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Dante cleared his throat, “So, as I was saying, I once belonged to Heart’s Ray pack. No longer in existence, due to the attack on them 10 years ago. I eventually joined a rogue group after losing myself due to extreme rage that I couldn’t um… bring out as much as I wanted. I was trained by my late mum to be gentle and it was preventing me from killing any member of those packs we attacked. We were successful sometimes in claiming new territory, but most times, we lost. Then the next pack that the rogue leader decided we attack was Blood Star. I found my mate here. Needless to say, I detached myself from the group and fought against my fellow rogues. Even ended up killing the rogue leader, a Beta, in ire when he slightly injured my mate,”
“Ok. So how long did you spend redeeming yourself?” Phoenix asked curiously.
“Um… 3 years actually. I’m glad my mate didn’t abandon me in the end. So I treasure her more than my own life,” replied Dante.
Phoenix nodded, “Okay. Now we know yours. Zyair, it’s your turn now,”
“You guys aren’t expecting me to tell you that I’m a former stripper, are you?” Zyair smilingly questioned.
“For real?” Mel exclaimed.
“No,” Zyair tittered, “I was formally my old pack’s chef. Like… I’m one of the 5 appointed. My food was the best of them all and the others, jealous of the praise and attention I was getting from the Alpha, he actually planned to make me replace the head chef then. They schemed against me and framed me for trying to abort the Luna’s baby. I tried to defend myself but these bastards brought so-called evidence and the Alpha, blinded by rage, couldn’t even see the loopholes in the evidence. So he had me thrown in prison and later, one of the chefs bribed the guards so he could see me. Not only did he mock me but he had two guards feed me with so much wolfbane that I couldn’t even lift a finger. And then he… he… he then… he…” Zyair’s voice had become low and his face saddened.
The others soon noticed this, since he was stammering.
“He…” Shutting his eyes and opening them again, he spoke without stammering this time, “I’m without my precious,” said Zyair with grief in his tone.
“What does he mean?” A baffled Lavana asked her mate in mind link.
Her mate sighed before replying, “He means, he’s not a complete man, you get what I mean?”
Lavana nodded and covered her mouth, her eyes showing shock and sadness just like all the others. This Zyair was actually a eunuch?
“That explains why you never…” Rolandro didn’t say more after Mel chided him telepathically.
Phoenix rose and walked over to the trembling man, creating a magical barrier that covered the both of them. No one could see them from outside it but they could still hear him weeping.
“Zyair, I’m sorry for what happened,” said Phoenix as he put his arm around the latter’s shoulders.
Sniffing, Zyair replied with a nod, “Don’t feel bad because you asked me to tell. I could just make up any story but I can’t lie. I’m sorry to act like this. I’m pretty sure the image of a resilient man has crashed like a vase in your minds, right?” he tried to smile but it failed. Instead, he wept even more.
At this point, everyone was feeling so bad. No matter what the others had gone through, none of them lost any body parts like this guy.
“I indeed found my mate before coming to Blood Star, even my second chance and surprisingly, a third chance mate. But who would want a man that’s not complete? So they rejected me after saying really harsh words to me as if it was my fault that I’m like this. I didn’t do anything wrong….”
“Zyair, calm down,” Phoenix whispered, “Look at me,” he said to the latter through mind link. Zyair did as he was told and Lavana’s mate said encouraging words to him. Soon, he stopped crying.
Then the barrier shattered and all could see Zyair wiping his tears, his eyes red and swollen.
Sniffing, he tried to smile, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring down the mood of everyone. Please don’t feel bad. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe, I’m frustrated for so long. Maybe it is the bottled-up feelings that broke free so suddenly. I’m sorry,”
“No, you shouldn’t feel apologetic. It’s not your fault, Zyair. And don’t fret, we’ll never tell another soul and we’ll still treat you like we used to. Don’t you dare feel inferior to others just because of that. In my heart, you’re still that strong man that I know,” Mel consoled, walking over to sit close to him and soothe him. The others also took turns in comforting the broken guy and making him no longer feel ashamed of his current state.
Rolandro telepathically apologized to Zyair for all those times he questioned him on why they can’t go to the bathroom together. He then vowed to cover for him whenever he needs to answer the call of nature in a public setting.This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.
Soon Zyair’s face turned cheerful and he finally giggled after hearing some jokes that Phoenix told. Then he thanked everyone for their support and then they moved on to discuss some other serious matters before finally parting.
Phoenix and Zyair shared a room for tonight and so Phoenix moved his things to the room the latter was.
Phoenix took out a silver bottle from his storage ring. Zyair wasn’t stunned by this as he already knew Phoenix’s ring had this function, since he was a wiz blood. He was however surprised when Lavana’s mate handed it to him.
Looking befuddled, he was forced to ask, “What’s this for?”
Smilingly, the other replied, “It’s a good health tonic. You can take it right now. Just be assured that the effects are 100 per cent permanent,”
“You mean the side effects?” Zyair asked with incredulity.
“The side effects… I can’t explain now. Just take it. It’s good for werewolves,” Phoenix urged.
“Okay,” Zyair nodded, “I’ll trust you,”
With that, Zyair removed the lid gently and had a taste of the mahogany-coloured smooth liquid. Though it smelled nice, the taste was so awful that he wanted to spit it out but forced himself to down the liquid completely.
Then Phoenix handed him a golden leaf, “Eat this too,”
“I don’t want,” Zyair flatly declined. The taste of that damn liquid was still in his mouth. Even now, he had a strong urge to retch.
“It helps soothe that awful feeling of puking you have now,” Phoenix explained.
Seeing that there was no other choice, he accepted the leaf, and ate it. It tasted much more bitter than the liquid he ingested.
“Phoenix, it’s terrible,” he confessed, almost tearful.
“Alright, you can go bathe now. Call me if you need my help,”
“Your help?” hearing this, Zyair had a bad feeling.
“This thing makes one have diarrhoea, doesn’t it?”
“No. Don’t bother sitting on the toilet. Nothing will come out,” Phoenix casually said.
“What?”
“Remember when I said, I love torturing?”
“You…” the speechless and pissed Zyair stormed into the bathroom with a grey towel around his waist.
…
10 minutes later, Zyair called out Phoenix’s name in a distressed tone and the latter rushed in to see him on the floor.
“What is this? What did you do to me?” Zyair managed to ask between huffs.
“Nothing one can consider a big deal. I’m here to watch you suffer. Don’t worry, no matter how much you scream your lungs out, no one will hear you so you’re safe,” Phoenix replied.
Scrunching his eyebrows in confusion, Zyair questioned in incredulity, “Safe?”
“Yeah,” Phoenix smilingly nodded.
“What do you mean?”
Lavana’s mate sighed and crossed his arms, “I mean that… you can scream without shame!”