Contractually Yours Alpha (Riley)

Chapter Fifty Five

+25 BOHUS

In a few days, the wolfsbane was completely out of my system, I could finally walk without any support.

So I decided to pay Aric a visit. I knocked on the door to his apartment, and as if he had been waiting right there, he opened it immediately and pulled me into a hug.

"I wanted to visit you and see how you were doing, but Alexander is a bit more possessive of you now." "It's alright; I'm fine now."

Finally, he pulled away and shut the door behind him. "You would have died-I should have gone with you."

"But I didn't. All thanks to Alexander."

"I might not like the Alpha very much, but I will always be grateful to him for this."

"He saved my life, and that's why I'm here. I want to know what happened to the Gray Moon Pack and how I was able to make it here alive.

"I don't know all the details, but I heard that every pack member at the Wedding Feast was burned alive- none survived. What's strange is that the fire didn't spread. It never went past the hall; it just... quenched.

"And what about Grayson?"

He's dead, burned to the bone-just like the others. The pack will need a new Alpha, someone to take charge until his son comes of age. Most of the time, those chosen aren't willing to step down when the time comes, not after they've had a taste of power. For now, the Beta will take his place until a decision is made."

"Before I blacked out, I saw something-Grayson's eyes. They were the color of flames."

"Flames?" He repeated, and I nodded; he knew I wasn't just making this up. "Are you trying to say he burnt them to the ground with strange magical flames?"

"I am trying to say he wielded the flames; how else would you explain why a fire so huge didn't spread?" "Werewolves don't..."

"I know that, I know a werewolf shouldn't do that, but I saw it, and I am sure."

"What do you think? How could he do it?"

"I don't know."

Grayson was dead; he deserved to die, and I didn't pity him one bit, but the girl.

"Did our soldiers make it out?" I asked.

"Surprisingly, they did. They're still under the healer's care, and Alexander brought a girl with him-she's from their pack as well."

"A girl? What does she look like?"

"She's young, maybe around..."

"Fifteen." I completed his sentence.

"Do you know her?" he asked,

"She was Grayson's wife."

1/2

Chapter Filty Five

"Wife? The Gray Pack's disgusting traditions never cease to amaze me."

"They are truly disgusting; hopefully Grayson's death brings a positive change."

"Why did King Alexander bring this... girl here?"

"Apparently, she is a widow and an orphan now; she needs a new home."

I paid the little girl a visit; she was being tended to by Saral a healer from the Dawn Pack. She tried sitting up the moment she spotted me.

"Please, lie down; I only came to see how you were faring.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

I sat beside her. "No hurt will come to you here. You hear me? No one would hurt you ever again." Tears rolled down her cheeks, and it took everything in me not to hug her. "My parents?"

I didn't know how to tell her, but she had the right to know perhaps she would have already suspected it. "They are dead." I said to her, choosing to be plain with her.

'Good." She whispered, and that surprised me. I could see the hatred in her eyes-the same hatred she had hidden behind her smile the wedding ceremony. "They deserved to die. I was their only daughter, and yet they sold me to the pig-they knew what he would do to me, and they did not only force me into marrying him; they trained me into being a true, submissive bride.

"They didn't have the right." I said to her.

"I want to know, Luna. Did they scream when the fire burnt their flesh?"

I stared at her. "Yes, they cried and begged till their voices went hoarse, but the fire didn't cease; it burnt them alive - every single one that cheered in the ceremony."

She nodded, a small smile on her lips. "Good." She repeated again.