The Alpha’s Contract by Taylor West

I call for the bill and the waiter that had tried to convince Neah to get some wine hurries over. His cheeks are already the colour of beetroot. He could barely look us in the eye. Neah presses her lips into a thin line but I see her shoulders jigging up and down as she tries not to laugh.

As we walk to the car, Neah links her arm with mine, almost pestering me like a small child, asking me where we are going.

"You will see."

I drive for another hour or so down to the coast. It had been a long time since I had been here. I used to take Jenson and Raven all the time when they were little, but as they grew up, the trip became just for me. A place where I could clear my head. A place of peace as I listened to the sea crash along the sand before it dragged itself out again.

It had been almost four years since I had been here.

Nesh is silent as the car comes to a stop. She slowly unclips her seatbelt and leans forward on the dash, smiling at the waves.

"The beach." She whispers

I thought you might appreciate

pulling off the trainers. Excitement flooding through her and

of the car before I have a chance to say anything

in the soft sand as she stares up at the crescent and stars that light up the

at me, she smiles and stretches out her

the water. Stopping a few feet away. Nervousness radiates from her. It was different, new and not something that was purposely trying to cause her

and lets out a

crashes into the back of her legs, sending her stumbling

up and down the deserted beach. "The boys will

the twins came along. To teach me about the power of the ocean. After he died, I tried to do the same with Jenson and Raven, but they missed the point. Raven had her own ideas for her future and Jenson just wanted what everyone else had.

her, holding her flush to

power. To keep it, you had to stay alert