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.

Wolf

Kingdom.

Tribalan

Pack.

They

say the Tribalan tribe of the wolf kingdom flourishes in all things.

But one most exceptionally notable is their beauty.

Their

ethereal appearances crawl from meager maids to the Alpha. From kids

to adults. From a males to females. All skin types. All genetic

inheritances. All body shapes.

Even

now, the banquet hall screams of beauty as several maids in satin

robes swiftly move about to set the table.

Through

the large, open door, a man steps into the hall, clad in a

neatly-pressed brown suit, his polished black shoes complementing the

glimmers of the diamond signet ring on his left index finger.

Without

knowing it, he fists his fingers, his hands stiff at his sides and

his chin held high as his gray eyes scan the hall.

The

maids, who once graced the hall with their elegant movements, quickly

lose their composure on the sight of him.

They

giggle and point fingers. Some whisper among themselves.

The

man notices these gestures, but never meets gazes with any of them.

Instead, he focuses his attention on the long, rectangular banquet

table ahead, and on the smell of delicious food, even as his name

flies about the air. A name that forces necks to turn once it’s

mentioned.

“Ambassador

Zeedar, you are an hour early,” a voice whispers behind him. A male

voice with a bland tone.

Zeedar

acts unaware of the person, so the voice owner slides into his line

of view, forcing an eye contact with him while standing a few inches

taller than him.

Zeedar’s

stoic expression doesn’t change as his eyes carefully analyze the

man in his front.

Brawny.

Chocolate, glowing skin. Short and shaped beards.

Those

fit the description of Tribalan pack’s Beta.

“I

am Beta Reamer of Tribalan. I represent Alpha Frail of Tribalan

pack,” the man says while extending a handshake to Zeedar, who

silently takes it. “From what I heard, when Moon’s Wrath pack’s

ambassador goes on errands for his Alpha, Moon’s Wrath’s delight

travels with him. They are quite inseparable, people say. But from

what I’m seeing now, I do not think that is true.”

Zeedar

diverts his eyes from Reamer without blinking. “This is not the

Alpha’s errand,” he mutters before walking past the Beta, heading

to the table and taking a seat without permission.

After

studying Zeedar for a while, Reamer sits down as well.

Since

Zeedar sat at the

right side of the head seat,

he expected Reamer to sit opposite him.

Seeing

the man seated at the head

seat

meant for the Alpha is quite the eyesore he didn’t expect to come

across. But even as the itch to drag the man out of the seat bubbles

within him, he holds it down, suppressing it with a huge exhale of

breath.

“Wine?”

Reamer offers while gesturing to a maid to pour them both a champagne

of wine each. Zeedar shakes his head in refusal when it gets to his

turn. “How about alcohol?” the beta asks again, this time taking

his own champagne glass by its stem and gently swirling the drink

inside. Zeedar refuses again. “Do you prefer soda, then?”

“Milk,”

Zeedar responds curtly, “with zero sugar.”

Confused,

Reamer squints his eyes at the ambassador. Valiant men alike Zeedar

Father prefer wine and alcohol. But here he is talking of milk. A

DRINK FOR BABIES.

“Give

the man his milk, then,” Reamer tells the maid, then proceeds to

sip his wine, sniffing in its aroma before starting another speech.

“I often confused you and your brothers as triplets. You look

almost the same, and your characters don’t tell your age. For

example, people know your Alpha is the oldest among you, but you act

like the oldest instead. Could you please clarify the age differences

so I would know how to address all three of you when we come together

in the future…” Reamer jerks his wine glass toward Zeedar, “…in

peace, of course.”

Zeedar

locks his stare on the man. Is he trying to anger him by asking about

age so bluntly?

In

the werewolf kingdom, it’s an offense to ask one their age,

especially since they age slowly and one can barely tell who is a

hundred. But this man going as far as asking about Moon’s Wrath

Alpha’s age tells just how fearless he is.

“My

Alpha is twenty-nine. I’m twenty-seven. Freck is twenty-six,”

Zeedar responds anyway, in a flat tone.

“I

heard that before your Alpha, there was a first,” Reamer presses

on.

“He’s

dead,” Zeedar replies curtly, “but wasn’t he part of your pack?

You should have known that.”

“He

rarely showed himself. But the day my Alpha killed him, he saw his

face. My Alpha keeps professing how beautiful the man was.”

Zeedar

nods about three times while looking away, his jaws clenching without

his control.

Reamer

notices that and asks, “Was that offensive?”

Zeedar’s

lips twitch a little, forming a tight smile. “Not at all.”

“Well,

I just thought since he was ‘part

of our pack’, you

wouldn’t mind.”

Zeedar

noted how Reamer put emphasis on the ‘part

of our park’,

probably as a sarcastic reply to his question.

Now

he knows that the beta was certainly trying to annoy him while acting

casual. It’s not like the man didn’t know what was offensive or

not.

“As

you may have heard, I have an intimate interest in men,” Reamer

continues. “Your last brother, for example, pleases my heart. I

would have loved it if he were here as well.”

Zeedar

squints his eyes. He didn’t know anyone would be particularly

interested in THAT brother, most especially a Beta of an enemy pack.

Of all people to be attracted to, it’s Freck?

“My

brother is not the best candidate for an escort on a peace mission.

He acts on instinct.”

“Hm.”

Reamer nods, sipping his drink again while never breaking eye contact

with Zeedar. “I hear you’ve been busy with the pack’s company.”

He lets that sentence sink in before proceeding. “You have spent

these past years in the human world, only going on errands assigned

by your Alpha. Why go out of your way now to come here outside your

Alpha’s orders?”

Zeedar

doesn’t respond as he diverts his focus to the food before him.

Usually, he would struggle to not eat a food given to him for fear of

poison.

But

he doesn’t struggle on this one. He won’t eat it unless convinced

it isn’t poisoned.

After

all, if Tribalan pack can kill an Alpha of Moon’s Wrath pack,

what’s there to kill an ambassador?