0075
Neah
Raven convinces me to stay at the party. She somehow convinces me to sit and do nothing. To let Eric and Klaus keep an eye on Roan while I relaxed.
I couldn't relax. In fact relaxing was the furthest thing from my mind.
"I should just kill him!" I whisper for the hundredth time. "Get it over and done with."
'I agree!' Nyx murmurs
"Shifting is not going to help your situation. You said it yourself, you feel pain moments before your shift. And if you were a Wolf, you wouldn't be able to shift anyway! Think of the pups." "I am thinking of them!" I grumble back
"I know you want him gone. And to be honest, I agree with you, but just do this for me, okay. Let the guys handle it."
"If something happens....."
"Nothing is going to happen! There are too many people. It would be a death sentence."
"I don't think Roan cares about that."
My gut feeling told me everything I needed to know, and so did Nyx.
She hated sitting here while doing nothing.
She hated the waiting when she knew we could kill him in seconds and get it over with.
"Besides, what do you think his pack will do when they find out you killed him?" Raven whisper shouts at me
"I...I don't know."
"Precisely. We don't need another war. At least not yet anyway."
I look over to where they had set up the bar. Roan is sitting at the bar. Klaus and Eric are either side of him as he throws back drink after drink.
"The guy is going to be too drunk to do anything, anyway!" Raven smiles.
After a few more drinks, Roan leaves his seat. The other two stay at the bar, preventing any suspicion as Roan makes his way onto the dance floor. He stays there for all of three seconds. The moment he see's me, he makes a very wobbly path in my direction. A huge grin plastered to his face.
"Neah." He slurs as he stops in front of me. "Can I have this dance?"
"Resting!" I mumble back
"Ah," He smiles and places his hands on my stomach. I wanted to vomit, who thinks its okay to do that? "The pups. I'm sure one whirl won't hurt them!"
"She is on rest. Doctor's orders." Raven mutters as she stands.
"Pfft!" He grabs me and pulls me up in the air, holding me against him and just high enough that my feet can't touch the ground.
"Let her go!" Raven snaps at him
He glares at her and spins me away. "We need to talk."
With each twirl, I feel sick. Without my feet being planted on the floor, I couldn't force myself away from his tight grip.
He had my stomach pressed against his. His arms coiled around me. His face dangerously close to mine.
"I think you are lying to me about your precious Alpha." The previous slurring disappears, it was like I hadn't watched him down drink after drink. He spins us again, moving me towards a darkened corner. I see Klaus and Eric moving in my direction. If Roan tries anything, they would be too far away to save me. They needed to move faster.
"Please put me down." I mutter, digging my nails into his arms
"Not until you tell me where your mate is." His dark grey eyes narrow as he waits for an answer.
He leans in close, his horrible breath fans my face, "You see, I know Neah. I know my brother didn't make it home. I know Jess didn't make it there. So I will ask you one more time, where is your mate?"
"I have already told you, he's doing some work in the city." I whisper and he spins impossibly faster. His hands slide to my lower back and dig into my skin.
"Don't lie to me Neah. I know he killed my brother. I know it's your birthday, he wouldn't miss that unless there was something serious happening." "I'm not lying."
"Spoken like a true liar." He murmurs and smiles. "It takes one to know one."
"Let her go, Roan." Eric appears to one side of us, stopping Roan from spinning me any further.
"Tell me where he is!" Roan snapped just as my nose is filled with Danes' woody scent.
"I'm right here! And I suggest you let go of my mate." Danes' voice echoes through me. The relief I feel hearing that he is home is unlike anything I have ever felt.
I'm dropped as Roan turns to face my mate. Jenson stands tall next to Dane along with Jess. And then there was Mallory, the girl who had almost beaten me to death. "You killed my brother!" Roan screeches
"No, I didn't." Dane shrugs his shoulders
"I felt his death. Don't lie to me"
"And yet it wasn't me. It was a Lycan." Dane speaks calmly, though I feel his annoyance
"Don't bullshit me!" Roan screeches, grabbing me and pulling me back against him. His hand coils around my throat and he squeezes as I stare at Dane.
The music stops and I feel all eyes on me.
"It wasn't Dane." Mallory mutters as she steps forward with her hands raised. "There are Lycans that have the taste for flesh, it was them."
"Bullshit!" Roan yells as he squeezes my throat a little more. "They are all dead."
"Do you really believe that? I believe that Dark Ridge is your brother's pack, right? There is a place before Dark Ridge that has been claimed. The town is owned by Rogue Lycans. Your brother passed through with one of our kind as his prisoner." she gestures to Jess. "He was never going to make it out of our town alive."
Her brown eyes find mine as he continues to squeeze my throat. My vision is darkening. Her face was not the last I wanted to see.
"So you killed him?" Roan growls.
"No."
'Nyx.' I whisper as I find it impossible to breathe
'What about the pups?' She whispers back.
'There will be no pups if I'm dead anyway. Just the claws.'
Pain rips through my entire body. I could feel the claws pierce my fingertips as Mallory kept talking to him.
Reaching behind, I plunge the claws into his stomach. His hands instantly let go of my throat as he yells in pain.
My feet hit the ground and as I'm about to run, I lose my balance, landing face first in the dirt.
'GET UP!' Nyx screams at me
I couldn't move.
"NEAH, GET THE FUCK UP!' She screams again.
There is shouting around me when warm hands slip under my shoulders, helping me to my feet.
Mallory's face comes back into view.
"I know," she mutters. "I'm the last person you expected to see."
I was speechless. I had run the conversation through my head multiple times since it was announced that she would be coming here. I had so much I wanted to say. So much anger that I needed to get off of my chest. Yet, as I stared back at her, not a single word leaves my lips.
Every ounce of confidence I had is washed away.
"You need to move!" Mallory mutters.
"I can take it from here." Raven appears at my side, looping her arm with mine and glaring at Mallory.
"I was just trying to help!" Mallory frowns at Raven
"Let's go." Raven tells me, while steering me away from the crowd and away from the woman who had almost killed me once.
"Roan." I mutter when we are away from the party.
"Dane is dealing with it." Raven snaps, she seemed annoyed, but not about me being attacked. Something else seemed to be bugging her. She begins inspecting my neck, which we both knew was already healed. "Are you okay?" I ask quietly
"YES!" She snaps again, avoiding eye contact. "You shouldn't have shifted."
"It was just my claws!" I grumble, but as I study her face, I knew something was off. "What's wrong?"
She sighs, turning her back to me. "This is going to sound mad."
"Madder than a man in the pack who is after my twins?"
"The woman with Dane..."
"Mallory?" I spit her name
She nods. "She carries someone else's scent."
"Okay."
"My mates."
"Salem?" I ask confused
She shakes her head and frowns. "My new mate."
"What are you talking about Raven?" I mutter as she tugs me into the house
"It's not her scent." Raven mutters. She shakes her head avoiding my gaze. "It's on her. It's someone she has been near."
"Another Lycan?"
"I don't know, there's no way to tell the difference. You....when you first came here you smelled like a wolf. Though you had an odd scent too, from being bound. She said there were Rogues? What if it's one of them?"
I shrug my shoulders, I didn't know how to answer her. I didn't have a clue what a Rogue was.
"I never thought....not after Salem." There is a hint of sadness in her eyes
""You loved Salem."
"A part of me still does." She sighs. "He was everything and.... And he threw it away because of my brother. Because of my pack."
"Do you think this new mate won't meet your expectations?" I was grateful for the distraction, even if it is only temporary.
"I don't know. I just know he is going to have to be pretty amazing for me to even consider accepting him."
"I will trade problems." I half smile at her
"Your problems are my problems." she bumps her shoulder into mine. "And one of them is heading our way."
Through the open front door, we see Mallory making her way towards us. Her hands are shoved into her jeans pockets. A frown etched on her face. What right did she have to be angry? She was lucky we hadn't killed her already. She stops just outside the front door. Her eyes on me. "Can we talk?"
'The Audacity!' Nyx snaps
"I have nothing to say to you." I make it clear with my tone that I was not interested in anything she had to say.
She nods her head, a small smile plays on her lips. "You don't stutter anymore."
My eyes narrow, "Why are you here? Why did my brother bring you here?"
"He was asked too."
"By who?" Raven demands
"My best friend. Look, I didn't want to come. I wanted to stay in my town, but the Rogues are difficult. Damien said they are becoming feral, impossible to control."
Raven's dark eyes flicker to me before returning to Mallory. "And where is this Damien?"
"He stayed behind, he is trying to kill the Rogues. He said if he does, he will meet me here."
"This mate of yours, is he a Lycan too?"
"He is not my mate, but yes, he was bitten just like the rest of us." She shows us the bite mark.
"Well, almost like all of us." Her brown eyes settle on me and she takes a step closer.
"I believe you are the only pure bred left." "That's far enough." Raven holds a hand up to her. Placing herself between me and Mallory.
"I still can't believe you are alive." Mallory shakes out her blonde hair. "You should be dead. I thought I had killed you."
"Is that why you are here? To finish the job?" Raven asks
"No. Of course not."
"Then why weren't the first words out of your mouth an apology?" Raven snaps
"Can someone even apologise for something like that?" Mallory tuts with a frown. "It's unforgivable. The words won't mean anything. I know that if it were the other way around, Neah wouldn't be apologising to me." 'No,' Nyx murmurs, 'We would have made sure we finished the job!'
""You should leave!" Raven snaps at Mallory
"I've not killed anyone, not since that day." Mallory mumbles, ignoring Raven. "I couldn't. I shift purely to scare people. To make them back off. I make threats, but it's rare I follow through. That day changed me." "And that's supposed to make me feel sorry for you!" I snap.
"No, that's not what I'm saying. I... they used me too. Cassandra did. She told me lies about you. Lies that I believed at the time because I thought she was the most amazing person and I wanted to make her happy. I wanted her to believe I was worthy." "By hurting a defenceless girl? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Raven growls
She shrugs her shoulders, "Everything."
Mallory's eyes shift between me and Raven. "I helped him find Jess."
"I can't listen to this." I whisper to Raven.
Raven nods her head at me and tells me to go lie down.
I leave the both of them talking as I head upstairs to rest. Trey and Cassandra are dead, I didn't think I would need to deal with anymore people from my past.
I was in and out of sleep when Dane appeared, bringing with him the stench of blood.
"Is Roan dead?" I mutter sleepily
"Not yet." He leans over me and presses his lips against mine. "We are having some fun first."
He pulls away from me and seconds later the shower is turned on. I wait for him to get in before I sit up and ask the burning question. "Why did you bring her here?"
He pauses to look through the glass door at me. "I was asked to bring her."
"By this Damien guy?"
"Yes."
"After what she did to me?"
"What she did was horrendous, I am not disputing that. And I am thankful that she didn't kill you. But just like you are haunted by your parents death, she is haunted by what she did to you."
"Good!" I lie back and stare up at the ceiling. "She deserves to be haunted."
He doesn't respond and finishes his shower as I lay in silence. Eventually, he climbs into bed, pulling me in against him. "I am not asking you to forgive her. I am not asking you to become friends with her." "I don't understand why she is here." I mutter, fighting the tears
"She didn't have to help me find Jess, but she did anyway. If it wasn't for her. Jess would likely not be here."
"That doesn't answer my question."
He rests his hands on my stomach and exhales. "I don't have an answer right now. Or at least I don't have anything to say that will make you feel better."
Sitting up, I stare at him, "You always have an answer."
He doesn't speak. In the darkness, I watch his chest rise and fall. It wasn't like him. He always had an answer and that unsettled me as much as Mallory being here.
****
At the breakfast table, I sit my face in my hands. I felt like crap.
"Come on." Klaus speaks softly to me. "You are nearly done." He taps the book in front of me.
""Sorry," I mutter.
"Dane said you weren't feeling your best this morning." He offers a smile.
"No one warned me about this side of pregnancy. And I'm so fed up of fucking ginger biscuits!"
He grins and taps the book again. "Try to focus on this."
I read a few more sentences and look up at him. "Has he said anything to you?"
"About Mallory? No."
"But he's with her now." I glance to the window
"He said he is showing her around."
"Why?"
"I didn't get a chance to ask. But I assume it's so she knows where everything is."
"Do you think he is mated to her? Is that why he is welcoming her with open arms?"
"What?!" Klaus splutters his drink all across the table and the book I'm supposed to be reading. "It's just... I was mated to Kyle and Dane at the same time. He could have another mate out there."
"That explains why you look so tired. Were you up all night, thinking about that?"
I look away
"Neah, I don't know if it's your hormones playing tricks on you or you are genuinely overthinking it, but there is no way. Dane is an honest guy. You know how long it took him to find you." He closes the book in front of me. "Let's go for a walk." "I'm supposed to be resting."
"What good is rest going to do if you are just going to lie there stressing out?"
Stepping out into the warm morning sun. I see Dane, standing on his own. His arms folded across his chest as he observes the pack.
"You should be in bed if you are not studying!" He mutters as we approach him.
"Where's Mallory?" I demand and he cocks a brow at me.
"Settling in at her temporary home." His crimson eyes move to Klaus. "Can you give us some space?"
Klaus tells me that he will catch up to me later and gives me a wink as he walks away.
I take a deep breath and ask the question that has been plaguing me all night. "Is there something going on between you two?"
"I've been waiting for you to ask since I read your mind last night." He smiles, trying to break my tension.
"And?"
"No." He pulls me into his arms. "You are my only mate. You are the one I love. You are the one carrying my children." "Then help me understand because I feel like I am losing my mind!" I blink back the tears that are trying to escape. "I think she can help you."
I open my mouth to respond, but all I could do is shake my head and frown at him.
"Neah, if you are carrying Lycans, we need someone who knows more about them. It's still new to you, it's new to all of us here. She is not the person she once was. But she has been living as one for a lot longer than you have." Images of her appear in my mind.
Her hands gripped around my face, her thumbs centimetres from my eyes as she slams my head back over and over.
Pain shoots up the back of my head like it was happening right now.
"The others that have hurt you, they continued to hurt you. She left because she couldn't handle what she had done and she has lived with that since."
"She told me the same thing." I mumble
"You don't believe her or are you choosing not to believe her?"