The Beast's Possession
66: So stupidly happy.

**Aife

pov**

Not long after Bane left me, Zion came to take me back to his room. The guards followed and remained at the door, but Zion claimed it was safer for me if someone was around. Or at least that was what Bane had told him.

"Why am I being hidden?" I asked God what time. The same question left my lips multiple times and every time, Zion ignored me.

"It's not important for now," he muttered, moving the curtain and glancing outside.

Bane's insane mood swings weren't the only thing that worried me. Zion was acting suspicious too.

"I think it is important if I have to be hidden away. What's going on?" I pressed the issue, hell-bent on finding out the truth.

Slowly, Zion backed away from the window and sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his body a little, as if trying to rid himself of built-up tension.

"It's not my place tell you anything. Can we discuss this later, right around when Bane will give me the green light to tell you?"

I scoffed. "Since when do you wait for the green light from Bane? Don't get me wrong, but ever since I met you, I never thought of you as someone who needed Bane to tell you what you can or can't do."

He tried to pin me down with his gaze, but I just crossed my arms in front of my chest and ignored his attempt. "You do realize I am Alpha blood, right? You're a Beta, I'm sure a wonderful one, but you can't intimidate me."

"Okay, whatever," Zion muttered and turned his back on me.

I didn't want him to shut down on me. That would be unfair. And it wasn't like I was asking for too much, only the truth.

"So you won't tell me what is going on, right?" I arched an eyebrow.

There wasn't even a single bone in my body that wanted to drop this. The truth was that all of them have tossed me around like some stupid toy for too long.

Bane's hot and cold attitude was really getting to me and Zion, well, as kind as he was, he kept throwing me pieces of information without giving the important parts. It almost felt like he did it on purpose.

Knowledge that was meant for everyone was easily given to me, but once there were some shady things, directly connected to me, Zion acted as if I wasn't allowed to know.

His lips were sealed, back turned to me, and unfortunately, I couldn't see his face, so I couldn't read the expression either.

Running my hand through my hair, I decided to approach the issue from a different angle. "Listen, I will stop asking questions about why I'm being hidden away, but that doesn't mean I will stop asking questions for good. In fact, I have another thing I would like to know."

That caught Zion's attention. Slowly, he turned around and faced me, raising his eyebrow in a silent question.

I sucked in a breath to ground myself. "Alright. I want to know what's the deal with Bane. You two seem to be very close, I'm certain you know what's going on."

Zion took a step closer to me. "What's the deal with Bane? Care to explain what exactly you are talking about here? I can't read your mind, sorry."

"His attitude. Hot and cold."

Zion just stared at me until I rolled my eyes and explained more. "One moment he slaughters my family and pack, acts like a complete lunatic and keeps hurting me, just to turn around the other moment and claim no one can touch me. Then, the whole ordeal starts all over again, same shit, but when he turns the other cheek, suddenly he has to treat me better. Empty promises after empty promises. And once he starts treating me better, guess what? Boom, he throws me out like trash, well aware I would get really hurt if it weren't for you taking me to your room. And then there's what just happened, he-"

I cut myself off. My eyes widened as the realization sunk in. I was just about to tell Zion that Bane and I kissed. No one was supposed to know that. Except for the guards since they saw everything.

"And then, he?" Zion muttered, expecting me to keep talking.

"The last part doesn't matter. You got enough from the picture with what I already told you. So, what's his deal?"

My father used to tell me that knowing an enemy was the best thing that could happen to anyone. The more you knew about someone, who wished you harm, the easier it was to predict the next move and get away unharmed. "I will tell you if you tell me what you're hiding," Zion announced, grinning like a lunatic.

"Not fair. I told you way more than you have told me. Let's be clear with one thing - it's extremely unfair that you get to withhold so much information, yet I don't have the same benefit."

A throaty laugh escaped him. Zion looked more amused than people at the comedy show.

He walked to me, sat down and threw his arm around my shoulders to pull me closer to him. "Yeah, I have a benefit because I know way more than you do. It's only fair that I can choose what I tell you or don't. Now, decide if you want to tell me what I want to know, and in return, I might award you with some answers."

Dropping my gaze to my feet, I gripped the covers on Zion's bed and closed my eyes, "Bane kissed me. I kissed him back. And then, he told me he wouldn't let me leave just to get angry at me for no reason. He thought I wanted to go with one of the guards. I don't know, all of this is too confusing to follow."

Zion started to laugh again. It was a little odd how I could tell what he felt based on how his laughter sounded, but I would take it as a sign that we were friends.

He sounded happy, excited even. It was nice if I took away the fact that I couldn't understand what exactly made him feel so happy.

Once he calmed down, Zion wiped tears off his cheeks and breathed loudly until his breathing didn't sound like that of a heaving seal. "Okay, this information is gold," he muttered, squeezing my shoulder. "I'm so stupidly happy, you have no idea."

I glared at him. Not once had I told Zion that I wanted to know if he was happy, especially while we were talking about Bane.

And besides, I didn't appreciate him laughing about me, telling him some things about my first real kiss experience. Sure, he didn't know how much it meant for me, but at least he could try to be a little more low-key. Couldn't he see how embarrassed I was?

"Will you tell me something or not?" I muttered, growing a little irritated.

"Oh, yeah," he chuckled and jumped to his feet. Zion made a show of walking around the room and channeling his thoughts. Looked more like he was channeling his inner demons, but this wasn't the moment to bring that up. When he finally stopped, Zion's eyes focused on me. "Have you ever heard anything about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?"

How that was relevant in this situation was beyond me, but I still played around. "Yeah, it's like a fantasy tale, I think? There was something about two people in one body, good and bad, I suppose? I've heard some stories, but haven't really paid much attention to it."

The corner of Zion's mouth twitched as he wiggled his eyebrows and walked towards the door. "Well, maybe it's about time you start doing some research. You have the clue you need to find your answers, so take your time. Feel free to use my laptop, the guards stay, but I'll head downstairs to fetch us some snacks."