The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 206: Picked & Delivered

Zina stiffened at first, but then she stood at ease, turning to behold the very woman she had been looking for.

"Alpha IronFang." She greeted the other woman only out of courtesy.

Something glinted in the older woman’s eyes while she greeted back in kind. "Theta WolfKnight."

The corners of Zina’s lips tugged into an easy smile that certainly didn’t convey the unease that rioted within her. "Is that my surname though? WolfKnight?" She said through her smile.

Vessira’s expression was bland while she said, "I do not believe I understand why you’re saying."

Oh, so she was going to play ignorant instead.

"Really?" Zina said, circling the woman. The scene was quite comical as it was obvious that Vessira’s Supreme Wolf could easily crush her petite frame like she was nothing but air. But fear and reason both eluded her as the only thing that played in her mind was the image of her mother in so much pain that even the most hardened child would shed a tear or two.

Zina might not know whether her mother was a good or bad person, but all of it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that in that projection, the woman had saved her from death, and for that reason alone, Zina would find her no matter what it would take from her.

"Are you sure you do not know what I speak of?" Zina probed further, her voice sharp against Vessira’s annoying silence.

"If there’s nothing more, then I shall take my leave." Vessira said, and to Zina’s astonishment, the woman stepped away from the circle that Zina’s circling had trapped her in, and then she was leaving.

Zina stood rooted in place, her fingers clenching into a fist that trembled with her anger.

"So you’re going to act like you’re not the one who abandoned me with the WolfKnight’s?" She gritted, the words coming out much louder than she had intended for it to.

The air in the garden that smelt of greens and earth seemed to freeze together with Vessira’s receding steps.

The woman, her back now turned to Zina, scoffed. "Abandon is such a strong word, I simply picked and delivered you in good hands."

"..."

What...?

Zina didn’t believe that she had ever felt such cold blooded need to strangle a stranger ever in her life.

"What?" She muttered, the words sounding like the squeak of a mouse against her heart that thundered in her ears, "you simply made a pick and delivery?"

Back still turned to her, Vessira spoke in an almost mocking voice. "In retrospect, you could say I gave you life. You could have been dead, buried somewhere where the worms must have feasted even on your bones."

"How dare you...."

"What can you do about it though?" Vessira interrupted with a harsh laughter, "even now you’re still a child clamouring for her origins instead of looking to the future. What can you do about it, save whining about it?"

Each of her words were like daggers that twisted harshly in Zina’s heart. They were painful alright, and they drove a terrifying point home.

But Zina saw through the harshness of it and instead concentrated on the fragments of words that she spoke.

Before Vessira could leave, Zina scrambled around for her retort. She would not let that horrible woman have the last words.

"Did you just say you gave me life?" Zina scoffed, a strand of her hair escaping from the bun it was tied in and instructing her eyes. "As if that would be remotely possible when you yourself are incapable of even having a child."

The jab hit its true mark, and Vessira turned, resting on Zina eyes that scourged with an anger that would have been terrifying if Zina wasn’t so lost in the haze of her own anger.

Zina laughed with a snort. "You’re not even a mother, nor my mother for the matter, so how dare you say that you gave me life?"

She watched the woman clench her fists as if trying to control herself from exploding. Zina watched her like one would do a creature of interest; so the woman who was the leader of a Pack that took the vow of chastity and even performed gentile mutilation was peeved at the mention of her vows. Wasn’t that interesting. And wasn’t Zina eager to know what it could mean?

Zina thought of Daemon at that instant; if he were there, he would have known what to say to drive the hurt home just by observing Vessira’s mini reactions. So Zina did just that— she observed Vessira through the eyes of a master manipulator that she knew too well of, and she found herself transported on his Wolf Chess Table.

Zina moved towards Vessira, every step of hers lazy and drawn out. "So...." She drawled, "let’s see. Was it jealousy that drove you to steal another’s child? Or were you so ashamed of your womanly incompetence that you decided to harm another woman?"

Vessira gnashed her teeth, "Do not taunt me."

As if Zina would stop. "Ah, not jealousy then. It must have been hatred then; you hated yourself so much that you had no choice to hate others and unfortunately for my mother, she became the subject of your twisted hatred."

"What.Do.You.Know.About.Your.Mother?" She gritted, each word enunciated.

Zina smiled languidly, "Amongst many other things I know for sure that she is a bigger and better person than you."

Zina’s words must have hit the mark for suddenly Vessira’s expression turned into something dark and haunting... like she was relieving a dreaded memory. Zina observed her through narrowed eyes and learnt one thing instantly.

Vessira knew her mother. And that knowledge wasn’t simply fleeting, for if Vessira’s expression was anything to go by, then her acquaintance with her mother must have been far deeper than Zina ever anticipated it would be.