33 – Cassian/Zahila
“Plessel Pleasel” My mother begged, bowing her head and shivering. “Don’t do this, Ulric. Think of your children. You can’t leave them” She begged.
her face drenched in tears.
Rolan let go of my hand and ran to her, trying to console her as though he was not crying himself. “Mummy, please don’t cry,” he pleaded.
1 stood shocked and frozen as my father walked up the dais to the throne already prepared. The iron throne that he was cursed not to touch without
consequences.
lone squinned in my arms and peered down at her small face. She stirred a bit before going back to sleep. I sighed a bit in relief, knowing that she would not be an unlucky witness to what was about to happen.
My father remained cold and refused to speak as he stared hard at the fron throne. Yet, I could see the dilemma in his eyes that glowed red. A symbol of the Alpha curse.
“Don’t do this. I beg you, my dear.” My mother screamed as my father touched the arm of the iron throne, Instantly, this finger began to sizzle like meat in a hot pan. Yet, he held his hand in place before slowly setting himself down on the throne as the full moon reached its crest.
I watched my father squirm on the throne, still refusing to get up.
I opened my mouth, finally unable to watch him suffer. “Father, iron will hurt you.” I tried to make him understand. “Get up or it will kill you.” My father finally looked at me, his gaze tortured. “I have… to,” he told me through the agony. Then he began to scream but still refused to get up as the iron croded his skin like acid. I could not look away, I could only hope that the moon would fall quickly, so he would get up, and his curse would be broken just as the seer had said.
But soon the smell of burning flesh reached my nose, my father’s burning flesh. I could not look away, I forced myself to watch as the iron viciously
tortured him.
My father’s screams reached a crescendo, echoing throughout the chamber, filling the air with a sound that seemed to pierce my very soul. His agony was so palpable that my small body felt it in my very bones. His body writhed against the cruel iron that consumed him. The full moon’s light bathed the scene in a cold, merciless glow, illuminating every horrifying detail of his pain and torment. It was as though that goddess herself shone ber light on my father’s demise.
“Father, please!” I shouted. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. His resolve was unbreakable, his determination to break the curse overshadowing what should have been his self–preservation even as the iron continued its relentless assault on his flesh.
The smell of burning flesh grew stronger, mingling with the scent of blood and sweat. My mother’s subs, Rolan’s cries, and the searing sound of sizzling skin created a nightmarish symphony that seemed to stretch on for eternity. Yet, I could not look away as I watched my father melt away. And then, as if the goddess could not bear to witness his suffering any longer, a sudden silence fell over the room. My father’s body went still, his eyes wide open and lifeless. The iron took him, leaving nothing but a charred, hollow shell where a proud, strong Alpha once sat. Where my loving
father once sal
“NO” My mother’s wail shattered the eerie silence, her grief was a rate, throbbing wound that reverberated through the hall.
I felt myself shaking, my heart pounding so hard it seemed as though it would burst from my chest. The world began to spin, and the edges of my vision blurred. I clutched lone who had awakened at some point, fighter, my mind unable to process the horror I had just witnessed
Suddenly, the scene began to dissolve into darkness, my father’s agonized screams morphing into an eerie, oppressive silence. I felt a weightlessness take hold, and I struggled to breathe, panic rising within me. The Alpha was gone, succumbing to a curse that has haunted the Obaidan bloodline since the Grinimoon pack had come into existence.
With a job, I awoke, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. My heart was still racing, the remnants of the nightmare clinging to my consciousness like a suffocating sliroud. Then arms held me to a warm soft body.
“Shhh” She whispered, stroking my hair with gentle fingers as though she saw me as a fragile beautiful thing. “I was just a nightmare,” she assured. her voice relieving me of the agony that clasped my soul. I could have listened to her forever.
She swaggled me closer to herself, tracing my scars with her fingers. “I am here, sleep,”
Vorak, my tortured wolf, let out a low whine as he began to settle in my consciousness Calm came over me like a warm blanket on a winter night. Her warmth was all I needed, all I had needed for a long time. I yearned for more.
“Iris,“I groaned as I took in her sweet scent.
“I am here,” she assured again. “Go to sleep, I will be here in the morning, I will not leave you. She whispered, putting me more at ease.
I did know when I drifted off to sleep, my father’s screams a distant memory,
My wolf beard his distress as it always did, waking me. Then it stopped abruptly, and that was strange. Vorax would be uneasy and volatile after his nightmare. Yet, just as I felt it awaken, it was gone again. Cassian’s nightmares were not the type to pass so fast. I had a sinking feeling since the moment I saw him enter the room he would begin formally sharing with that maggot. I checked on Rolan beside me, but from his snoring, I was sure he was still deep in his slumber
I put on a robe and made my way to the mom. When I reached the door, I slowly and carefully turned the knob and peeked in.
My heart dropped at the sight that greeted me. The roum was dimly lit by the faint glow of the moon filtering through the window, casting shadows
that deed eerily on the walls, Cassian lay there, tangled in the sheets, his face etched with the remnants of his nightmare. But it wasn’t the usual forment that concerned me now, I was the maggot. She was there, holding him close, whispering words that seemed to calm him in a way nothing
else could
I wanched as Cassin’s me body began to relax under her ministrations. His breathing steadied, and the lines of pain on his face smoothed out. It was as though her presence had a magical effect on him, banishing all that haunted his sleep.
I felt my anger me. The bitch was seducing him and it was working. I could not let that happen. At the end of the day, she would be gone and 1 would become Lana. If he fell for her, she would no longer be temporary. Suddenly, 1 looked forward to my lesson with the maggot the next morning as a plan formed in my head.
