Episode 70
"I didn't mean to.. I just had to do this.. I had to protect him.. You don't know what his fate would be if I hadn't"
"And you think it solved anything? What was supposed to be his fate.. Became mine..!! "
"Don't hate me, I beg you, I tried, I tried hard, I fought till the end.. You don't have to believe me..... but.... I... "
"What's happening... Hey! Open your eyes....! Open your eyes! What's going on...!"
"I'm.. sorry.. Ian.."
"No, no no, you can't leave me like this.. Wake up please... If you will leave me too... Who will save us?"
"Lo..v..u.."
"WAKEUP, NO, MAMA, WAKE UP! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME.. PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME"
The nurses ran about the ward. The doctor went in an emergency.
"What happened?!" Alex who barely dozed off sitting against the wall woke up, his eye bags were hideous at this point.
"He's going into a shock, again" Zhuang answered for him, the doctors didn't have any time to stop and answer him anyway.
"It's the third time in two days..."
Alex became mortified watching what went inside.
Eventually they got the situation under control but Alex couldn't stop biting his nails.
"Why does he keep going into a shock, why isn't he waking up, the shot wasn't that fatal... Then why?" Zhuang mumbled.
"Something must be keeping him from waking up.." Alex replied.
"What do you mean?" Zhuang asked.
"It's psychological... He's probably in a dream like state or maybe stuck in nightmares because he keeps having shocks .. He needs to break through" Alex replied.
Zhuang proceeded to him and took his hands away from his mouth to stop him from that obsessive nail biting that had completely damaged the skin around his nails.
At the same time Aoi came up, she looked at Zhuang as if she wanted to say something but stopped. Alex caught up on that.
"Don't you dare hide anything from me..." he whispered.
For a moment Aoi quietened up but then she had to.
"I dug deep into the Strauss estate and found out a huge omega trafficking trade line..not only omegas are sold as slaves but also for harvesting organs and selling them on black market, on the outside it may seem like a simple estate of tools trade business but inside, they trade humans... " Aoi said.
"What does that have to do with Ian?" Alex was disgusted enough to not want to know more yet he asked, suspecting it was eventually gonna come down to Ian.
"Ian Strauss is an alpha, there's no doubt about it, an alpha like him has no reason to sell off his body like this, he's too noticeable to have his organs sold either, actually he doesn't have to do any of it and yet he..." Aoi told him and his eyes widened, he clenched on his chest.
"He..sold his body...by that..you mean..." Alex trembled just by hearing that.
"He..took on customers since the age of nine.. Giving them physical favors and then Mr. Strauss used them to blackmail those officials for involving themselves with an alpha and a child.. Most simply got hooked and paid for more..." Aoi told hesitantly, Alex's knees almost buckled, if it weren't for Zhuang, he would have probably fallen over.
" Why... Why did he have to do this..why..didn't he run away... " Alex asked with a trembling voice.
" That's what I came here for, I also wondered why was he doing this as an alpha, he could have escaped any time he wanted.. His hatred for omegas..comes from his mother who couldn't save him but why couldn't he save himself? I only found out after going deep enough, the reason Ian Strauss stayed in that hell without budging was to protect his younger brother Lian Strauss" Aoi said.
"What do you mean?"
"Lian Strauss is actually an omega"
-----------------------------------------------------------
"This is horrible"
"I know...it was scary..when I heard from Aoi..."
Akio gently rubbed the towel on Kei's head, drying his hair out for him.
"So what did she want to tell me?"
"Aoi said...Strauss family.. Is linked..with Naoyuki family.." Kei replied, Akio looked shocked hearing that.
"Linked..how?" Akio asked.
"Apparently some.. Raina Strauss..was actually an omega.... from the Naoyuki family..." Kei mumbled.
"I see" Akio replied.
"Akio san...what does this...all mean...?" Kei asked, Aoi did tell him to pass it onto Akio but he himself didn't know what this all meant.
"Nothing" Akio said bluntly, but it got Kei annoyed.
"You promised.. You'll share everything... With me..." Kei argued stopping Akio's hands and removing the towel from his hand to look back at him.
He stared for a bit refusing to give in, even though eye contact was hard for him normally, but this showed he was resolute enough to want to know.
Akio sighed.
"Naoyuki, doesn't it ring a bell?" Akio said and Kei gave it a deep thought.
"Mr. Zhuang...! His last name is Naoyuki..." Kei spoke a loud in realization.
"Remember I told you that the Naoyuki family was a mafia which itself was involved in omega trade, I was simply lucky to be chosen by Zhuang as his mate, actually it doesn't really matter..we were all orphans any way" Akio said.
"I don't understand..." Kei mumbled.
"There was a thing called breeding an omega back then, the head of Naoyuki family used to collect orphaned omegas, he adopted a bunch of them including me, almost eight to ten omegas, we were raised, fed and taught yet only six survived. It was only when I was betrothed with Zhuang, I came to know that to him we were cattle that he was raising in order to use us for business deals" Akio sighed.
"Then... Raina Strauss was...one of those adopted kids..?" Kei asked.
"Originally the head had only one alpha son, though even Zhuang wasn't his original son; he's the son of the head's younger brother, who was an omega, the original head had an alpha wife, alphas can't be impregnated, so the head's wife bred his younger brother for an heir" Akio told.
"This...is..twisted..." Kei was horrified.
"That whole family was twisted.. that's why I had to get out, I wanted Natsuro to have a good life..." Akio smiled.
"You..raised him...well...." Kei said standing up and petting Akio's head.
"He's so spoiled honestly" Akio spoke whilst smiling.
"He..got to study...think for himself...fall in love...get a job...and now he's...starting a family...You did your best" Kei spoke brightly.
"Yeah..." Akio replied.
"But...why did Aoi.. Tell you this..." Kei asked.
"I assume, she's looking into Raina Strauss, I doubt I can be of any help... If this is a smuggling network then telling me means...." Akio realized something and it made his eyes widened.
He turned to look at Kei who seemed really confused.
"What does...it mean...?" Kei asked, looking at Akio in confusion.
Akio could tell that Aoi wanted to take down the smuggling ring all in all but putting them down lawfully meant, she needed someone trustworthy who would bring all the victims to justice.
"She wants you to take the case"
-----------------------------------------------------------
"What about the baby..?"
"What baby?"
The man placed the wine glass onto the table.
"You're spacing out Ms. Kirihara" Mr. Strauss broke Mari out of her stream of thoughts.
"Apologies" Mari chugged down her cup of wine.
"As you might know that the boy's condition doesn't seem to be improving anytime soon, you must be wavering in you engagement with him" Mr. Strauss said.
"Don't worry.. I'm already paying a high price for him, a simple condition won't make me back down for our first deal" Mari said.
"I still fail to comprehend why are you willing to hand over the whole Kirihara estate just for this boy, when you first gave me the offer, I almost thought you were joking but after I knew you were serious, I withdrew the support I was giving Kirihara Liliya" Mr. Strauss asserted.
"What does it matter to you, the boy for the estate, you get what you want in the end" Mari stood up ready to leave.
"By any chance Ms. Kirihara, might you know the whereabouts of the younger one, Lian, I presume you'd know he's been missing since last two days" Mr. Strauss spoke calmly with Mari's back towards him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about"
She said bluntly and walked out.
"That vixen.. "
-----------------------------------------------------------
What do they think I am? A babysitter?!
I'm annoyed as hell, yes. Should I be annoyed? No. I messed up.
A day ago, I ended up accidentally spitting out to Mari chan that she has a kid.
Uggghhhh why am I so stupid!
"Mister?" The young brunette tugged at my pants "Are you..okay?"
I sighed and carefully squatted down before the kid.
After I messed up with Mari san, she and Aoi had an argument..
Well I don't really know what went on between the two of them but Mari san left me with this kid at her mansion.
Aoi said I have to hide him until Ian Strauss wakes up.
I had to interrogate the kid to know that he was Ian's younger brother.
Ah I wish she'd come back and explain, I don't know what to say to this kid anyways.. I don't even know if I should tell him about what happened to his brother.
"I'm fine, do you want something to eat?" I asked him.
He shook his head "Mister, I want to go to my brother, when will he come back?" he asked me innocently.
"Be patient, he has something to deal with, he'll come to see you soon-" I was still dealing with the kid when the doorbell rang.
I left him on hanging and stood up walking to the door peaking through the keyhole.
I quickly pulled the phone out of my pocket dialing the first number on my speed dial.
"Aoi, get back..as quickly as possible.."
I started locking all the doors and the windows, somewhat panicking the kid.
"Mister..?" He seemed really scared.
I got hold of him and took him to one of the rooms, locking the door from the inside. I could hear them messing up with the locks outside.
"You'll be fine, stay calm..." I held him, I could feel his little heart beat getting faster.
Hurry up Aoi...
I covered the child's ears as they barged in and started hitting down things and breaking them.
"Hand him over!" A voice yelled from outside.
The little boy had started to cry in fear "Shhh shhh it's okay, I'm here"
They finally reached the door to the room we were in.
"It's locked, they're in here!" They mumbled to one another and only a few moments afterwards, there were loud bangs on the door, with each bang, the child trembled in my arms, he wet himself.
"Hide under the bed and trust me" I told him, picking him up and tucking him myself before getting myself a fold-in chair and the moment the first person broke in I bashed it into his head making him fall down with a bleeding head.
The second one followed in and I gave him a round kick before punching him up the chin making him bite his own tongue.
The third one got a hit in the ribs and the fourth got a kick in the jaw.
Good thing I decided to get those judo classes before starting my job.
Though two of them still managed to sneak past me and dragged the child out from under the bed who started screaming and crying.
That's when Aoi made an entrance, she punched the guy in the face breaking his nose.
"Natsu.." She turned to me.
"I'm fine, just keep him safe!" I was almost telling her that when a guy snuck up to her back and pulled at the child holding a knife at his little neck.
"FREEZE, BOTH OF YOU!" The guy said, it was the same guy whom I knocked with a chair, his head was still bleeding.
Both me and Aoi froze up, should have hit this b-sta-d harder.
"MOVE, MOVE TO THE CORNER, DON'T MAKE ME ANGRY" He said to us and we had to slowly comply in order to keep him from harming the kid.
The child didn't seem well at all, something was happening to him, he's breathing unusually..
"He's having an asthma attack!" She said trying to proceed forward but the knife around his neck tightened so she had to step back.
WHY DID THIS WOMAN NOT TELL ME SUCH AN IMPORTANT DETAIL!
What if it had happened before!!!
"He has an inhaler on him, please, I request you... Let him.." Aoi seemed to be pleading with them but the guy wouldn't budge even though the attack was starting to get worst.
"SHUTUP SHUTUP SHUTUP!" The man said, the others also got up, getting defensive of us.
"At this rate-" She was only speaking when she froze up and so did those men.
All of them froze up. The knife fell from the guy's hand.
"Aoi, now's our chance!" I launched forward and grabbed the kid from the guy's grip, successfully pulling him towards me.
Got him! Now-
The sight before me made my eyes widened, the guys started dropping to their knees whilst holding their necks as if they were choking.
Even though she was still standing unlike them who were wriggling on the ground like worms when you sprinkle salt of them; Aoi held onto the curtain, she looked at me with an intense gaze whilst holding her throat.
The boy in my arms had completely calmed down, he held onto my shirt slowly relaxing in even without the inhaler. He looked at peace.
That was when I finally noticed, the huge wave of pheromones.
What was this... What's going on..
These pheromones are definitely an Alpha's command pheromones...
But looking at Aoi, it doesn't seem like they are hers...
These betas I understand but why am I not effected?
And why does she, an alpha, look so effected?
What alpha's pheromones could be stronger than Himari Aoi?
"Mister... You smell so good..."