The Alpha’s Contract

Chapter 0257

Raven

The way he spoke to me sounded so familiar. Midnight drops her guard too. It sounded just like the Jenson we know, the brother I loved. Not the mad man everyone is claiming him to be.

I hadn’t seen him since the day Jess was killed. When Damien saw him in the street, the idea of seeing him had been more than I could handle and I had fled to the car.

I still didn’t understand why he left the pack and I definitely didn’t understand why he had chosen her. The very thing he claimed he hated.

“Don’t.” I whisper, feeling my heart break all over again.

“Don’t what?” He speaks to me from the back of the cell. “Call you sister?”

I frown, looking at his tired and gaunt face. He had been handsome once. I mean all the ladies seemed to love him and he had no end of women hanging off his every word. But to me. He looked exhausted and withdrawn, not anything like how I imagined. A mate bond gave you strength, but from what I could see, it looked like his had been zapped.

I glance back at Mallory. She hadn’t said anything, exactly like I asked.

“Why did you bring her? Stupid bitch is the reason I’m here.” Jenson growls

Mallory rolls her eyes and I turn back to face my brother. “You know you are alive because of her and Dane. Dane brought you back here.”

“And chucked me in the dungeons. Though he looks like he has made some improvements since I was last down here.” He laughs. His thinning shoulders raise up and down with the deep sound.

Surely Dane saw the same as what I did, that Jenson wasn’t in the right frame of mind. That something wasn’t right.

‘Aspen is weak.’ Midnight mutters. ‘The rapid shifting has made him weak. Jenson isn’t allowing enough time for the bones to heal. Almost like he is punishing himself.’

“What has she turned you into?” I ask, overwhelmed by sadness for him.

He stretches his arms out wide. “This is me, sis. I don’t know who you are talking about.”

“This isn’t you. This isn’t even a shell of you. You are not the brother I know and love.”

He chuckles again. “Maybe my mate just showed me who I’m supposed to be.”

“She’s not your mate, Jenson. She is just some whore that you attached yourself to and she is using you.”

“Jealous?”

“Of you? How can anyone be jealous of you, Jenson. I will always care about you, because you are my twin. But jealousy? You are on another fucking planet if you think I’m jealous! Do you not care about me, Dane, the pack?”

“No.”

One word. One single word that brings everything crashing around me. He hadn’t hesitated. He hadn’t paused to think over his answer. It just tumbled out like it was so final.

“She really means that much to you?”

“She’s my mate.”

“No she isn’t. A mate isn’t someone we choose. A mate isn’t someone who forces us to do things that we don’t agree with. A mate is someone who is selected for us because they make us complete.”

“Why would you think I don’t agree with her? I went to her and she agreed to help me.”

“With what?” Mallory mutters.

I glare at her and she pretends to zip her lips shut.

“It’s mental that you act like she belongs in the pack.” Jenson muses. “It’s mental that you let them slip into our way of life.”

“You have marked a Lycan! Why the hell is it okay for you, but not us?”

He rolls his dark eyes at me. “Oh Raven!”

‘He has more than lost it.’ Midnight murmurs

“I’m guessing she wants to kill Neah and you want to take out our pack, because you blame us for your idiotic moves! But if you don’t believe in pack life, what’s the fucking point?”

“What did you hope for, Raven? That you would come down here and find a way to save me? You are the one that needs your eyes opening.”

I slink over to the wooden chair and sit on it. Mallory leans against the wall. She’s picking at her fingernails, acting like she is no longer interested in Jenson’s words.

“Do you have something to say?” I mutter

She frowns as she raises her eyes to meet mine. The look that basically said I had told her to be quiet so that was what she was doing.

I gesture for her to speak.

Mallory straightens her back. She takes a step forward into Jenson's direct line of sight. He growls straight away. But it doesn’t stop her.

“I’m confused.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I heard you tell Blair that you could use me. That you could gain information from me. Isn’t that why you kept me alive. She was all set to kill me and you stopped her. Why?”

“Fuck off!” Jenson growls

“Anyone would think you had a soft spot for me. Yet here you are, acting like I’m the world’s worst villain.”