Darius was not a bad person once you knew him better, but he was still a nuisance sometime, with his obsession to raid the shadow moon pack and how he tried his best to make Zuri take revenge on Liam, knowing they had the same dispute with that alpha.
He was relentless, especially when he knew that Jasmine had given birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl five years ago. He lost his mind and was about to go back to the pack by himself if it was not for Norbeat, who stopped him and talked him down, he would be dead by now.
Norbeat and Skylar were in charge to all the duty that July and Sebastian left six years ago and until now, no one ever talked about them, as if their name was forbidden, their names were a taboo topic to be discussed within this wall.
“How is Chaos?” Darius asked out of curiosity, as he looked up at her and sipped his drink. He had done eating his breakfast, but he wanted to linger here a little bit more, seeing the opportunity to talk to Zuri.
There was no way he would be able to have a casual conversation with Chaos directly or even sat down together, as that creature rarely to be seen. He would be either away from the manor or he would be in the library or inside the bedroom with Zuri.
Yet, Darius was clever enough to notice the pattern. It was this white hair girl that Chaos listened the most.
Therefore, if he could get her, he could get him too.
The only problem was; this girl was very cautious and shrewd for him to manipulate or lead her into doing the thing that he wanted.
Even after five years, he couldn’t make her budge or even consider his suggestion. If it was not for the sake of Chaos, Zuri didn’t seem to interest enough to know more about anything.
.....
And the reason of; probably, there was a lot of Chaos’s shattered soul in that pack, was not a good enough reason for her to want to return to that pack.
During this six years, they had gone from one city to the other to collect Chaos’s shattered soul, which made the creature looked much better and less hostile. He was in his right mind most of the time.
“Fine, thank you for asking,” Zuri said in languid tone, because she knew that he didn’t really mean it. He only asked Chaos’s condition not because he was worried, but he had his own hidden agenda.
Darius rolled his eyes when he heard sarcasm in her voice.
Originally, Zuri wanted to eat in the kitchen, but because Darius was there and he didn’t look like he would go soon, she decided to bring her breakfast to Chaos’s bedroom, where she spent most of her night there.
“You don’t eat here?” Darius raised his brows when he looked at her putting her breakfast on a tray. He deliberately tarried because he wanted to have a conversation with her, but she was about to leave.
“Yes,” Hazel said with annoyance in the edge of her voice. “Because I know what you are thinking right now.”
Darius cursed under his breath when Zuri walked out of the kitchen. That woman was so hard to please.
Zuri walked straight to Chaos’s bedroom and found him was still sleeping. His long and black hair scattered on the soft, white pillow, as he closed his eyes. His breathing was regular and his body was relax.
Zuri always felt glad whenever she saw him like this, which meant, his condition was getting better and better.
Thanked to Knox as well, because he needed something to distract his mind from July, he worked all the time to find Chaos’s shattered soul. He literally rummaged the whole cities and even followed Chaos anywhere, as they had their own mission, which Zuri did not really interest.
Knox even went as far as aided Chaos with every information that he could about Aaron’s whereabout.
Therefore, even though Zuri would go with him to find Chaos’s shattered soul, but her stamina was proven couldn’t be compared to him at all, most of the time, Knox would go by his own and found more shattered soul because of his relentless effort.
Sometime, Zuri wondered when the man took a rest? But then, she also wondered if creature like Knox could be died from exhaustion?
“Good morning,” Zuri whispered to Chaos’s ears, after she put down the tray on the bedside table and then leaned over to give a kiss on his temple.
Chaos mumbled something, but he didn’t wake up.
Zuri smiled and proceeded to have her breakfast, while basking under the sunlight near the window, she stared at the whole garden in this manor, where there were a few human, who lived here, worked in the garden, while the supernatural creature roamed about.
How nice it could be if human and supernatural creature could stop their silly attempt to kill each other. Only if Archie Williams stopped trying to bother their life and didn’t make their existent public, there would be no chaos like this.
Zuri wondered, what kind of life that she would live if there was no dispute between the creatures that lived in this realm.
“What are you thinking?” Chaos asked her, as he sat down and then got off the bed to approach her. He sat down next to her and rest his head on her shoulder, while Zuri caressed his head out of instinct. This gesture mad ethe big creature yawned sleepily.
His blue eyes stared at the breakfast on the table, from the look of it, she only ate not until half of it.
“I was thinking what if the strife between humans and supernatural creatures didn’t exist.” Zuri voiced out her own thought, while playing with Chaos’s long hair. How could a man as scary as him could have this beautiful hair? She was jealous to see how smooth it was... “What do you think you are doing right now?”
“Looking for my shattered soul,” Chaos replied in a matter of fact tone, which made Zuri laughed.
“Yeah, you are right, no matter what happened, you have a duty to do.” Zuri could portray that. No matter what the issue in this realm, Chaos was in desperate needed to gather his soul and became whole again.
Chaos smiled, he didn’t care about the context of their discussion, but as long ass it could make her laugh, he felt contented.
“What will you do?” Chaos asked her, as he slumped down and rested his head on her lap, indulging himself in her scent and treasured this feeling. He felt this strange serenity whenever she touched him.
“Hm...” Zuri thought about this for a little while. “I am twenty nine right now...” she mumbled.
Probably that was the age of human when they should be mature enough and started to think about what kind of life that they wanted to live, but for a shifter like Zuri herself, she was still so young, as they could live for hundred of years.
This was one thing from a lot of things that July envied the most from her. She couldn’t stand that thought, seeing how everyone around her didn’t age for a day, but she was the only one, who grew older...
“I will definitely be with you, right? To assist you to find your shattered soul,” she said with certainty that was not even a question.
Chaos chuckled, he then took Zuri’s hand and kissed her wrist, as he stared at her Hazel’s eyes intently. There were no words that came out of his mouth when he stared at the woman before him.
“Will you come with me later?”
“Where?”
Chaos didn’t need to ask for her permission, because she would follow him without question.
“I will visit Fintan island, maybe we can drop by at Hakan village,” he said and watched the swift change in Zuri’s emotions.
“Sure,” she said lightly, smiling.
=========================
It had been a while for Zuri to visit this island again and to see the tree. The blue sky was so bright and the wind was so warm, caressing her skin.
This village was always very quiet, as the serenity engulfed this place, especially this meadow, where the tree was.
If there was one place that Zuri liked to spend all of her time, it would be this place.
However, the tree was no longer talking to her. He was no longer made an appearance.
“What happened?” Zuri asked, as she ran her fingers on its bark, it felt callous and old, the ancient tree started withering.
“The tree preserves its energy,” Chaos explained, he checked on the hole on its bark, where Ageha’s cocoon was.
Inside the big hole there, both of them could see the cocoons filled every part of it, like someone had stuffed those colorful cocoons inside this hole.
Chaos had tried to remove it, but it would grow again, as those creatures leeched on the tree, thus if Chaos got rid of it, they would simply suck the tree’s energy and made the ancient tree grew even weaker.
Therefore, that was not a good idea.
“It is strange, but I miss his nag,” Zuri mumbled. She looked at the distance, where the Haken village was. “Do you want to go there?”