(Saiph)

Alnilam is back and he seems to have spoken to Amaia. She keeps staring at him and at the same time, I feel such dreariness and glumness from her.

Earlier, he had given me chilled and jealous looks.

Does he know about me?

Amaia leaves the hall alone, so I follow her. Before I can approach her, she is swept away by Ezran. He has been missing and suddenly he appears, reeking of blood and whatnot.

Alarms sound in my brain. I have to find them before something happens.

Where has he been and what has he done?

It takes me a while because I don’t have Ezran’s vampiric speed, so I use my bird senses and Amaia’s emotions.

She is going through tons.

Disgust, horror, disbelief and euphoria.

I track them to a deserted classroom, throwing open the door, I find myself walking into a nightmare.

Amaia is bent over, emptying her bowels out, while Ezran is standing still, drenched in blood, holding a grotesque monstrosity of what appears to be bones bound together.

"What is going on here?" I ask, trying to keep my voice controlled and hurrying over to Amaia.

Rage descends in Ezran’s hellish eyes as they sweep towards me. He regards me with disinterest.

Wrapping my arms around her, I rub her back and offer her my handkerchief. She straightens and accepts, wiping her mouth with it.

"Why are you here? This is a private moment." Ezran insists, pointing with his bloody finger towards the door. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"It’s not, if I am going to find her in this condition. What did you do?" My head tilts towards the atrocity he is holding in his hand.

Amaia leans on me as if tired from the shenanigans they keep doing to her.

"None of your concern. That’s between Amaia and me," he answers, enraged. His eyes find Amaia.

She breathes slowly, trying to stabilise herself.

"...I can’t. He was an asshole, but I told you not to," she answers cryptically, her breath coming in hollow.

She is stressed and extremely agitated and Ezran appears out of control like a vampire on the verge of going ballistic.

Amaia is trying to prevent him from blasting, but whatever he is holding, he thinks is important and has brought, like a trophy. Amaia doesn’t reflect those sentiments.

"Explain what this is if you don’t want me to take this matter to higher-ups."

"No, this doesn’t leave this room," Amaia firmly says, grabbing my upper arm.

"I don’t care for higher-ups or whatever. But this is me keeping my promise to her. That ex-mate of hers, who rejected her and left her to die, didn’t deserve to live, and I wanted to bring her his bones. What’s wrong with that?"

The darkness exudes from him as if he has just walked out of hell. The agitation in his voice is growing with every second. He wants to be acknowledged like a child, looking for praise and validation from Amaia but only from her.

And he killed Amaia’s ex-mate, the one Alnilam had brought over to the Werewolf Council and awaited trial.

Ezran has more guts than any of us, that is for certain.

"Wrong is killing him when I told you not to," Amaia says in a small voice and I can see she is trying not to anger him because he appears extremely volatile.

"He needed to die. Everyone who will hurt you needs to meet the same fate," he blazes. "You don’t like my gift. Do you not love me?" He takes a step towards her, and my mate instincts make me move before my brain can think.

His livid eyes drift towards me in a warning.

But Amaia’s hold tightens on my arm, telling me to stay put. I obey, respecting her choice.

She may be small, but she has a lot of resilience; no wonder she is mated to five of us crazies.

With a pained breath, she steps forward towards an explosive Ezran. Her arms go around his bloodied body and she hugs him to herself, placing her face on his chest.

She doesn’t care that he is drenched in blood and completely reeks of it.

That madness that exudes from him, the darkness that clings to him like wraiths instantly dials down. To say Amaia has a magical touch wouldn’t be wrong.

"I can never hate you...never. But you don’t have to prove yourself to me by killing others." She points towards the remains of her ex-mate. Her eyes hold horror but that doesn’t deter her from speaking.

"He was my past and meant nothing to me now. You guys are my future. Let’s build it together."

I take that opportunity to step closer and take those hideous string-up bones from his hand. He is so engrossed with our mate that he doesn’t even complain and let it go.

At the moment, I understand that it’s not only her who’s not repelled by his darkness and morbid personality. It’s me too.

Unlike others, I understand that he is consumed by darkness and demons.

How I understand that is beyond me.

"You mean it?" He asks, in a voice so tender that it even hurts my heart.

"Yes, and most importantly, I need to tell both of you something." She lifts her head and her eyes find me.

Curiosity gets the best of me. Ezran still holds and watches her as if she were the most precious being in the world to him. I have begun to believe she truly is.

"I was cursed a while ago so my mates wouldn’t be able to feel me. I think the curse was confined to their sense of being able to scent me through their werewolves. Since both of you could feel the bond."

Ezran’s hold tightens on her. "Who?"

A sadness engulfs her. "I don’t know."

"We will find out. I am guessing the curse has been lifted since everyone developed the bond?" I quietly say and she nods.

"I wasn’t aware, but the curse was two-way. I couldn’t feel the bond with either of you. But since the curse was lifted this morning. I can. The bond has connected me with both of you and I can feel you." Amaia finally smiles, warmly like the sunshine she is in our grim, sad lives.

"You can?" Ezran possessively takes her face in his blood-soaked hands and streaks her face with blood. His forehead rests on her.

"Yes!" She joyously tells him while her beautiful eyes find me, and she extends her hand towards me.

I take it, letting our fingers intertwine.

"Both of you are as much my mates as the rest of the three. I feel all five of you equally now."