Chapter 23: Painful Secrets

Elliot welcomed me in his humble abode with warmth. Zarion did too as if he’s also the owner of the cabin.

“I only have one spare room,” he smirked after that while opening the door to the said room. Indeed, it has a huge cozy space, and we have no choice left but to stay together in a single room. All alone with the great Alpha Zarion.

“I’m going to sleep on the couch. You take the bed, Cassidy.” Zarion’s words are just above a whisper, as usual with a touch of his commanding tone. Without further ado, I gave him a tight nod—agreeing to his request. Requests, to be exact. One, we have to sleep in separate beds. Two, I have to clean the room and Elliot’s whole house. And three, I must not ask any personal questions. Not even asking the ridiculous thought of werewolves wearing underwears...

“You think I could follow all those rules?” I asked him, challenged him.

“It’s simple. You can just say no and go back to your grumpy old castle,” he replied. A maleficent grim formed on my lips after that. Yeah, he knows I’ll be breaking those rules.

“I will, if you’re going to tell me where the underwear of yours go every time you shift into a wolf?” In fact, just by asking that, I already am breaking his rules.

Zarion just shook his head. Silence is just the only one that answered back at me, and Zarion’s snore.

***

The sun is brighter the next day, though the coldness in the air didn’t waver.

I went out of the cabin to get some food that we will eat. It’s early in the morning, so early that every time I release a breath, it turns misty. Though you could not tell because the cabin is surrounded by heavy snow, darkness looms over the roof giving it an illusion of still being around dawn.

The snow is up to my waist in the front yard, and I can barely walk a few steps out. If we want to stroll around the land, we’ll need to use shoes that can withstand the harsh cold and the thick snow. And the snow that melted from our roof has piled up on one side of the cottage, almost entirely blocking our living room window. Basically, there is a mountain of snow everywhere. And the scenery it produced lasted for the following few days.

“ Zarion! Elliot?!” I’d been knocking on the door for ten minutes now but no one answered. Maybe Zarion was still angry because of my question last night. I went out early in the morning to get some herbs for a nice warm cup of tea. Stocks of wood, too, since I saw we were running out of it.

“Zarion? Please open the door! I’m fucking freezing out here!” I rubbed my palm on my shoulder, hoping it would be enough to give me warmth. What the hell are they doing inside? What took them too long to open the door? “Zarion! Elliot!”

I put down the wood in the threshold and tried to find a hole to peek into it. Yet the door swung open even before I could sneak, revealing an Elliot full of beads of sweat.

And he’s shirtless, in the middle of a cold winter day.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked, my brows knitted at him. Cold pricked my skin and beads of sweat started to come out of my skin too. “Why are you sweating profusely?” I asked and pushed him aside as desperation to get inside the cabin took hold of my body. But it seemed he wouldn’t want me to. “Uhm, Cassidy,” he knelt down and grabbed the woods I’d gathered, “you should go back and find another set of woods. The fireplace needs them very much. Thank you.” He slammed the door shut in front of me even before I could take my next breath.

“Seriously? Am I some sort of a scullery maid?!” While walking on the snowy ground back to our cabin, holding the second set of woods I got for today, I couldn’t help but curse Elliot. “How rude of him! He could’ve asked me politely. There’s no need to shut the door close and leave me to feed on the cold—”

“Cassidy!” Surprisingly, Elliot came rushing towards me. He left the door open. “Goddess, are you alright?! Where have you been? Zarion almost killed me—” He immediately paused when he saw me carrying woods—another set of woods he ordered me to collect. “Come here, it’s freezing.”

I barked a sarcastic laugh. “And now you realize what you’ve done to me!” Elliot grabbed the wood on my basket as his head remained lowered, holding my arms tightly as he guided me back inside the cabin. “Come on, don’t be childish,” his murmur sent my blood roaring as he closed the door behind us.

Childish? Me?!

My glare pierced past the mask he’s wearing. “You’re acting very strange today, Elliot. What happened?”

I stopped when I saw Zarion’s state. “Z-Zarion!”

My voice shook terribly. His body was on the top of Elliot’s kitchen table, sweating so badly.

There are scars, old and new, on his back. Pain etched on his face—eyes shut firmly, teeth clenched so hard I thought his jawline would break, and ragged breathing. I could tell he couldn’t move because of too much bleeding staining the table, painting Elliot’s kitchen red. Green leaves and other medicinal herbs, obviously courtesy of Elliot’s, adorned Zarion’s back.

“He’s okay now.” Elliot said in a calm voice.

I smiled; deep inside me, I was thankful.