Chapter 7 Curse

• Zavier's eyes were set ablaze with malice. He scrunched his nose as he looked longer at Aria's colorless face. His mouth was sealed in a line and he pressed his hands on his knees, trying to suppress his building irritation.
• "Some other time." Disgust spilled from his tone.
• Aria was a daughter he never wished to have. He was ashamed to call her as his in public. For a strong and respectful hunter, all she brought to him was shame and laughter from others.
• Being weak was one thing... And a thing that he tolerated. But being born with no wolf was truly unacceptable. He put up with her all these years of her life. But when he learned that she was no better than a human with zero powers a few months back on her eighteenth birthday, he couldn't hide his chagrin whenever she came in front of him.
• "You've been saying that for three months now, dad. Please eat with me. I don't like to eat alone." Aria's voice was a whisper.
• It's not like she loved to present her weak side to her father and annoy him more. The emotions and longing to be loved and cherished by him made her look weak. Aria wanted him to acknowledge her as his daughter.
• She set her hesitation aside and forwarded the plate of scallops to him, "Look, I made you your favorite food. The recipe is new but I'm certain you will like the taste. Just try them once dad. Please."
• While she peered at him hopefully, a muscle at his jaw ticked. Old memories rushed back in his mind like a reel and rage stirred within him.
• Zaviere slapped the plate of scallops away, sending them afar. He growled like a beast in a cage, making Aria's face turn ghostly white.
• "Being born with no wolf was not enough that now you want to irk me using new ways!" Her skin was ablaze with goosebumps as she observed him throwing spears of hostility with his eyes.
• "D-dad," She started but a look at his face and she froze.
• Closing the gap between them, Zavier grasped her hair painfully, "I am hardly bearing your existence because I promised your mother."
• "I hate you with all my being. I hate you everyday I lay my eyes on you." His words sliced her heart.
• Aria shut her eyes as he tightened his hold on her hair and screamed even louder in her face, "You are only here because I promised Stella that I'll keep you safe. Otherwise if you ask me then I do not even want to see your face. You are a cursed child I regret fathering, Aria. A curse that I'll have to live with for the rest of my life because certainly no wolf is going to take you as their mate. So, as your father, I am fucking stuck with you."
• Pain coiled within Aria and the tears she had tried to keep from falling streamed out. Zavier noticed them. A sudden realization awakened him from the spell of aggression and he released her with a jerk.
• Aria descended on the floor with a thud. When her eyes burst open, she saw him raging out of the house without so much as taking a look at her, not before saying, "I don't want to see you awake when I return."
• She gazed at his retreating figure as she pressed a palm on her mouth. She wept with loud gasps and coiled her body like a snail. Aria hugged her knees and closed her eyes making an effort to forget what happened.
• This was not new. Her father hated her. Yet every morning with the occurrence of a new dawn she greeted him with a cup of coffee. Aria didn't leave for school until she made him his breakfast. Then she returned home as soon as she left the restaurant so that she could make dinner for him.
• This was her routine in life on a loop. Even though her only family, her father, detested her. With every spiteful scorn and dark glare, she became more and more hopeful. Because as the saying went— the more someone dislikes you on the outside the more they care for you on the inside.
• She was hopeful that one day Zavier would forget she was a cursed daughter and embrace her. That being said, she did everything that would impress him, including not making boyfriends. While girls her age were slaves in the hands of current trends and fashion statements, she led a boring, colorless life.
• A thunder roared outside, matching her hysterical cries. It grew painfully cold and Aria was forced to gather herself on her feet. She cleaned her cheeks as she swallowed a deep breath. Her eyes scorched with newly forming tears when she noticed the broken plate and scallops she had so lovingly served in them, scattering on the floor with dust and ants collecting on it.
• She culled them in her hands and discarded them in the dustbin along with all the other dishes with a heavy heart. She washed her hands and quietly ambled to her room. Throwing herself in bed she pulled out a photo frame from under her pillow and let her tears fall.
• "I miss you, mom." Aria kissed the photo of her mother.
• Her eternal departure was the reason that made her father treat her with strong malice. Her mother passed away at a time her husband needed her the most. And with what? A little vulnerable baby. A baby he probably hadn't wanted but had to keep as he promised his dying mate that he would protect her come what may.
• "Dad would be treating me differently if you were here. I would have had the opportunity to see how he would love me as his daughter." A permanent sorrow seemed to weigh her down.
• "He sees me no better than your killer, mom. He hates me because..." Aria burst into sobs and pressed her face in the pillow.
• Her mother couldn't survive the pain of labor. She had been weak. But she believed she could make it out alive because babies were a gift from the goddess. She wanted to deliver the baby growing inside her. Despite the complications, she wanted to bring her baby to the world and allow it to live and to explore. She wanted to give the life living inside her a chance to observe nature's beauty.
• What she didn't know was that her complications would outweigh her hopes for survival. And in the end, she would throw her husband in a tight spot given that he had zero idea about the risks in her pregnancy and that his adorable mate, Stella Wright, was putting her life into danger. He was exposed to the threat when she was in labor pain.
• He only realized his mate cheated on him with a lie when he saw her take her last breaths. When she apologized for keeping the news of her complications from him. When she handed the baby to him and took a vow, saying that the baby would serve as a souvenir of their ceaseless love.
• "He misses you a lot. Why did you sacrifice yourself— why not me, mom? He needed a mate not a daughter." She sobbed.
• Aria talked to her mother's photograph while the storm outside became intense. As the winds breeded into ice and grazed her skin, Aria slipped into the depths of a tranquil slumber.
• When she woke up the next day, the luminous fingers of the sun rays peeked into her room through the window. Her head was a battlefield of agonizing pain. She couldn't remember when she dozed off last night. Aria felt something under her hand and drew out the frame of her mother. The glass had cracked under her weight but that did nothing to the warming smile the young woman in the photo sported.
• "I love you, mom. Dad doesn't love me but he gave me your photograph. The only photo he owned of you." She pecked it and placed it under her pillow.
• Aria felt her chest heaving at the memories of last night. Except she refused to cry and ventured inside the washroom. She came out wearing a black t-shirt and blue denims.
• Aria didn't bother herself to check her reflection in the mirror. She just reached out for her backpack and retreated from her room. She wasn't hungry even though she went to bed empty stomach last night. She hoped to punish herself whilst going hungry the whole day until her father offered to sit and eat with her.
• But that wasn't happening. She knew that. It happened until she was fifteen and three years thereafter, Aria never hoped for it.
• She shoved all the thoughts away and darted towards the kitchen to prepare food for her father. She was in the mid track when a voice rang in the hallway, "Good morning, Aria."
• Nerves fluttered in her belly as she heard that voice. She froze and looked over her shoulder in the hall. As her eyes desisted on the couch, her face heated up and her heart soared in her throat.
• "J-jake?"
• What was he doing here?
• Tbc...