Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 216: Blocked

"No one checked on him?"

Borak’s tail fur rose.

Then flattened. Then rose again. It was a telltale sign of the squirming discomfort spreading through him like goosebumps under fur. He had only known this Luna for a couple of months, but that had been more than enough time to learn one crucial truth.

This woman had eyes behind her back.

If anyone asked him, he’d swear she had eyes growing, emerging and blinking on his skin too. She knew too much from too little.

So of course she would know. Of course she would see right through him. Of course she’d realize he had been helping hide things for the alpha.

"It’s..." Borak’s voice faltered. His tail tucked between his legs, a gesture of submission that his pride would normally never allow. He crumbled. He decided that honesty before more of her eyes crawled and blinked on his skin was the only viable option.

"You see, Luna... sometimes, the lord has these... episodes."

"Episodes." Cecilia’s voice was flat. Waiting.

"Yes... especially—" Borak hesitated, the words sticking in his throat. "Especially when he remembers too much about the late young miss and Roarke."

Cecilia didn’t wait for more.

She turned and power walked toward Arkai’s room.

"Ma’am! Please, please wait!" Borak gasped, scrambling after her, his longer legs eating up the distance. "I think it’s dangerous!"

She turned sharply.

The movement was so sudden, so precise, that Borak’s steps faltered mid-stride. Her eyes met his. Those impossible sea-glass eyes that saw everything, judged everything, knew everything.

"Dangerous why?" she asked.

Borak felt helpless. The words tangled in his throat. He didn’t know the details, not really the deep ones. She would need to see for herself to understand. Or she would completely misunderstand. Either way, he had to try.

"Luna." His voice was urgent, low. "You must remember that we are beasts. And the lord’s lineage is very... strong."

He watched her expression. Unconvinced. She was going to go anyway, regardless of what he said.

But... at the end of the day, she was still the lord’s Luna. His chosen mate. His equal in ways Borak couldn’t fully comprehend. Surely the lord wouldn’t hurt his own Luna.

Borak sighed.

"Please, this way." He surrendered.

When they approached Arkai’s room, Borak’s feet began to hesitate.

It was subtle at first. A slowing of pace, a drag in his step. But as they drew closer to the door, the hesitation grew more pronounced. His movements became slower, heavier, until finally, about six feet from the threshold, his feet simply refused to go any further.

Cecilia turned to look at him, then at the door, then back at him.

She scoffed.

"It’s that bad, and you didn’t tell me?"

Borak’s ears flattened against his skull. His tail, already low, tucked completely between his legs.

"Please don’t misunderstand, Luna." His voice was strained, the words forced through a throat tight with instinctive fear. "No one in this estate can stop the lord if something happens."

Cecilia frowned.

Whatever happened in that room, whatever episodes Arkai experienced, they were beyond the control of anyone who served him. Beyond the reach of loyalty or duty or love.

She raised her face and nodded.

"I understand." She said, decision made, accepting its consequences. "Then it’s better if no one disturbs us. Please tell Lord Anton recuperating in the back mansion to take care of Rinne. And tell everyone to leave this wing as well."

Worry painted Borak’s face. His brow furrowed, his jaw tight. This...

But Luna’s words, in many packs, were even more of a law than an Alpha’s. The Alpha’s chosen mate spoke with his authority, his power, his will. He needed to obey.

"Yes, ma’am."

Cecilia turned to face the door.

Borak pressed the keys into her hand, a heavy ring of iron, cold against her palm. Then he was gone, retreating down the corridor with his tail still tucked between his legs, his footsteps fading into silence.

Cecilia stood alone before the door.

They hadn’t told Anton about Roarke yet. The lord no longer needed to recuperate, but his presence still needed to be mostly hidden from the public. The narrative they had agreed upon required it. And it was convenient, too, the way they didn’t need to tell him about Arkai’s problem.

Especially this problem.

Cecilia, of course, would tell him. She had planned to tell him today. She had thought Arkai would be alright—

CLICK.

The lock turned. The door swung inward.

Cecilia entered the room.

It was dark.

Despite the high sun blazing outside, despite the afternoon light that should have flooded every corner, the room was swallowed in shadow. All the curtains were drawn, heavy fabric pulled tight across every window, blocking out the world.

She had slept with Rinne last night. All the other nights, she had slept here, with Arkai, in this room that had become familiar.

But now it was... different.

Wrong.

Her eyes found the bed. It was clean. Unused. The covers smooth, the pillows untouched, as if no one had slept there at all.

Did Arkai not... sleep in it last night?

Then—

Then where was he?

Cecilia turned to the only place he could be now.

The bathroom.

He had told her about the nights. About Sienna’s voice calling to him from beyond the door, her scent seeping through the cracks. About how he would lock himself in his bathroom, soaking in ice-cold water for hours, for entire nights, waiting for it to pass. If it passed at all.

She walked toward the door.

It was closed.

She stopped. Her hand hovered inches from the handle.

If Sienna ever entered his room, ever managed to corner him... then he would be there, and she would stand here, calling for his name.

In this exact position.

Cecilia’s eyes faltered.

She wondered now if her decision to try and interrupt him was the right one. Wouldn’t this just make him relive his trauma? Force him to confront not just the memory, but the moment? The parallel?

But if he had been in there all night, if he had been in there since they separated, since she went to Rinne, then he was already reliving it. Had been reliving it for hours. All this time, alone, in the dark, in the cold.

She couldn’t just leave him like this.

Something else clicked in her mind. Something strange, something that didn’t fit.

If he was inside, locking himself away, soaking in water all night... why hadn’t she felt it? Their bond, their Shared Sense, it should have transmitted something. The cold, the numbness, the pain.

Unless—

Unless he was completely unconscious. Completely out of it. So far gone that he didn’t even feel the cold, didn’t register his own body’s distress. If his nerves were blocked, his hormones suppressed, every sense shut down—

Then he wouldn’t feel anything.

And neither would she.

What if something was wrong? What if—what if he had been unconscious too long? What if the cold had done more than numb him? What if—

"Arkai."

Her voice carried through the closed door.

"I’m coming in, alright?"

A sense of déjà vu washed over her. Like father, like son.

Yesterday, it had been Rinne, locked in his room, hiding under blankets, refusing to let the world in. And she had knelt beside his bed, had spoken to him through the dark, had entered despite his silence.

Today, it was the father.

Cecilia’s hand closed around the handle.

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Bonus Chapter no. 3!