SWNOVELS Chapter 32: Brody
Brody stood before the glass door, holding a tray of foods. He looked to his right and the security guard in the glass room unlocked the door remotely through the computer. Brody nodded to him and stepped inside.
In the room, Zia was at the corner, hugging her knees. His heart churned in pain when he saw her condition. It had been a day since she was brought here and he knew they had put her through so many things. Her left eye was shut close because of the bruise formed around it. Her lips were swollen and had several stitches. There was no doubt that she was covered in bruises. Her hair had been shaved and he could see several cuts on her head.
“Baby,” Brody muttered, carefully putting down the tray of foods close to her.
Zia was trembling and mumbling rubbish as if she was speaking to someone than him. It was the effect of the tortures she was put through to keep her mind focused on what she should have. Joshua called the torturing program as the Cleansing. This was where the ‘patient’, as he called Zia, would be put through several tough and torturous moment until her mind contained nothing but hatred towards the supernatural species. The Cleansing only be conducted on those who had betrayed the business and the oath they had taken. There was no guarantee when Zia would be released from the program.
“Zia, you got to eat,” Brody scooped a spoon full of porridge and held it close to her lips. “Baby, please,”
She opened her quivering lips opened and accepted the food into her mouth. One tear fell from he right eye and he reached to wipe it. It hurt him looking at her like this. She wasn’t supposed to be like this. Joshua praised her so much in the past few years. She was a prodigy and the best in everything she did. Where did she go wrong? That made her ended up in this Cleansing program?
“Eat some more,” he said.
She just stared at him. No words left her lips as he kept feeding her with the porridge. After a long time of silence, she reached for his hand and mumbled something that he couldn’t hear. Brody leaned closer to hear better.
“Help...me...” Zia whispered shakily.
Her voice sounded hoarse as if she had been screaming for days. Brody glanced over his shoulder to spot the camera on the other corner of the room, focused on both of them. The security guard at the outside would be able to hear them through the computer.
“Zia, it’s heavily guarded outside. I couldn’t sneak you out,” he whispered back.
“Help...me... Jaxon,”
Hope shattered just like that when the name was mentioned. Zia was no longer able to recognize him. Jaxon was all she could think of. The man who gave her up and was the reason why she was condemned into this facility.
Unrequited love was as painful as a rejection. Brody was no werewolf. Granted, he had a werewolf as a mother but he inherited more human genes. His werewolf’s gene laid dormant in his blood. He had no wolf. He was just as human as Zia. But, he understood the concept of love and mating bond. Maybe he wasn’t blessed with a mating bond but he was blessed with chances to fall in love. The woman he had fallen in love with was no longer able to see love in his eyes because she was expecting to see it in someone else.
Brody got up and walked out without ever looking back. She needed Jaxon more than she could ever need him. That was the painful truth. The truth that he was going to demand from Jaxon. Was the Alpha going to see her on the same way she was seeing him? It was obvious that Zia was fated to be the Alpha’s mate. Brody found out about on the same night Jaxon punched the life out of him after Zia found him at the back alley with a vampire woman. The protectiveness and possessiveness of the Alpha were as clear as the day.
“Is this how it’s going to end for her?” Brody asked as he stepped in Joshua’s office in the facility. “How long are you going to torture her that way?”
“Until she learns where her loyalty belongs to.” Joshua replied without looking at him.
He was busy checking some files and acted as if Zia meant nothing to him. As if Zia wasn’t his daughter. Sure they had no blood relation but he raised her like his own child while he gave up his own child to another family. How fucked up his world was? For vengeance, Joshua was ready to spill every blood in his family as long as his vengeance was fulfilled.
“Do you not love Zia like your own daughter?” it wasn’t the brightest thing to ask but it’d do. “Laura carried her in the womb for nine months as if Zia was the product of her own.”
Joshua clasped his hands, “Why are you questioning me, son?”
A calm Joshua wasn’t a good Joshua because nobody could guess what was happening in his mind. He could have planned to kill someone. Or to destroy another family. Or letting Zia go. Nobody would know. It’d be hard to predict what Joshua was thinking currently.
“I couldn’t watch the woman I love suffer because she was confused.” Brody admitted.
“Confused?” Joshua chuckled. “Son, I know when someone is confused or when someone is betraying me. Zia is no confused. She was as conscious as a crystal. What happened had happened. The damage had been done. Mistakes were made. Now, she’s suffering the repercussion of her own making.” he stood up from his chair, “You would not do anything about it. Go home and rest. I’ll handle the rest. In no time, she’d come back into your arms.”
Joshua ushered him out of the office and closed the door. Brody sighed as he walked away. There was no coming back if Zia ended up dead in the facility. She wasn’t going to stay strong any longer. Zia was at her breaking point. Sooner or later, it’d be too late to have her back into his arms.
Brody watched as a group of men carried several crates into the armory, not far from his position. His attention fell on the grenades laid on the metal table in the armory.
“People sacrifice so much in the name of love,” he said to himself. “For you, Zia, I’m willing to put down my own life.”