Her Father's Betrayal

AYSU

“What are you talking about?” Aysu was sure she heard wrong. And she hoped that his response would not be something that would amplify the ridiculous nonsense he just replied to her with.

“You heard me, Aysu,” Ximun said, his feet pacing the room the moment she responded with a scoff. “Your father approached me for a different reason.”

“That makes no sense.” Aysu’s eyes darted here and there. “I am here because you had the same number of rejections as me. So, what other business would my father have with you? If you are trying to pull my legs, you had better stop it.”

“Aysu, I am not joking here.” His shoes scratched the ground and he halted his slow strides. Aysu then turned and placed her burning gaze on his broad back. Ximun, with his head hung low in a way that made strands of his hair fall, said, “I apologise for not saying this earlier, but I don’t think your father will ever come for you. He won’t check up on you nor will he reply to your messages.”

“Why? What is this stupid deal?” Aysu demanded, her voice on the verge of becoming a scream.

“Do you really want to know?”

Aysu’s brows jerked and she felt tested. “Why else would I be asking?”

Ximun sighed in a way that filled the room with a certain tremor. “When your father first approached me, he came for financial help.”

“Why? That man is one of the richest in the Tarmish Pack, so how could he ask for that kind of help?” Aysu strongly hoped that Ximun was going somewhere reasonable with his confession.

“Your father was in a huge mess.”

“How huge?”

Ximun faced her. “Huge enough to have him killed. Apparently, he took on a massive project that ended up being a huge failure. Aysu, your father would have been killed if he hadn’t approached me for help.”

“That’s a lie,” Aysu claimed even though her voice wasn’t as firm as before. “My father is too good of a businessman to end up in such a situation.”

“But, he did,” Ximun responded point-blindingly. “And in exchange for my help, he offered a solution to my curse problem.”

“And you accepted it?” Aysu recalled the way he acted when she approached him first.

“Initially, no.” He began to walk back to his seat. “But I couldn’t endure the rippling pain from the last rejection anymore. So, I decided to accept the deal.”

Aysu closed her eyes and let out a deep exhale. Without opening them, she asked, “If all you have said is true, how does it relate to me being unable to reach my father?”

“The answer to that doesn’t lie with me, Aysu. But I can strongly guess that he has decided to cut ties with you.”

Ximun spoke that last statement very casually and that made it hurt Aysu more than she should.

She placed a hand on her chest to contain the raging flutter in her heart, opened her eyes and said, “It makes no sense that he would do that. I am his daughter and-”

“You said you’ve been trying to reach him for weeks. Do you think that’s because of network issues?”

“It could be.”

“It is not. We have the best network in the area.”

“Oh, please. I bet it is a 5G kind of thing.”

“No, double of that. You should explore our technology one of these days, it will blow your mind.” He got up again, this time, his eyes were filled with pity and concern. “Aysu, your father might have cut ties with you.”

“B-But he replied to my last message. He said he was doing well and that he sent me a gift.”

“That message was sent with a hawk. How many hawks have you sent since that strange person from Tarmish Pack spoke to you?”

“Well,” she folded her arms, “a lot. I think the Hawks hate me now. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that my father has abandoned and cut ties with me. He could be very busy actually.”

“No father should be too busy for his child.”

“Well, I am not really his child, so…” Aysu shrugged and stopped herself from uttering more words.

“Aysu, are you trying to hurt yourself?” He held her by the shoulders. “No matter what has happened or is happening, your father shouldn’t be too busy for you.”

“I just need him to reply, Ximun,” Aysu confessed, and the wall she was trying to create crumbled very fast. “I don’t want those people in Tarmish Pack to call me a traitor for trying to find peace.”

“But, you are not a traitor. You know that, I know that too, the whole of the Night Crimson Pack knows that.”

“But the Tarmish Pack thinks otherwise,” Aysu said.

“Do we need to care about that they think? From what I have heard, they never offered to help you out of the misery the curse put you in. They scorned and avoided you as though you were a disease. So why should their nonsense affect us?”

“I-”

Without a pause, Ximun hugged her head to his chest and his words became amplified as he continued, “To me, you are the one that saved me from a lifetime of pain. So, no matter what they say, the truth about what you are to me will always repel them. And it would be enough reason for me to make some heads roll.”

“You seem to love the thought of murder.” Aysu was trying really hard not to enjoy the embrace.

“It’s not murder if they deserve it.” Ximun seemed to be reading her inner thoughts as he tightened their embrace and made it warmer. “I will help you reach your father. But-”

“I have to consider that he might have cut ties with me,” Aysu competed and at the same time, her head swirled.

The thought of her father doing something as brutal as shedding their connection made her wonder if he really loved her despite not being his biological daughter.

Sure, while growing up in his house, a tiny part of her always moved with caution when it came to forging a deep relationship with him. But that tiny part never won. With the way he took care of her, she was certain that he was a man who loved him despite other factors.

So, the more it rang in her head that her father might not be the man she thought he was, the more difficult it became for her to breathe.

Even though she broke out of the hug immediately to feel free, she still found it hard to breathe so much that she began to worry Ximun who held her firmly.

Soon, that moment became worse and seconds later, all she could sense was the feeling of deep darkness swallowing her whole.

XIMUN

“Aysu.” Ximun fell to the ground while her almost lifeless body crumbled into his arms. “Wake up! Aysu!”

His calls were filled with immense terror and while he searched her whitish face, he wondered if he went too far with confessing about the business deal with her father. “Aysu! Someone get the fuck out and grab the Healer! Aysu, please, wake up. Aysu.”

“Your Majesty, we have to get her onto the stretcher,” Musse replied, his hands stretched to get Aysu out of Ximun’s arms.

Ximun slapped those hands away and got to his feet, Aysu firmly pressed to his chest. “Where is the Healer”

“He is here,” Musse replied eagerly and a man that was not Andrew walked up to the Alpha.

“Alpha Ximun,” the man pointed at the stretcher that was rolled in by two men, “please place Miss Aysu here, we have to control her oxygen intake and check her vitals.”

Ximun was not entirely comfortable with someone that was not Andrew treating Aysu. But he pushed aside his insane preference and placed Aysu on the foamed bed and watched as the Healer did his job.

“She’s bleeding!” One of the men suddenly cried and Ximun’s chest became a mess.

“Let’s rush her to the room.”

Due to the fast movement of the Healer and his team, he didn’t get to see how Aysu was bleeding. So he rushed out with them and when they got to the treatment room that was located very close to the throne room, he went in and watched from behind a screened door as they did their job while his body and soul shivered and crashed in a way he didn’t know it could.

An hour later, the Healer walked up to Alpha Ximun.

“Is she okay? Why was she bleeding?”

The man sighed in a way that weighed Ximun’s heart down. “Miss Aysu is fine, but there is a problem.”

“What problem?”

“Miss Aysu was poisoned. And that triggered a threat to the fetus’s life.”

“Wh-What?” Ximun could have ended up on the ground if Musse hadn’t caught him. “Are you- Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I-Is the baby fine?”

“I am sorry, Your Majesty,” the Healer replied and Ximun’s heart broke. “We are yet to identify the poison so we will keep monitoring Miss Aysu.”

“You’ll lose your head if you let the poison win,” Ximun warned while he tried not to crumble. Then, with hardened jaws, he slightly tilted his head in Musse’s direction. “Arrest everyone that has been working for Aysu since she came here. We are not going to leave any stone unturned. The person responsible for this will pay with their life, I swear before the goddess and my ancestors.”