MATHIAS

London:

I stood by the corner watching her smile at him, and it raised the degree of my anger by 100 percent. My teeth ground as I saw him say something to her, and she dared to smile. A woman supposedly pregnant for me was daring to smile at another man? To make it worse, it was my fucking brother of all people who was tickling her fancy.

I swallowed, feeling veins pop in my neck and forehead as I stood with darkening, squinted eyes on both of them. Jax had always been a charmer, so it was no news to me to see him displaying his charms on Blaire, and the stupid girl was actually getting comfortable enough with him after the warning I gave her.

I saw her eyes drift in the direction I was standing, and my lips curled up menacingly. I wanted her to feel stalked; I had purposely made her catch sight of me. I wanted her not to enjoy her time with him by being a bane to her existence. I wanted her to know someone or something out there was watching her.

"Alpha, it's Mathias; he's awake."

The sudden voice in my head had my head twitching while I winced at the intrusion. I hated it when mindlinks came, but when the urgency in Miller's voice hit my unprepared ears, I knew I had to wrap up my act and go to him.

Giving Blaire one last promising gaze, I headed towards the short path that led to the infirmary, not in the mood to tolerate any greeting. I was in the worst of moods, and I feared for whoever would not be so careful around me.

I was still unable to comprehend the fact that I was going to be a father, and her utter defiance of my orders after everything that happened last night was driving me to the brink of insanity.

Fuyu, on the other hand, had been quiet for a while, but I saw the hatred in his eyes when he saw Blaire sitting with the one man he couldn't tolerate. And let's just say his dislike for Blaire grew by a notch because she clearly violated a rule. He perceived her act of disobedience to be insulting to him, especially now that he had finally affirmed that he had pups on the way; and have I mentioned just how much he hated disrespect?

I walked down the hallway, wearing a dark aura, watching everyone on sight either lower their heads in respect or scamper to get out of my way.

I found the room I was looking for and barged into it, finding a pale-looking boy staring at me with long, messy black hair encasing his face, sticking in every direction. He had red circles around his eyes, and to say he was deathly pale would be an understatement. His lips were a dull shade of pink, and scars sat on his body, his face home to a few.

I knew they were acquired when I had beaten him to the point of death, and the fear in his eyes as he took me in made me squint at him before raising my head to Miller, who was busy giving him an injection.

"Does it hurt?" He softly asked him, and Mathias gently shook his head.

"N-no."

Miller nodded, writing something down on his clipboard, before turning to find me gazing at him with impassive eyes.

"Good morning, my king." He bowed.

I walked past him, not in the mood for anything. I wanted to go straight to the point with whatever discovery he had made.

"What is it, Miller? I don't have all day." I rasped, eyeing the boy, who looked like he just wanted to disappear from my merciless scrutiny.

"His body is now fighting the toxins. The healer and I have been working around the clock, and it's safe to say that he's recovering. Although his body might not be able to function at full capacity like before because the poisons in his system really did a lot of damage," he spoke, looking at the confused kid.

"I-I don't understand what you're saying, sir." He muttered.

"It means your body would not be able to heal at full capacity like before, so you might have to get used to having scars and prolonged healing durations. You might not be able to transform as much as you desire; you may be limited to transforming twice a week because your body and soul are fractured. You might not be as fast as before and have some other shortcomings. You might also experience panic attacks once in a while, and you will hear a voice... Do not give in to the voice." Miller further explained.

"Hold on, what voice? Explain what you mean." I rasped with furrowed brows.

Miller cleared his throat. "The healer couldn't entirely sever the bond his master shared with him. She couldn't fix his soul. I, on the other hand, could only try my best to revive his body. While we might have rid him of the majority of the poisons, the effect of his being exposed to them for too long still persists. The master would try to reach out for him, and it's only natural for his body to want to obey." He said.

"So he's like a remote-controlled zombie?" I said this with a brow arched at the young doctor.

"Robot is better suited for the situation."

He moved away from me to read the heart monitor, jotting down stuff. He turned to Mathias, "how do you feel?"

"T-tired?" He answered.

"Do you feel any type of hunger?" I asked.

His eyes rose to me frantically. "N-not really."

I turned to Miller, "how long would it take before I would be able to question him?"

At the mention of 'question', Mathias turned to me with a frantic gaze, and I pinned him with a glare that made him look away.

"Say, a day? He's still disoriented right now." Miller replied.

"Hmm." I sighed before running my hand through my hair.

There was a loud silence, with only the heart monitor's constant beeping being the only thing being heard. I inhaled sharply before running my tongue over my bottom lip.

"P-please promise to protect me and my family." His soft voice came.

He looked up, and I saw tears sitting in those hollow eyes,"if he finds out I've been captured, he'd kill off my family and come after me. I'm just a kid; I don't want to die yet. I might not have cared about death when I was still under his control, but it's been a long time since I've felt like myself again, and now, it's hard to just conceive any thoughts about death." He said it with a small smile sitting on his lips.

"I want to keep feeling like a living being and not some robot carrying out orders, and I'd gladly help you if you can save the others just like you saved me. They're not willing to do the things they're being forced to do; they're being made to do  them."He rushed out.

I stared at him, feeling my anger grow at the thought of a psycho making children into weapons. Only a sick coward would do that.

Hearing him speak with so much pain, it was like he was reliving certain experiences. His fingers trembled, and his bottom lip quivered. He was frightened.

"He did so many things to us, carrying out many experiments on us... injecting us with a lot of stuff, and making us drink a lot of weird-smelling shit that'd fuck with us after ingesting it. A lot of us died, but the majority survived. It was hell." He sniffled.

"Every day I was losing more and more of myself, becoming more of a monster. I was forgetting what it felt like to feel until he…" He turned to gaze at me, "... nearly killed me, and I managed to get back a little of my senses."

Miller was dumbfounded, while I was sick to my stomach. I couldn't help picturing every darned thing he had said, and it only made me want to hurt that sicko even more.

He scooted away a little as I approached him with slow steps, his heartbeats growing frantic. He really was terrified of me.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I said it with no emotion attached.

He sniffled, and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Do you know who I am?"

He nodded. "You're London knight, Alpha King, and Lycan superior. You're a legend, with your wolf… the white conqueror."

I chuckled. Not many people knew Fuyu's name, and I loved it like that. His nickname was something he preferred to sit on the lips of many. His name was reserved to a few, mostly to those he was going to give the privilege of knowing the name of the one who killed them or the one who's eventually to kill them.

"Tell me the name of the village you come from?" I asked.

I was going to save other questions until he was well enough to be drilled. It was the most important question that needed to be answered.

Mathias shook his head eagerly before suddenly going silent. I tilted my head at him, wondering what was going on.

He furrowed his brows, opening his mouth to say something, but paused. He tried again and again and again till he gave up and gave me a very worried and frightened look.

I turned to Miller, who also shared my look of confusion.

"Is everything okay?" Miller asked.

"N-no…" Mathias shook his head frantically. "I-I... I suddenly c-can't remember. It was in my head a while ago, but now it's vanished, like it got erased or s-something."

I turned to Miller, wanting an explanation that'd make me understand and not kill anyone right now.

"Fuck!" Miller immediately rushed to his side, taking out the stethoscope to feel around him.

"W-what's happening?" Mathias asked.

"Miller, will you explain what the fuck is happening?" I asked.

"Alpha, he's getting purged." Miller shot me frantic eyes while I just blinked at him.

The hell was going on?