Help! Five Beast Alphas Want To Breed Me!!(BL)-Chapter 310: The Right Next Step

Elián;

"What do you mean... You lied?" I probe with anger surging through me now.

My mind keeps running back to Alana, and that doesn’t aid my worry.

My chest is already tight, already bracing.

Asa is still on her knees in front of me, shoulders shaking, hands clenched like she’s holding herself together, but heaven knows I don’t give a fuck about all that.

"Asa—" I begin, but she cuts me off.

"I—I’m not Alana’s cousin," she whispers, and I pause.

It’s not like it’s exactly a surprise... but still, I wasnt expecting her to... say it. To come find me and just... confess it...

I blink, trying to understand or at least try to process what I’m hearing.

"You’re... not?" I repeat dumbly, and she nods her head, with eyes squeezed shut.

"I’m not related to Alana. At all." She replies, and the words don’t land all at once.

They scatter. My mind tries to gather them, line them up, make sense of them... but I fail.

"But—" I swallow. "Alana said—Why would she—" I begin, and Asa steals a glance at me.

"The brothel part is true," she says, like she’s afraid I’ll cut her off.

"I did escape one. I wasn’t lying about that. I swear it." She adds, and I stare at her.

My mouth feels dry. My mind feels fried, and I just can’t... what the hell is going on??

"She’s playing a game, Elián. Don’t entertain this." Elien screams in my head, but I can’t possibly just walk away from this.

There’s no way I can. Elien should know better than to ask this of me. This is my chance to get a whiff, the slightest idea of what happens to Alana and who Aza really is.

Even if she’ll lie... at least...

"So you lied about your family," I say carefully.

"But not about... that." I probe, and she nods, with tears slipping down her cheeks now.

"Yes." She whispers, and something cold slides down my spine.

Elien falls silent now. No longer speaking... Just... Watching. Waiting.

My heart pounds harder as I stare at the young woman before me, not knowing what to feel between awe, hate and just... bewilderment.

"If you’re not Alana’s cousin," I whisper, and she looks up at me,

"Then who are you? Why was she so scared of you? What do you want?"

Asa flinches at that, but I can’t help but see pretence in all she does.

"She wasn’t scared of me," she whispers, and I pause.

"I thought you came here to speak the truth!" I growl, and the hatchlings start retreating to the pit as if they can sense the danger. This tension that I’m sure isn’t good for them.

I’mm not lying." She says, and rage grows inside me.

"She wasn’t scared of me. She was scared of what I am." She adds, and I frown.

"What the fuck do you mean!? You’re a Floplin, are you not?? Why would she be scared of—" I begin, but she interrupts.

"No," she says, cutting in softly.

The word echoes, and my patience thins.

"No?" I repeat, and she takes a slow breath, like she’s gathering courage.

"I’m not beastkin," She then says, and I freeze as my brain absorbs the words.

"And I’m not Floplin either." She adds, and the silence that follows is heavy.

Just then, Elien stirs.

"I don’t like where this is going, Elián. If she’s neither Floplin or Beastkin, what the fuck is she??" Elien demands impatiently, and I swallow.

I stagger slightly, catching myself on the pillar behind me.

I stare at Asa, who is still kneeling, still trembling, still refusing to meet my eyes.

"If you’re neither of those things," I ask hoarsely,

"then what are you?" I probe, but she doesn’t answer.

Instead, she stands... slowly.

As she stands, something in the air changes.

Magic.

I feel it before I see it. A pressure. A shift. Like the room inhaled.

White light consumes her. Soft at first, then brighter. It curls around her body like mist, like silk, like something ancient waking up, and I find myself holding my breath.

The rabbit ears on her head flicker, and then... They vanish.

Just like that.

No scream, no obvious pain, blood, or violence.

They simply... cease to exist.

I blink as I stare at her...

My mind refuses to catch up with my eyes, and a shaky breath escapes me. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"I’m a witch," She says, as the light fades, and the words hit me square in the chest.

A witch.

Witches... as in... belonging to the people who attacked Gravemaw and almost killed my family??

My knees go weak.

Witch.

The word rings louder than it should. Heavier. Loaded with history, I don’t know, but still somehow fear.

Elien inhales sharply inside me.

"Light preserve us." He says in what seems to be a gentle prayer.

"A... a witch," I echo, and Asa nods, with her tears spilling freely now.

"Yes."

The nursery feels too small suddenly. Too caging.

"I can’t lie forever," She sobs, and I just watch her.

"I just— I needed somewhere safe. Somewhere I wouldn’t be hunted." She adds, and my throat tightens.

"Alana," I whisper.

"She knew?" I ask, and Asa nods.

"She figured it out," She admits.

"That’s why she was always tense around me. That’s why she never defended me when others whispered. She had a picture of me she wouldn’t let me redeem." She replies, and my heart twists.

"She used her," Elien murmurs.

"She’s a manipulator. That’s a sign of danger. Don’t trust her." Elien adds, and I squeeze my eyes shut for a second.

"Why Nagari? Why Alana? Why here?" I ask, and Asa then lets out a shaky laugh that sounds more like a sob.

"Because I heard it was safe," she says, and my brows knot.

"Because I heard Queen Selthía doesn’t hunt witches. Because I heard serpents protect their own." She continues, and I swallow hard.

"...And because I had nowhere else to go." She says, and my fists clench. The words are simple, but they devastate me anyway.

"I made Alana bring me here," Asa continues, with what seems to be shame, thick in her voice.

"I begged her... Threatened her. I explained to her that if she didn’t help me, I’d be dead within weeks." She adds, and my teeth grit.

"And you’re the reason she insisted on going back to Gravemaw," I note flatly, and she freezes.

"She kept asking me to go to Gravemaw," Asa whispers, and I raise a brow.

"She said it would be safer if I wasn’t here..." She continues, but I have to cut her off.

"Safer?" I repeat, and Asa’s face crumples.

"She said witches mean trouble, and she doesn’t want one around you. But I couldn’t possibly agree to go away to Gravemaw," she sobs.

"I can’t go there. I heard what my kind did to Gravemaw. If word about what I truly am got out there... The safest place I could think of was here. Nagari. And Alana kept trying to get me to leave...." She cries with her hands shaking violently now.

"I was scared," she cries.

"If I went and they ever found out what I was, they’d kill me. Or worse." She adds, and the word hangs there.

Worse.

Elien goes silent again.

But this silence is in a way that feels like coiled rage.

"So you made her leave, instead," I whisper.

"So she wouldn’t expose you," I add, and Asa nods.

"Yes." She answers, and my chest aches.

Alana’s forced smile flashes in my mind. The way she bowed too deeply. The way her eyes begged me for something she never said.

"I thought," Asa chokes,

"That if she left, everything would be fine. That no one would ever know." She adds, and I laugh softly.

Not because it’s funny, but because if I don’t... I might scream.

"You should have told me," I almost scream, and she flinches.

"I wanted to," she sobs.

"I swear. But every time I looked at you, I thought... if you know, you’ll hate me. That’s... that’s why I kept asking you if you.. Wanted revenge on my kind. I... I was scared that if you found out I was one of them... you’ll come after me." She cries, and I freeze.

I remember the two times she asked me about the attack, and it all starts making sense.

I meet her gaze, and she drops her eyes.

"I... don’t hold what your people did against you," I say honestly, and she looks up, shocked.

"I’m angry," I add.

"And hurt... And terrified. I’m confused, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go after an innocent person just because you’re one of them." I continue with my voice trembling.

"I don’t hate you," I repeat so it sinks in her head, and Elien exhales inside me, slow and conflicted.

"You’re too kind," he mutters.

"That will get us killed one day." He adds, and I gulp.

Asa collapses to her knees again, sobbing openly now.

"I didn’t want to be a monster," she cries. "I just wanted to live."

I look down at her, at this broken, terrified girl who lied and manipulated and ran because the world taught her that survival required it.

I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know what the right answer is.

...But I know one thing.

I’ll keep her secret. I’ll... I’ll protect her till I figure out the right next step.