Her Men Of Ruin

Wolf

Kingdom.

Moon’s

Wrath Pack.

It’s

been seven days since Heaven arrived at the Moon’s Wrath tower, and

she hasn’t had a good sleep yet.

Today

is one of those days when she wakes up sweating and in fear, when the

sordid visual of her father’s death haunts the walls of her room,

her demons flocking about in the mild darkness; some laughing, some

whispering barbarous ideas into her mind.

‘Kill

yourself.’

‘End

it all.’

‘You

don’t deserve all this.’

‘Your

breakfast fork can be a good weapon.’

‘How

about starve?’

Sitting

up on her bed, Heaven draws her knees to her chest, her chin placed

on them, and her eyes closed as her palms cover her ears.

While

resisting the urge to obey the voices, she tries to convince herself

that they will stop. And, soon, they do—when the door of her room

opens.

Heaven’s

eyes snap open. There stands the maid by the door, her monolid eyes

set on Heaven.

“Morning,

ma’am, you have a dance lesson with Kaicha after breakfast,” she

says quickly while rushing to set a tray of food on Heaven’s

bedside stool.

She

proceeds to light all the candles in Heaven’s room, including the

ones on the vanity that rests beside the window.

Heaven’s

eyes dart to the vanity, its mirror—crafted with curvy intricate

designs—dulled by age. Through it, she captures the maid’s swift

actions, seeing as the candle flames reflect on the girl’s brown

skin, her straight black hair gathered up in a messy bun as usual.

The

mosquito net around Heaven’s bed is quite thick and has a sort of

illusion that presents a clear view of the maid to Heaven even though

the former can only see little of the latter.

Because

of that, the maid walks up to the bed and lifts a part of the net.

Just

then, the window lets in a gush of dawn air that makes the flames

tremble. And Heaven shivers. Not of cold, but of the fear that still

clouds her mind.

“Are

you cold, ma’am? Do you want me to prepare a hot bath for you?”

the maid asks, her brown eyes scrutinizing Heaven’s skin.

Heaven

doesn’t reply, but her eyes are on the girl, glaring. “Why only

you get to ask the questions, and I don’t?” she asks instead.

“You don’t answer my questions, and you expect me to answer all

of yours?”

The

maid sighs. “Hot bath it is, then,” she says before letting go of

the net and heading to the bathroom.

Heaven’s

fingers tighten into a fist as she closes her eyes again, though she

reopens them just in time as the maid reenters the room after a few

minutes.

“Your

bath and breakfast is set, ma’am,” the latter announces while

making for the door. But Heaven is faster.

She

leaps out of the bed in a flash, jumping to the maid’s position and

grabbing her by the arm.

“Tell

me, what really is going on?” she asks in a frenzy but suddenly

pauses. Was that really the right question? At times like this, she

just needs one question. One meaningful question that provides the

answer to all others. “Why does Ziason want Kaicha to dance so

badly?” she queries again.

Ziason

going all these lengths just to teach Kaicha dance seems unfair. It

can’t simply be that the girl wanted to dance.

There

must be something.

There’s

always something that triggers an action, or series of actions, in

the wolf kingdom.

If

only she can find out why Ziason wants Kaicha to dance, then she can

understand why she’s here and what’s going on. She may also be

able to figure out a way to save herself from all these.

“There

has been talks of a huge war that will claim a lot of lives,

including ours,” the maid says as she forcefully removes Heaven’s

hand from hers, “yet all

you think about are books and some dead bodies. Many lives depend on

how you behave, ma’am. One wrong step and a lot could die. Please

consider that.”

The

girl leaves the room, while Heaven stands stunned.

She

doesn’t understand the meaning of the maid’s last sentences. From

how she sees things, it’s her life is in the hands of the Alpha,

not other lives being in her hands.

One

day, her corpse could be among the male corpses that are always

carried out of the tower. And the worst thing is nobody would know of

how she died. No one would ask about her in the human world, and no

one knows her here in the wolf kingdom.

Since

she can’t understand most things about this place, she has to act

fast. Even though it’s risky, she’ll try escaping. Who knows,

Ziason’s threat about killing her if she escapes could be empty

threats to keep her in check.

After

pacing her room for a while, Heaven dashes out of it.

She

goes straight down to the gym, peeking into it to find Ziason hasn’t

arrived. That’s good. Before he would come here and discover that

she was gone, she would be far gone.

But

she doesn’t know how she’ll leave yet.

Since

the doors are locked, Heaven scrutinizes the windows. The only halls

that are accessible to Heaven are the gym, the ground hall, and the

dance hall. And all three halls have locked windows, unlike the rooms

in the top floors that are without windows.

Ziason

probably installed the windows to block her escape. But he undermined

her. She’ll certainly find a way.

Heaven

pulls the handles of all the windows in the ground hall and the gym.

They’re pretty strong, so she needs something strong enough to

break one down. And her eyes just happen to catch Ziason’s

dumbbells.

Heaven

smiles, reaching for them. “There you are.”

She

picks up the one with lesser weight; the one she can lift and haul.

Then she throws it at the gym window, which forms a crack on the

wood.

She

hauls the dumbbell at the window again. This time, a good chunk of

the latter falls of, making it easier for Heaven to pull off the rest

of the wood with her hands. While doing so, a sharp piece of wood

slits the palm of her right hand, blood sipping out of the cut

ignored.

The

window isn’t too high to climb, so she mounts it and jumps down

outside the tower, her heart beating fast as she darts to the main

gate.

Some

days ago, when a little rain fell, Heaven looked down her window and

found a small trail of water flowing out through a spot on the bottom

of the fence—beside the main gate.

She

finds the spot and realizes it’s an arched carve big enough to fit

her, although barricaded by a cage.