| CHAPTER 37 : OFFSPRING |

The next few days went by with me working out first thing in the morning for four hours then filling my stomach with all sorts of food. During the evenings, I would spend my time with Levi watching him train the warrior wolves or wandering about the mansion library trying to find some other stuff about King Alpha's twisted life.

Speaking of King Alpha, he went back to being passive and closed off even after we called a truce. Whenever he forced me to work out, he became extra grouchy and stern.

During the nights, we shared the bed, but I keep building a pillow barrier between us. King Alpha didn't seem to mind it. He would stare at the pillow barrier with a flat look before grumbling and sleeping on the side of his bed.

He woke me up with the same disastrous airhorn which I've come to hate more than anything else in the world. If I could just reach out and strangle that airhorn...

Other than that, things between me and King Alpha have been...I don't know. Good?

I resisted the urge to scream.

I don't understand him one bit!

Like even one bit. 

One second he's staring at me looking as if he wants to touch me, another second he goes blank as a rock, barely speaking to me.

It's been five days and I'm going utterly insane.

I want him to talk to me, I want him to tell me things, I want him to touch me. It's almost as if I'm starting to miss how he used to be before the whole Ace thing (except when he wanted to kill me of course).

Where's the King Alpha that used to give snarky rude comments, the one who used to make fun of me, the one who sparks the challenging side within me?

Because this King Alpha is not the King Alpha I know.

Another sigh came out of my lips as I put the book back on the shelf. These books were boring and old and most of them didn't even make sense to me at all.

Grabbing another book, I flopped onto a beanbag, flicking the page open and reading another one of the Royal's journals who probably lived twenty millenniums ago. 

The library lay dead silent except for me making sounds here and there because clumsy Ezlynn can't stay quiet even for the life of it.

The words of the book that I was reading were ancient with old English and a few words which I had to squint at to read.

Nothing in these books gave me more information about King Alpha except Wallace's diary that I've already read.

Getting immersed in a book I was reading; I didn't notice the hallow presence behind me.

It wasn't until I felt cool air breezing slowly behind my neck that I jumped out of my beanbag, looking behind me with a frown.

No one was there in the library except books, books and books.

A sense of déjà vu washed over me as my eyes scanned the library.

After giving it a once over and making sure that no one was here with me, I sat back down on the beanbag, picked up the book and flicked to the page I was on.

Cool air blew into my right ear.

I jumped in the air with a shriek, throwing the book to my right to hit the person or whatever.

The book fell straight to the floor, hitting no one.

"Okay, who's here?" I called out. "This better not be a prank or something. I hate pranks."

The room lay dead silent as my eyes scanned around once more.

"Nerdy birdie, reading, huh?"

I didn't dare scream as the chills of another body radiated behind me.

Slowly, stiffly, I turned around.

No one.

"What...the...hell?"

"Hell? Ergh, too boring."

That chilly voice continued from nowhere yet everywhere making me turn around in my place continually.

"Who's saying that?"

"Me, obviously."

Memories of the cream room where this same incident happened came to my mind.

"Who are you?" I forced a demanding tone. 

"Someone."

I felt eyes all around me, yet no one seemed to be in the library.

"Why can't I see you?"

"Because I don't want you to see me."

A hand slapped the back of my head.

"Hey!" I whirled around, scowling at nothing but air.

"I have this name for you in my mind, but I sort of can't remember it. Was it...puppy? It almost looks like a puppy. It's sort of a brown bear type of thing. Poppy? Poopy?"

"Pooky?" I suggested, confused.

"Bingo!"

I felt the grin in his voice.

"Yeah, pooky bear. You remind me of that."

"How so?" I was still turning around and around trying to find that voice.

"You're both so fluffy."

Invisible hands snuggled from behind me, hugging me to a chest with a head resting on my shoulder.

My breath hitched in my throat. My body stiffened. I didn't dare move or make a sound. They were cold hands. So very cold. Like ice. Those same hands moved up towards my shoulders, gently caressing my bare skin from where I was wearing a tank top. His hands were gentle and almost ghostly type like he was touching me but not really touching me. I almost gave into his touch- his hands caught on my neck in a vice grip.

I gasped and spluttered, my hands flying to my neck only to find myself touching my own skin, despite the hands still gripping my neck.

I almost choked.

"You're so innocent aren't you, pooky?" His lips brushed against my ear, "giving into a creature like me just because I touched you lovingly for two seconds?"

His hands tightened on my throat.

My vision blurred.

"Is this why King Alpha kept you?" His nasty voice continued, "because you love too easily? Because you give him the care and affection he needs?"

I struggled against the vice grip, tears blurring my eyes, "Let...me go."

"Has he gone really needy for someone so immature as you? You're basically an offspring."

His fingers dug into the skin of my neck as I still tried to escape him.  

"Hmm I don't feel good," he said after a second, "I was here to kill someone else. Not you," his hands loosened, "eh, be free. Get lost from here." He left my neck and I staggered.

I didn't wait for a second for him to say something else and quickly dashed out of the library room, running into hallways with sobs after sobs trying to lodge from my mouth at once.

I ran in different directions until I collided with someone, sending me staggering two steps back.

"What the fuck, Ez—" King Alpha's words died in his mouth as I threw my arms around his neck. His hands immediately came around my waist, holding me.

"What happened?" He demanded, not sounding happy in the least bit possible.

I couldn't answer with the sobs erupting from my mouth.

I half expected King Alpha to push me away from him and demand what was happening but instead, he just held me, his hands firmly holding me to him.

I forced in deep breaths, trying to calm myself down and stop crying.

After one or two minutes, I succeeded in doing so.

Slowly, I unlatched my hands from King Alpha, stepping away and wiping my face with the back of my hand.

"What happened?" He frowned.

"There's someone here," I resisted the urge to sob again, "I'm not even kidding. I think I met Casper, but he was ruder and angrier and cruel, almost like," My eyes locked with his, "you." 

He gave me a look that said 'you're not making sense.'

"I'm serious! He was cold, like ice-cold almost as if his hands were dipped in ice and he grabbed me!"

Almost as if my words sank in his head, his eyes fell to my neck. His eyes widened just a fraction, genuinely shocked, before a frown came on his face. He lifted a hand to my neck, lightly brushing my skin.

I would have shivered if his touch didn't make me yelp and jump back.

"Ow! Why did that hurt?"

I looked around for some sort of a mirror and found an ancient-looking sword type of thing hung on the wall. Walking over to it, I checked the skin of my neck by the blade of the sword.

My mouth fell open.

Red and blue marks scarred my skin from where the invisible person had grabbed me. They were somewhere between bruises and burned marks. Maybe both.

"What...the hell?" I murmured.

"Where did this happen?" King Alpha demanded.

"In the library room," I answered, "it happened before too in that cream room where you locked me."

Without another word, he dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialling a number on it and placing it to his ear, "Levi, have a full survey of Saludom and check for any intruders or any other supernatural presence...yes, I know we have our wards, but I still want you to ransack the mansion, understood?" His voice turned authoritative, strict and commanding, "Good."

He put his phone back in his pocket.

"What now?" I asked.

He gave an unpleasant tight-lipped smile, "I guess Arsenio's escaped soul did come to find me."

"The one that escaped the Limbo?"

"Yup."

He started walking without another word.

"Wait!"

He turned towards me with a raised eyebrow.

Not sure why exactly I called him, but still, I asked, "Where are you going?" 

"To find what's going on in my damn kingdom." He stated in an obvious tone. 

"Can I come?"

"No."

"Why not?" I almost pouted.

"Did you look at your neck?" He gestured towards my neck with his hand. "You're staying in our room until I get back. I'll call Griselda to take care of your bruise or whatever the fuck that is."

Before I could protest anymore, he vanished in plain sight.

A grumble of annoyance came out of my lips before a realization dawned upon me which made my cheeks turn warm and pink.

Did he say our room?

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Date: 21 August 2021