Broken Bond: Between Vices and Virtues (BL)
Chapter 186: Ashler Ford [2]

Chapter 186: Ashler Ford [2]

Azrael’s gaze fell on Raine, his voice cutting through the tense atmosphere brought by the shock of finding his aunt, the last person he expected to see in that hidden place, "Yes, it has, Aunt Raine. Now, answer me. Why are you here? I asked Kayden to capture the one who we suspected of cleaning my father’s tracks. It was you?"

Raine stood up, trying to keep her composure despite the intensity of Azrael’s stare. "I am, indeed."

Azrael’s eyes flickered with anger and betrayal. His eyes zeroed in on his aunt, "Why?"

Raine, "You’re putting your lover in danger—

"What do you mean by that? What do you know about Knox and me?! Or do you know something about my father’s plan?!" Azrael strode forward, his steps were heavy and hastened as if he was charging at someone, ready to attack them anytime.

Due to his behavior, Kayden was alarmed. He quickly sprung from his seat and blocked Azrael’s approaching figure with his hands. His eyes hovered over his cousin, sporting a pleading look, silently assuring his mother’s safety.

Azrael scoffed. He pushed Kayden away, then put his hands on his waist and breathed in deeply, only to release them quite loudly along with all the trifling emotion kept within him.

Raine tapped her son’s shoulder and answered Azrael without fear, "Yes, I do."

Azrael paused. His eyes shook, displaying a hint of doubt and hope.

Raine continued, "I told them already."

She was forced to tell the things she told the three men again to Azrael. The latter listened intently, masking his true emotions, and let his aunt finish talking.

After Rained was done explaining, she looked at Azrael with honest eyes, "I didn’t come here to justify your father’s actions or take his side this time. I came here because I was...my name was used without my knowledge, and it was used for something that might...might break you, Azrael..."

Raine spoke with difficulty. It was the truth that she dreaded to tell him, but she didn’t want Azrael to continue leaving in the dark, and hating the father who did nothing but love him and his alpha father unconditionally.

Azrael, baffled, asked, "...what do you mean?" his heart raced rapidly.

Raine took a deep breath. Her gaze flickered toward Kayden as if gathering courage from looking at her son’s supportive eyes, and steeling her resolve to tell Azrael the truth.

It must be done. As she herself, was slowly drowning in regret and guilt of not believing Ashler, of not giving him the benefit of the doubt, and of not considering the memories they shared together as family.

After knowing what truly happened to Ashler, her conscience slowly gnawed her health, and she weakened. Despite this, she continued pretending in front of the bearded man as the one truly behind the order, all to find out the truth.

While the three other men were tense waiting for Raine to speak, their eyes shifting between Azreal and the older woman, sensing the gravity of the situation and the doom it would bring.

Raine finally spoke, staring directly at his nephew. "The reason your father, Ashler left...Rage has been lying to you. You’re not stupid, Azrael. You probably have seen how your father acted toward Ashler. It changed when...when that happened."

Azrael’s eyes shook tremendously. A particular scene he had already forgotten flashed in his mind.

The night the snow fell for the first time in the year, his omega father left, without looking back even after he cried and begged for him to stay. That was the first time Azrael learned what it’s like to be heartless.

Ashler Ford Del Valle taught him.

Raine sobbed. Her eyes watered from the next words she mentioned, "Rage chased him away, yes. But it was a lie that he cheated, that he slept with another, that he was someone who only birthed you in order to give Rage a successor. He—

"Then what?" Azrael asked, his voice uncertain, bewildered, confused, his eyes unfocused. "Then...what? Why did he not even care even when I followed his disappearing footsteps on the snow-covered pathway, barefooted? Even if I bellowed and cried for him to come back and take me with him. Why? If he wasn’t as heartless as I believed he was, then all those years I hated him, the omega aversion I suffered from despising him to the core...what were those all for?"

Kayden averted his eyes from his cousin. He lost his courage to meet Azrael’s lost and pained eyes, like the eyes of a child tormented by his mother’s disappearance.

Raine Montgomery broke into tears. Her words were barely whispered, "Someone used my name and ordered a man to violate your father, Azrael."

A huge bomb dropped on Azrael’s heart, shaking his entire existence to the core. All the memories he buried deep at the back of his mind, memories created starring his beautiful omega father, resurfaced unwantedly.

His eyes reddened, his fingers went stiff, and if he so much moved them to clench his fists, his knuckles might snap.

Raine lowered her eyes, averting them from Azrael. Her expression was pained and her voice broke, the mask of a tough woman she wore in front of her son cracked, and her regret and guilt seeped through the gaps. "A-Ash...didn’t leave you. He didn’t abandon you...he was...misunderstood—

Bam!

A loud smashing noise erupted in the whole room.

"Azi!" Kayden shouted in shock. He quickly blocked his mother and looked at his cousin, horrified.

Bam!

"Stop it, Azrael!" Sandro jumped on his friend, locking his arms on his back, while Luis came over and pinned Azrael’s down.

However, their efforts to restrain him were futile, as the scent of the forest seemed to seep through the windows and enveloped the entire room in a thick woody scent that somehow turned suffocating.

But they knew the scenery outside had nothing to do with it. They knew the uncontrollable and unbreathable smell was coming from the Azrael’s pheromones. It went wild, along with his exploding emotions.

Kayden protected himself and his mother with his own pheromones, while Sandro took Luis, a beta who started heaving in difficulty after getting exposed to his boss’ wild pheromones, and hid him in his own scent.

Because of this, Sandro let go of Azrael, and the latter was freed.

Azrael slumped on the floor, his knees on the ground, and his eyes bleeding knuckles were above the shattered glass of the center table. He showed no pain from the wounds he obtained on his hands, but his eyes glistened with painful emotions that rendered everyone speechless.

With a broken voice that held several feelings, Azrael asked with tears, "W-Who...he...my father...did not abandon me. I’m not...unwanted. He was...he was...—bam!"

"Azrael, stop it! You’re injuring yourself!" Kayden’s voice echoed through the room. He deliberately shouted at the top of his lungs to gain the attention of the other men who were waiting outside.

Azrael, deaf from the concern and shouts of his friends, looked at Raine with eyes ablaze with scorching anger and maximum murderous intent. "Who was it?"

Raine shuddered. She swallowed hard and answered, "Everything pointed out to your father...aide...head maid, Lyssana."