Untamed: The Alpha

405 IT WAS TOO LATE

The wind fluttered the hem of her dress, as Zuri and Chaos walked toward the tree. She could see how the tree had started to wither. It was dying, even the dry leaves on the ground started to turn yellow.

“What happened to you?” Zuri asked, as she hastened her steps and then rapped her knuckles gently against its bark.

Meanwhile, Chaos followed behind her, but he didn’t show any interest in the tree. His expression was devoid of any emotions at the sight of the dying old tree.

“You were not like this the last time I was here.” Zuri furrowed her brows when finally the old face came to the surface before its eyes fixed on her.

“Everything comes to an end, girl, that’s the circle of life,” the tree said, as he snickered at her. “I think this is my time.”

However, before Zuri could say anything, she caught a glimpse of black butterfly fluttering its wings, as the little creature flew from one branch to the other.

The little creature looked harmless, but Zuri knew exactly what it was and she remembered what came with that.

“That butterfly...” Zuri pointed her finger at the butterfly, but before she could finish her word, Chaos had acted faster than her, as she could feel cold wind brushing against her cheek and in the next second, the butterfly was split into two as it dropped dead to the ground.

Zuri immediately turned around to look at Chaos, but he had stepped closer to approach the butterfly, as he picked one piece of its body and then burned it.

.....

“Ageha butterfly,” Chaos said in a small voice, as if he was talking to himself, but of course, Zuri could hear that, as she moved to the other side of the tree and gasped when she saw what was there.

Zuri knew there was something weird with the tree ever since she had a picnic with Chaos a month ago, but she had never thought that she would see something like this.

Noticing the way Zuri gasped, Chaos stood up and then approached her.

On the other side of the tree, was a big hole on its trunk, where there were dozens of cocoons, butterfly cocoons.

There was no need for a genius to guess what kind of butterflies they belonged to.

“Didn’t you realize this?” Chaos asked the tree. There was no way he didn’t know something like this happened to his body.

“I do.” He indeed realized that, but what else could he do?

“Is it Aaron?” Chaos asked in a dark tone, his voice became so bleak and the air around them turned very heavy, it was almost suffocating to breathe right now.

Chaos had just absorbed his shattered soul, so it was understandable that his power also increased, yet he couldn’t use it recklessly, especially for this trivial matter.

“I will not ask for a second time.” Chaos gave him an ultimatum when he didn’t get the answer he wanted.

On the other hand, Zuri came closer to him and then touched his arms. She didn’t want to go against him, but she thought his approach was too harsh and the old tree was too stubborn to be threatened this way.

“You had a deal with the devil, didn’t you?” Zuri posted the question this way, so she could get a response from him. It was easier to deal with irritated people, since they would talk a lot and she could gauge the situation from there, rather than to keep asking them, when they were determined not to answer any question.

Well, it applied to people, so she hoped it would apply to the tree as well...

“Had a deal with the devil!?” the tree scoffed, as its face emerged just above the hole on its trunk. His eyes were very sharp for something that protruded out of wood. “What kind of insult are you hurling at me?!” he looked genuinely annoyed by what Zuri had assumed.

If it was not because of Chaos, the tree would have started whipping her with its roots and branches, like he did a few weeks ago when she met him for the first time, at least, the first time in this lifetime.

“So, what kind of offer did he give to you until you rejected it?” Zuri started to have a good grasp of these devils’ methods. Damn. They seriously had a problem with their obsession, as they kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

Zuri could read that pattern now, since they always used the same method.

The tree didn’t give her any reply for a few seconds, until Chaos flicked his finger, and cut off one of the branches.

Zuri was surprised, but the tree was agitated because of what Chaos did, yet he swallowed back his complaint when he heard Chaos’ threat.

“I will burn you along with all the Ageha cocoons if you don’t answer her question.” Chaos looked so calm when he delivered this ultimatum, as if this was nothing for him, since this was indeed not something that would affect him in any way.

Zuri kept silent, she waited for the tree’s reaction, this would turn into a mess if the tree put up a fight and actually tried to attack Chaos.

If the situation reached that point, then Zuri would step back and enjoy the fight, as she didn’t want to get involved in that.

However, it seemed he knew that it was not wise to provoke Chaos right now, as he relented and answered her question in the end.

“Oh, what do you think Aaron wants? He only wants one thing,” the tree grunted. “He is obsessed about one thing and you should know that by now, right?”

Zuri touched her chin and then tilted her head when she heard that answer. Of course, she knew that. “Chaos.”

That was the answer. It was Chaos and chaos that he wanted. Aaron knew that his power was not on par to create chaos if you compared it to Chaos’, therefore, he wanted to use him to unleash the ultimate catastrophe over this realm.

To reach that, of course, the devil needed to provoke him and the only easy and quick way to do so was through Zuri. Anything that happened to her would cause a strong reaction from Chaos.

This was the pattern that Aaron had set up.

No matter what lifetime, he would do it again and again to Zuri, as this was the easiest way to get to Chaos.

Both of them realized this, no, even the ancient tree realized this.

“Then, what is the connection between you and Chaos? He didn’t need to come to you,” Zuri stated. Hurting the tree wouldn’t make Chaos upset, that was proven, since Chaos himself threatened to burn down the tree with his bare hands and Zuri was sure that he would go with what he had said.

The tree scoffed when he heard that. “Oh, please... you are really underestimating me at this point, young nymph.”

“I am not a nymph.” She had complained about this countless times, but he simply didn’t want to listen.

Yet, the tree didn’t care much whether she was a nymph, a shifter or anything else, as he continued with his explanation.

“I am called an ancient tree for some reason,” he said smugly.

“He is connected to the whole realm.” Chaos took over, as he explained briefly to Zuri, the same way he did when she was a child, and she always liked it when he went through everything in the simplest way for her to understand the situation.

The ancient tree was connected to all the trees in this realm, whether it be very small until people wouldn’t even consider it as important, or any other vegetation.

What would happen if medicinal herbs turned into poisonous ones?

It sounded like a small thing, but the truth was; it was not small at all...

People would overlook this, hell, people would never know that the ancient tree even existed beyond the villagers from this place, but if he was poisoned by the Ageha butterflies and the ancient tree was connected to the whole vegetation in this realm, what did it mean?

“Can we just get rid of the butterflies?” Zuri stared at the cocoons inside the big hole in the center of the trunk, even the bark around it started to wither and darken. “We can get rid of it, right?”

“No, it is too late,” Chaos said. He took a step forward and then extended his hands to burn all the cocoons inside the hole. “Take a look at this.”

During the time Chaos burned the cocoons, the face on the bark of the tree showed agony, but then it faded away without saying anything, or even letting out a single wheep. The old tree was surely very stubborn.

Chaos turned around to grab Zuri’s hand and pulled her closer to the tree, as he let her see what was under the hole, where the cocoons were before.

Zuri frowned because the burning smell was so strong, as she ducked her head slightly and saw what Chaos had pointed out to her just then.

The bottom of the hole showed maggots. There were not many, but the more Zuri looked at it, the more she realized that these little and disgusting creatures appeared from the tree itself.

It was just like what Chaos had said, it was too late, the tree had been infected.

It was too late for them to do anything...

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Alpha Micah Donovan’s second chance mate.

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