Filed to story: The Alphas Contract Novel by Taylor West
“He’s alive. You didn’t kill him.” I confirm. “And I have drugged him. He won’t be able to fight us or Neah now.”
She bobs her head. “There’s something else.” She looks behind her and slowly moves forward until I can see all of her. She wasn’t alone. Samara steps to one side. Another woman is standing behind her. Long obsidian hair hangs around her face and probably doesn’t finish much before her navel.
She has a very faint scent, like one that is trying to break through. Though it is so weak that it explains why I hadn’t even noticed she was in the house. Rope burns mark her wrists and ankles. Her trainers are scuffed and she needed a goos scrub.
*She was tied up, upstairs.” Samara tells me. “This is the right thing to do, right?”
“Of course it is. What’s your name?” I ask softly
“What’s yours?” She asks
“Klaus.”
“Eris.” She whispers back. “Eris Neoma.”
“Funny name.” Samara smiles at me.
I nod, hoping that her name didn’t actually represent her personality. It literally means chaos, new moon. “Are you a Wolf?”
“I was.” She keeps her voice to a whisper, but turns her face towards Cooper. I still couldn’t see her eyes. “He took it from me. And now, I don’t know what I am.”
She reaches for a knife and my instinct is to grab her wrist. “We are taking him back to the Alpha. You can come with us too.” I offer. I was certain Dane would let her in if she needed help.
*The Alpha,” she asks from behind her dark hair. “Does he shift to look like her?” She points at Samara.
“One of them does.” I tell her. Sometimes I forget there are still people in the world that don’t know of Lycan’s existence, even when there are probably more of them than us. They had been living in plain sight for so many years.
“I don’t want to go.”
“We have a couple of other people like you. Ones that had their abilities taken away. They are Lycans though, like her.” I gesture to Samara.
*Lycans.” The word rolls off of her tongue.
“Yes.”
*Did he take their abilities?” She nods at Cooper and as she brings her face back up, her hair falls to one side, allowing me to see her golden eyes.
“Yes.”
“But they haven’t got their abilities back?”
“No.”
*A little scent?” she frowns
*They smell like Humans. Did he drug you?”
*No. He muttered something over me.” A brow crinkles into a small frown “What is your Alpha going to do with him?” She stares me down.
*Skin him alive.” Samara blurts out. I glance over to her, her eyes are wide and her lips are curved up into a smile. Somehow, it seems like she felt a little more free. Maybe hearing the truth from Cooper cleared her confusion.
“You won’t do that. I heard him. He called you his sister.” Eris mutters.
*I just helped you, you don’t need to be a bitch!” Samara snaps back.
“I’m not trying to be.” Her golden eyes flash to me. “Would I be safe?”
*Safer than being here.”
She shakes her head. “Hmm, I think it’s better if I’m on my own.”
“Where’s your pack?”
She screws her face up. “I was running from them when he convinced me that he was my mate.”
Klaus
“Why?” Samara asks Eris
“It’s a long story. I would rather not get into it.”
Cooper moans from the ground and my eyes move to him. “There must have been a reason. How did he find you?”
*Can we not.” She turns away. “I get it, you are curious. I would be too if I had just stumbled on someone that was tied up. But I don’t need anyone else involved in my shit. Just tell me that he is going to be dealt with and I will be on my merry way.”
“If you are running from someone, they will find you in the end.”
Her golden eyes lock on mine. “Then maybe, I will just become a ghost.”
I should just let her go. She had made it clear that it was what she wanted. But she was right. I was curious. Why did Cooper have her here?
He groans again and his eyes flicker open. The realisation on his face brings a smile to mine. A taste of his own medicine would be just the beginning.
“What have you done to me?” He demands as he pushes himself up.
“I thought you would appreciate the irony of being injected by your own potion.”
Samara laughs and his eyes settle on her. “You stupid bitch. Just you wait. I will make you pay for this.”
Samara squats down in front of him. “I’ve believed you every other time that you have said that. I don’t this time. This is it for you Cooper.”
He turns to Eris. “Eris, let me go.”
“And why would I do that? You’ve kept me here against my will. You made me believe a lie.”
“That’s what he does.” Samara adds. She stands and turns around to Eris. “You are not the first to believe that you are mated to him. It’s what he does to lure you in. He prays on people that he thinks needs correcting.”
*I figured that out from all the shouting.” Eris mutters. “I just don’t understand why you haven’t killed him yet. You look like some kind of mutant monster. Pretty sure you could kill everything in your path.”
*Klaus told you.” Samara murmurs. “The Alpha wants him.”
*Come on, Sam. You are not really going to take me to them, are you?” Cooper shuffles himself to the wall and leans back against it. His eyes are searching the room, looking for the best exit, but he was the one who had made it to be one entrance and exit.
“He doesn’t stop, does he?” Eris mutters
*Because he likes to have control and he knows he has lost it.”
*Klaus,” Cooper whispers my name. “You won’t do this to me. I mean too much to you.”
“What is he talking about?” Eris demands
“He thinks we are mates.”
She cocks an eyebrow at me, “Are you?”
“It wasn’t too long ago that he was holding me prisoner here. He drugged me and tried to mark me, yet kept me in chains.”
She turns back to Cooper, “Bit kinky? All I got was thick ropes.”
Samara looks away as she stifles a laugh.
“You don’t seem bothered that you were tied up.” I frown
*I should be, shouldn’t I? But he fed me, and I had a decent bed to lie on. And because of the lack of scent, it meant my pack wasn’t able to find me. Silver lining.” She shrugs her shoulders. “But it doesn’t mean I’m happy with what he did to me. Or by the sounds of it, what he has done to others. That is just fucked up.”
She wanders off to the kitchen and roots around in the cupboards.
“Do we just go?” Samara asks in a whisper. “What do we do with her?”
“She doesn’t want to come, I can’t make her. She doesn’t want any help. And we have him to deal with.” “Okay.”
*You won’t win.” Cooper smirks at us. “Do you think it just ends with me?”
“Yes.” I pull him to his feet and he tries to push me. But that strength I had felt when he slapped me, was long gone.
“We’re leaving.” I call out to Eris.
Her head pops around the door with a spoon in her mouth. She steps into the room with a jar of jam in one hand as she carefully scoops out another spoonful.
“Oh, you are actually going through with it?” She licks the spoon clean. “I just thought because of how long you were taking, you weren’t actually going to go through with it.” She puts the jar on the side and licks her lips, smacking them together.