Help! Five Beast Alphas Want To Breed Me!!(BL)-Chapter 215: The Price Of Arrogance

King Wilhelm;

Cassia lies motionless on her bed... too still for someone who used to carry so much energy in her veins.

Her breathing is shallow, steady but weak... like a lamp running out of oil. A flame that might flicker out any moment.

Even the air around her feels wrong. Quiet. Empty.

These aren’t reactions to her injuries. I gave so much go my energy to heal her that I feel light with every move I make.

What is going on is her heart breaking. If it hasn’t broken completely already. And as much as I hate it... It is my fault.

I kneel beside her bed and lower my head until my forehead nearly touches the back of her hand.

"Cassia," I whisper again with my voice cracking in the middle.

"Please... please look at me," I beg, but she doesn’t respond, talk less of actually looking at me.

Her face is turned away from me, toward the window on the other side of the room.

Her jaw is clenched so tightly, I can see muscles twitch under her skin.

Her eyes are open, but unfocused... like she’s staring at something that isn’t really there.

Or maybe she’s currently seeing exactly what she wants to see... a world without me in it.

"Cassia, I’m sorry," I try again, my fingers shaking as I reach toward her hand. She pulls it away before I even make contact, and the one action sends burning daggers through my chest.

"Wilhelm." She finally speaks. Her voice is low and controlled... Too controlled for someone who had lost what she has.

"Get out." She speaks, and the words slice through me.

I’ve been trying to seek her forgiveness for hours now, but she wouldn’t even spare me a glance.

"I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t think..." I begin again, and she cuts me off sharply.

"That’s the problem. You didn’t think!" She spits, still not looking at me, and the room suddenly feels cold as my chest tightens.

"Cassia, please. Just... listen. Let me explain..." I try again as fear of losing her swells in my chest, but she shuts her eyes.

"Get. Out." She speaks again. The words aren’t shouted. They aren’t cruel... The way she says it is worse.

It’s anger. Anger so deep it’s buried under layers of restraint, and I know if she lets out the set she truly feels, it will bury me.

"I can’t leave you like this. Not after what I’ve done to you... I..." I begin, and the blanket rustles as she moves.

She slowly sits up and turns toward me. She’s finally looking at me, but I feel no relief from this.

Her face is drained of colour, her eyes sunken but burning with something sharp and painful. She looks at me like she’s trying her very best to hold herself together.

"Wilhelm," she whispers.

"Are you deaf?" She adds, and I freeze.

"Or is it arrogance?" she adds, with her voice trembling slightly.

"Is it that same arrogance that blinded you when Isilya warned you that danger was coming? When she saw the attack before it happened? When she told you witches and warlocks would strike Gravemaw?" She continues, and I open my mouth to speak, but guilt chokes out any defence I may have had.

"Cassia..."

"You didn’t listen!" she snaps. Her voice breaks on the last word, and something inside me shatters.

Cassia presses a hand against her chest, right over the place her beast’s core used to pulse, and when she looks at me again, there’s no anger in her eyes.

No. Now that anger has been replaced by grief.

"You didn’t listen," she repeats softly.

"And because of that... I have lost her." She croaks, and my throat closes.

"I have lost my beast, Wilhelm," she adds in a broken whisper, and each word is like a dagger.

"Do you understand that?" She demands, and I shake my head, as tears burn my eyes.

"I...I know she’s injured, but..." I begin in an attempt to pacify her, but she screams in response.

"Don’t you dare! She’s not injured!" She rages, and I shut my eyes.

"My core is damaged. Do you know what that means? Do you have any idea what losing your beast feels like!?" She continues in anger as she grabs the collar of my robe, pulling me closer.

"It feels like someone reached inside me and ripped out half of my soul." She cries as her gaze burns onto mine

"Cassia..." I try to speak, but she cuts me off.

"Because of you," she whispers.

"Because of your stubbornness, your pride. Koda is badly wounded. Zephan and have had to flee. Gravemaw is half in ruins. And I..." She continues, and at the last part, her grip trembles against my collar, then loosens.

"I will never shift again. Never fight again. Never hear her voice again." She croaks as her gaze falls from me, and my throat runs dry.

She wipes her tears angrily, as if the act of crying disgusts her.

"I have lost her, Wilhelm. Do you understand that? I am never going to have her back." She adds without looking at me, and the weight of her words crushes me entirely.

"Cassia... I didn’t mean..." I begin, and she scoffs.

"Intent does not erase consequences, Wilhelm." She replies, and I swallow.

I stare at her, helpless. Pathetic. The man who promised to protect her is kneeling before her, as the reason she’s broken.

She turns away from me, and it feels like I’ve lost the woman I love more than my own life.

"When I am ready to forgive you..." She says in a voice so faint, it’s almost fading.

"I will send for you." She adds, and my heart stops.

"But until then," she continues, "leave. Get out of my sight."

She lowers herself back onto the bed, her back facing me.

"And do not speak to me again," she whispers again.

"Not until I can look at you without remembering what I’ve lost." She adds, and something inside me collapses completely.

I bow my head, unable to breathe.

"I’m... I’m so sorry," I whisper, though I know the words mean nothing now.

Cassia doesn’t respond.

She doesn’t even breathe differently.

She is done.

So slowly it feels like dying, I rise to my feet.

My legs are unsteady, my chest too heavy. I look at her one last time, hoping...stupidly...that she’ll turn, that she’ll stop me, that she’ll say something, anything. But she doesn’t.

I make my way out of her hut, and the moment I step out, the door I shut behind me feels heavier than any burden I’ve ever carried.

I don’t remember choosing a direction. My feet move on their own, stumbling across dirt and stone, past Gravemaw’s charred remains, past the seers’ tents, past people who look at me with confusion or pity.

Eventually, I reach a stream outside the village. My knees hit the ground before I even know I’m falling. My hands plunge into the cold water.

And I break.

Not quietly. Not with dignity. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I sob... deep, ugly, broken sounds ripping out of my chest as I dig my nails into the earth.

"I’m sorry," I choke.

"Cassia, I’m so sorry... I didn’t mean... I didn’t want..." I begin, but even in her absence, I have no words to vindicate this stupid mistake.

My vision blurs, and my breathing sputters.

I’m a failure. I’ve failed. I always fail...

I lift my head to the sky... blue, bright, indifferent.

"Goddess Thalyra," I whisper.

"Please... please hear me," I beg further, and

The wind pauses. The water stills as well, as everything around me holds its breath.

Then she appears.

A soft shimmer in the air, like moonlight bending until it forms a woman. Her presence pushes against my chest like a truth I cannot escape, and I feel goosebumps rise along my skin.

"Wilhelm. You call me with a shattered heart once again." She whispers, and I bow my head instantly.

"Goddess... please. Please give Cassia back her beast." I beg as I clasp my hands together, and her expression hardens.

Not cruelly, but with the weight of someone tired of my countless mistakes and repeated pleas for respite.

"You’re asking me to repeat the same errors I made with you before," she says, and I flinch.

She steps closer, her voice steady and firm.

"I am a goddess, Wilhelm. Not a genie inside a lamp. I do not grant every desire mortals cry for. Not anymore, "She adds, and tears spill down my face.

"But she’s suffering," I whisper.

"She’s broken. She... she didn’t deserve this. Punish me. Take something from me. But don’t... don’t take her beast. Don’t take that part of her. Please." I beg, and Thalyra sighs.

"You do not understand," She replies.

"I did not punish Cassia." She adds, and I raise a brow.

"This is your punishment." She notes, and my entire body goes still.

She looks at me with unapologetic eyes, and heaviness presses down against my throat.

"I warned you," she continues.

"I placed visions in Isilya’s mind so she could warn you. I stirred unease in the air. I guided you as best I could." She continues, and with the next words, her voice lowers.

"You ignored every sign."

Shame burns through me like fire, but she’s not yet.

"And yet, I still gave you mercy. I saved Cassia’s life." She adds as she kneels before me. Not in humility, but to force me to see the truth in her eyes.

"I saved her life, but her beast will not be returned. This is the weight you must carry, Wilhelm. A consequence born from your arrogance." She states in a tone that leaves no room for argument, and guilt crushes me.

"Please. Please, I’ll do anything..."

"No." She cuts me off as she stands again.

"Be grateful she survived at all." She adds, and my breath hitches.

"And understand this," She adds quietly.

"I did not save Cassia for you." She says, and my brows furrow.

What?

"I saved her for Elian. The boy needs a mother, and I’m not going to rip away the closest thing he has to one because of your arrogance." She says. Her words hit me with the force of a hammer to the heart, and before I can speak again, she vanishes.

I am left kneeling by the stream, alone, hollow, drowning beneath the weight of my own failure.

My fault.

All of it.

And Cassia will never forgive me.

Not yet.

Maybe never.