Chapter 243: Rife with Rumors
"Hello, good sir," Darach greeted him politely. "Well, technically, he was one of her fated mates," Darach corrected the injured man before turning back to Harper, "I suppose since you have chosen Blaise Valentine, he is left wanting and waiting for a second chance. A pity. I hope he finds someone else soon."
I wanted to scream into my hands, my face paling as I finally recalled the reason for this misunderstanding. Back at Hornstead, I didn’t trust Luna Cassidy enough to tell her the truth about my second fated mate. Elijah’s name was the only one that came to mind, so I blurted it out.
However, Luna Cassidy also said she knew that I was lying right in the open, so why had Darach thought it was true? Even Milo managed to suss out the truth by mere observation.
Internally, I despaired for Darach. If he was this trusting towards people he deemed his friends, Thunderstrike might really eat him alive. Forget a beta, he might need an entire team behind him to keep him safe from harm.
The bandaged man frowned so severely that I was half-afraid that his wounds might reopen. Unfortunately, what he opened was his big mouth.
Suddenly, I remembered where I heard his voice from.
This was Kyle, the annoying menace from the kitchens who did not want me to even make off with a lighter.
Now he was covered in bandaged wounds, and whatever ire I had for him died down. No matter how irritating he was, I didn’t want him to be so heavily injured.
"You need to get your head checked! Elijah is not this woman’s fated mate," Kyle said, his voice nearly screeching from outrage.
"...Yes, that’s what I said," Darach said, in mild confusion, his eyes narrowing at the implied insult. "After the rejection, he is no longer her fated mate."
However, he did nothing more― I guessed Darach wasn’t going to pick a fight with a heavily injured werewolf.
Thank goodness for it too. Kyle was annoying, but if it came down to a fight, Kyle would still beat Darach even with his body clad in bandages. Since Darach was now Thunderstrike’s new alpha, that diplomatic incident would be a disaster to clean up.
"And my head is perfectly fine," Darach continued, his brow wrinkling politely in confusion. "It’s much improved from yours."
I spoke too soon. His polite words fanned the flames further for poor Kyle, whose face was slowly turning red from anger or exertion.
"There was no rejection to begin with, you idiot! She’s lying to you because that’s what she does― she’s a scummy human who is related to hunters! If you want to propose to her and take her away, be my fucking guest! Save Fangborne from her tyranny!" Kyle burst out, and I heard a chorus of gasps from the eavesdroppers.
Just great. The pack would soon be rife with rumors about my background. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Moon Goddess for patience and for Kyle to suddenly become mute. I wasn’t going to sink so low to strike at an injured pack member.
Unfortunately, my prayers went unanswered.
"Related to hunters?" Darach repeated in disbelief. ’Why, that’s impossible. Harper here was raised in a werewolf pack, weren’t you?"
"Yes, I was," I said, but I decided to let Darach know just a hint of the truth. "I do not know much about my family history though. Perhaps I could have relatives that were hunters, perhaps not."
Darach accepted this with an even nod. "Fair enough. At least hunters are human. If you were a vampire, that’d be another story. But the lack of rejection is a bigger issue. Harper, far be it for me to judge you for your decisions, but carrying on like this isn’t ideal and it’s not fair to poor Elijah."
I knew he was thinking about Dahlia’s situation with poor Milo. I could sense Kyle’s eyebrow twitching from underneath his bandages as he stared at Darach with one eye, unimpressed by his reasoning.
"Maybe you should sit down and rest first," I said hurriedly, getting up to escort Kyle back to his bed. However, he flinched from my hold and scowled at me, his one remaining eye glaring at me in vindictive anger.
"Oh, so now you want to silence me? I knew it― you’re a guilty witch!" Kyle batted by hands away with his own injured ones.
"You’re not a very polite individual, are you?" Darach mused to himself, a look of faint disapproval on his face. Understatement of the century.
"And you’re a fucking moron! I’m telling you, Elijah was never her mate to begin with!" Kyle threw his hands up into the air in clear exasperation.
"Really? Then who else could it be? Is it you?" Darach’s eyes widened as his mind added two and two and got five. "No wonder she chose Blaise Valentine then." He tutted in disapproval.
"You―" Kyle’s visible eye bulged out in anger as he sucked in a deep breath. He must have thought Darach was pissing him off on purpose.
"Kyle, leave him alone, he is Thunderstrike’s new Alpha―" Hopefully news of Darach’s new rank would hammer the fact that Kyle should be keeping his mouth shut, but of course, that emboldened Kyle further.
"Another alpha? Wow, you really are insatiable aren’t you?" Kyle spat out venomously, his lips twisted into a sneer. "Was getting Alpha Damon not enough for you that you had to find another Alpha, and one so scrawny as that? Have you no shame?"
"Alpha Damon?" Darach echoed. "What does this have got to do with that bastard?"
Kyle was so riled up with anger, his cheeks reddened into the shade of ripe tomatoes, that he completely ignored that blatant insult to Damon’s name.
"It has got everything to do with Alpha Damon!" Kyle roared. "This damned woman is mated to Beta Blaise already, and yet she still has the guts to seduce our alpha, her mate’s own twin brother!"
"Kyle―"
"Or, perhaps your new boyfriend would like to know the truth," Kyle said, effectively cutting me off. "To be exact, she was brought in to be one of Alpha Damon’s slaves. Who knew how she crawled into the Beta’s bed?"
