The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 77: Hate & Love Do Resemble

Chapter 77: Hate & Love Do Resemble

ZINA

"Announce my presence." Zina said to the Omegas guarding Daemon’s tent.

She felt the feral thing within her leaping excitedly on sensing the man within the confines of the tent and Zina squashed it down, ignoring her excitement.

She was Zina WolfKnight. The Theta of the NorthSteed Pack. For six years, she had kept to a vow of chastity and she never fell into the temptation of knowing a man intimately.

Daemon NorthSteed was just one man. Albeit a conniving, manipulating one. He was far from the type of man Zina admired, so regardless of the mate bond, Zina would never crumble before him.

What type of man did Zina admire then? Truth is, she didn’t know what he would look like. But she was certain that Daemon NorthSteed was far from the kind of man that would appeal to her.

She had a plan after her harrowing brush with death. True, there were a lot of scathing, unimaginable things happening around her. But they didn’t matter because her plan was now sharper than ever—she, Zina WolfKnight, will remain as she had always been. The powerful Theta of the NorthSteed Pack. In this rabid world they lived, she would never become a rabbit for any wolf.

The Omega’s didn’t do as expected of them, taking to simply staring between each other uncomfortably.

"Theta Zina, an important meeting is ongoing. I am afraid you cannot see the Lord without an appointment."

Zina laughed harshly. After claiming this love for her burned the world, yet she would have to see him with an appointment?

"If you won’t announce my presence, then I shall barge my way in." Zina threatened, her voice conveying that she wasn’t bluffing. She was being polite in the first place because it was unbecoming of a woman with a high status such as herself to barge no less than a barbarian.

Not like she couldn’t act barbarically if she so pleased.

The duo glanced at each other again silently communicating with themselves. Finally, one of them announced her presence.

"Theta Zina WolfKnight of the NorthSteed Pack to see Lord Daemon...."

Zina didn’t even wait for him to finish before she flung the tent wide open, stepping into it carelessly.

Almost immediately, an arrow flew for her, missing her head by mere inches with a loud whoosh as it grazed her hair, and a loud whistle as it laid its mark on the tent flap just behind her.

Zina stood rooted in place, her heart dancing madly in the confines of her chest. Zina clutched onto the sides of her dress even tighter, bunching the fabric in her fist.

To anyone looking at her, she was simply holding her cloth in a regal manner befitting of a Theta. It was only Zina that could confess to how tightly she held onto the fabric to the point it dug into her palm painfully.

Five pairs of eyes were on her, and among those pairs of eyes was the unmistakable dark brooding ones of Daemon NorthSteed. But he wasn’t responsible for the arrow that almost claimed her life. No, the culprit was a man that stood by his left on a rectangular, long table, his hair a colour that Zina couldn’t describe.

It could be gold or brown. Zina was relying on theoretical knowledge with her guess.

"Marcus," Daemon drawled in that manner that was beginning to grate on Zina’s nerves. "Do you wish to take the life of the incorruptible Theta, my mate?"

Oh, how Zina hated those words that were usually attached to her title.

The incorruptible Theta.

The unblemished

The divine Theta.

She hated them all. And now, not as much as she hated the words my mate.

"Forgive me," the man—Marcus—answered. "I thought it was a rogue."

Zina took three deep breaths at the obvious lie and blatant insult.

A runt is no better than a rogue.

She was no longer a runt. Not like it ever mattered even if she were still one. She knew the game they were playing at, and she wouldn’t allow it to get to her.

Zina collected herself, resuming her well practised stance as she walked towards the table the five men were standing around on. One careful glance at it showed it bore a well detailed inscription of the map of Vraga.

Why were they perusing through it when the war had very much ended? Did it have anything to do with what Seraph said about travelling South?

"I must speak with the banished prince." Zina spoke over the silence that thrummed in the room, making sure to enunciate the notorious title of Daemon NorthSteed much to the obvious disgruntlement of everyone in the room. She was proud of herself for she delivered as she imagined—voice levelled and without fear.

"I am afraid you cannot. As you can see, we are busy." A different voice spoke in a hard tone.

Zina turned to look at who it was. The man was tall, huge even. But nowhere close to as big as Zina was realising Daemon actually was in reality.

In fact, the more she could see, the more she was realising how pitiably small women were in comparison with men. She had heard it being talked about before, but she never imagined the contrast to be that bad.

Zina ignored the man she figured was probably Yaren given how he stood staunchly by Daemon’s right. "I must speak to the banished prince now. I have come to deliver the goodwill of the Alpha King of the Arctic North who also rules as the Alpha of the NorthSteed Pack and stands even now as your Alpha and King."

The room turned frosty as a murderous aura befell on it. Zina could see it clearly, how much Daemon’s companion wanted to strangle her at the malevolent words she spoke. But in contrast to their simmering anger, Daemon looked amused.

"Leave us." He said to the four with him, and without even an ounce of objection, they scampered away, their murderous glare not leaving Zina.

"You’re a bold one." Daemon casually said, his attention at the map before him. A second observation showed that the southern part of the map was turned to his direction.

"And you’re an audacious one." Zina said in a scathing voice that was meant to convey her hate. "How dare you lay your claim on me?"

Daemon finally pried his eyes off the map, those molten dark eyes on her. Zina might have not seen many people, but she didn’t think eyes like that were normal in the least.

"Would you have much preferred I rejected you as your last mate did?" Was his response in the blandest, uncaring tone Zina had ever heard.

Truth is, she was trying so hard to read Daemon, to know if he was the man she thought him to be. But that act was hard on its own.

"Why did you not reject me instead?" Zina found herself saying against her will. Of course she did not wish to go through such pain anymore, but Daemon had her curiosity.

By all right, this man was supposed to hate her as much as he was starting to hate him. This man was supposed to despise her... and yet he claimed her.

Was that another twisted way to show hate?

"Then offend the goddess by breaking the law of sevens? The gods forbid." He said incredulously like the thought of breaking the laws of seven was a shocking thing indeed. But Zina saw through the sarcasm hidden away from his words.

Zina took four brash steps closer to him that eliminated every space between them. She was far from ready to let this conversation go like that.

"But you hate me," She sneered in the most demeaning tone she could muster. Knowing it was dangerous, she went ahead to taunt him, her voice rising as she spoke.

"I told a false vision that has led to your banishment and your present condition right now. You’ve lost your position as Alpha Prince, lost the people around you, lost bloody wars because of that one false vision. You’ve every right to defy the law of sevens so why do you claim me instead?!"

Almost immediately, his hands snaked out to her waist, slamming her harshly against the map table while he leaned down against her, his breath caressing her face in ways she certainly didn’t like.

Her chest was heaving hard, her breast touching his chest whenever it rose while her eyes widened from the shock of the sight of their less than appropriate position.

"It seems to me that you’re mistaken," he whispered in her left ear the same manner he did all those years ago during their last meeting. Except this time around, the whisper set her core and heart on a fire that threatened to snowball into a furnace. "Hate and love more often than not resemble each other, it is easy to confuse them."

And then he bit her ear.