Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: HIS DEATH WILL BE ON YOU
“I am going to die,” Dawn said. She laid down on the cold ground, ignoring how the coldness seeped through her dress. She was dead tired.

They had been training for three hours and true to his word, Zenith woke her up when the sky was still so dark, she thought it was still night, as it turned out the sun would come late in winter.

Right now, the sky had turned brighter, but even when she basked herself in the sunlight, she couldn’t feel any warmth, it was not like this in the east. The weather was depressing here.

Zenith shifted back and walked toward Dawn, his shadow blocked her from the sunlight. “No. You can have a ten minute break, then we will continue.”

“No…” Dawn wailed. “I am not going anywhere! I will not move an inch!” She threw a tantrum. Her body ached so bad. Her wrists felt like they were broken because of the harsh training.

Zenith clicked his tongue. “Your beast is very weak. How many times do you shift into your beast in a day?”

Dawn furrowed her brows. “Should I shift every day?” She massaged her wrists.

“You must.” Zenith knelt down and took her hand, as he started to massage it. “As a shifter, you need to be in tune with your beast. In order to do that, you need to shift and let your beast take over sometimes, but not for too long, though. Or else, you will not be able to get a good grip on your feral side.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Nobody taught you about it?”

“They taught the men about everything in their training, but we, women, were not allowed to join in the ‘fun’.”

“No wonder you used the dagger better.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn retracted her hand, it felt better now. “Why did you keep saying something weird, as if you knew me very well? You said we met before, but even after wrecking my brains and losing so much sleep, I can’t remember anything about you before you snatched me away from my pack.”

“You have only been here for three days, how much sleep could you lose? And I did not snatch you away, I just took what is mine.”

“You don’t even like me,” Dawn grumbled.

“Who said that?”

Dawn lifted her head and looked at him with bewilderment. “I am not your destined mate and I am just a debt that my father has to pay you. I don’t even know what the deal between you two is.”

“I lent your father a thousand warriors six years ago, but he made a terrible plan and lost my warriors. He should have repaid it with his life, but I wanted his daughter as the repayment. That’s how the deal was made.”

Six years ago… It meant a year before her father decided to take Julia as his second chance mate, because she had Emily. Her father indeed wanted to give Emily to Alpha Zenith, that was why he had been treating them really nicely, probably because of his guilty conscience to Emily or maybe because he wanted to keep the mother and daughter close to him, so they wouldn’t realize his plan before the time came.

Unfortunately, somehow Emily and Julia learned about that.

“Agreed. My father is a terrible decision maker,” Dawn mumbled, she lowered her head. All the mistreatment that she had to endure was for what?

“You are not only a debt that your father has to pay to me. You are here because I want you.”

“But, why? Why do you want me while I can’t even recall if we have ever met before.”

Just like every other time, he didn’t answer her question. There was this silence that engulfed them and the cold wind that blew from the south and the sadness in his blue eyes.

Before Dawn could realize it, Zenith had moved really closer to her. His face was so close, she knew what he was going to do, but she was too stunned to move.

She knew he was handsome, there was something that would make you hold your breath for a while when you saw his coldness and the mystery that rolled off his being and now, Dawn was enchanted by his scent that intruded her senses.

He was getting too close!

Should I punch him? Kick him? Push him away? Scream at the top of my lungs?

However, when his cold lips pressed against hers, her mind went blank, as her face turned very red and the cold weather became a little bit warmer. He nipped on her lips and his warm hand was on the back of her head.

“Breath, Dawn,” Zenith said against her lips.

To her surprise, his voice was tender, like a spring breeze against her ears as his thumb circled her nape to help her relax.

This kiss was innocent, he was being very gentle with her, something that you wouldn’t think the alpha was capable of doing when you saw him for the first time.

Yet, here he was, being careful with his advances.

And when Dawn finally became comfortable with his touch and was about to reciprocate his kiss, he pulled away from her.

“Ten minutes,” he reminded her and then backed away.

Dawn was breathless, her face turned very red and she felt humiliated, but more than that, she was pissed.

“Y- you kissed me!” Dawn blurted out.

“I did.” Zenith nodded calmly.

“How dare you!?”

“If I am not mistaken, you were about to reciprocate the kiss before I stopped.” He made it sound like he was very noble to have done that, as if he had done Dawn a favor.

Zenith smirked and shifted into his beast, even in his beast form, Dawn could see how he taunted her. She shifted into her own beast and started chasing after him.

However, no matter how hard she tried, she would always be three steps behind him. Zenith could have outrun her easily, but he would always make sure she was within his sight.

Two hours later, Dawn gave up, she shifted back into her human form, breathing raggedly.

“No. You can’t force me to train anymore. I can’t move.” Dawn waved her hands at Zenith. “Leave me alone.”

“Get up, you can’t sleep here. We are close to the forest, there might be a monster roaming this area.”

“Can’t move…” Dawn whimpered. “You need to drag me.”

Zenith was sure he had toned down the intensity of the training, but it was still too much for her.

The alpha then knelt down in front of her with his back facing her. “Get on.”

“Do you want me to climb onto your back?”

“Should I drag you instead?”

Dawn pursed her lips, she immediately climbed on top of his back. He was warm and his smell was really good. She couldn’t help, but sniff him. His broad back was also very comfortable.

“Zenith.”

“Hm?”

“If my destined mate could sleep with my step sister even with the mate bond between us, how can you promise you will not betray me the same way? If you have any plans to do that, you better tell me, so I can stop myself from trying to like you, since we will spend forever together.” He didn’t answer her, but at this point, she got used to this side of him. “Do you even like me?”

“I don’t like you, but if I saw you with another man, his death would be on you.”

“Can I do the same when I see you with other women?”

“Please do.”

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Julia couldn’t hold it back any longer. She was very upset to always find Tony in Dawn’s bedroom, sitting on her bed and covering his face.

This room was empty. There was not a single trace of Dawn here. Somehow, that alpha from the north managed to clear everything up and take away all of her belongings, which Julia was grateful for, but Tony had been very depressed when he learned about this.

Not even a single thing that could remind Tony of his daughter was left. It almost felt like Dawn had never lived in this house before.

The fact that Tony had often catered to Emily’s needs and slowly removed everything that belonged to Dawn around their house and replaced them with Emily’s, only hit him now.

His daughter had been isolated in her own house.

Tony regretted everything. He wanted his daughter back. He wanted to explain to her that he didn’t abandon her.

However, no letter he sent to the north had ever been replied.

“She is not dead. Why have you been acting like she is dead? She lives her life in the north.” Julia stood at the door, staring at Tony with anger in her eyes. “You have your other daughter that you need to think of too. Emily needs you now, you need to talk to Blake to treat Emily better.”

Tony lowered his hands from his face and looked at his second mate. He remembered how she convinced him to take Emily to the capital city two years ago instead of Dawn, because there were only three invitations to visit the palace. Both Emily and Dawn had never been to the palace before, but Julia managed to make him leave his own daughter behind for two weeks straight.

How cruel he was.

“I will talk to Blake,” Tony said. He stood up, walked past Julia and then returned to their bedroom. He had been very cold lately and during the morning training, he was often harsh with Blake. He almost killed him once during the sparring.