Heaven

dashes after him. However, before she could fully clear the stairs,

Ziason was already out.

She

tries to open the door and discovers it’s locked. Banging on it

doesn’t even solve a thing.

It

dawns on her only then that she really is a captive in this tower for

five freaking years. But, also, Ziason is an Alpha. And he killed the

lawyer without even batting an eyelid.

How

can she be certain he would not kill her as well?

“Oh

my god…” she mutters while leaning against the door and sliding

down to a crouch.

Deceit.

That’s what this is.

All

this while, Ziason deceived her. He made her believe this job offer

wall full of roses, but now she’s seeing all the dark patches in

it.

She

should have known it would amount to no good when he bought her

freedom. Killing the lawyer, then being an Alpha, is what opened her

senses to the stink of true danger.

How

come she didn’t smell that in his essence—wasn’t an Alpha’s

aura supposed to be heady? Or is it true what the books say that an

Alpha can mask his aura?

Heaven

can’t help but retract her thoughts to when she first met Ziason at

the bridge. If only she had looked closer or listened to the quiet

voice that tried to defy her decision, she would not have fallen into

this trap.

Now,

recalling his absolute gentleness to Kaicha earlier feels weird to

her. Because how on earth can a person swiftly switch from

softhearted to hardhearted in such a small period of time?

Who

knows what he’ll do next—not paying her for the entire five

years, and then killing her? And the girl, why’s he taking so much

measures just to teach her dance? Why would he kill the lawyer, or

even capture the lawyer’s family?

Unless…

Ziason did not plan to follow the contract, which could have been a

ploy to lure Heaven into compliance. Since he succeeded in bringing

her here, he then had to kill the lawyer, who was the only other

person who seemed to know about the contract.

Speaking

of the contract, it’s there in the pool of the lawyer’s blood.

Sinking in the fluid. Reduced to a mere paper.

And

Heaven wonders, what if this man’s fate ends up being hers?

.

.

.

.

_________

Heaven’s

eyes gradually open to the blurry view of a wooden ceiling rippling

in twos and threes.

She

feels a solid barrier at her back that tells her she’s lying

directly on the floor instead of a woolen blanket. And when a cold,

smooth touch grazes her arm, she could tell it’s her mother even

before the woman’s blurry face lingers over hers.

She

wants to lift her hand to reciprocate the woman’s touch. But she

realizes she can’t move.

“Mom…

why— why can’t I move?” she stutters.

“Shh…”

her mother hushes as that ever-loving cold touch reaches Heaven’s

jaw.

“Why

are you crying?” Heaven asks again when the blur clears a bit to

reveal the tears on her mother’s smiling face.

“They

are here,” her father’s voice comes.

“Who’s

here?” Heaven queries in panic, still struggling to move but can’t.

“Heaven,

listen to me. An Alpha is trying to kill us all,” her mother raps

while cupping Heaven’s cheeks. “I fed you with Death’s Look

pills so that you’d seem dead, but you should be fine in the next

twenty-four hours.” The woman sniffles before her next words come

out amidst tears, her voice croaking. “Please leave this place as

soon as you can move. Go somewhere far away—the human world should

suffice—and never return to this world. Please, avoid as many

Alphas as you can. Do not come back here, Heaven. Heed my warning.”

The

woman disappears from her sight in a flash. Heaven tries to speak

again, to call her back, but even her tongue has stopped moving.

Soon,

her brain becomes an absolute hazy mess. And she can’t seem to

think straight as she slowly blacks out.

Heaven

doesn’t know for how long she stayed unconscious. When next she

opens her eyes, she hears muffled clashing noises that urges her to

turn to her right.

It’s

still a strain to move, very painful too, but Heaven grasps all she

needs to see with a short look—two sets of feet facing each other;

one belonging to her father, the other unknown. Blood spilling to the

floor. Her father’s wounded body slumping to the same floor as the

owner of the other feet crouches down while reaching to her father’s

neck with a crimson-coated dagger, thereby revealing the scar

slashing diagonally from the index knuckle to the wrist of that hand.

Seeing

her father that helpless and dying makes her scream. Even as the

scenery suddenly changes to reveal the wooden roof of a fourposter

bed, Heaven continues shouting at the top of her voice.

She

only calms down some seconds later, when she realizes it was a

nightmare. A damn nightmare… which actually isn’t just a

nightmare.

Seven

years ago, it happened. Since then, it has been haunting her.

She

hasn’t had the nightmare for quite a while, though. But now it’s

back. It tends to return whenever she’s scared; whenever her fear

for herself triggers. That’s when she sees the bloody, horrid

images.

Now

it only reminds her of her plight—The tower, Ziason, him being an

Alpha.

Heaven

suddenly sits up to realize she has been lying in bed all this time.

Last she could recall, she was in the ground hall, sitting against

the door. Did she sleep off? Did someone bring her here?

The

faint breeze sipping through the only window in the room draws her

attention to it. It’s small. Really small. But it doesn’t mean it

can’t fit a human who can pull enough bravery to climb the tower

walls—particularly why Heaven, as she notices it now, does not like

the fact that the window is open and without protection.

She

quickly gets out of the bed and makes for Kaicha’s room. The little

girl is tucked in her bed, sleeping. It makes Heaven wonder for how

long she herself has been asleep.

With

cautious steps, she walks across Kaicha’s room to window, which is

identical to Heaven’s. Except, the view outside it is entirely

different from hers.

Beyond

the huge old fence, there are arrays of buildings portrayed on that

side of the tower; rows of bungalows, and a crowd within the linear

building arrangement. Those must be his pack.

Far,

far beyond the houses are mountains covered in fog. But Heaven can’t

fathom much of that due to the approaching dusk.

Aside

from the main gate, there’s a small single gate crafted in the

tower’s fence, which leads directly into the pack’s streets. And

it’s from that gate Heaven sees Ziason now stepping through into

the compound, locking it thoroughly with a chain before entering the

tower.

Heaven

quickly gets out of the room and hurries downstairs. However, Ziason

had already entered the building by the time she reached the last

floor.

She

notices the gruesome sight of his lawyer was gone, as well as the

contract. But then some noises coming from the hall next to the

ground hall draw Heaven’s attention to it.

She

finds Ziason running on a treadmill, his back turned to her.

Now

it’s no surprise why he said he came by often, seeing as there are

modern gym equipment inside a bloody old tower.

One

major distraction of the view in front of her would be the ripples of

Ziason’s wide back that matches the veins and ridges of his heavy

limbs. But something else pulls Heaven’s stare—a tattoo inked

over every inch of his back.

However,

she later notices it looks more natural than a tattoo, or…

something sort of strange to be on a person’s skin.

The

only reason an art would feel that way is if it had an otherworldly

meaning, as in linked to extreme dark magic.

Like…

a curse?

Heaven

may not know much about the wolf world, but she certainly has read

some things; like how the mark of a cursed wolf is a tattoo that

drives down a bizarre feeling.

The

tattoo could be anything. It could be random dots. It could be the

full-on image of a person. In all, it signifies a state of revulsion.

Being

cursed is usually an abominable thing in the lupine world. But that

certainly has nothing to do with Heaven now.

“You

didn’t tell me you were an Alpha,” she utters instead, fear

threading through her heart despite her show of bravery.

When

Ziason cranes his neck to glance at her direction, she nearly

swallows her throat, strange ropes knotting in her belly.

“Do

you hear me, Ziason?” she summons the courage to ask again. When

the man still doesn’t respond, Heaven proceeds to scream. “You

cheated the contract!”

Ziason

presses some buttons on the treadmill to reduce its pace

until it finally stops. Then he gradually steps down from it while

grabbing a small towel from its handle bar.

Turning

around, he approaches Heaven with deliberate movements, wiping his

face and neck with the towel.

Heaven

fights to resist the temptation of staring hungrily at his

moisture-laden

abs,

each step Ziason takes striking her heart like a drum.

And

the nearer he comes to her, the louder and faster her heart pounds.

Ziason

halts in front of Heaven, lazily looking down at her.

This

time, his eyes are dark red, and his wet hair falling flat over his

forehead and lashes does something overwhelming beneath Heaven’s

stomach.

It’s

not fear. Heaven can’t decipher what the hell it is either. All she

knows is it isn’t a good feeling.

“In

case of next time, Heaven, remember to say Alpha,”

he notes in disgruntlement.

“Besides, I would like to know how I cheated you. The content of

that contract has no business with whether I reveal my identity or

not, especially if I pretend I don’t know the things I do about

you.” Ziason’s one step covers the gap between he and Heaven. Now

he gives her no breathing space as brings his face down to hers with

a whisper. “If I should sue you for refusing to adhere the

contract, your life would be totally ruined on the outside world, and

to hell will I make sure you do not have a place in this world

either.”

Stunned,

Heaven blinks rapidly, her chest and shoulders rising with each

second she holds her breath. When she realizes herself, she suddenly

stumbles backward, puffing out air.

“Wow,”

she huffs with a smile of disbelief, “nice to see you shedding your

skin, Alpha. So killing your lawyer was part of the contract?”

Ziason

rises to his full height, slinging his towel on his left shoulder as

he retracts into the gym to sit down on the bench

press machine.

“In

case you haven’t noticed, you are a secret. David has seen you,”

he mutters while looking at Heaven. “Besides, plainly abducting and

making you do my bidding was my first choice. I was considerate

enough to accept his ‘solid’

idea. He made me waste my time and energy.”

“If

I’m a secret, then I know you can’t sue me. That’ll be exposing

yourself, right?” Heaven turns and runs across the ground hall,

making for the main entrance. “I’m leaving this shit.”

She

tries the handles of the double doors several times to find it’s

locked again. Even analyzing the keyhole doesn’t help. Because even

if she could pick locks, this one wouldn’t be one of those.

Next,

she tries violence, banging hard on the metal door while still

pulling the handles to no avail.

“Those

doors have a password mechanism, Heaven,” Ziason mutters from the

gym. “I’m the only one around who can open them.”

“Then

open the damn door!” Heaven shrieks. “I’m going to walk out of

here, and I know you can’t sue me! You wouldn’t want to expose

your secret now, would you?”

“Exactly.

You really think I value that contract, Heaven, don’t you? You are

not so important to me, my dear. Leave or not, so much more talent

lies out there. I only picked you because you looked miserable and in

absolute need of help. Without the contract, my own way of doing

things would be to threaten and force you.”

“Is

that why you checked my background; to see if I had a family to

threaten me with?” Heaven blurts out, her eyes stinging with tears

that refuse to fall. “You found nothing, so you went for a contract

instead. There must be a reason you were hellbent on picking me

despite knowing nothing that could force submission out of me.”

Ziason

comes out of the gym, revealing his smirk to Heaven as he inclines

against the wall.

“Interest?”

he whispers, “I just had this slightest interest in you all because

I hated that I could not discover core things about you. Yet, as much

as my curiosity peaked, it could easily sink as well. And, just like

I killed that lawyer, I could end you right here and now.”

“You

wouldn’t,” Heaven challenges as she hides the shiver in her

voice.

“Do

you want to try?” Ziason responds with a dangerous depth in his

voice. “Me being open with you, Heaven, should tell you cannot walk

out of here now. You know my two utmost secrets already—Kaicha and

my curse. Now you are bound here with me for half a decade. By the

fifth year, those would not be a secret anymore, and you will be

free. That is why I warn you to stay put. If you repeatedly try to

escape, I would just get rid of you. And being rid of you means you

would not walk out of here alive. Understood?”

Heaven

doesn’t know what it is—the force that pushes her to nod. Is it

respect, or cowardice, or fear, or… a mysterious liking to this

man? It’s definitely not the first option.

However,

it’s clear now—this situation she finds herself. This is just a

dreaded threshold to death. It’s as if her fear of death has

tangled with her fate and brought her here.

The

world indeed is at it again. Yet, she won’t let it watch her fail.

She’ll endure; five years isn’t so small as long as she gets to

live.

“Will

you still pay me though?” she asks, fighting the urge to bite her

nails.

“Money

is not an issue to me. I won’t hold that back.”

Ziason

returns to the gym, leaving Heaven alone in the ground hall. She

looks up at the cylindrical rising of floors, and wonders if she can

ever reach the climax of her existence.

She

just hopes it isn’t a bad climax. Hopefully, in five years, she’ll

get there.

And

once she walks out of here with her payment, she’s no longer

stepping foot in the wolf world ever again. She won’t even peek.

After all, her mother warned her and she ignored that warning.

Heaven

thought she was Ziason’s secret. But when he mentioned it, she

realized who it is. Kaicha.

The

real question is: why is she a secret? And why would he go to such a

length as killing his lawyer just to maintain that secret?

Also,

she doesn’t exactly understand what the second secret is. Sure, she

knows he’s cursed. A cursed Alpha wouldn’t survive a day in a

pack, as all other packs would come rushing to try and dethrone the

Alpha, since it’s in the law that a cursed Alpha shall not rule.

But she doesn’t know what the curse is.

If

only she could decipher what exactly is Ziason’s curse, and if only

she knew why Kaicha is a secret, then Heaven would have understood

why she has to go through this for five years.

>>>>>>>>

As

it’s a new day, Heaven is scheduled to teach Kaicha, so she makes

for the child’s room.

Entering

the room, she finds Kaicha standing in front of a floor-length mirror

as a young woman, who looks to be in her middle twenties, fixes the

child’s hair into a bun.

Heaven

sits on Kaicha’s bed as the young woman bows to her.

Watching

the standing duo from the mirror, Heaven concludes that the young

woman must be Kaicha’s maid, whom Ziason mentioned would serve her

as well.

“Do

you remember how you got here, Kaicha?” Heaven asks all of a

sudden. Even she doesn’t know where the question came from. It just

resonated in her ears as she watched the child.

Kaicha

glances at her through the mirror, but says nothing.

“I’m

sorry for being straight up,” Heaven continues as more questions

pop in, “but… were you captured? Do you recall what your mom

looks like? Was your family threatened?”

She

stops for a moment to question why she would be asking the girl these

things. Even if anything of such happened, would she even remember?

“Forget

I said anything,” she mutters, waving her hand in dismissal.

However,

Kaicha suddenly opens her mouth wide. And, as Heaven looks at the

child through the mirror, she realizes something.

Kaicha’s

tongue has been cut off!

“He

cut your tongue?” Heaven almost shrieks. The child continues

moping. “Why did he do so? So that you won’t talk?”

Kaicha

shrugs, her eyes big and bright. It’s then it dawns on Heaven that

even this little girl may have been captured.

What

if she isn’t his daughter like he claimed she is? Everyone knows

that Alphas seldom have babies with people who aren’t their mate,

as it could sabotage their Alpha lineage.

Even

if Kaicha was his daughter, could be why he’s keeping her a secret

from his pack? Or is there another bigger reason as to why the girl

should be unknown?

“Do

you know why he’s hiding you?” Heaven asks again. Just then, the

woman fixing Kaicha’s hair finishes her job and bows out, while the

child suddenly breaks into a dance.

Her

steps are clumsy and lack rhythm. Even her attempt at fluidity is

terrible. Now Heaven can see why Ziason badly sought a tutor.

“He’s

hiding you so you can dance?” Heaven queries, utterly clueless of

the girl’s gestures.

Kaicha

shakes her head frantically and breaks into another round of amateur

dance. She keeps signaling something with her arms, placing her hands

on her chest and abdomen from time to time and then throwing them up

in the air while arching herself backward.

Heaven

still can’t understand.

“Can

you write?” she asks. If the girl can pen down the words she can’t

speak, it would be better. But Kaicha shakes her head.

Heaven

wonders how Ziason can be so heartless and cruel. Why would he treat

such a little girl like this?

Firstly,

he cuts off her tongue, then doesn’t give her education in such a

modern world.

He

really is a beast.

Now

Heaven can’t believe the fact that he seemed to care for Kaicha

yesterday. Or is it a toxic kind of relation between the duo? As in;

a man who needs Kaicha for something, therefore pretending to be kind

to get it, and the little girl who doesn’t understand why he

switches from good to bad from time to time but still acknowledges

his good side with all her heart.

>>>>>>>>

That

night, Heaven stands in her room window to watch the view below.

Her

window doesn’t face the pack house like Kaicha’s. What Heaven

sees from her window is the main gate from which she and Ziason came

in yesterday.

At

daytime, she can also behold just how the mountains surround the

pack.

For

now, due to the black night, she can’t see much. Except, there are

small movements happening below, which look like people leaving

through the tower through the main gate.

Heaven

knows that Ziason has a room in this tower, but she doesn’t know

which of these countless rooms it is. She doesn’t have the interest

in finding it either, since she’s now hellbent on trying her best

to simply avoid the man.

When

he left the tower after his gym session yesterday, she knew. When he

returned at night to spend the night in the tower, she knew. When he

left this morning and returned in the afternoon, she knew.

She

watched these movements from either her window or Kaicha’s window.

But who she’s seeing leaving the main gate now isn’t Ziason.

They

look like two men pushing a big wooden cart. And due to the lamp in

the cart, Heaven sees what looks like three male bodies inside the

cart, their clothes soaked in blood.

What

the hell happened? What did Ziason do to these men, and why were they

even here in the first place?

When

Kaicha’s maid comes in the next morning to serve Heaven’s

breakfast, it’s the first thing Heaven asks her.

“Do

you know whose corpse the Alpha disposed last night, and why they

were killed?”

The

girl says nothing.

“Is

he also holding your family captive?” Heaven pushes. She notices

the girl’s brief pause. “I’m correct, aren’t I?”

The

girl still doesn’t respond. Instead, she quickly sets the breakfast

on the bedside stool before turning to leave the room.

Heaven

jumps out of bed and grabs the girl’s forearm, pulling her back.

If

she can’t understand anything about Ziason, she deserves to at

least know the nature of the things that are already keeping her

here.

She

has tried with Kaicha—to know why Ziason needs the girl. That

failed.

Now

she has to try the curse. And since she doesn’t know much about

curses except that marks like Ziason’s mean a curse, she decides to

read about wolf curses instead.

“Where

can I find books; about wolves and curses, to be precise? Do you know

any place?” she asks the pain, who cranes her head in Heaven’s

direction.

“The

library,” she murmurs grudgingly, then quickly shrugs out of

Heaven’s hold.

“Wait.

Where can I find the library, then?”

But

the girl has already left the room. And the small breeze left by her

dash turns to cold, harsh wind on Heaven’s skin.

Heaven

lets out a breath she has been holding for long. Chills spread

through her body as she hugs herself, her mind running several

question about her moments of demise.

Would

she die by Ziason’s claws, or by his blade?

What

will she be doing at the moment when she dies?

Where

will she be; this tower, in Yule, or nowhere in particular?

>>>>>>>>

For

the next four days, Heaven experiences a trail of reoccurring events.

A

growing fear for her life.

The

nightmare of the day her parents died.

Teaching

Kaicha dance.

Struggling

to reach the depths of Ziason’s secrets.

Watching

him slip in through the small gate then sneaking to the ground hall

to watch him workout as she uses her eyes to trace the lines of his

tats.

Trying

hard to convince the maid girl into telling her the location of the

library while attempting to find it herself to no avail.

And,

every night, watching a group of young men flock in through the main

gate, only to leave as corpses.

Sometimes

they’re two, sometimes three. The highest so far is six.

Twice,

Heaven has hurried down the stairs the moment she saw these men

enter. But, by the time she reached the last floor, she always didn’t

find them.

She

even tried to look for where they could have entered. However, she

discovered that all the doors in the tower are locked except for the

ballroom, her room, and Kaicha’s room.

How

she didn’t see these coming still amazes her. She was always

cautious so as not to fall into a trap. And she avoided wolves like

they were virus. Yet, she fell for Alpha Ziason’s trick, how? Was

she that desperate? Was she so scared of herself that she resulted in

following a total stranger so blindly into his den?

Now,

what happens next? How certain is she that Ziason wouldn’t kill her

anyways, before or in five years? Also, being an Alpha, is it

possible that he could know what happened to her parents seven years

ago?

What

if… what if this was a ploy?

She

definitely doesn’t know the reason her parents were killed by ‘an

Alpha’. So

what if Ziason brought her here in the guise of teaching Kaicha

dance, only to repeat the incident of seven years ago—get something

from her, then kill her?

There

must be a reason her parents made sure she survived.