The Alpha’s Contract

“He beat you?” I finish her sentence.

She only moves her head slightly, but she confirms my question.

“Who?”

“Beta Kyle.” She whispers.

‘But she’s ours now, right?’ Aero grumbles in a panic.

‘Let me finish!” I snap at him.

“How did you know that prick was your mate?” I study her face.

“I don’t know. I could smell him.” She screws her face up. “He was the first person I scented since I was a kid. I don’t know how or why. But he was so angry. So disgusted.” Neah hugs herself as she looks up at the lights in the ceiling. “He hated me and I paid for it.”

‘She could scent him?’ Aero mutters. ‘How if she was bound?’

‘I’m getting to that if you will just be quiet for five minutes.’

“How old were you?”

“It was my eighteenth.” She keeps her voice quiet and sighs.

“And he was the one who did that to you?”

She looks at her stomach and shakes her head. “Luna Cassandra... I think.” She pauses, pressing her pink lips into a thin line. “Was it badly infected?”

“You don’t need to worry about it anymore. The problem has been dealt with. It will heal properly this time.”

Rising to my feet, I was about to tell her to get some rest. But I couldn’t help myself. “Why could you scent him?”

“I don’t know. I swear.” She shakes her head. “They bound me for a second time after that. I haven’t been able to heal since.”

I wanted to push for more answers, but I could see she was exhausted even after all the rest she has had.

“Get some sleep. I will be back in the morning.”

Leaving the hospital, I find Eric hovering outside, just as I had asked.

“She awake?”

Nodding, “She answered some of my questions. But I’m letting her get some rest until the morning. Eric, she has been bound not once but twice.”

“Twice? Are you sure?” He looks puzzled.

“I heard it from her own mouth.”

“She must carry some powerful Alpha blood if she needed binding twice.”

“She is possibly more powerful than Trey. What other reason could there be that would make them treat her like this other than fear? Why else would they set her up for the death of her parents?”

I don’t sleep. Neah had only slept in the bed for one night and it already felt odd to not have her here. By six in the morning, I was back sitting beside her bed in the hospital. Watching and waiting for her to open her eyes.

She groans first, stretching a little before opening her eyes. I see how she panics before quickly remembering where she is too.

“Hospital?” she whispers, looking for confirmation.

“Yes.” I watch her as she pushes herself up on the bed, ignoring her pain, and I wondered how many times she had to do that while living in Moonshine. I wondered if she had ever gotten a break. If Trey and the others just let her be for a single night.

Neah pulls her top up, studying her own stitches with a frown. “She made the wound bigger.” She mumbles.

“Raven had too. At some point between Cassandra injuring you and me bringing you here. Kyle, blood tied himself to you.”

“He what?” she asks, confused. She really didn't know much about our kind at all.

“Blood tie. It can be a mate thing. It doesn’t have to be.”

“I... I accepted. H...h... he wanted me to accept the rejection. I did.” She stutters.

“I think because you were still bound to a certain degree, that the rejection didn’t work properly. Or at least not how it should.”

‘She’s our mate!’ Aero roars inside of my head. ‘He’s not having her. I won’t let him. I will kill the entire Moonshine pack if it means that she gets to stay with us!’

‘Trust me, there is no way she is going back to them.’Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.