CHAPTER FIVE: A CIRCLE MADE ANEW
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Snippet Fourteen (2): Misery Loves Company
Leonard Zharim slowly wakes up in his small, cramped studio apartment before realizing that his eyes are completely laden with dried-up tears. He grumbles his way to the small bathroom before replaying what he had told his parents and siblings the previous night. He doesn’t regret what he said. He completely meant every word of it; well maybe not the taunting he gave about his brother’s circle. He kinda regrets that now. As he washes his body, he focuses on the fight that was had between everyone.
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The previous night in the Zharim circle’s large house:
Leonard, his little sister Lenora, and his little brother Reimand were sitting on the couch of the large living room of his parent’s house. His bearer: Cecilia Spinell, his father: Leone Rivas, and his third: Faidon Zharim, were all looking at him as he had called this meeting (the other members of the circle and the children were at the park to give Leonard privacy). His mother waits for him to say something, but after a few minutes of awkward silence, she speaks. “Well, I assume you have something to tell us, Leonard?” She looks at his face and then gasps. “Oh! Did you find yourself a circle?! How wonderful! You must introduce me to your new Submissive right away!” Leonard slunks down into the sofa in embarrassment and then groans.
“Mama, no!” Leonard shakes his head. “I didn’t call you here to tell you about a circle...; in fact, it’s just the opposite.” He stares at his siblings who motion him to be proud of himself and tell their parents the much-needed truth. He inhales and finally tells the truth to his parents. “I feel like I’ve been born an Advisor, not an Alpha; no matter what my physicality is. I will be renouncing my rank before the hunt and will consider myself to be a Pareya from here on out. I don’t like managing people, I like managing money! I was so close to being a Lerca that I cried the night I became Alpha rank. Lenora probably remembers it quite well.” He gestures for her to speak up.
She nods her head and quietly speaks. “It’s true Mama. After the giant party was thrown for him being an Alpha, Leonard cried himself to sleep. And Reimand and I overheard you talking to Jens later that night about how happy you were to be able to finally prove to your parents and the Water Court that you weren’t a defective Merrow who was unable to produce normal Merrow Alphas, Betas, and Submissives.” A gasp is heard from the entrance of the house. “Great...” Lenora says before stalking off upstairs after realizing who had just heard the conversation.
“You said that? About my son??” A dark olive man steps into the room. “I thought you were HAPPY that I accepted your courting?! This is the last straw! Crawl back to your parents...if they will have you back. Faidon, message me when I can come to pick up my stuff later. I’m going to go sleep where I’m more wanted. Leonard, my beautiful twilight, I honestly don’t give two flying fucks what rank you are. I will love YOU no matter what rank you call yourself.” He spins around and quickly leaves the house before porting away.
Cecilia moans lowly to herself before running out the door to go and find the Shadow Dragel.
“Goddamnit, I didn’t realize she still harbored those feelings.” A pale blue Dragel walks into the room after entering the house. “I thought she was just venting about proving them right. I didn’t take her seriously, I swear Faidon! You have to believe me!” Tears stream out of his beautiful aquamarine eyes.
A pale-olive-skinned man sighs before holding his head in his hands. “It's alright, Jens, I believe you. I just wish Queen Manthestia had reconsidered exiling Cecilia from the Water Courts...” He quickly brings his head up before looking at his eldest son. “Leonard. You MUST know that none of the rest of us knew this! If I had any thought that you didn’t like being an Alpha, I would’ve helped you renounce your rank years ago.” He walks over to his son and puts a hand on his head. “Do you forgive me? I can completely understand if you don't. Just don’t shut out the family. Toby and Benny still need their older brother, Alpha rank or not. And Anna Maria would be saddened if her favorite water ride was taken away from her.”
Leonard stands up and hugs his father. The older man weeps in both happiness and disappointment. “I forgive you, father. I just cannot forgive Mother; the day after the party, she told me to ignore that thought inside my head and become the best Alpha there was. I didn’t want to say anything in case everyone else thought that way.” Tears stream down his face.
A teal-skinned Merrow walks in and quickly snaps at Leonard. “No! We would have loved you if you had been an Alpha, a Pareya, or even a Gheyo! I know it’s no consolation, but getting kicked out of the Rhabdomancer Sweetwater Colony at a young age forever messed her up. Getting banished from your home tribe is never easy to get over.” He strokes the stricken tattoo behind his ear. He goes quiet before he walks over and hugs Leonard. “It’ll be fine, Fang, it’ll be fine in time...” He wipes the tears from Leonard’s face. “I should get back to the kids before they realize something is going on.” He kisses Leonard’s head before walking back outside.
Leonard stands up before wiping up the new tears that have fallen down. “I’ll come back tomorrow to talk with Papa and to start dealing with renouncing my rank.” He gives kisses to all of the people in the room. He sniffles before muttering the next statement. “I’ll start doing the circle banking stuff again next week.” He leaves the house and goes back home to drink and cry himself asleep.
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A noise in his apartment breaks him out of his thoughts. He quickly gets dried before rushing out to the kitchen. His brother, Reimand looks slightly impressed. “I’m glad to see you aren’t totally wasted. Papa Servando is waiting for you at The Mangrove for brunch. Don’t be late and break his heart.” His brother waves goodbye and walks out the door.
Leonard sighs and meets his sire at his favorite restaurant. He walks into the restaurant and walks over to their usual table. Servando stands up and gives a bear hug to his only biological child. “Oh my twilight, I hope you understand that I am not upset with you or anyone else in the circle. Other than your mother...” He pauses before looking deeply into his son’s eyes. “Sit, sit. I just came from the house. I’m going to room with another one of my Oreta’s previous students. At least until I can find something else better.” They both sit down and he hands Leonard the menu. “I basically know your order, but here’s the menu just in case.” Both men look at each other and giggle just a little bit before sobering up.
Leonard peruses the menu before deciding to get his usual favorite. But before the two men could order, he felt something tugging at his body. No. Not at his body, but his soul. He gasps before looking up at his papa. “Scream.” He ports out of the restaurant and to a battle scene. He starts to hyperventilate at the sheer amount of people that join them. He ducks behind one of his new Pareya and waits for the battle to be over.
He tries to confidently walk over to where his new submissive is with many people surrounding her and the Merrow that is getting healed on the ground.
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The morning after bonding with his new Submissive was the worst. He hadn’t been able to contact his papa or any of his fathers yet about what had happened. But he is finally able to have some free time to himself to turn in the banking token information. He sends the Beta to talk with his parents before porting everything to the bank to quickly get the banking taken care of.
After he has successfully requested the expedited tokens for the newly created bank accounts at Pheonix Holding, he ports to his sibling’s shared apartment. He explains everything to his sister before breaking down and sobbing in her arms on the couch. “I can’t do it, Leanora! My circle has almost thirty people looking at me for directions!” He cries for several minutes before she brings him a beer. “You know I didn’t even want a circle to begin with!” He says as he quickly drinks the beer and heads to where the liquor is stored to take several consecutive shots. “I’ll be the worst Alpha in history! They’ll make plays and musicals about how badly I will fail in the future for my new circle.” He takes another shot before throwing the shot glass at the wall, causing it to shatter all over the place.
His sister frowns and gets up. “I know this is a troubling time for you, brother, but stop destroying my shit. I have to spend time earning the money to replace all of this! You might be able to spin money from nothing, but I sure as hell cannot.” She forces him to sit back on the couch. “And no more liquor! I’m already going to have to pour you into the shower and give you something to sober your ass up before sending you off to what sounds like a lovely Submissive.” She goes and starts the shower before coming back to Leonard drinking more liquor. “Poeira’s scales! You fuckhead! I told you to stay out of my liquor!” She sighs as he moans before vomiting up all over himself. “Next time Reimand gets to deal with this bullshit.” She mumbles to herself before stripping her brother and tossing him into the shower. He moans as she washes his back and hair before throwing the washcloth at her very drunk brother. “Wash your junk, asshole. We don’t want your poor Submissive to faint after smelling the nasty scent of the vomit.” She walks out of the bedroom to raid clothes from Reimand’s bedroom before grabbing the last sobering potion. Once Leonard is dry and out of the shower, she thrusts the clothes and the potion at him. “I won’t keep any more of these on hand if you keep showing up to drink like a Spinosaurus."
He moans and slumps into the sofa for a quick nap. Thirty minutes later, he feels a lot better and ports to his new home.
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About one month later, on the day of the hunt, he’s back at their apartment, but this time ranting to his brother. “You don’t understand!” Leonard slurs as he drunkenly weaves around on the sofa. “You don’t have a circle yet; my baby brother is too young for a circle anyway.” Here, he giggles to himself before his brother facepalms himself.
“You do remember that I have just found an Alpha and a Beta, yes?” Reimand says before shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe this. Lenora was right. Like normal.” Reimand gets up from the chair and stands next to his brother. “You will give me the information about your Beta. I will have him come here and do something with you as Lenora and I obviously aren’t having any progress with you and your circle.” Leonard sighs before giving up the information. “Stay here while I get your Beta to come pick you up.”
Reimand goes to his bedroom and shuts the door, totally expecting Leonard to make a dash to the liquor again. “Hello. My name is Reimand Zharmin. I am your Alpha’s brother. He’s at my apartment fully sloshed; please come get him and sober him up.” He sends off the message with the information on where the apartment is before getting a reply in agreement.
Five minutes later, a light brown Elf Halfling comes and knocks on the door. “Hello. Reimand was it? I’m Noel Lewis, Leonard’s Beta. Can I come in?” He is let in by Reimand before shaking his head at his Alpha. “By the wind in the sky, Leonard.” He helps Leonard up before asking Reimand if Leonard still had his apartment.
“Yeah, he still does, it’s at this location.” Noel thanks him and takes him away. “I hope he’s able to help you, big brother.” Reimand leaves the apartment to join his small, but perfect circle.
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After Noel has opened the door to his Alpha’s apartment, he enters the door and drops him off on the nearest chair. He grabs the sobering potion out of his pocket and pours it into Leonard’s mouth. Leonard gags but keeps it down; after five minutes of waiting for it to kick all the way in, Noel starts his lecture.
“I cannot believe you! How many times have you done this? Have you done this near Alexia?!” He rapidly asks questions to his now sober Alpha. “You do realize that King Alcandor would string both of us up by the balls if anything were to happen if you were drunk and something happened to the Submissive in our circle? The supposed love of your life?” He stops here and then screams at the man to try and get it through his obviously thick skull. “What if she gets hurt?! Huh! She could DIE and you would be at your sibling’s apartment drunk on your ass. The heart of our circle is to be protected at ALL costs, including our lives if need be. And you would be out there drunk and unable to protect it.”
“It’s just been two times!” Leonard spits before Noel angrily snaps at him in return. “Plus I have a reason to be upset okay! My parent’s circle broke up the night before the soul scream happened. My sire has left the circle and the rest of my fathers along with my other two mothers have kicked my bearer out of the circle for good.” He sobs before shaking his head. “My bearer’s parents have refused to take her back in so she is now both circle-less AND homeless.” He wipes the tears from his face.
Leonard groans and then goes into the shower before Noel follows him. “I know I’m a shitty Alpha. It’s why I was going to renounce my rank before Alexia called me to her side.” At this, Noel gasps and worriedly looks into his eyes. Leonard rolls his eyes. “I’m not planning on renouncing it now that I have her. I’ll do better. I’ll get training from our Gheyos to not be so afraid of battle. I’ll find an Alpha mentor that can help me with my -” Leonard chokes on the words in his mouth as both of them gasp in severe pain as Alexia’s bond to them is tugged heavily before going dark. “Kesmar, Kanto, and Poeira’s scales.” Leonard says before the both of them feel Alexia wake back up. But not before they both groan in pain as their wings start to prickle and burn in pain. Both of them scream as they feel a sudden surge of anger, heat, and an urge to kill something flow over them. Both of their wings fly out angrily before the agony kicks in.
Noel falls out of the shower and onto the floors as he writhes in pain as his wings change. Leonard quickly falls on top of him, also writhing in pain. After a few minutes, both of them are done screaming in pain and get up to see what has happened. “Oh fuck.” Noel says as he spots the new sharpened hooks on Leonard’s wings. He quickly looks in the mirror before spotting them on his wings as well. “Fuck! We need to get the entire circle together so we can find Alexia!” The two of them port back to the house before recalling everyone but Marian.
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After everyone but Tânia, Gaspar, Faidon, Adrian, Caspain, Anemone, Armin, and Evelyn is back home and everything is explained, the Gheyos try to find where their submissive is, but cannot. “It’s like she’s in a black hole!” says Loreta before Tobias and Monika look at each other.
“That’s not good news...” says Tobias. “That means that serious wards were put up to prevent us from being able to rescue her.”
“Fuck.” says Ansgar before he gives a look to Konrad and Lesley. “Do either of you two know anyone that has the ability to find and get through wards?”
Konrad thinks for a second before having a realization. “My brother Kuno just joined one of the Tenebris Military Circles! Let me contact them to see if the circle can try and find her.” He walks off from the rest of the group to quickly send a message.
“In any case,” Tobias says before looking nervous. “I’ll have to contact King Alcandor. He’ll want to know that Alexia was successfully kidnapped and is behind serious wards.” He gulps before continuing. “Gaspar, I hate to do this to you, can you send Lord Aiden a message about Alexia’s situation? He might also be able to get a Tenebris circle after her if Konrad’s brother isn’t able to convince his circle to rescue her.”
Gaspar groans but hangs his head while walking away from the group to be the messenger of a bad message to Lord Aiden. Hopefully, it doesn’t result in him losing his head.
Tobias finally looks at Leonard, Noel, and Gerhard. “One of you should contact her grandparent’s circle along with her Oret. Both will want to know.” All three of them wince before Noel and Gerhard walk off; Noel sends something to her grandparents and Gerhard sends something to her mentor.
Tobias walks up to Leonard before smelling his breath. “For Kesmar’s sake. I really hope you weren’t just drinking, Alpha.” He bores his eyes into Leonard’s. “I hope this is the last time you day drink.” He walks away disappointed in his Alpha.