Parking my motorcycle in front of Haide's house, I got off and opened his front door.
Haide had already waited for me on the sofa. Because I took a detour to drop Cassius and to completely shake off the white faction members, I arrived late in the evening.
I entered his house with a stride, locking my gaze with the grey-haired man inside. Haide's gaze softened when I stopped right in front of him.
"Have you treated your wound? Come here, let me see."
Instead of answering him, I shifted my gaze to his arm. The fresh bandage indicated he had treated his injury and was out of harm.
That allowed me to have a talk with him.
"Ex aequo et bono. This principle… Have you even applied it to your group?"
Haide clasped his mouth when I started speaking, which made me glare at him more.
"Not noticing your own member's plan to rebel… I thought you and your members had a basic loyalty needed to regain their trust. Just how have you been leading your members?"
This attack was supposed to train black faction members' instinct and grew their will to fight while calming down the distrust growing amongst white faction members. It's a win-win plan that we create to avoid the first curtain of a possible huge-scale war.
In short, we were testing the water and estimating the total loss if a huge all-out raid were to happen.
But instead of reclaiming the lost trust in the white faction, they grew even more distrustful of Haide – going against his plans and acted on their own.
Haide stood up as he looked down on me, touching my hair as he explained, "The alphas and omegas in my team know how to obey, but the beta… He was the only one slipping out of my grasp because I had nothing to control him."
'Control?'
I frowned when I heard his choice of words, but something clicked in my mind when I connected the dots.
'So that's how it is'
From the perspective of alphas, power controlled everything. For Haide, the best way he could control a bunch of alphas who had pride as high as mountain was to put them in place by a power higher than them.
That's why the only beta in the group who wasn't affected by gender hierarchy, could easily go against his plan.
"You should change your ways of leading your group. Even though they are alphas, they are still humans. You can at least communicate with them and build trust right?"
Haide just chuckled and waved my words off. Smiling, he brushed the scar on my cheek – the sting from the pain made me wince.
"You should take your own advice. You're too protective of your members Yolan. They can't grow if they have never experienced injuring or killing their enemy. If you don't change your way of leading them, they would die a hopeless victim rather than die an honorable warrior, including you."
I turned my gaze away.
'I know… I know that I am hindering their progress.'
But my heart couldn't take another loss of life this soon.
After years of seeing people close to me die from my orders, my guilt kept haunting me even after I went back to the past. So I swore in my heart not to let any of my members die in this life.
Azazel and Cassius had already experienced death once, it would be too cruel to let them experience it again.
That's why I was so overprotective of my members.
"Let me see your wound Yolan. Don't tell me you just did the bare minimum and rushed here?"
"I did stop the bleeding with Cassius' help. It did shoot through my shoulder, but it was more like a graze on my flesh, so there's no bullet lodged inside."
Haide tapped his head into mine, closing the distance between our faces, "That's why your body is slightly feverish. You get sick easily, yet you run around like a healthy bull."
Smiling at me, he offered, "I'll treat your wound, take your clothes off."
I obediently took off my coat and shirt, revealing my bare skin. Haide smiled as I turned my back to him.
Peeling off the haphazardly put on patch on my shoulder, he gently addressed my wound in silence.
Taking this chance, I opened my mouth to ask him.
"Have you talked to your members?"
"I have. I told them to stand by until I give them the next order. Have you?"
"Yeah, it's also the same for me. At least this part of the plan is still the same."
Haide hummed in acknowledgement. After he was done, he hugged me from behind as he peered into my face.
"This one will leave a scar too."
He rubbed my side as he whispered. His lips pursed as his eyebrows wrinkled into a frown.
"As long as I'm not dead right?"
I patted his head as I assured him. Giving him a kiss on the cheek, I suggested.
"How about going to bed early? We can discuss our plan again tomorrow."
"Great idea. Let's take a shower and go to my room."
Carrying me in his arms, Haide went upstairs and kicked open his bathroom door. Giving me and himself a quick wipe, we were already lying on the bed in the next second.
Haide gave me a kiss as he whispered.
"Good night, sweet dreams."
"Mhm, you too."
With the familiar heat radiating from Haide's body as he hugged me, I slowly drifted into sleep.
.
.
"Communicate and build trust huh? You're still as naïve as ever Yolan."
Brushing the soft platinum hair in front of him, he muttered.
"And yet, I fell in love with the naïve man that you are."
"Every time I close my eyes, my first thought is always you."
"I never believed a fated mate exists until I met you – someone who specifically resonates with my soul. I wonder if you feel the same?"
"No, even if you feel the same, you won't admit it. That's just how you are."
"…"
"If only you had existed in my life before… I wonder if things would be different?"
"No, it would surely be different. That's why you're my weakness."
"I'm afraid to lose these daily lives with you."
A short pause. And a gaze full of passion.
"Yolan Carnel… You have become my everything."