The Shadow Alpha
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I'd imagined this so many times before, but nothing could have prepared me for the shock that ranthrough me as he spoke the words.

I wasn't sure what he was apologising for, but my heart panged hearing the words from his lips.

“I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. I know I hurt you more than anyone else, but for what it'sworth; I am sorry. Not a day goes by that I don't wish that I could take back the hurt that I causedyou and I hate myself for it.” It was like I could feel his emotions, the honesty that he spoke withmade tears prick the back of my eyes and I fought to hold them back.

Not knowing what to say to him, I simply smiled.

“I forgive you.”

It was all I could say, but judging by the look on his face he was not expecting those words from mymouth.

"What?" he asked incredulously, which made me smile and nod. He probably expected me to lashout at him.

“I haven't forgotten what you did and it'll never be okay in my eyes, but I have forgiven you,because I deserve to not be a victim of that pain any longer.” His eyes fell to the ground and henodded solemnly.

In a way it was never about forgiving him, it was more about forgiving me for allowing myself to betreated in that way without standing up for myself for all those years.

“No, you don't.” He lifted his head and sent me a smile, which for some reason felt like a weight offmy chest so I returned his smile.

I frowned as I surveyed the room, “Where did Hunter go?” Devin shrugged looking surprised that hewasn't there either.

“Damned idiot left me to tell him the worst part alone.” I mumbled to myself with a scowl on myface, already cooking up a revenge scheme against him.

“Hunter you idiot! Get back in here, Devin is gonna freak and you need to calm him down!" I mindlinked the little traitor, seconds later Hunter came strolling through the door with a smirk on his facecausing my glare to harden.

The air became tense the moment Hunter sat down and his face turned serious, “Devin, what we'reabout to tell you is going to make you angry and a whole lot of other things, but we need you totrust us and let us finish, Okay?" Devin frowned deeply at us, but nodded hesitantly.

“Tatiana was not a regular rogue prisoner. She unlike the rest was not kidnapped and forced intobecoming a rogue.” Devin's suspicious look morphed into one of confusion, I could practically hearthe gears turning in his head.

“She was handed over to them.” His eyes widened.

"She met her mate when she was eighteen years old, when he came to her pack for a meeting withthe Alpha since he was one himself. Soon after they met she fell pregnant and so he stayed with herat her pack until it was almost time for the pup to be born, that was when he asked for them to goback to his pack for the birth of his son and she agreed. However, instead of taking her back to hispack he took her to a run-down motel and kept her there until their child was born; afterwards hetook their child away and handed her over to the rogues to kill her and dispose of her body, but therogue leader took a liking to her and offered her a deal that would allow her to live if she obeyedhim. Tatiana’s mate found another female to take back to the pack as his mate and mother of hischild.” His eyebrows were furrowed deeply.

“That's awful, what kind of a mate would do such a thing.” He sneered in disgust, “And he’s workingwith the rogues, that goes against everything an alpha is.” His jaw was set in anger. “What pack is hefrom? We have to do something.” He stood up and began pacing.

I looked at Hunter for help. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't replace it in me to say it out loud tohim. Hunter seemed to understand the look, because the next thing I knew he was saying the wordsI failed to say aloud.

“The Full Moon pack.”

Devin's eyes flew to Hunter; he didn't seem to comprehend his best friend's words for a fewseconds.

“Excuse me?” I saw anger building in his eyes.

“Devin, you're Tatiana’s son. Your father was her mate.” I placed a hand on his arm, but instead ofcomforting him, he shrugged it off.

Devin's eyes searched our faces for signs that we were lying, his face paling when he saw none.No..." his voice trailed off. “No! He is capable of many horrible things, but this?" he said in a steadiervoice, but I could hear the weakness behind his protest, no matter how much he denied it; he wasstruggling to believe himself.

I placed a hand on his shoulder which caused him to flinch, I hastily withdrew my hand feeling hurtthat he reacted that way a second time, but before I pulled it all the way back he grabbed my handand squeezed it.

“I know this is a lot to take in already, but there's more.” I wanted so badly to just gather him in myarms and shield him from the hurt and pain that was evident on his face, but he needed the fulltruth before it all set in.

He sucked in a deep shaky breath before looking at me to continue, “One of my abilities is beingable to sense a person's aura, basically it helps me to understand the type of person someone is,whether they are honest and loyal or dishonest with ulterior motives.

“In the meeting a few days ago I looked at Justin's aura and noticed that it was not the normalcolour blue, instead it was a strange emerald colour. That only meant that his intentions were notanything close to pure, but that he wasn't completely overwhelmed by evil

“I have only ever seen a few rogues with red auras, most of them were green meaning that they didhave some humanity left in them. I watched his behaviour and how he absorbed every last detail ofour plan, that's when I knew that he was an informant; he was working with the rogues, so I placed amental wall around his thoughts and got Dristan to watch over him and monitor his contact withothers.

“Devin, I know that you're not a big fan of Oliver, but I can confirm that he doesn't pose a threat toanyone, the only reason he attacked Justin was to stop him from getting to the rogues with ourinformation. He found out that Justin was an informant when he was in the rogue camp.” His blankface fell when he let out a deep sigh.

"At this point in time Allison, you could tell me you were a man and I'd believe you.” Hunter let outa light chuckle, but I was far too concerned to replace it funny.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly earning a scoff, he shook off the hand I had rested on his wrist andstood up.

"NO! I'm NOT okay! You basically just told me that my entire existence is a lie, the woman I calledmy mother for my entire life is a fake, and my father is the reason all of this shit has beenhappening, then to top it off you tell me that one of my best friends is a traitor!” he yelled angrily,my wolf whimpered seeing him in pain. I reached out to comfort him when he pushed me awayroughly.

"Stay away! For all I know you're another fraud!” all traces of sadness for my mate vanished.

If there was one thing my wolf and I both hated; it was being disrespected.

Devin turned abruptly and stormed out of the office, my anger only doubled at the way he brushedus off, prompting me to follow him outside to the front of the pack house.

I caught hold of his wrist and spun him around, “Don't walk away from me!” I muttered angrily. “Iam telling you the truth, so do NOT dare accuse me of lying!” he sneered at me and ripped his armfrom my hold.

“You're crazy.” He said in a distasteful tone.

That one simple statement did it for me; I felt my wolf surface and a feral growl ripped through mychest.

“I'll show you just how crazy!” I said dangerously before throwing a punch to his gut, he flewbackwards and his back hit the ground before something in him snapped as well.

Devin shifted into his huge brown wolf the moment he was on his feet and leapt towards me.

His first mistake was leaving his body vulnerable to my tiny state.

I threw myself on the ground and skidded under him using my legs to throw him off me, what Ididn't count on was how close his paws already were to me as his claws dug into my skin, leavingmarks across my arms and stomach.

The sudden pain distracted me for a moment giving him time to get back up and face me; both ofus had blood dripping from our injuries. We circled around each other both searching for aweakness, me still in human form.

The moment my feet left the ground to surge towards him, I felt arms wrap around my waist and Iwas jerked back.

I watched angrily as three large wolves held Devin back and I thrashed wildly in my captors arms. Ifought hard to get free, to finish what I started, when suddenly my back was smashed against a treetrunk.

I could vaguely feel the bark digging into my already torn skin, but the adrenalin flowing throughmy veins dulled the pain.

My eyes focused on Oliver's green ones urging me to relax and felt the air around me growingcooler as my breathing slowed and reason returned to my mind.

I distantly noticed the crowd that had gathered before a loud growl sounded and Oliver was rippedoff me.

"MINE!" Devin growled loudly and pulled me flush into his half naked body.

His eyes were pitch black, but unlike before it wasn't directed at me, instead it was directed at Oliverwho was dusting off his jeans a few feet away.

The possessive Alpha Male in him was making an appearance and it irritated me that I found itattractive

As if hearing my thoughts he crashed his lips onto mine in a fierce kiss, which I returned just asheatedly, pouring my anger into my actions.

When we broke from the kiss he didn't spare anyone a glance before gripping my arm anddragging me in the direction of the East border. When we reached the familiar stream he spunaround to face me, I could still see the anger in his eyes, but my anger had somehow dulled by nowas I stared at him with a blank look.