Chapter 24
Zayron pointed to the window.
“Go look,” he said flatly.
Kayla frowned but walked over.
The moment she peered outside, her breath caught.
Her clothes. Her bags. Her belongings, everything lay in a heap on the ground.
She spun back to him, anger flashing in her eyes.
“You threw my things out?”
Zayron sat on the edge of the bed, lifted the photo album he kept on the bed, and began flipping through it as if he hadn’t just tossed her out like garbage.
“Zayron, did you throw my things out?” Kayla asked.
“Who the hell are you, and what the fuck are your things doing in my chamber?” Zayron asked, but Kayla didn't say anything.
She just crossed her arms and kept looking at him.
“Well, they smell strange, like you,” he whimpered with a dismissive wave.
Kayla narrowed her eyes.
“I thought you said you lost your sense of smell.”
Zayron’s fingers paused on a page, but he didn’t look up.
“I meant something else.”
Kayla crossed her arms.
“Oh? What did you mean then?”
Zayron finally lifted his gaze.
Then, with a dismissive wave of his hand, he said, “Take your things and leave.”
However, Kayla continued standing.
Zayron sighed and turned another page.
After a few moments, he glanced up again and frowned.
“Why are you still standing there?” His voice dropped into a dangerous growl. “I said, go. Pick up your belongings and leave my pack.”
Kayla unfolded her arms and took a step closer to him.
“Zayron, do you even know why you’re acting like this?”
His frown deepened.
“What kind of question is that?”
“A valid question. You want me to leave your pack, but your actions say otherwise.”
“Tell me, of all the people in this pack, why is it me you're driving away?” Kayla asked.
“First, you don't belong to this pack. You look like you don’t even belong to this region. Second, the pack members run when they see me, but you don’t. And that’s strange!” Zayron responded.
Kayla took another step forward, refusing to look away.
“Tell me, Zayron, if I leave now, will you feel at peace? Or will that hollow ache in your chest only grow, no matter how hard you try to ignore it?”
Zayron shot to his feet.
His eyes burned with something raw, something unsettled.
“Enough!” His voice cracked through the air like a whip. “Leave before I harm you!”
Kayla didn’t flinch.
She lifted her chin defiantly.
“Then harm me.”
Zayron’s breathing was harsh, his hands curling into fists as he tried to control his anger.
“I said go.”
“I won’t!”
Zayron’s chest rose and fell rapidly.
He looked like he wanted to shake her, push her, do something to make her leave.
But he didn’t.
Instead, silence crept in.
Kayla refused to look away.
She could see the turmoil raging inside him, the confusion, the struggle between what he felt and what he believed to be true.
After what felt like an eternity, Zayron’s expression shifted.
The anger ebbed, replaced by something more vulnerable, more lost.
He sank back onto the bed, his intense, sad gaze fixed on Kayla.
Kayla didn't waste a second.
She pulled a chair and sat in front of Zayron, close enough that their knees almost touched.
Her gaze softened as she reached for his hand, intertwining her fingers with his.
“Zayron,” she said gently, “just tell me what you feel. Whatever it is, say it. No one else is here.”
Zayron hesitated, his eyes flickering to their joined hands.
He let out a long breath and his shoulders dropped slightly.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he admitted.
“I don’t feel like myself anymore.”
He let out a shaky breath.
“It’s like I’m trapped in a fog, wandering through a world that doesn’t belong to me.
I feel like I’m stuck in some kind of nightmare, one where everything around me is familiar but wrong.
It’s like being in the land of Vyrekins, where nothing makes sense, and the longer you stay, the more you forget who you are. ”
Zayron tried to pull his hand from Kayla's grip but she tightened her grip.
“I feel empty. Like someone took a knife, cut into me, and carved out something important, something I knew I needed but didn't know how much I needed it. And now, no matter what I do, I can’t fill that space. It’s just gone.”
His voice cracked, and he sucked in a deep breath.
Kayla blinked back the sting in her eyes.
“Zayron…” she started to say but Zayron interrupted her.
“Do you know what’s worse? I haven’t tasted anything in seven days. I tried to eat, but there’s no flavor. It’s just nothing.”
“Do you know what that does to a wolf? To an Alpha? Our senses are everything. Smell, taste, touch. But now, it’s like I’m locked out of my own body.”
“And sleep?” Zayron scoffed, shaking his head.
“I haven’t closed my eyes properly since that terrible night. Every time I try, something stops me. It’s like my own mind refuses to rest. I just lie there, staring at the ceiling, waiting for something, something I can’t even name.”
Zayron finally turned his eyes to her, and the raw vulnerability in them shattered her heart.
“Do you know what it feels like to exist but not live? To be surrounded by your own people, your own pack, and feel like a ghost?”
“I look in the mirror, and I don’t recognize myself,” Zayron whispered.
“I touch my own skin, but it feels foreign. Like I don’t belong in it. Like I’m watching someone else live my life, and I’m just trapped.”
Kayla couldn’t stop herself any longer.
She moved her free hand towards his face and cupped his face, forcing him to look at her.
Zayron’s breath hitched at the contact.
For a moment, silence wrapped around them, thick and heavy.
He didn’t pull away.
“You’re not lost, Zayron. Your mind is trapped.”
Zayron closed his eyes, as if the words pained him.
“You’re here. You’re real. And I can help you set your mind free. I can help you wake up from this nightmare.”
Zayron’s eyes fluttered open immediately.
“You really believe that?”
“Yes.”
She lifted the vial between them.
“This is the solution. You need to take it,” Kayla muttered under her breath.
“I need a real meal.”
“Once you take this, I’ll go to the kitchen and make you a real meal. Something with actual taste. And maybe, you’ll remember what it feels like to live again.”