Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Chapter 96: 0096

Lorelei POV

The peaceful hum of the garden settled around us, and I turned my full attention back to him. My gaze drifted to the blood soaking through the bandage wrapped around his shoulder.

"Let me see."

"It’s really not that bad..."

"Darius," I interrupted, my voice firm as I fixed him with a look that left no room for argument.

A quiet, defeated sigh escaped him.

Slowly, and with a slight wince, he reached up and unbuttoned more of his crisp white shirt before carefully pulling the bloodstained fabric aside, exposing the injury beneath.

The sight made me suck in a sharp breath.

The wound was a deep, jagged gash that was still oozing dark blood. The skin around it was swollen and an angry shade of red. It wasn’t life threatening for a werewolf as strong as Darius, but it definitely needed to be cleaned and stitched before it had the chance to become infected.

Almost as quickly as she had left, Skye returned, slightly out of breath as she handed me a white first aid box. Afterward, she quietly stepped back and stood beside Isaac, giving Darius and me a little privacy.

I popped open the plastic clips and pulled out the antiseptic solution, clean gauze, and a fresh roll of bandages.

"This might sting," I warned, looking up to meet his dark gray eyes.

"I’ve had worse," he replied, a faint, amused glint returning to them, causing the corners of my lips to lift into a small smile at his stubbornness.

Without another word, I soaked a piece of gauze with antiseptic and gently pressed it against the gash.

Darius sucked in a quiet breath through his teeth, the muscles beneath my fingertips tensing instantly from the sting, but he never once pulled away.

Instead, he simply watched me.

His sharp eyes followed every steady, practiced movement of my hands as I carefully cleaned the wound before wrapping a fresh white bandage securely around his shoulder.

"You’re really good at this," he casually commented.

"Come on, it’s not that hard," I replied quietly, keeping my attention on tying the knot securely. "Besides, I’ve had a lot of practice patching myself up."

Those words shouldn’t have meant anything, yet the air around us seemed to go completely still.

A suffocating silence settled beneath the pergola.

I didn’t even realize the weight of what I had just admitted until Darius’s hand suddenly closed around my wrist.

Slowly, I looked up, only to find his dark gray eyes fixed on mine. Every trace of amusement had disappeared, replaced by something far heavier.

"How often?" he asked quietly.

"What?" I blinked, genuinely confused for a moment.

"How often?" he repeated, finally releasing my wrist.

That was when the realization of what I had accidentally implied finally hit me.

I awkwardly lowered my head, my cheeks warming with a sudden wave of self consciousness as I nervously fidgeted with my fingers.

"Well... I guess you could say pretty often," I admitted in a quiet voice, keeping my eyes fixed on the grass beneath my feet. "But it’s just something you get used to. After a while, it doesn’t really feel like a big deal anymore."

"I don’t see it, though," Darius murmured.

"See what?" I asked, finally lifting my head to look at him.

"You don’t look it. You’re too..." He trailed off, his sharp features tightening as though he were carefully searching for the right words. His gaze slowly traveled across my face before settling back on my eyes. "You just don’t seem to fit that kind of lifestyle."

I scoffed at that. I didn’t know being abused and broken down was considered a lifestyle.

Maybe that was just the kind of detached wording powerful, hardened men used so they wouldn’t have to confront the ugly reality in front of them.

I dug my fingernails into my palm again, the faint sting grounding me.

"It is what it is," I said with a small shrug. "Honestly, I still don’t know how I managed to survive this long, especially with my wolf suppressed. But... here I am."

As the words left my mouth, I forced a faint smile onto my lips, but it felt empty. It didn’t even come close to reaching my eyes.

Finally, I found the courage to meet his gaze again, and the expression staring back at me wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either.

Most importantly...

It wasn’t pity.

"Your wolf is suppressed?" he asked, his voice laced with disbelief.

I guessed his reaction was understandable in a way.

After all, I had never told anyone in this estate about my condition except Skye.

"Yeah," I replied with a slow nod. "My wolf is completely suppressed. I can still feel her sometimes, especially when I’m overwhelmed, but she’s locked away somewhere in the back of my mind. No matter how hard I try, I can’t reach her."

After that confession, Darius fell completely silent.

His dark brows drew together, and his gray eyes turned distant, as if he had become lost in a storm of heavy thoughts.

The longer the silence stretched between us, the heavier the atmosphere beneath the pergola became.

Desperate to break the suffocating tension, Emily’s words suddenly echoed through my mind, reminding me how she had begged me to introduce her to the Beta.

This actually seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I cleared my throat, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Um... do you happen to remember my roommate from the orphanage? Emily? She’s a really beautiful young woman."

I had never tried playing matchmaker before, and the moment those embarrassingly awkward words left my mouth, I immediately wanted to swallow them back.

It worked. Darius’s attention immediately snapped to me.

"Why are you telling me about another woman?" he asked.

"She’s not just any woman," I corrected quickly, finally finding my footing. "She’s my friend, and she... well... she seems really interested in you. Since I’ve never seen you with any woman around the estate, I just thought..."

"Are you scared of me now?" he cut in, stopping me before I could finish.

I froze.

The sudden shift in his tone caught me completely off guard.

"What?" I blinked. "What are you talking about? Why would I..."

"You saw me in the cells a few days ago," he interrupted again. "You saw exactly what I’m capable of doing to a man. It must have been a shock for you."

His gaze never left mine.

"So now you’re afraid of me," he continued quietly. "And you’re trying to push me away by introducing me to another woman."

I went completely silent as the color slowly drained from my face.

I mean, yes, I had been absolutely terrified in that bloody room.

Who wouldn’t have been?

Seeing a man who had been nothing but gentle and patient with me display such horrific, cold blooded cruelty over a guard’s mistake was enough to shake anyone.

But...

"That’s not true," I said quietly, looking him straight in the eye.

"No?" he challenged softly.

"I was scared," I admitted. "Of course I was. Anyone would have been terrified in a room like that. But I’m not trying to set you up with Emily because I’m afraid of you."

"Then why?"

I hesitated, my thoughts drifting back to the day he had quietly told me he was a mateless wolf.

Just remembering that conversation made my chest ache.

"Because I don’t want you to be alone," I said at last. "You’ve been genuinely kind to me when you didn’t have to be, and I just thought... I thought maybe you deserved someone in your life who could be just as kind to you."

At my words, the rigid expression on Darius’s face finally eased.

Some of the tension left his features, softening them, though a faint shadow still lingered in his gray eyes.

"I am only kind to you, Ella," he said quietly. "And sometimes to the Alpha."

There was no pride in his voice.

If anything, it sounded more like a warning.

"To everyone else, I am ruthless," he continued. "I will hurt a lot of people who aren’t you. So if you truly care about your friends, don’t push them toward me, because I can’t promise I won’t end up breaking them too."