Chapter 270 Bonus Chapter: Bringing Secrets to One’s Grave (Part 1)

Chapter 270 Bonus Chapter: Bringing Secrets to One’s Grave (Part 1)
Months before Zarion and Cassidy’s Happy Ending…

Elliot’s POV

An ordinary night is dark and full of terrors.
But tonight… “It’s the night where death and shadows collide.”
I scour the ancient texts, scowling at the journals of my predecessor’s.
‘It can’t be a coincidence,’ I realized as I exhaled one long deep breath. ‘All of these are designed by fate. Cassidy has always been destined to be with Zarion.’
But the two are in Zarion’s brother’s pack, the Madfur Claws Pack. Brandon and Hestia might have brewed something for my friends. Something far more unpleasant than one can imagine.
I heard howling nearby. Too near. Dangerously near. The howls of the Rogues, I’m sure of it. I can smell their presence in the air.
I hope I can survive the night—survive enough to tell Cassidy and Zarion what I found out: the witch Zarion was looking for and Zarion’s real mate.
If Rogues ever attacked before Cassidy and Zarion arrived, I’d be damned. I’m just a healer, not a fucking warrior trained to rip the throats of my enemies.
Poisoning them and blinding their eyes with potions are the greatest pain I can only inflict them. Nothing more.
My wolf is trembling. But I cannot just leave the cabin, not when Zariion and Cassidy are nowhere to be seen. This is where our friendship grew, where we wake up each day as more than friends. This is more than just a cabin made of woods and stones, this is where we treat each other like a family.
But perhaps Brandon also knows, that’s why he lured both of them to his pack. Maybe Brandon knew all along about the witch and the real mate of his half-brother and kept it to himself so he might have the knowledge as his privilege. As his bargaining chip.
Another howl erupted the night. This one is louder, fiercer than the one before.
‘Fuck,’ I cursed under my breath.
Not to be frantic but yes, I am panicking. Extremely panicking.
I cannot just write what I found out. Those Rogues might use it as their bargaining chip instead. The only way to reveal these secrets I’m carrying is to tell Cassidy and Zarion in person.
I cannot also leave the cabin as I am not a fighter. Judging by the howls, the Rogues might have surrounded me already. There’s nowhere to run. Nowhere to crawl onto.
They’re just torturing me with their howls, probably waiting to attack when I’m at my weakest. They’ll probably just trick me that they already leave so I might let my guard down and eventually answer to the call of sleepiness.
And that’s when they’ll kill me, when I’m asleep.
Their howls are just their form of torture so that nervousness will fill me up to its brim until I can no longer hold it anymore. Until I give up and do what they want.
The thing is, that will never happen.
I’d rather die with my secrets buried with me than being killed for passing it.
Whether Brandon sent the Rogues because he knew about the truth I unearthed today or not, it doesn’t matter. These Rogues are here to kill me simply because I am Zarion’s bestfriend.
And my death will unleash the beast in him. Literally.
I am the only one keeping the demon in him at bay. And if I die, not only will he lose his bestfriend—he will also lose his precious healer. His demon tamer.
I gave Cassidy and Zarion a bunch of herbs and medicine today on their trip to the Madfur Claws Pack in case something horrible came. In case the demon will take over Zarion and I am not there to push the beast back in its cage, my job will be in the hands of Cassidy.
That precious human girl, who was once mortal and meek, is now a mighty werewolf with her beloved at her side. Empowering her like how every king should empower his queen.
Not to mention that one of the secrets that I hold is…Cassidy is Zarion’s true mate, and the witch just cast an enchantment on Zarion to never feel the mating bond when Cassidy’s around. That’s his curse. Aside from the fact that Zarion has long vowed to kill his mate because he doesn’t want to end up like his father who killed his mother once he found his mate, who turns out to be Brandon’s mother. And that’s why Brandon is born.
The other secret? It’s why the witch casted the enchantment on Zarion in the first place. The witch is protecting Cassidy. And the reason? It’s because I know the identity of the witch which made it the first, topmost priority secret.
These two secrets, so simple yet vital, cannot die. But it cannot also just leave my lips just because of some stupid motherfucking Rogues who were ordered by Brandon to, I don’t know, abduct me or kill me or whatever.
And just when I thought of the Rogues, the door burst open with a kick of a muscular Rogue. He’s big, too big for me to take down. I don’t know how to punch nor hold a knife—except when I’m slicing herbs and vegetables.
“There you are, you dumbass—”
I threw a glass of Belladonna and it seared on his palm, melting his skin. I threw another but his companion, a female one, managed to catch it in time before it landed right before his eyes.
“You’ll pay for this!”
I cannot run. I must not run.
‘I should run.’
No. I will not. These secrets…I’ll bury them with me then.
The female threw a punch aiming for my throat but I managed to dodge, hitting my shoulder instead.
Pain bursts through my entire fragile body. I grabbed a vial of poison in the kitchen.
But a thought struck me like thunder striking down a tree. These are Rogues. Belladonna and bloodbanes and other poison will never kill them. Rogues are too strong to be killed by mere poison that can kill twenty people.
I opened the vial as quickly as I could. Rogues appear out of nowhere, punching my window. Kicking my doors and searching through the papers and books laid in the table kitchen.
Luckily, Rogues never bother to read so they’ll never know the truths. After all, I acquired the truth with my deduction skills and not just with the help of some bunch of weird ancient texts lost in time.
“Brandon will be pleased to have your head,” the female Rogue sneered.
“You might as well bring him my ten-inch dick.”
And then I drink the poison in one gulp. The Rogues’ eyes widened, they looked at each other as if they no longer knew what to do.
“You—bastard! Brandon ordered us to bring you alive!”
The poison is too strong, even my wolf’s endurance cannot counter it. “Th-the f-fuck I c-care!”
The poison is beginning to kick as fast as five seconds.
I collapsed, my mouth bubbling. I will not die in these motherfucker’s hands. I would rather die on my own. I rather die with my secrets. I rather die knowing that Cassidy is Zarion’s mate all along and the witch’s identity…the witch is Cassidy’s grandmother all this time.
Even with my eyes turning bloody and the poison grabbing hold of my body, freezing my every move, one of the Rogue still kicked my head.
It just made the poison spread faster. Good.
I’ll die like this. I would rather die like this.