Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I KILLED YOU
When Zenith and Dawn finally returned, there was something off about the two of them, but the others didn’t pay close attention, since the alpha didn’t talk much and Dawn engrossed herself in what she was doing.

“It’s really poison,” Dawn said as she pulled out the Caius roots that she put inside the dead warrior’s throat.

These Caius roots were the size of your forefinger and black, but it was very sensitive to toxins, not many people knew about this because Caius root itself could be poisonous if you didn’t know how to handle it safely, thus people who learned about medicine often didn’t use it, because it was not a safe option.

Dawn explained that to them and showed the roots that had turned dark yellow.

“The color indicates that it’s a slow acting poison. He must have been exposed to the source constantly.”

“I don’t know that you are very knowledgeable about poison,” Darius commented. “Can you make one too?”

Dawn glanced at Darius, but her words were directed to Zander. “I can and I will give you one, if you annoy me.”

Darius scrunched his nose. “If I annoyed you, just tell me, I will correct my behavior, okay.” He moved closer to Axel to whisper to the beta. “She is scary.”

“So, what is the source of it?” Zander was surprised that Dawn really knew what she was doing.

“It can be anything, it is hard to tell if you didn’t see where he lived and what the thing that constantly had come in contact with him.”

“Great!” Zander clapped his hands. “All the more reason for you to go to Capital City!”

“No,” Dawn immediately refused. This king was very shameless, she felt like she wanted to interrogate those people, who said he was wise and kind. More so, his mask was weird. “I am not going with you.”

“Why not?”

“After your attempt to finish me off, I don’t feel like helping someone like you, who tried to kill me.”

“You are being too sensitive. If I really wanted to kill you, you would have been dead by now.”

Hearing that, Zenith took Dawn’s hand to walk away from there. “She helped you enough already. You can deal with it.” He snatched the roots from her hand and threw them to Pyro, who caught them and frowned. “I expect not to see you again in the morning.”

After that, the alpha left with his woman.

“Ck,” Zander clicked his tongue. “Why so cruel?”

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Dawn cleaned herself once they returned to their bedroom, since she was so dirty after touching a dead body literally.

It was already so late at night when she finished taking a bath and because Zenith didn’t like it when there were other people in the bedroom, Kynes and Pyllo couldn’t come to help Dawn to dry her hair, which meant she had to do it herself.

However, Dawn was too tired and her hair was rather thick and long, it would take some time before it really dried.

Therefore, she chose to sleep with her hair still wet, but Zenith took the towel and told her to sit down.

“Let it be, it will dry when I wake up.” Dawn snuggled against the pillow.

“No, sit down.” Zenith pulled her up to sit down and started to dry her hair. She was sitting on the bed, while he stood in front of her.

The room was very quiet and the only thing that Dawn could hear was the rustling sound of her hair against the towel and the wind outside.

“Zenith.”

“Hm.”

“In your dream, why did I kill you?” Dawn asked this question before in the greenhouse, but Zenith went quiet. He reminded her to finish her examination on the dead body first and they would have time to talk about it later.

And this was the right time.

“You came to me and told me that our son went to the untouched land. I didn’t believe you. Our son is only five, there was no way he could get to the untouched land, based on that, I ignored you.” He was being very gentle with Dawn.

“Why didn’t you believe me?” Dawn was unhappy when she heard that. Lowering her head, she stared at the floor and his feet.

“Because you lied too much to get my attention.”

“But, why didn’t you check?”

“Because I didn’t believe you.”

“What happened then?” Dawn didn’t like how it turned out.

There was a heavy silence and when Zenith spoke again, his voice was laced with rage and remorse. “He was mauled by monsters.”

Dawn was shocked, she raised her head and looked at Zenith. She wanted to curse at him, but then she remembered it was only a dream. “Well, I can understand why I killed you…” She mumbled.

Zenith gently made Dawn lower her head again, as he focused on his task. This time, she didn’t ask questions anymore, probably because she saw the pain in his eyes.

Dawn didn’t believe the dream that Zenith told her about, but somehow, she felt it was personal. A sensitive topic for Zenith and he was being very serious with this so- called dream.

“It’s done,” Zenith finally said after a while. “Sleep.”

Dawn immediately snuggled into the blanket, while Zenith laid down next to her. At the beginning, it felt very awkward to have him sleeping next to her, but gradually, Dawn got used to the comfort of his presence.

More so, despite how unpredictable he was and how he often took advantage of her, Zenith actually didn’t do anything more than a few kisses here and there. He even hugged her in her sleep and caressed her head when she had a hard time falling asleep on her first night in his bed.

But this time, Zenith felt distant. Probably because of their conversation about his dream? He was being very serious about it, that Dawn had to physically stop herself from teasing him by saying; ‘it was only a dream…’

Slowly, Dawn crept closer to him and hugged his body. She didn’t like to see him upset like this. “I know you will never do that.”

Zenith wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, he buried his face against her neck and felt heavenly to have her in his arms again.

“Let’s sleep,” Dawn said in a small voice. “I hope you’ll have a nice dream now.”

Zenith squeezed her body gently and with that, the two of them fell asleep. But, unfortunately the next day when Dawn went to the dining hall to have her breakfast, she saw the king was still there. He was sitting on Zenith’s chair, while the alpha was nowhere to be seen.

It was not uncommon for the alpha not to join them, but it became awkward for Dawn, thus she turned her body quickly before Zander could see her, but unfortunately, the king already spotted her figure.

“Dawn! Come here!” Zander called Dawn, he waved his hand in a way that made him look charismatic.

This time, because the king was calling her, all of their eyes were on her and she just realized how tense the atmosphere here was because of the presence of the king.

What a nuisance…

“Dawn! Come! Sit with me!”

I don’t want to!

Dawn wanted to scream back at him, but with all the people around them, she couldn’t disregard Zander. No matter what, he was still the king of the werewolves.

Left with no other choice, Dawn dragged her feet to the platform, where there were only the king and his royal beta, while Dawn walked between the long tables, she spotted Darius and Axel, both of them chose to sit with all the warriors instead of filling their usual seats.

The gamma even waved his hand at her, as if saying; good luck.

“Good morning, My King,” Dawn greeted Zander with no enthusiasm and this made Zander grin.

“Good morning to you too, how was your sleep?”

“It’s great.” Dawn sat on her seat next to Zander, but she didn’t eat anything. She didn’t feel safe to eat anything that this king had touched.

“So, tell me where did you learn about poison?”

“A healer in my pack taught me a few things about medicine, but I read more books about poison.”

“Why did you read more books about poison? Is there someone that you want to poison?”

Come to think of it, there were indeed people that she wanted to poison. The rogues. Because they were the ones who killed her mother, but later on, it was Emily and Julia.

Dawn had never said that she was a good person, but she didn’t know how long she kept this desire for them to be dead because they were giving her hell, ever since they entered her life.

She scoffed at herself; see how full of hatred she was, but only now she realized it.

“It’s good to be able to protect myself,” Dawn replied.

“Protect yourself from what?”

Dawn turned her head, she was frowning at the king. This time, he was wearing a similar half faced golden mask again, but with different intricacy. Just how many masks did he have?

“Am I being interrogated?” Dawn was a little bit bold, as she stared him right in the eyes. This king was very wicked. She knew someone like him when she saw one.

“Of course not. We are having a nice conversation, are we not?” He smiled harmlessly at her.

“Can I ask a question too?”

“Sure.” Zander turned his body toward her, interested in her question.

“Why did you want to kill me?”

“Because you are going to kill my brother.”