Her Men Of Ruin

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.