Ch. 491..495: The Alpha Contract Chapter 491-495

Chapter 0491

"Is that a threat?" Dane cocks an eyebrow at her.

"I just mean..."

"Can you stop lying?" Damien mutters. "Is it even possible? Do you not understand that Dane would be ringing for Ryan. No one else."

"Alpha Silas will know it's me. I'm the only one that has ever made it this far. I'm sure they are still looking."

Damien shakes his head and gets to his feet. He looks at me and shakes his head. "I can't do this anymore." He turns to Eris, "I, Damien Black, Beta of Black Shadow, reject you, Eris Neoma of Nightfall Pack as my mate." He spits the words "No." she stands her ground. If she was hurting, she wasn't showing it.

"Accept." Damien demands. Being here was so uncomfortable. I glanced at Dane and I knew he was feeling exactly the same.

Tears flood her eyes as she clutches her chest. "I can't."

"Yes you can, say it!"

"I can't."

"Why?" Damien snaps

"Because you don't mean it. You're angry with me because I didn't handle things well. Don't reject me because of that. Give me a chance." She begs

I watch him pinch the bridge of his nose. "You don't even want to be here. You keep asking to leave so accept the rejection and be on your way."

"You are supposed to protect me." she frowns

"And I'm also supposed to like my mate! Normally I am willing to give people a chance to a certain degree, but you are impossible."

"I'm impossible? What the fuck does that mean?" She asks wide eyed

I quietly watch Dane tapping into a phone, neither Damien or Eris are aware as Damien tries to force her to accept the rejection. A few seconds pass and the phone beeps.

"Ryan is alive." Dane confirms. "Ashburn city is still going strong."

Eris's eyes are like saucers. She managed to stop Dane from ringing, but that hadn't stopped him from sending a message.

Damien rubs his temples. "Are you some sort of compulsive liar? Do you even know what the word 'truth' means?"

"Why would you continue to lie?" I ask

Her golden eyes move to Damien like she was expecting him to bail her out, but if anything, he was even more pissed off. He sort of reminded me of a cartoon Raven had shown me, where smoke comes out of their ears. "Do you even know Alpha Silas?" Dane asks

She looks to the floor

"Answer me!" Danes voice booms, making her jump

"Cooper told me about him." she whispers

"Cooper? Why would he tell you about him?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "Alpha Silas is related to you, isn't he?" Eris asks, "Cooper told me about the eyes. When I saw yours I knew you must be related somehow, it's such an odd colour. He told me a lot of stories about a crimson eyed man and his pack of animals." "Did Cooper know him?"

She shrugs her shoulders

"And Ashburn city?" I press

"I don't know, just a name Cooper gave me."

"You've never met him?" Dane asks in confusion.

She slowly shakes her head

"You said you were his prisoner? Samara found you tied up." Damien mutters

"He kept me safe." She smiles like a mad woman

'He's dead and he is still somehow fucking with us.' Nyx tells me what everyone else is likely thinking

"Where are you really from?" I demand

"A place called White Cliffs. It's far away from here." Her eyes grow even wider. She had slipped and Damien could now reject her.

"I, Damien Black, Beta of Black Shadow, reject you, Eris Neoma of White Cliffs as my mate." He states it again, desperate to break the connection with her.

She felt it this time. I see it in her eyes. Pain, anger, confusion. She clutches her chest differently, like she thought her heart was going to jump out of her chest. She fights back the tears and hunches forward.

"Say it." Damien demands and for a brief moment, I hear Kyle, demanding me to accept his rejection.

"Are you going to kill me?" Eris begs

"Accept my rejection!"

Her breathing is heavy as she stares back at him.

"You are a compulsive liar, Eris. Not a single word out of your mouth can be trusted."

She lowers her eyes and whimpers. "I, Eris Neoma, accept your rejection, Damien Black, Beta of Black Shadow." She falls forward from the chair, curling up in a ball on the floor as she cries in pain. Damien stares down at her before leaving the room. 'Should we kill her?' Dane asks through mindlink

I shake my head. 'What she is feeling, that won't go away. Not for a long time. Let her leave.'

 

Chapter 0492

Dane

this woman.

I cock an eyebrow at my mate. It was not the answer I was expecting. Shifting my gaze to Eris, I sigh as she remains curled up, sobbing. She reminded me of Raven and how she had been after rejection. The difference, I felt sorry for my sister whereas I felt nothing for She had only been here for a short time and already she was a pain in my ass.

Pressing my lips to Neah's forehead. I tell her I will be back in a little while.

"Get up." I mutter to Eris.

She doesn't move and continues to whimper in pain, but she had brought it on herself. Damien would never be happy with her.

"Get up!" I snap, pulling her to her feet by her elbow.

"Where am I going?"

"There is no place for you here. You get to leave, just like you wanted." I tell her

"Really?"

I nod and guide her through the hospital. We pass Klaus but he doesn't say anything. He had done what he could, but it just wasn't going to work out. It would be too much of a risk to let her stay here. And she doesn't acknowledge him either. She shuffles along at an awfully slow pace and I had to keep tugging her forwards.

"Wait, this isn't the direction of the gates." she protests. "The gates are over there." she points in the opposite direction.

"We are not going to the gates." I direct her into the forest

"Why?"

"Too many eyes. And Damien doesn't want to see you." I murmur

"Okay. You will have to point me in the right direction once we get to a road. I'm getting all turned around."

I nod. She was already all turned around. "Cooper spoke of Silas?" I ask, wondering if I could get a tiny bit of truth from her.

"Yes. At first I thought they were made up stories, but after a while, I knew that they must be true."

"How?"

"Facts, small details. They never changed."

"Why did you panic when you saw me?" I ask

"Because you are the picture Cooper painted in my mind. You might look like him, you might not. But I do know from the stories, he has eyes just like yours. Strange and weird for a Wolf."

"And you could be lying." I mutter as she scoots around a tree stump

"It's hard sometimes."

""What is?

"Everything." She frowns as she ducks under a low tree branch

"Are you just saying it to try and get some sympathy votes, because that won't work on me."

"My mate just rejected me."

"I was there, I saw and heard everything. But what does that have to do with everything being hard?"

She stops and her golden eyes find mine. "Because people never see me for me."

"Understandable when you lie to everyone."

She scowls at me. "And you haven't lied?"

"I didn't say that, did I? Now keep walking?"

"He could have had me. I could have been his perfect mate, but no, I am not good enough."

"No, no you couldn't have. You are too much of a liability."

""Excuse me?!"

"Damien was right. It's impossible to tell what is a lie and what is the truth when it comes to you. You are all over the place. Scattered." "I am not!"

"Then tell me who are you running from?"

"I told you."

"You did. Then you admitted it was a lie. That you had never met Silas. So who in White Cliffs are you running from?"

"No one."

"White Cliffs are not a local pack, they are far north. So you travelled a long way before Cooper."

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious. Plus I need to know who to alert about your death."

She tugs her arm free. "What?"

"I love my mate and usually, I would agree with her decision. But lately, things have become too problematic to allow you to live."

"You can just let me go. I won't say anything. I promise."

"That's the problem, Eris. You might be more believable if you had just told everyone the truth in the first place."

"I mean it." She begs, her voice going all squeaky. "I really won't say anything and I won't come back here. It will be like it never happened."

She takes a step backwards. Holding her hands up. "Neah said I could go. I heard her."

"Yes, she did say that. But did you not take notice of her surroundings? She was in a hospital, exhausted. She wasn't necessarily clear in her thinking, but I am."

With each step I take towards her, she backs up until her body crashes into a tree.

""Please!"

She freezes as a gun goes off, not even a second passes and I see the small bullet hole in the centre of her forehead. A tiny trickle of blood runs down between her eyes. The light dimming from them before her body slides down the tree trunk.

Chapter 0493

"How long have you been following us?" I ask as his footsteps crunch on the ground.

Brax steps up behind me "Long enough."

"I was going to kill her."

"And if you had, it may just screw things up between you and Neah."

I spin around to look at him. "Neah understands more than you will ever know. I was going to kill Eris for her, for us, for our family. Letting her go would have been a mistake."

"We all know that." He walks to Eris who is still slumped against a tree. Using his fingers, he carefully closes her eyelids. "But Neah is pregnant and she is going to need you. And this way, you don't need to lie to her. Besides, Neah already knows that I will do what I need to do, to ensure that she and her babies are safe. That was the deal right?"

"I wasn't going to lie."

"Okay." He mutters, pulling Eris over his shoulder. "Let me deal with this, you head back."

I take my time going back to Neah. I wasn't sure why Brax thought I would lie to my mate. I had no intention of lying, that wasn't the agreement between Neah and I. I just needed to kill Eris first. At least now, she was another problem cut from our lives. 'Dane, come to mine!' Eric links me

'What's the problem?'

'Um, it's a little too complicated for me to explain. Just hurry.'

Eric is outside with Luca and Logan when I arrive. "What's happening?"

"Evrin." He points to the house and I hear a crash come from inside. "Mall is trying to contain him."

"He's shifted?" I ask as there is another crash along with Mallory telling Evrin to stop.

Eric nods at me

I walk inside to a house looking like a tornado had ripped through it. Furniture was uprooted, broken dishes scattered the floor. Clothes and food had been flung around the room.

I hear Mallory upstairs, talking and trying to calm my son down. It's met with growls and footsteps pounding across the floor.

Evrin tears down the stairs towards me, throwing his Lycan frame at me. His arms lock around my neck as he buries his nose against me. His breaths are heavy and his heart races but as I hold him, I feel his body grow heavy and he slowly starts shifting back. A frazzled Mallory descends the stairs, staring at me. "Is that really all it has taken?"

My eyes move over the trashed house. Evrin couldn't do a lot in Human form, but he could as a Lycan.

"Mumma." He whispers tearfully.

"I think we have found what this was all about." I look down at my son. He was a miniature version of her. But unlike Logan, Evrin seemed to know when something wasn't right with his mother.

"Is Neah okay?" Mallory asks

"She's resting, but she will be okay."

"Mumma." Evrin whispers again.

"Let's get dressed and go find her." I smile at him and tell Mallory that I will be back to clean up.

Logan stands up when I'm outside, holding his hands up and waiting to be picked up. In true sibling style, they start pushing each other, but start laughing when I carry them like footballs and purposely swing them through the air.

They are giggling all the way to the hospital and are desperate to get down when they see Neah. The boys scramble all over her, both fighting for attention as she hugs them and I feel my heart burst with pride.

If anyone had asked me a few years ago about my future children, I would have laughed in their face, but here they were and soon enough two would become four.

"Has she gone?" Neah asks as the boys settle down.

"You don't need to worry about her." I tell her

She studies me for a second. "Did you..."

"I was going to, but Brax beat me to it."

Her eyes remain on me as she combs her fingers through Logan's dark hair.

"I understand what you said, but after all that's happened..."

"She was too much of a risk." she bobs her head.

"We didn't know who she was or if Cooper was using her and she was playing us. This way. There isn't a chance that she can screw us over."

"Okay. What about Silas? Do we need to be ready for him?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But he isn't my priority right now. He might just be a story. Cooper may have found out a few things to try and use against us. If something comes, I will deal with it." "I would prefer it if nothing happened for a while."

 

Chapter 0494

Damien

"Rejecting Eris was the right thing to do." Mallory sighs as she rocks back and forth, cradling Luca.

I glance around her chaotic home, "And I'm pretty sure she is dead now anyway."

She freezes. "Care to explain?"

"I was going home to check on Dottie but I changed direction to come here. I saw Dane take her into the forest and shortly after, Brax followed. Dane came out."

"But Brax and Eris didn't?"

"Exactly."

"Are you feeling guilty? Because that isn't like you."

"I'm not sure what I feel. Everything that I've been working so hard to ignore and bury, has come right back to the surface. When the hold on Eris broke and I realised who she was, all I could think about was Raven and what happened to her." "You know that what happened to her was not normal."

"Is anything about us normal?" I cock an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, poor choice of words." she mutters

"What I'm saying is, I don't understand how Eris could have been mated to me. She was a self righteous, crazy bitch. And that is putting it lightly."

Mallory laughs at me. "Yep, definitely not your type."

"And Dottie hated her."

"Dorothy does have a pretty clear view on who she likes and who she doesn't. Speaking of Dorothy, how is she doing now that things have changed with Kade." "Better."

"And Kade? What is going to happen to him now?"

"Now Cooper is dead, I think that he will be allowed out. He will probably not be able to go anywhere on his own for a while."

"Just like his sister."

I hadn't given much thought to Blair. She had kept her head down and got on with everything. "I'm going to head home."

"Sure you don't want to stay?"

"No, I need to clear my head."

***

I stand at the front door of my home, listening to Dottie squealing with pure happiness. For a moment it reminded me of how Raven had made her laugh. Each and every time I had heard it in the past, Raven had always been right there with her. Dottie appears at the window, her skin flushed and what looked like beads in her hair. "Are you coming inside, Daddy?"

"I will be back in a minute. Is that okay?"

"Okay, but hurry, me and Sammie have a surprise." I couldn't get over how much Dottie liked Sammie when everyone else around here had a problem with her.

I take the long way around to the small cemetery. I hadn't set foot here since the day Raven and her twin were buried. I didn't have the words then and I'm not sure if I do now.

The cemetery was kept spotless. Weeds and fallen leaves had been removed and brightly coloured flowers lined each grave. I stand at the edge of hers. My hands in my pockets and silently wishing that she had never given up on life. That she had found a way to tell me that she was done.

I still blamed myself. I had watched her fade and the little things I did to stop her fading further, were just not enough. I should have tried more. I should have made her more of a priority. I should have fought harder for her.

"You couldn't have changed anything."

I glance up to see Brax. Dirt all over his face and a shovel over his shoulder.

"I thought I would find you here. I did the exact same thing when I realised Madison was my mate. I returned to my first mate's grave."

He lowers the shovel, balancing it against the small gate and makes his way over to me.

"You wish that things had been different. That you could have found a way to save her. Trust me, I know. I saw it that night and it's also the way I felt about my wife."

"When my mate and children were taken from me, I went on a mission, hunting and slaughtering every Rogue I could find in my search for Blair and Dorothy. I didn't stop because I didn't want to feel. You distanced yourself, because the slightest conversation about her brings you right back to feeling this." He points at Ravens grave.

"Is that why you don't spend any time with your daughter?" I snap

 

Chapter 0495

"She looks just like her." He murmurs. "The eyes, the hair, even those little cheek dimples. I should be more than happy that she looks just like her mother."

"It's a constant reminder of what you lost." I sigh

"I love her. She is mine and she will always be mine."

We stood in silence for a few minutes. "Is Eris dead?"

"Yes."

I nod, "Raven would have hated her. I don't understand why I was paired with her."

"The higher powers work in mysterious ways. But I do have a theory."

"Please enlighten me." I mutter with an eye roll.

"You were Human once."

"That's all you've got?"

"The story is that each and everyone of us has a life expectancy. A day where we can no longer recover or heal from whatever is thrown at us. Part of that story includes us finding our mates. But Wolves and Lycan mates are decided long before we even touch this Earth." "If that were the case, why are Lycans being mated to Wolves?"

He shrugs his shoulders at me. "As I said. It was decided long ago. But your kind threw a spanner in the works."

"Lycans?"

"Bitten Lycans. Maybe it was something they didn't see coming."

"That makes no sense. If our mates were already chosen, then they would have known we were in the works otherwise we wouldn't be mated."

He looks up to the sky. "Or maybe they are just playing with our lives and throwing challenge after challenge at us. A game of survival. But we all die in the end. That much is guaranteed."

I cock a brow at him, "Did you eat some mushrooms when you were in the forest?"

He smiles at me. "No, but sometimes we are missing what is right in front of us, Damien." He walks to the gravestone and places his hand on it as he looks back at me. "She was your step to finding the one that you are supposed to be with." "Are you talking about Eris or Raven?"

"Maybe both." He picks up the shovel as he walks away.

Sometimes, I was certain he was high on something.

Lowering myself to the grass, I stare at her gravestone for far too long. Wondering what she would think of all that has happened.

Maybe Brax was right. Maybe she did have an expiration date and was never meant to live this long. But I knew a part of her would always be with me.

It's late when I get back. Samara is sitting on the sofa, with her hands clasped around a mug as she practically inhales the coffee. I glance around the room. Sheets were stretched out everywhere being held up with pegs and string. "Sorry, we made a den. Dorothy wanted to show you, but she crashed out."

"She's asleep?"

She nods at me as puts her mug down. "She had a bath. A story and is asleep in her bed."

I glance over my shoulder towards the stairs and furrow my brow. "She hasn't made a sound?" There were very few people who she would allow to tuck her in. "How long has she been asleep?"

She glances up to the clock. "About an hour. When you didn't come back, I told her that you might have been called to do something for the pack and that she was fine." She pauses and frowns. "Sorry, did you not want me to...."

"It's surprising, that's all. Excuse me for a minute."

Quietly moving upstairs, I poke my head around Dottie's door. She's sprawled out on her stomach. Her light brown hair is braided and soft snores fill the quiet. It was odd to see her so relaxed in her sleep and not curled up in a tight ball. And the teddy bear that she had been given not long after I rescued her was on the floor instead of in a death grip.

"Is everything okay?" Samara asks as I make my way down the stairs.

"Yes. There has just been a lot happening today. A few things I need to wrap my head around."

She smiles at me and nods. "Do you want to talk?"

"Not yet."

"Okay, do you mind if I get some sleep. Your kid is great but I am exhausted. It's been a long time since I've been this active." She lets out a small laugh