Filed to story: The Alphas Contract Novel by Taylor West
“No, you just happen to be following a woman into the forest.” He has strange eyes, green with little blue flecks. “I didn’t catch your name.” Though remembered his arrival yesterday. He was difficult to read. Not necessarily untrustworthy, but not open either. Dorothy had given him one of her stickers and I had to trust my daughter’s opinion. It didn’t mean I couldn’t keep an eye on him.
“I was just going for a walk.” Madison tells me.
“And I was just making sure she is alright.” The guy gives me a huge grin with perfect white teeth. “There is alot going on around here. You can never be sure.” He looks me up and down. He knew very well who I was. And he is suggesting that Madison needs protecting from me.
“What’s your name?”
“Ash, Ash Thomas.”
“Right.”
Madison smiles at me. “Ash was just going.”
“Are you sure? I mean….” He gestures his head at me.
“I’ve been here a while, Ash. If he was going to shoot me, he would have done so by now.”
Ash bobs his head and weighs up whether or not he should go.
“I suggest you go.” I mutter, taking the choice from him.
He looks back at Madison. “Are you sure?”
“I’m fine, like I said, Brax won’t hurt me.”
He nods and walks away. Madison goes to speak and I put my hand over her mouth, listening to the footsteps move away.
She waits for a few minutes and then pulls my hand away. “What was that for?”
“I don’t like him.”
“I would never have guessed.”
“Was this for my benefit, Madison? To have someone follow you into the forest so I would come running.”
“No. And how did you even know I was here?” She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.
“I know a lot of things, but if you want him to stay alive, I suggest you don’t let him touch you.”
“You can’t keep me a secret forever, Brax.”
She starts unbuttoning her shirt, backing up against a tree. Trailing my fingers across her stomach, my tanned skin is a stark contrast to her paleness. She shudders against my fingers and her arousal is quick to fill the air.
It was wrong, but I found myself less and less capable of refusing her, especially when she tasted so good against my tongue.
Her body tremors as my tongue circles her belly button and her hands slide into my black curls. I’m just starting to loosen her jeans when the guy calls out.
“Hey Maddie, I forgot to ask…..”
Abraxas
I’m on my feet seconds before his face comes back into view. Madison hovers behind me, her fingers working quickly to fasten her shirt.
The guy stares at me, I wasn’t stupid, I knew he could smell her arousal but he doesn’t say anything, he just turns and walks away, his fists clenched either side of him.
My hand fumbles for my gun, but Madison stops me, “Don’t, it will just bring more attention. I will talk to him.”
I grab hold of her wrist as she moves past me. “You will stay away from him.”
“You don’t get to make that decision for me Brax.” She pulls her hand away and hurries off after him. I hear her calling his name, which gradually fades the further away she gets.
Bollocks!
If he doesn’t keep his mouth shut, they are going to think I’m a pussy. The Lycans will think they have the upper hand over me. I will become a joke to other Hunters. I needed to speak to Neah or Mallory, they were the only ones who knew the truth.
Making my way out of the forest, I couldn’t see Madison or that prick anywhere, nor could I smell her, maybe she had taken a different direction and i hadn’t paid attention.
I was closest to the hospital here and make my way over to it, hoping Mallory would be alone.
Thankfully she is.
She wipes her tears away when she sees me and paints on a smile. “Do you want me to get Klaus or Eric?”
“No, no, it’s okay. Come in, come in.” She waves me in.
“I want to say I’m sorry.” I murmur. Mallory didn’t deserve this. She is different from the other Lycans. I knew she had gone Rogue, but it wasn’t the same and her soul is full of cracks like Neah’s, I just hadn’t told anyone. And now, there was a new one that worked its way through her soul and I felt responsible for it.
I may not have pulled the trigger, but it was my weapon that had caused all the damage.
“You didn’t shoot me. Damien told me. Though for a moment, I did think it was you.”
I nod.
“But that’s not why you are here, is it?”
I scratch through my stubble and press my lips together. I could still taste Madison. “I am not the type of person to ask for help or advice.” I force the words out. It even felt wrong to say it, like they were somehow going to scold me. “But you and Neah are the only Lycans I can tolerate.”
“Ah, this is about Maddie.”
“How did you know?”
“It was either that or to do with Dorothy and Damien’s connection.” she shuffles on the bed and screws her face up from the pain.
“Madison and I have been meeting up.” I leave it at that and wait for her response.
She smiles at me and then frowns as she clutches her stomach, “Oh I wish you didn’t try and make me laugh, it hurts.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be funny.” I grumble.
“Okay, so you’re meeting up, and?”
“She’s a Lycan.”
“Yep, we have already established that.” She mutters sarcastically.
“This was a bad idea.” I get up to leave.
“Don’t go. Please, this takes my mind off of…thinking.” Her sigh is full of that same sadness she had when I first walked in here.
I stare at her and drop back into the chair
“So?” She questions
“I can’t get her out of my head and I can’t get past the fact that she is a Lycan either and the problems that it will cause.” “I’m a Lycan.” She protests.
“I don’t want to fuck you!” I snap and she rolls her eyes at me. It’s a far cry from the way she was looking at me the night she arrived at my house. If I remember correctly, her mate had to keep reminding her he was there too.
“Fair enough.” She frowns. “But you are a Hunter of Rogues, correct?”
“Makes no difference. If they are problems, I deal with them. You’ve seen that.”
“Is Maddie a problem?” She puffs out her cheeks as I shake my head. “Then why don’t you just claim her? She is your mate and from the sounds of it, you wouldn’t be forcing her into it either. At the end of the day yes she is a Lycan, but she can’t shift, so what are the odds of her going Rogue?”
“What if I kill her?”
“What if you don’t? Look, Eric was not my greatest fan either. When he marked me, it was an accident. In the same way you are having issues with Maddie, he had them with me, yet he couldn’t stay away from me either. At the end of the day, you are the only one who needs to care who your mate is, screw everyone else!”
“There’s a good chance a Lycan knows about us.”
“And you didn’t kill him?” She sounds surprised.
“Madison wouldn’t let me. She thinks she can talk him into not telling anyone.”
“Then beat him to it. I already know, Neah knows, there is probably a good chance Dane knows because Neah pretty much tells him everything or if she hasn’t, he can read her mind, the same as Eric can read mine. Neither one has said anything because they are both mated to someone unexpected. And from what I know of Maddie, she hasn’t got a problem with what you do. You did kill the man that marked her and was holding her hostage.”
I nod, mulling over her words.
“Did you know then?” She asks. “Did you know she was your mate when I brought her to the house.”
“Yes.”
