Contractually Yours, Alpha by Giftemmy

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Nine

Riley's blue eyes were just like mine-that was the only thing I'd gotten from her. The rest was all my father.

Her skin was pale-paler than snow, the kind of ghostly pale I'd only imagined. Her white dress clung to her body as if it were wet. I couldn't speak. I was frozen.

"Ethan, you need to return to your pack. There's a war"

I let out a bitter laugh, the shock finally wearing off. "You can't be serious, Mother. You finally show up after all these years, and that's the first thing you say? No 'How are you?' No 'How did you manage to stay alive? You know, those kinds of basic questions?"

"I don't have time."

"I get it; you are indeed very busy. Perhaps we should start with, 'Where the hell have you been all these years?"

smile. "I never wanted to leave, but I was a danger to the pack-to everyone around me. I was

help me or protect me-like I've lost the ability to do

this, but you need to know the truth. The only reason Thane lived long enough to raise you,

the 'cave'-Even though I had no idea what she was talking about. But if her time was limited,

his life. I cannot explain it to you, but perhaps I

stepped closer, placing her hands over mine. But I felt nothing. She was no longer flesh and blood, I realized-she

I was no longer in the bathroom. I was in a... cave. This must have been the very one she had spoken about. The air was cold, and only then did I realize I was wearing nothing but a towel-except, when I looked down, the towel was gone. In its

is where it all began."

in the cave with

of them-Thane. My father. The other man bore a resemblance to him, but he was a stranger to me. The stranger held a blade to my father's heart. Thane wasn't giving up, his hands gripping the weapon, trying to keep it from driving any deeper. Blood seeped from his palms where the blade cut into his flesh. But it was clear-he was losing. The other man had the upper hand. It was

help-but I passed right through them, like a ghost. They didn't even flinch. They couldn't

only shook

long time ago. There's nothing you can do about it," she