Chapter 244: Shell-Shocked
I held my breath as I watched Darach try to make sense of Kyle’s words.
"A slave... you... ah, yes. You were from one of the packs that were destroyed by him." His eyes lit up as he connected the dots.
"Harper, you must have suffered unduly before Blaise claimed you as his mate!" Darach reached for my hand and squeezed it to comfort me, but all I could feel were countless death glares shot in my direction at this casual display of affection.
I tried to pull away, but Darach held firm.
He then turned to glare at Kyle. "I cannot believe you would engage in victim blaming when it was Damon Valentine who brought her into your pack as a slave after decimating her own, and I believe you must think very poorly of Beta Blaise to imply that he would not notice himself being cucked from right under his nose."
A dawning light entered Darach’s eyes as he continued to speak.
"Harper, I understand everything now― this man must have been so upset that you chose Blaise over him because it was only by choosing Blaise that you could free yourself from slavery. I doubt Blaise Valentine would have allowed his fated mate to serve another, even if it was his twin brother."
"Insatiable pervert," Darach finished, every pore radiating dislike. Forget a simple math problem, Darach had added two and two and got to another planet!
Kyle, who initially had a smug look on his face, froze as he realized Darach had arrived at an entirely unwelcome conclusion. After all, Darach wasn’t like the majority of Fangborne werewolves who were fastidious supporters of Damon’s every move. In Darach’s eyes, everything Damon touched would sooner or later crumble into pieces.
Darach’s words easily riled up the other wolves, who snapped at him.
"Who do you think you are?"
"You have some nerve!"
"Get the fuck out of our pack then!"
More cries echoed through the air, starting a near cacophony of howls. Any passers-by would assume the infirmary was a fish market instead. Thankfully, other than curse words and stink eyes, no one had actually thrown a fist in Darach’s face.
I guessed it was only their respect for Nicole’s authority as their doctor that stayed their hand. If they messed up the infirmary, there would be hell to pay.
Darach was particularly unbothered by the shouts. He simply raised an eyebrow, wordlessly taunting them to strike. I supposed living with people like his father and sister would definitely help anyone develop skin thicker than a rhinoceros.
Meanwhile, my stomach was twisting itself into knots as I contemplated whether or not I should tell Darach the truth. Surely it had to be better than dealing with Kyle’s attempts to smear my reputation.
Besides, such news couldn’t be hidden forever. Yet, Darach had every reason to hate Damon. It was hard to begrudge him when I had hated Damon too. If we were not fated mates, I could not delude myself into thinking he would still try to make amends for his behavior.
"Darach, I―"
Darach turned to me curiously, but before I could even complete my sentence, the very air thickened with the scent of a familiar presence, its oppressive aura quieting down the wolves into a semblance of awe and order.
I didn’t need a werewolf’s heightened senses to know who that scent belonged to. A scowl formed on Darach’s face when he caught sight of the figure standing by the door.
"Alpha Damon!" The members chorused as one, and Darach’s eyebrow twitched as he heard the slavish devotion in their voices.
Oh right, that also took a while to get used to.
"Alpha Damon," Darach spat out, with a lot less devotion and a lot more anger.
"Damon, what are you doing here? Did you find any more messages?" I asked, my heart racing as my mind immediately jumped to the worst conclusions. Maybe Damon stumbled onto an entire vampire nest, or there were bloody blankets that hinted at my mother’s identity lying around the territory.
"Do I need a reason to visit my fated mate in my own pack?" Damon spoke dryly, but his eyes were boring straight into Darach’s own.
"Your fated mate?" Darach echoed incredulously, his eyes bugging out so wide I swore they would have fallen out. He shook his head frantically. "No way. No bloody way. This is impossible," he muttered to himself almost deliriously. "You must be screwing with me! Right, Harper? Tell me, are you really his mate?"
Damon stretched out his arm and pulled down the side of my T-shirt, unprovoked, revealing the mating mark he had left behind, near the juncture of the right side of my neck. He jabbed a proud finger at the mating mark before he traced it with the pads of his fingers.
I shuddered at the sudden touch of bare skin. After the mating, that patch of skin had become ridiculously sensitive, and Damon knew it.
"See this? This wasn’t left behind by my brother. I marked her as my own." Damon smirked, radiating smug satisfaction. "So you can leave her alone. Harper is not going anywhere with you, to Thunderstrike or anywhere else."
I smacked his hand irritably and tugged my T-shirt back. I didn’t want to be ogled by nearly everyone in the infirmary as though I was a circus animal. Darach was blatantly gawking now, his eyes darting between the mark and my face, and back to the mark again.
"You have got to be kidding me," Darach muttered to himself. "How is this―"
"If you don’t believe me, I can mark her again and you can match my bite marks with my teeth," Damon offered, but I knew it was not out of altruism. It was simply another way to show off and stake claim.
I elbowed Damon in the gut and shoved him off. Being so petty was beneath Damon.
"Darach, this is not how I would want to break the news," I said apologetically, while I shot Damon a dirty look from the corner of my eyes. Darach now looked shell-shocked― my only consolation was that at least he did not seem as horrified as when he found out that he lost his wolf.
Well. That was an awfully low bar to clear.
"Oh god," Darach exclaimed softly, as realization entered his eyes. "No wonder you had to reject the offer to be my beta. You’re going to be Fangborne’s luna!"
