Chapter 6 To Die By His Claw Or By His Blade

"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.