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.