Zane | ✔︎

Chapter Forty-Five | Messiah.

With the crushed stolen picture in her hands, wrinkled in her pockets, Azalea fell limp on her knees in her mate's room, staring at the small texts she had taken from that forbidden basement back in the Golden Moon Pack party, and her eyes pained.

She stared at the picture with a bitten lip, her mind becoming foggy because of the symbolism it held in her heart.

She held in the thoughts a little longer that dared to surface in her mind.

The horror of seeing such an innocent picture.

A picture that revealed so many emotions at the same time.

A picture that was taken before the chaos ever happened.

The picture of Luca King holding a diary with a smirk on his face, grinning at the woman that took her place in his eyes' reflection, standing and leaning against a beautiful window, with his beautiful eyes and hair all messy but charismatic.

She knew damn well who that woman was he was looking at while he was photographed.

And he looked so happy.

So peaceful.

So in love.

So... in love.

Yet Azalea couldn't ignore the resemblance Luca had with Elgor. The man who became her first abuser, raper, monster.

In Luca's smirk, on his face, she could see the silhouette of Elgor.

Fuck, how can such an amazing Alpha of the King's clan be brothers with a nightmare like Elgor?

What could've happened if Luca had won over him to be alive today?

What would've happened if Veera was still alive? What if she was given a chance to be with the man she was truly meant to be with? What if she was given a chance to be free? Away from pain?

Azalea wondered how Veera would look like if she stood near Luca for a picture of their own.

How shorter she'd be from him. How her toothy smile would've revealed itself with him. How he'd stare at her like she was his world.

They'd...

They'd...

No.

She couldn't find any picture of Veera and Luca together while she was there. All she could find were letters, messages, and notes in a language she couldn't understand. A language that was foreign to her. Notes that looked to be of Veera's handwriting, and another unknown handwriting.

It could've been of Luca.

Azalea can't confirm.

Maybe it was of Elgor.

Azalea can't confirm.

Some letters had forced writing, and some were written gracefully. There were so many things to consider while remembering all the words embedded in those handmade papers.

But as Azalea's stare settled on Luca, she felt so broken.

This man was supposed to be here.

He was supposed to be alive.

He was supposed to prevent all of this, he was the key to Veera's well-being.

He looked so enamoured in the picture.

He looked so safe.

Azalea knew it in her bones that he was staring at Veera, a smiling Veera who excitedly had taken the picture in the spur of the moment. Maybe they were having a laugh, maybe they were talking for the first time.