Contractually Yours Alpha (Riley)

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty

"You were pregnant with me?" I repeated; it didn't make sense. Why did she never bother to tell me this?

"Do you know what this means?"

"It means the monster is my father." I began; she stared at me as if expecting me to figure something out, and finally it was clicking. If Slade was my father, then...

"Alpha Thane is your brother Riley."

"What?"

"I'm so sorry, I should have told you a long time ago; this is all on me; it is my fault, and I know it, but please..."

"No. I don't believe you, mother; you are lying, right?"

'No, baby, I am not, and you know that."

"I don't know that! I don't know you anymore; the only thing I know is that you never want to see me happy. Why, mother? Why do you want to take away the one good thing in my life, the one thing that finally makes me happy?"

"I wanted to tell you Riley, but you told me it was all a contract and you would leave him. I was hoping that would happen; then maybe I could tell you at a later time, but you love him and things are getting serious; you had to know." "No. I didn't have to know. Tell me you are lying I pleaded, but then I remembered that on time Slade had taken me as captive. I remembered his words, 'Have you ever wondered who your father was?, It could be anyone-a roadside drunkard, a soldier, a captive, or...

even me,

He had a clue; he must have. Why else would he say that?

My brain had shoved that away so quickly, unwilling to think of it, but now I did... it all made sense; I should have spoken to her after what Slade told me, but maybe I didn't want to know maybe I had avoided it because I wanted nothing to spoil what we had. But my mother always stood in the way of my happiness.

"Why, mother. Why did you have to tell me, why didn't you keep it to yourself?" I questioned. I was in tears now. This was real, she was being truthful.

"I thought you would have wanted to know."

"You thought I would have wanted to know that the man I love... was my brother?"

"You aren't supposed to love him."

"Don't you dare tell me what I am supposed to do it is my feelings; you have no control over it. Do not think for once that because you made a foolish decision, then I would too; I am not

you."

"Yet you are following my footsteps; you are falling in love with the wrong man, and I am forced to watch you. You may think I hate you; carry on, but what I do, I do to protect you." "No. You've never protected anybody but yourself; you are selfish, and I once regretted calling you that, but it was true; it had always been about 'you'. These past few days I had been so happy; I knew it would end too soon, but I never knew you would be the cause."

She rose to her feet. "Am I the cause? What did I do wrong? Is it the fact that I brought you into the world or the fact that I know what is right for you and don't want you hurt?"

"In the process of trying to keep me 'safe'," I said with the hand gesture, "You had hurt me more than anyone had, and this time, I would never forgive you."

"Don't say

that. I was only doing what I thought was right."

"Right for who?, for me or for you?. You don't need to answer that; it had always been about you; your dream of freedom became mine too, but still, you always wanted more. He would have killed you when you attacked Slade, but he didn't.

I really hate you right now, mother."

"You think you do now, but soon, you will understand that I was only trying to help."

"Keep your help to yourself. From now on, if you need an audience with me, you queue in line with others waiting to be heard by the Queen Luna. Do not stop by my place; I do not want to see your face every again," I said, and the words hurt me too, but this time I didn't feel like taking them back.