Chapter 209 - Punishment

Lowering his eyes down, taking a deep sigh out Zeus stood silent for a moment, looking a bit perplexed. Seeming quite restless, Eva was impertinently rolling her eyes, gawking at him with an ardent expression. 

"Wh-Why aren't you...saying anything? It's true, right? It's true that...my dad...was a wolf, right? Say something please?" Her tone sounded extremely fervid as if she was on the edge of her patience.

"YES!" Responding in a deep, intense voice he slowly lifted his eyes up to stare into her with immense sadness in it.

With the painful admission, she felt as if the world around Eva stopped for a moment. She stood still like a rock, choking breathe for a few seconds. While ogling at his sad eyes, unknowingly tears started streaming down her cheeks as her lips quivered, "I...I am...the daughter of...the lineage, I hated the most? Then...Wh...What about...my...mom..." She stuttered.

"She was a human... A...normal human...But...your father was one of the strongest wolves of our pack. He was indeed the toughest fighter we ever had...It's...all true, Eva. You...are carrying our sacred wolf bloodline in your genes." Squirming a bit anxiously, he murmured. 

She lowered her eyes down from him and clenched her fist tight, biting her lips ardently. Her mind was getting clouded with the biggest realization of her life which shivered her from the core. She continued rustling on her own, "that means...I...wasn't hallucinating that day... The greenish-blue flames emerging around me which...cured your scars...on that lunar eclipse...were my concealed powers? That...means...I am...not a human myself?" 

Zeus could evidently notice how immensely she was getting confounded. Slowly, he walked a step closer to her and groped by her forearm intending to calm her a little, "Eva, you are born as a mortal human. But deep down, your bloodline carries the genes of our wolves. That makes you...a mortal hybrid... The same goes for your brother too...both of you were born as humans...not as werewolves. As far...I have surmised until now...you bear some of our special abilities. I was able to sense it on our very first meet. I could smell a unique scent that a normal human would never possess. That night, I had followed you silently from behind...but my powers weren't working on you. I couldn't read your mind, I couldn't hypnotize you...which would work perfectly on other humans...

And...on that lunar eclipse...you couldn't suppress your powers anymore because the surge of your emotions by watching me on the brink of death revealed your hidden self. After you healed my wolfsbane curse which wasn't possible by any ordinary wolf...I could evidently understand, you must be possessing the ability of divine healing! That...makes you a gifted one, Eva. Among our wolves, the ones blessed with such a spiritual ability are...considered...as the gifted ones, i.e. blessed by our Moon Goddesses. Your father...Uncle Stevan...possessed this ability among us and...now...you are...being blessed with it." He answered in a genial way, staring at her softly. 

Standing absolutely numb, Eva was apprehending his words without uttering a single word. Taking a deep sigh out, she frowned her brows before querying him further, "did...you...know about my dad...from the beginning?"

"No, Eva!" Declining with an ardent voice, he unleashed his grope from her forearm before responding firmly. "I.Trust me! I..didn't have a single clue that...you are his daughter... until I saw that giant portrait in your home the night we visited your parent's grave. I...I was shellshocked with the realization! It made me helpless...guilt and frivolous to learn that...despite being the alpha of the pack, I couldn't protect him...The regret...had broken me from inside and that's why...on that rainy night, I went back to their grave to mourn helplessly...I begged for their forgiving for realizing it...so late..." His eyes were concealed with a void of darkness mirroring the profound regret he was enduring inside as he whispered in a gloomy state.

"Then why was she calling him a traitor?" Suddenly, her dark gaze narrowed a little as her query resounded in a low, intense pitch.

Slowly raising his eyes up from the ground, he continued peering at her perplexed gesture keeping his anticipated silence for a moment. He seemed a bit troubled from his display, fidgeting his toes in angst.

"Why aren't you answering me, Zeus? What has he done to be named a traitor? You...You just said...he was...a gifted wolf. He must have been a special one loved by many, right? So...why did everyone carry such malice on him even after his death? Tell me the truth...Don't you dare hide anything from me, anymore!?" She squealed fervently. 

Taking out a deep sigh of despair, he slowly lowered his head down before answering her with a saddened grimace, "he had...abandoned his pack..." 

"What?" She widened her wide eyes rolled in awe.

"For a wolf...cutting off every tie with his own pack by himself is considered to be the most despicable and heinous sin one could ever commit. We are...bound to stay together with our pack until our last day and if someone dares to do so...they are punished by our ancestral celestial alphas. They are...very cruel than the monsters! They punish those wolves either with lifelong imprisonment in the hellish realm or simply...behead them, depending on the severity of the sin..." His voice was choked with anguish, as he muttered.

"Wh...What?" Her heart throbbed hard as she quivered. She was swooned in fear to hear about such a horrendous punishment which left her mouth wide open, gasping air. 

"To escape from such trial...the ones have to spend the rest of their lives forever in hiding away from the rest of the pack. Until now, sadly Uncle Stevan was the only one who dared to commit that sin which... labeled him as a traitor. Everyone in our pack used to love him very dearly... The part which makes me regret it the most is that...he...he had promised to...meet me someday again... But...I failed to keep it..." His voice sounded very dense.

She was stunned in shock gawking at him with her enlarged eyes filled with immense despair. Unknowingly, she retreated a step back at a wobbly motion as if her knees were giving upon the strength to keep standing. He noticed that she was devasted with the grief and stepped forward to hold her hand firmly. 

"Eva--"

"Why did he do it?" Before he could interpret his words, she intervened restlessly in a husky, trembled voice. 

"What?"

"He must have known the consequences before taking that drastic step. Then...why did he do it? Why did he dare to do it..." Abruptly her voice trailed off and her dark eyes enlarged further. From her facial gesture, it seemed she had come to a shocking realization. "Is...Is it...because...of my...mom?" Her grief-stricken voice stuttered. 

Looking at her painstakingly with his sad eyes, slowly, he averted his eyes down and unwillingly nodded his head a little, "yes." 

"Wh...What?" Her teary eyes were dilated, profused with anguish. 

"For the first time ever...a wolf...defied the greatest law of our existence and fell in love with a mere human...i.e your mother." Taking a heavy sigh out, he continued mumbling in a low, glum voice. "There was no way...their forbidden love would have gotten the acceptance they yearned for their whole life. But, even if the world wouldn't let them be...they couldn't stay apart from each other. Hence, he had no other choice rather than to run away from this cruel world of wolves and...seek a little happiness together with your mother. Perhaps, he had to spend his whole life hiding his own identity and trying to live as a human... I still don't know the reason behind that fatal accident...but I believe, it was an attempted attack." 

Apprehending the painful truth, all of a sudden, tears started streaming down her eyes with a sharp, twitching pain throbbing her insides. Her body was shivering on its own and with a trembled posture, she gripped his arm which he was holding onto her. "Why...Then why didn't you stop him? Why did you let him leave? If...If he didn't have run away...perhaps...he would have been still alive... Fuck! Why...Why did you let him go, Zeus?" She sobbed.

"I had no other choice rather than letting him go, Eva..." His eyes were swelled with tears as he murmured averting his gaze down. "I still...remember his eyes on the last day I met him...I went to stop him but...his eyes were hopeful... He...really wanted to lead a happy life with his beloved one and...Sadly, that was his fate that he had already chosen... It was impossible for me to change his destiny... I...I am sorry..." A drop of tear dripped down his sad grimace. 

Wailing silently at the painful truth, suddenly, Eva swirled her eyes as if her mind was stuck with a grave thought. Seeming very terrified, she whispered fervently, "then...Ivory was right...You...You too are walking on the path my dad...dared to opt!? That means...you will too have to bear those heinous consequences if you leave your pack, right? Wh...What punishment will you face? Tell me...Tell me the truth!?" 

"Since...I am the alpha...hence...I will be...beheaded." A small sad smile escaped his lips as he murmured.