Chapter 54 Chapter 54. Zephyr Shatters Her Trust
Zoria’s hair was a mess, her face icy and soaked with tears. Trembling, she lifted her hand and placed it over Zephyr’s. The coldness of her small hand made him pause for a split second, his grip loosening unconsciously.
With a bit of air finally returning, Zoria coughed violently, gasping for breath as her frail body curled inward. "So because I lied to you," she rasped hoarsely, "you’re going to strangle me to death today?"
Zephyr ground his teeth. "Zoria! I’m asking you!"
Zephyr was truly furious. In the past, Zoria had always been terrified when he lost his temper—terrified he would reduce her to something neither fully alive nor allowed to die.
"Zephyr, put your hand on your heart and ask yourself this," Zoria said, lifting a sharp finger and jabbing it straight into his chest. "Have you ever believed me?"
"The day I was taken to the hospital, you believed that doctor." Her eyes reddened, the blue in her pupils flooding with hatred. "You believed I was carrying some bastard unborn for three months."
"You ask me why I hid it from you?" Zoria let out a hoarse, humorless laugh, her voice cold. "Because you once told me… that even if I gave birth to that baby, you would kill it."
Zephyr stared at her darkly. "Then later, when I forced you to carry an offspring of my species, why didn’t you tell me the first baby had never miscarried at all?"
Zoria replied in a raspy voice, calm to the point of cruelty. "Because you said you wanted to give my baby to Faye to raise. That was my baby! What right did I have to hand my baby over to another female to raise?"
Suddenly, Zephyr tightened his grip around Zoria’s wrist, his fingers like iron clamps digging into her flesh. She could clearly feel the frantic pounding of her pulse beneath his grip, as though just a bit more pressure would be enough to crush her wrist entirely.
Zoria’s skin was pale to begin with; under his grasp, dark purple finger marks immediately bloomed, a horrifying sight.
Zephyr bent down, bared his fangs, and sank them hard into her neck. He bit until blood surfaced, still refusing to let go, only releasing her when Zoria’s body spasmed violently from the pain. He leaned close to her ear, teeth clenched, his voice venomous. "No matter what you say, you can never wash away the fact that you killed my offspring."
Zoria froze.
She lifted her head, staring at the male who was shoving all the blame onto her shoulders. Zephyr stood tall before her, blocking her path. The light behind him cast his face into deeper shadow, making it look even more sinister.
"Your… offspring?" Zoria’s voice trembled. As she looked up, she caught a fleeting trace of pain flash through his eyes—and then she laughed, bitterly.
“Zephyr, it’s not your offspring. You said it yourself—it was just a bastard.”
Zoria’s voice was hoarse as she spoke, each word slow and deliberate. “The one who caused its death wasn’t me. It was you. You were the one who told the doctor to cut open my belly and rip my four-month-old baby out of my womb!”
A sharp, crushing pain slammed into her chest. Zoria clenched the bedsheet with all ten fingers, trying to distract herself from the agony. She gasped for breath, her icy gaze locking onto the male in front of her as if she were staring at a butcher.
“If you hadn’t deliberately lied to me, it wouldn’t have died. Zoria, you’re too cruel. You killed our offspring!”
Zoria’s ears rang. Her frail body curled in on itself on the bed, trembling uncontrollably.
Zephyr had completely lost his mind. His eyes were bloodshot, like a beast dragged up from hell, and his hand looked as though it wanted to pull Zoria down into that hell with him.
“Zephyr, get out!” Zoria screamed herself hoarse. Her torn throat forced out a shrill sound as tears streamed down her face. “I never want to see you again!”
“Zoria, you want to cut the bond with me, don’t you?” Zephyr bent down, gripping her chin hard. He leaned close to her ear and spoke slowly.
Zoria ground her teeth. “Yes!”
Zephyr let out a cold laugh, his smile full of mockery, as though he were sneering at Zoria’s stupidity and innocence.
“Then you’ll get what you want. We’ll meet at the Lycan Court. But let me make one thing clear—if you fail to cut the bond with me, I’ll tie you to the bed every single day and make sure you can do nothing but give birth to my offspring. Don’t believe me? Try me.”
Zoria’s entire body went rigid, as if an invisible, icy hand had wrapped itself around her heart. Her eyes burned red as she stared at Zephyr, her chest heaving with every breath.
“Zephyr, you’re an animal!”
“I can do things far worse than that.” Zephyr looked down at Zoria’s deathly pale face. In that instant, as if a thought had occurred to him, the corner of his lips lifted into a frivolous, contemptuous smile.
“Zoria, you’d better behave. Don’t provoke my anger. If you’re obedient, I might treat you a little more kindly. But if you’re not…” His voice dropped, slow and deliberate. “Then I guarantee that in the days to come, you won’t feel anything except sexual pleasure. Think carefully.”
With those words tossed behind him, Zephyr turned and strode out of the hospital room without looking back.
Under the dim lights, Zoria’s face was as white as if all the blood had drained from it.
“Zoria, our baby died because of you!”
Her stomach churned violently. Zoria braced herself against the edge of the bed and vomited into the trash can again and again. There was nothing left in her stomach, yet the nausea refused to subside.
Physiological tears blurred her vision. Zoria collapsed back onto the hospital bed, too weak even to turn over.
Zephyr’s vicious words replayed endlessly in her mind. Her chest burned as if a scorching iron were pressed against it, as though something inside her were being incinerated with every breath.
She bit down hard on the back of her hand to stifle her sobs. She didn’t want to cry anymore, but tears still pooled in her eyes, swirling before spilling over.
She wanted to die so badly… Maybe death would bring release, wouldn’t it?