He leads me out onto the terrace. We stand shoulder to shoulder.

I suddenly begin to feel that this was a bad idea. Telling Zyon everything? Do I trust him enough for that?

He looks at me patiently, probably feels the anxiety and paranoia racing through me. One of his hands lands atop my wrist to hold me in place. He runs smoothing circles, that instantly calm me.

There's a part of me that hates this bond- hates that he can manipulate my emotions, in a moment when I feel most panicked.

It's now or never, Kat. I tell myself.

I say.

His eyes narrow, but he nods.

I say.

He scoffs.

I clasp his hand, interlacing our fingers as I turn to face him.

I say.

He spits out.

My anxiety dissolves, and my anger goes up a notch. He's not even trying to understand.

I loosen my hand from his and jab a finger into his chest.

He argues, grasping my wrist again and moving my finger away from his chest,

I roll my eyes, trying to loosen my grip from his. This seems to be pointless. He's never going to understand. He doesn't let go, instead turns us over so my back is against the bannister as he cages me in.

I look away from him, hesitating. I'm not so sure I want to tell him anymore.

Then he says softly,

I feel tears threaten to pool out of my eyes. I don't want him just to listen. I want him to understand.

I pause. I can't read the emotions in his eyes, can't even feel his emotions. He's somehow blocked me out and it frustrates me to no end.

But I continue anyways,

He says.

I scoff.

He's being unreasonable and it's almost as if he's acting difficult on purpose. His anger perhaps doesn't let him see anything else.

He asks.

I pause. He might just lose his shit at this point.

I say.

He spits out.

I say.

The bannister creaks under Zyon's hands. I turn around to see how hard he's clutching the railing. When I turn back, the fury in his eyes is apparent.

He snarls out.

I say in one breath.

Zyon takes deep breaths to calm himself. The bannister creaks again, when all of a sudden Zyon's hands move onto my waist and yank me forward as the bannister falls to pieces, falling fast to the ground.

My mouth falls into an 'O' shape. Perhaps I underestimated how mad this would make him. I really should have done this in public, and not alone where he could kill me. I wriggle in his hold. I need to get away from him. The next thing I know, he would throw me off the balcony too.

His hold is so tight, I can barely wriggle. He turns us around, slamming me into a pillar on the terrace as his hand comes to grasp my cheeks in an unfashionably firm hold.

He says.

He snarls out.

I feel an immense feeling of disgust roam my body. The thought of him and Aly- accompanied by that he attempted to manipulate her into getting into bed with him.

He says.

I say.

He says.

I say.

He says.

He's gone onto the path of vengeance. I would never tell him who.

He chuckles.

He says.

I say.

He smiles. He runs a finger down my face.

I wriggle out of his hold. But he doesn't let me go. I spit out. I hit his chest.

He says.

I roll my eyes at him, and hit at his chest.

I gesture, back and forth, with my hands,

His eyes flash gold.

I yell.

He slams me harder against the pillar- my head hitting the stone roughly. He whispers into my ear.

I'm beginning to panic now. This was such a bad idea- such a bad idea. I should have kept my mouth shut.

He states.

With that, he lets me go.

He says, before he storms off the terrace.

In all these years, I never thought about the effect it would have on Zyon. I mean I did, but didn't really think about it. I just assumed that it would be fine, that he would be fine. And I mean from the news I kept getting I always just assumed all he was focused on was power.

My overall feelings from that conversation: angry, confused, guilty, sad, and regret. Angry because of the way he reacted- he thinks he was going to make my life entirely about him. I was never going to let that happen even if he kept me locked in the isolation chambers. Guilty because all these years all I did was consider my own feelings- I figured he never knew about me, so what he didn't know couldn't hurt him, right? Regret because I suddenly regretted telling him and confused because I don't know what to think now.

Pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind, I make my way downstairs for an update on the arrangements. I already feel myself going into robotic mode and I'm thankful for the distraction that my duties give me.

When I get downstairs, Zarah is standing where Violet and I were speaking earlier. When I enter, she leaves those wolves to come speak to me.

She asks, referring to Daniel.

I blurt out.

I see the surprise take over her face as she says this.

I say.

She says.

I say.

She says, with a smug smile on her face.

I say, cracking up with laughter because of the look on her face.

She says,

I ask

She says.

I say.

She says.

I ask.

She says.

I nod. We spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in the kitchen, helping the staff, who at first were hesitant to let us help but then, got comfortable very fast.

Before we knew it, we were dressed for dinner, and descending the stairs towards the dining hall together. Zarah chose to come get dressed in my wing.

The men were already in the dining hall. I could hear Xander and Zyon's booming laughter, as the pack chatted away amongst each other. As I entered, Zar separated from me to go sit with Nathan and I took my seat next to Zyon. The pack paused all talking for a minute in respect of my entrance.

I let a small smile grace my face and made my way over to Zyon, not once meeting his gaze. I still was kind of annoyed about before

.

The first thing I noticed when I sat down next to him was the strong scent of aftershave. It was as if he was trying to cover some other scent because I could barely even smell his own scent.

During the middle of my first course, his aftershave began to fade off, and his scent began to hit my nose in waves. I breathed in subtly, reveling in his intoxicating scent, when I smelt something else.

A scent that had been familiar to me for years- a subtle scent because I didn't have my wolf at the time, but still it was distinct.

I looked up at Zyon, unable to process what I was smelling. He didn't notice, deep in conversation with his brother. I looked down at his knuckles, more bruised and bloodied than before.

My heart sank in my chest. I truly was mated to a monster. There was a part of me that didn't want to believe this was true.

Because what I smelt on him so distinctly was Daniel's scent, and I was more sure than ever before, that his knuckles were bruised with Daniel's blood.