"Slow down." Dane runs after me, grabbing my hand and pulling me to a stop.

"Why can't she see it?" I frown at him. "If she is telling the truth, why can she not see that what he was doing to her was wrong?"

"If she is telling the truth and that's a big if, it's most likely because she has been brainwashed. He made her promises, promises that she believed." 'She is still stupid.' Nyx murmurs and I repeat her words.

"Would you have said that about yourself? I know why you just walked out of the dungeon, Neah." Dane continues. "It's too close to home."

"There are so many bastards in this world." I mutter

He tugs me towards him. "You are right, there are."

"Do you believe her?"

"No. I'm following the path of not trusting people until they prove otherwise. Before you stormed out, I was about to leave to find Brax, just as Damien suggested."

"He's at the house, trying to convince Klaus he is a Witch Hunter."

His crimson eyes shift in the direction of the house. "Did I just hear that correctly?"

I bob my head.

"A Witch Hunter?"

"Apparently. Brax said he was wrong before, or at least he thinks he is when it comes to the mark of the initials meaning they are mates. He thinks that because Klaus isn't bothered by Lycans in the same way he is, that he thinks Klaus is a Witch Hunter and that he is meant to kill Cooper."

He stares at me with wide eyes and I shrug my shoulders. "I don't understand either."

"Klaus said he could scent Cooper. Cooper keeps referring to him as his mate. You heard what he said at the gate, he blamed us for stabbing Klaus." Dane's frown deepens

"Brax said something about Klaus being able to put up with Cooper's bullshit. And something about how there would be more Witches if they were all mated to the name on their mark, not less."

He nods his head at me as screams come from the dungeon.

"She's shifting again?" I ask, confused. I didn't understand why she would keep forcing a shift.

"It sounds like it." He mutters back

"Why is she so big? Her Lycan is bigger than Damien's."

"I don't know, but it seems like being in the cell is the best thing for her. We can keep an eye on her and monitor what's happening to her."

I look back towards the dungeon. Curiosity was burning through me. "You go speak to Brax and Klaus, because I don't understand what he is saying. I will stay with Damien."

"Stay out of her cell." He stares into my eyes as he waits for an answer.

"I won't go into her cell."

He uses a finger to tip my head up and presses his lips to mine. "I will be paying attention."

'Anyone would think we were about to do something stupid.' Nyx murmurs

I creep back down the steps of the dungeon, just in time for Samara to tell Damien about a voice inside her head.

Damien's dark eyes flash in my direction and it takes me a moment to realise Samara is curled up under a blanket in Human form. Her shift has either failed or she stopped it.

"Where's Dane?" Damien asks

"Gone to find Brax." Samara whimpers at the news. "What voice?" I press. Samara refuses to answer and pulls the blanket up over her face. "It's just easier if you tell me. I won't have to force it out of you." Could it be Cooper? Was he somehow getting in her head? "It started yesterday, it woke me up. Sometimes she shouts. Sometimes she is quiet like small whisperings."

'When she woke us', Nyx mutters, 'Was it her Lycan that was linking us?'

'She can't have a Lycan spirit, she would need to have Alpha genes.'

"You said she." Damien speaks. "Who is she?"

Samara shuffles herself back against the wall, tucking the blanket around her so that just her legs poked out. "She called herself Dakota. She said she is my Lycan." "That's impossible."

"I'm not making it up." She mutters quietly, lowering her head

"You would need Alpha genetics to have a Lycan that speaks to you and I wouldn't be able to force you to answer me."

 

Chapter 0443

"An Alpha?" her brows knit together.

'This doesn't make sense.' Nyx mutters. 'We are the last female Alpha. There can't be two of us.'

"Who are you parents?"

"My father was a man called Axle Clarkson. I don't know my mother's name. My father told me stories that she was from a powerful family but said she was never ready to be a mother. He convinced her to carry me to term and said he would raise me alone." "Cooper's surname is Ash." Damien mutters

"No, that's his middle name. Cooper Ash Clarkson." Samara frowns. "What is happening to me?"

"Just breathe." Damien tells her. "Keep your mind clear. Don't let her push through."

"What happened to your father?" I ask her as she takes multiple deep breaths.

"Heart attack. Even Lycans are not able to bypass that. I was twelve I think. Coop looked after me." She snorts and shakes her head, "But he didn't, did he, not really."

"Can Dakota tell you if you have Alpha genes?" I press

"I don't know."

"You have to ask her." Damien tells her. "Just like when you told her to stop shifting."

"Am I an Alpha?" She speaks openly to the room.

A few minutes pass and her brows shoot up.

""No." Samara tells us.

'She took a long time to answer, just to say no.' Nyx mutters

"What else did she say?" I ask curiously

"I'm not.... I'm not an Alpha but I do carry the genes of one. How?" She shakes her head, her grey eyes wide. "How is that even possible? You are the Alpha. We are not siblings."

'No we are not siblings.' Nyx growls

I feel the heavy thud of my pulse as the blood rushes between my ears as I try to process what Samara is saying. If she had Alpha genes, she had the potential to wipe me out and replace me. Just like how Jenson would challenge Dane.

Is that what Cooper was talking about? It could be a bloodbath because she had the potential to wipe out everyone including me.

Samara stares back at me through her cell bars. Her eyes are wide and fearful. Maybe she thought the same, that I would now kill her because she was a threat to me.

Damien strides towards me. "Let's get some fresh air." He turns back to Samara. "I will find you some clean clothes."

"You're leaving." She whispers.

"Just temporarily. My advice, get to know your Lycan."

"What is happening?" I murmur as the guard closes the dungeon door behind us and locks it.

"I think we might need to ask Klaus."

"Why Klaus?"

"He is the one who has been working on your family tree."

"You do think she is related to me, don't you?"

"Ryken once said you don't get multiple Alpha's for Lycans, not true ones anyway. There is a bloodline." He points to me, "So although she might not be a sibling. Maybe she is a distant cousin or something. The problem is, many things were kept from you. You didn't know who you really were, not until a few years ago." "Do you think Cooper knows?" I ask as we walk over to the house.

"He certainly knew she was powerful. Though there is a chance he doesn't know how powerful."

Inside the house, Klaus, Dane and Brax were arguing about this Witch Hunter business. I couldn't really make much out of the argument because they were mostly swearing at each other.

"SHE CARRIES ALPHA BLOOD!" I scream.

The three of them stop shouting and turn to look at me and Damien.

"She has a Lycan called Dakota." I mutter. "There is a good chance that we are related." I couldn't believe those words were even coming out of my mouth.

"I would have seen it." Brax scowls.

"Well clearly something is wrong with you, because you have missed so much when it comes to Samara!" I snap and he glares at me

"She isn't wrong." Damien confirms. "It's like your Hunter skills are slipping. You should have killed Cooper when you had the chance but you didn't."

"My skills are not slipping!" Brax snarls through gritted teeth.

"Are you sure about that?" Damien challenges.

"You want to challenge me now, Rogue?!" Brax spits

 

Chapter 0444

Damien

Brax's hands automatically move to his jeans, preparing to grab his gun. It takes him a millisecond to realise he didn't have it and he growls in response.

He was actually following Neah's rules. If I wasn't preparing for him to charge me, then I might have congratulated him on it.

"I don't care what is going on with you two." Dane snarls. He pushes his way between us as he looks at Neah. "Tell me more." "She said she could hear a voice. But it's not Cooper, it's another female. She has a Lycan, Dane. Just like how I have Nyx." "That's not possible. You are the end of your bloodline. You saw it in the family tree."

"Actually...." Klaus pipes up. "It's not finished."

"What do you mean it's not finished?" Dane demands. "There's more?"

"I think so, I just ran into a dead end."

"Are you telling me that I have another sibling?" Neah stares at him in disbelief. "Because Nyx is one hundred percent certain Samara is not my sister."

"No, no, definitely not. Only Blair." Klaus confirms. "You were your mother's only child, but some birth records that I managed to get hold of, indicate that your grandparents had another daughter after your mother was born."

"She still would have carried the Alpha gene." I mutter. "In the exact same way as Jenson and Raven did." Her name leaves my tongue with a bitter taste. I hadn't thought about her much and she was quickly becoming a distant memory. "The grandparent would have passed it down to any children and so on."

"Do you think the prick knew?" Brax asks with a frown.

"Samara is unsure. Her father told her that her mother wasn't ready to have children. But she still carried Samara to term and then handed her over to Samara's father. He raised her right up until he died."

"Cooper kill him?" Dane asks

"Surprisingly, no. He had a heart attack. Cooper has raised her since she was around the age of twelve."

"Before she could shift?" Neah mutters. "That's a bit of a coincidence, isn't it?"

"It is." Dane confirms

I shift my eyes to Brax. He is frowning and pacing. With his eyes narrowed and with the creases on his forehead, he looked absolutely fucking livid. Possibly because Neah is right about him getting things wrong. But how had he missed so much when he claims to see their souls?

"But Cooper has to know this about her, right?" Neah asks. "The way he spoke. The way he was pissed with Klaus for telling us not to let her out." Everyone nods their heads.

"What if he projects himself into the prison and lets her out?" Neah frowns and turns to Klaus. "You said he had to be strong to be able to wield a blade while projecting. So in theory he could appear in the dungeons and open her cell? Is that how his ability works?" There's silence

"Someone say something!" Neah snaps

"I will watch her." Brax offers

"Fine, go. Don't fucking kill her." Dane warns him

"Is that wise?" I ask as Brax leaves the house.

"I imagine he is trying to figure out how and why he managed to miss so many signs." He takes Neah's hand in his. "For now, we need to work out if Samara is definitely connected to my mate and how."

"She doesn't know. I don't know." Neah mutters. "Like I said, Nyx is certain we are not siblings and Klaus said my mother never had another child."

"I think that it's time to return to where all this started." Dane tells her.

I watch fear fill her blue eyes and she tugs her hand from Dane. "Moon....Moonshine?" she whispers

Dane nods. "Maybe we can get more answers there."

"We haven't been back there since...." Neah trails off. I watch her try to process what Dane suggested. I hadn't seen this much fear since she learned she might become Rogue. The confidence she normally has just vanished.

I knew the circumstances of how Dane had met her. I knew what Mallory had done to her in that house, but I had always kept myself away from knowing the finer details.

Dane cups Neah's face. "Technically, it is your land now."

Neah's eyes drop to the ground. "No one is there anymore." She mutters to herself and I watch her take a deep breath. "Okay, but I'm not taking the boys."

"Fine. Damien, Klaus. You two are both coming too. Pack some things, we leave in an hour."

"An hour? Not in the morning?" Klaus asks

"It's a few hours away. Might aswell get a headstart."

Dane disappears into his office to make some arrangements as Klaus heads for the door. Neah doesn't move, almost like she is glued to the spot. "Are you okay?"

"I haven't...um... I haven't been there since they tried to kill me." She folds her arms across her chest and sighs. "Did Cassandra ever take you there?" "No. I was not that privileged. But Dane is right, no one is there anymore."

 

Chapter 0445

"I know, it's just...."

"Dark memories?"

She nods her head. "If Dane had never come to that house, I could be in a whole different situation right now. Or maybe even dead. I would never have gained my Lycan. I probably would have died never knowing who I really was. And it's not just Trey, Cassandra or even Kyle or the others. It's where I watched my parents die. Something I was framed for."

Her blue eyes lock on to mine. "How is it that one word can take you right back there?"

"It's the way our brains are wired. But you survived, Neah. You became something that they never got a chance to see. You have several hundred Lycans here that will follow you into battle if needed and you wouldn't even need to order them. They would do it freely." "Thanks Damien." She gives me a small smile.

"You don't have to fear the past, Neah. Everyone from that time is dead. You won. This trip is purely about getting answers."

She nods her head. "Then I better go and pack a few things and make sure the boys are ready for Mallory."

"Not Athena and Sebastian?"

"No. They haven't had to deal with Evrin shifting yet. And I'm not sure they are ready for that."

*****

Dane drives while Klaus sits in the passenger seat telling Dane about how and why Brax thinks he is a Witch Hunter. I roll my eyes because Brax seems to be getting more and more things wrong lately and I wouldn't trust a single word that comes out of his mouth. "That doesn't make sense." Dane mutters

I glance over at Neah while listening to the conversation. She's asleep with her arm tucked up behind her head to create a makeshift pillow.

"She's nervous." Dane mutters. "Sleeping will give her a break."

"She told me it was the memories." I reply

"You knew what Cassandra was like. If I had it my way, I would have seen her head on a spike for the life she forced my mate to live."

"You think this will give her closure of the past?" Klaus asks

"We will find out soon enough."

At the fuel station, we switch over so I can drive. The moment Dane gets in the back, he pulls a sleepy Neah towards him. She curls up next to him, her head on his lap and his hand protectively on her stomach. I wondered if either of them knew yet. Following Dane's directions, we turn off into a narrow road. But the trees and bushes have become so overgrown that we have to abandon the car and walk the remainder of the way.

The packhouse is much smaller than the one at Black Shadow. Covered in a jungle of Ivy, it was almost impossible to find the door.

"Where are the other houses?" Klaus asks

"Around back. It's backwards here. The main house isn't protected by the others." Dane replies

Ripping the Ivy from the door, I push it open. The musty scents of dust, death and decay fill the air. Klaus gags as he enters and I try not to laugh. "Are you sure you are a Wolf?" I muse

"It was unexpected." He mutters back

"No one has been here for a long time. How could it be unexpected?"

Neah doesn't move from the porch. Her eyes are wide as she stares up at the front of the house. Dane moves back to her, holding out his hand without saying a single word. She sighs, but she takes it and follows him inside.

"Split up?" I suggest and Dane agrees

Upstairs, aside from the smell and dust, everything appears immaculate. One by one, I search the bedrooms, not finding anything of importance.

There's a tiny bedroom at the end of the hallway, not even big enough to swing a cat. I knew it was Neah's bedroom the moment I pushed open the door. Her scent still lingered but there was nothing here other than a small bed and an old rotting wooden dresser. No photos, no toys or artwork.

"She arrived with just a carrier bag of clothes." Klaus mutters as he steps in behind me. "The first time I met her, she was so afraid. She probably thought she was leaving one hell for another."

"Back when I was Human. I killed other Humans that were like Trey and Cassandra. Ones that hurt children and took them away from their parents. Sometimes it was even the parents that needed punishing. If I had known...."

"That was how Cassandra was. Even Mallory said she didn't see it and she spent a lot of time here. We never even knew of Moonshine's existence. Not until the leader asked Dane for help. It was a bit of a surprise that there was a pack living so close and yet it wasn't on our radar. That was the mistake Trey made. That's when everything went downhill for him."

"Yet it was Neah that suffered."