The Alpha’s Contract
Chapter 0396

Mallory

I am more than overwhelmed.

Neah keeps her eyes on me. I don't think she is waiting for an answer, instead I think she is watching to see how I process her words.

My mouth opens and closes several times as I struggle to form any words. I'm also pretty certain that if I had been holding anything but Luca, I would have dropped it.

Forgiveness was something I was never expecting. Never. She had made that very clear that day she finally heard me out.

I clear my throat, hoping that my brain will engage my mouth muscles. "You do?"

She bobs her head at me.

"Why now?" I could feel more tears creeping along my eyelids

"You are not who you were. I'm not who I was. We have both come a long way." She shrugs her shoulders at me like it's no big deal. "The person you were back then, she only ever cared about herself." She smiles to herself. "I killed the man who shot you because it made me so angry that I thought I had lost you too."

I hadn't thought about it like that and she had never mentioned anything about it. Brax had told me that the guy was aiming for Neah and that was why I assumed she killed the guy. Not because he had hurt me.

"You have no idea what it means to hear you say that." I whisper, still trying to process the weird sense of relief that I'm feeling. I had no idea of the guilt I had been holding on to. I guess I had just grown so used to it, that now it's gone, I feel strange, but in a good way. "It's funny." Neah shifts her gaze to the window. "I never thought I would see you again, I definitely didn't think we would be living in the same pack."

"Or that you outrank me, big style." I add and see her lips curve up

"I never had a friend until Raven, and even if she were still alive, I don't think we would be as friendly as you and I have become."

"She cared about you." I offer

"For a while, but then.....Anyway, do you accept?"

"Hell fucking yeah!" My response makes Luca jump, causing him to cry as Neah laughs.

I stay with Neah for a few hours while she mulls over Dane's reaction to Evrin shifting. Though I'm certain it's just because it's something he wasn't expecting. In the moment he was probably excited and then reality set in. It will be harder to protect him now and some people may not like it.

Leaving the house, I replace Dorothy sitting behind a bush, her back pressed up against a side wall, hidden from most people's view. She's doodling on a piece of paper and by the looks of it the discarded food wrappers, she had been here for sometime.

Slipping in behind the bushes, she stares at me with bright green eyes, waiting for me to tell her off.

"Dorothy?" I say softly. "Why are you sitting behind the bush?"

"I don't want my Dad's to replace me."

I lower Luca and myself until I'm sitting with my knees touching hers. "You know they can smell you, right?"

"I didn't think of that." Her shoulders drop and her bottom lip sticks out. "They are mad at me."

"Because of what happened at school?" It had to be the only reason.

She bobs her head and the bottom lip comes out further.

"Something made you angry?"

She doesn't answer me and refuses to meet my gaze.

"Everyone gets angry." I tell her, "Lot's of different things make people angry and do you know what I've learned over the years?"

She shakes her head.

"It's always better to talk about it."

"But they will be angry."

"Maybe, but if we don't know why you are, we can't help you." I'm hoping that she will replace it easier to talk to someone that's not one of her Dads.

"He said I was different. That there is something wrong with me."

"Kade?"

She bobs her head and I notice how hard she is pushing the pencil into the paper. "I'm not bad. I help Neah. He called me poison. I don't even know what that is. Then he said.... He said someone will kill me in my sleep because I deserve it."