Claw's Bridge(Discontinued)

41. Identity

"It wasn't?" Yoongi asked. I shook my head in response, observing everyone's reaction. They were all shocked. Justifiably so, I did drop a bomb on them. "When was your first?"

"When I was 17," I replied.

"O-oh," Namjoon stuttered out. I could come clean about my job, they could reject me and I could finally be free.

"Why did you kill?" Jimin asked.

"It was my job," was my blunt response.

"Being a murderer?" the brown-eyed male blurted out.

"'Assassin' would be the better term. I was paid for all this," I said. Silence dawned upon us.

"Wait, that's how you knew how to shoot!" Hoseok blurted out.

"That's kind of a given, but yes," I said.

"And that's why you were so confident about fighting us or killing us," Jimin pointed out.

"How about I summarize this for you: whenever I spoke about violence, I meant it. Everything I did with violence, it was all experience," I summarized. I slumped back in my seat, awaiting the rejection that was bound to come once they digested the information.

"So you were an assassin?" Taehyung voiced out. I nodded. "How many people have you killed?"

"I didn't keep track," I replied. "But I know that the count isn't higher than 15. That excludes the people I killed on Dagon the other day."

"Nighter, you killed people! How is that not haunting your conscience?!" Namjoon exclaimed. I noticed that Taehyung was fiddling with his fingers, his bangs falling over his eyes as he looked down. "Do you regret killing even one person?"

"Never will I regret that," I snapped back. "They were horrible people, and I simply brought justice because the queen wouldn't."

"That doesn't justify murder! You're just as bad as them!" Jimin exclaimed. I glared at him. They knew nothing about the people I killed, they knew nothing about what those people had done to me and other people. They knew nothing and were ready to judge.

"I don't care," I retorted.

"Why were you exiled?" Seokjin asked. He was calmer than the others.

"Attempted assassination of the Queen," was my response.

"Royalty?!" Hoseok exclaimed.

"You act butt hurt when I don't give you answers, and get mad when I do. If you don't like my answers then stop asking me questions related to the topic," I fought back, having had enough of their close-mindedness. I knew I was a killer. I was very well aware of that. There was a reason I killed all those people.

Taehyung got up without a word and rushed out of the room. Jimin followed him, giving me a look as he ran out.

I maintained a straight face, ignoring the heavy feeling in my chest that urged me to take back everything I said and comfort Taehyung. I needed them to reject me. According to the books I had read, merpeople also weren't able to reject their mates. They had no other way to reject, so I decided to carry out my original plan for the rejection.

"Did you ever plan to kill us?" Seokjin asked.

"Not without reason. You have to have done something really wrong for me to even consider killing you," I said.

"You threatened to kill Taehyung on your first morning here," Hoseok said.

"To be fair, I thought he was going to hurt me. That was self-defence. I didn't know you guys, and I was being held hostage," I defended.

"Yoongi and I hurt you," Soekjin pointed out. "You didn't even fight us."

"I made a promise to not hurt anyone with the dagger. You are stronger than me, and definitely more experienced in hand-to-hand combat. Fighting you would have made the situation worse," I replied.

"This is... Oh god, our mate has killed people," Namjoon mumbled. It was barely audible to the were-dragons, but I heard him loud and clear despite the fact that he was sitting farthest from me.

"You're talking as if none of you has killed before," I pointed out. "I'm not going to point out who, I'm sure you know very well who I'm referring to."

"That was to save a whole country!" Namjoon defended.

"I saved a whole city by killing those people!" I exclaimed. "I had a reason to kill. When will you stop listening to only half of what I say? I killed, I accept that. I knew what I was doing when I shot the first shot. Stop talking to me as if I didn't know what I was doing."

"Nighter, you're a monster," Hoseok breathed out. It was soft, barely audible, even to me. I looked at his teary eyes.

"I know."