0039
Neah
Cassandra glares at him. "You don't want that."
Klaus looks confused, he was the only one in here who didn't know what I was, what
Cassandra and I were.
I had no idea what Beta Eric was trying to achieve. She would show everyone what I would look like. She would show him the monster that I was.
Cassandra's eyes settle on me. It suddenly dawned on me that she didn't know. She didn't know the mark from Alpha Dane had broken my binding. That was why she was holding back.
Everything that Devon had said about keeping it hidden from me was starting to make sense. They didn't want me to know the truth.
"I will come willingly." She mutters
"Good." Beta Eric and Klaus speak in unison.
"Klaus, I'm taking Neah with me. Clean up the mess in here. If this gets out. We will have even bigger problems."
He nods his head. Grabbing hold of Cassandra. The smell of iron is still thick but I couldn't see where it was coming from.
"She killed the shop assistant." Beta Eric mutters quietly to me, like he was reading my mind. "What you are smelling is a large amount of blood."
Cassandra giggles as Beta Eric pushes her forward. The van was parked at the end of the alley in the opposite direction of the busy high street. Cassandra gets in willingly and something just felt off. Beta Eric slams the doors, locking her inside.
"Come on, you can sit up front with me."
"Some....somethings wrong."
He cocks an eyebrow at me and looks around. "What do you mean?"
I look up and down the alley, trying to make sense of my gut feeling. Beta Eric follows my gaze. "No one else is here."
"Are you...sure?" My stomach ties itself up in knots. Cassandra hadn't tried hitting me, which was a first for her. "They never left the pack without each other."
"What are you talking about? Cassandra was alone when she tried to poison us."
"At the packhouse. But when they left, it was always together."
Devon had fallen out of a tree. I look up to the top of the buildings. There was nothing.
When the door to the bookshop swings open. Trey was dragging Klaus along the ground towards us by his long hair.
"I will give you him in exchange for my mate." He growls, his eyes locking on me.
Beta Eric's hand is latched around my wrist again as he holds me by his side. "Is he even alive?"
"Barely. But if you take him now, he might just recover."
"Why?" I whisper. Looking at the trail of blood that had followed them.
He sneers at me as I ask him the question and refocuses on Beta Eric. "You have a decision to make and I suggest you make it quickly."
"Get in the van, Neah." Beta Eric doesn't look at me.
I do as I'm told and hear Trey mutter something about me actually following instructions. I wanted to say something and hesitate before opening the door. "Van!"
Beta Eric calls out.
Reluctantly, I climbed in, closing the door, just wishing that I had a bit more of a backbone.
The van rocks a little and a few moments later, Beta Eric gets in, sighing.
"Did you hand her over?" I ask quietly
"I had too, we don't abandon our own."
"And Klaus, is he....is he alive?" "Yes, just."
"I'm sorry. This is...this is my fault."
"No, you don't need to be sorry. None of us expected Trey to be here. Dane thought it would be too public for him, especially with the area being a nrutral zone." "Why did you come?" I ask as moans come from the back of the van.
"Why do you think?"
I wasn't sure whether to feel pleased or annoyed. But if he hadn't turned up when he did, it might be a completely different story and I might not be making my way back to Alpha Dane.
Beta Eric doesn't speak the rest of the way back other than to confirm that Raven is already aware of what has happened.
Alpha Dane is waiting at the packhouse when we arrive. He waits for me to get out of the van when he grabs my face and forces me to look at him.
"Are you hurt?" He demands
"No."
"Don't lie to me, Neah."
"She...she didn't touch me."
He pulls me in against his hard chest, locking his arms around me. "I should have trusted my instincts to not let you go."
"You said....you said I was up to me."
"It was, I should have known better with them both still out roaming the country."
"I don't think she knew." I mumble against him.
"What do you mean?"
"Beta Eric challenged her to shift. She...she looked at me. I don't think she knew that your mark broke my binding."
"She should have scented you. Or maybe she was confused. It's been a long time since you were first bound. Maybe she mistook your scent for Klaus's."
"Make sure Klaus gets seen too." He calls to Beta Eric. "Raven won't be back for a while, but there will be someone else over at the hospital."
"Come with me." He mutters, dropping his arms from around me.
I follow him through to his office. I'm not sure what it was, but every time I was brought in here, I felt like I was going to be told off. That everything was going to suddenly crash down around me. "Eric said you had a weird feeling."
I nod. "Before Trey appeared. I... I don't."
"You can't explain it." He mutters as he sits at his desk and leaves me standing in the middle of the room.
"No, it just didn't... it didn't feel right."
"What did she say to you?"
"That Trey wanted to see me. That..." I screw my face up because her words just didn't make sense. "That he wanted to remind me."
"Remind you of what?"
"She didn't say. She didn't really have a chance."
"Klaus interrupted her."
I shake my head, "Beta Eric. He just wanted to protect me, just like Klaus."
He doesn't acknowledge my comment about Klaus.
"I should have killed Trey when I had the chance." He mutters with a frown.
Slipping into the empty seat in front of him, I watch him scribble a few things down. Wondering what he was writing.
"Alpha Dane, how did they know? How did
they know where I was?"
"A question for Klaus when he has healed."
"Klaus?"
"I'm not saying he was involved, but he saw Cassandra before you did. I need to know what happened in those few minutes before she attacked him."
He glances up at me. "Are you sure you are not hurt?"
"Confused." I mumble, trying to make sense of it all
"I will handle it." He changes the subject, asking me if I had bought anything nice.
"A few bits and bobs. I think Raven has them." I pull the credit card from my pocket and slide it across the desk towards him.
He picks up the card and smiles. "I tell you to buy what you want and you barely spend anything."
He pauses and his crimson eyes lock on mine. "The city was too much for your senses, wasn't it?"
"The first quiet place was the bookshop. Klaus said it took him almost a year to adjust."
"It did, particularly his hearing. It's why he lives so far out of the centre of the pack. There are a lot less people coming and going about their day and it was just easier for him. Unfortunately, you don't have that luxury." "Because I can't protect myself?"
"Because I want you in bed with me, every night. Not hiding out in a house, somewhere in my pack."
Alpha Dane takes me with him when he's told that Klaus is back to a hundred percent.
He is sitting on the edge of the same bed that I had been on when I thought I was dying. Klaus had taken the band out of his hair, letting it hang loose around his shoulders. And quietly drums his fingers on the bed. His eyes see me first and he quickly jumps up. "Are you okay?"
I nod my head as Alpha Dane gives me a reassuring squeeze. "Are you?"
"That fucking arsehole came from nowhere."
"Which one?" Alpha Dane questions him.
"What do you mean?"
"The blonde, Cassandra, she was the one who knocked you out first, right?"
"She asked me if I could reach a book for her. As I stretched up, she clobbered me across the back of my head with something heavy."
"Have you met her before?" Alpha Dane presses.
"Never seen her in my life."
"And the when they left, that guy came from nowhere, almost like he came down from above me and sliced all the way down my spine." He glances at me. "Don't worry, all healed. I'm a fast healer." "You've never met them, spoken to them before?"
"Are you asking me if I set this up? Dane, why would I risk being almost killed? You know I'm smarter than that. The guy barely missed my heart. And I would be an idiot to try messing with you. I've seen what you do to those that cross you. I would rather be on your side than standing against you."
My eyes flicker to Alpha Dane but he doesn't notice. I had only seen him kill Kyle. How dark could he go?
"Right." Alpha Dane murmurs, turning away.
"Am I clear to go?"
"Sure."
"Are we still having a tutoring session tonight?" Klaus asks me.
"No, not tonight." Apha Dane answers before I get a chance to say anything.
He doesn't sound angry. But he doesn't sound happy either. It made me nervous. Because it made him unpredictable.
Klaus leaves without speaking another word and Alpha Dane just stands there, with an unreadable expression.
"Are... are we going back to the house?" I ask after what seemed like forever.
My question seems to pull him from some sort of trance.
He smiles and nods his head.
For the rest of the evening, he barely spoke to me, but appeared to be watching my every move to the point he was making me nervous.
It was only when I was getting into bed that he asked me if I was accidentally linking them.