Free Web NovelChapter 332: Chapter 229: Domineering and Badass
In the blink of an eye, Paige Summers and Marcus Monroe had already traded several blows.
"Wait!"
Paige Summers suddenly called a halt to their fight. She glared at him for a long moment, then pressed a hand to her forehead in frustration. "Why am I even fighting you here?! I was just coming to ask if you had bad news..." She paused, then added resentfully, "And what the hell was that move?!"
Marcus Monroe drew back his hands and leisurely turned to sit back down at the table. "It wasn’t some strange move. I just wanted to get a better look at you."
Paige Summers was taken aback, and her aggressive stance immediately softened.
After a moment of silence, she decided to just ask, "What are your real intentions?"
Marcus Monroe looked up. "What do you mean?"
"You... and me..." The words came out haltingly. The main thing was, ’Why do I feel like I’m pressuring him for a commitment?!’
But Marcus Monroe replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Do you even need to ask? You’re my woman! So stay away from other men from now on!"
The words reeked of possessiveness, as if they held some deep affection, but Paige Summers felt the headache that was just beginning to throb hadn’t eased in the slightest.
’This is just his territorial instinct kicking in!’
She couldn’t find a trace of jealousy or hurt in his heart; his words were purely literal. Because "she was his," she shouldn’t associate with other men.
For a moment, Paige Summers felt incredibly conflicted.
She didn’t know whether she should be glad he still had this instinct, filing her away in his "possessions" category, or sad that hoping for any real affection from him now was clearly impossible.
But agonizing over it was pointless. Marcus Monroe wasn’t going to change. After a long pause, she decided to drop the subject for now.
"Is there really bad news?"
Marcus Monroe, also tired of the subject, readily shifted his focus. He nodded. "You could say that. Something’s happened in Norgate."
Paige Summers’ brows furrowed slightly. "Norgate? Is it about Shawn Monroe?"
At the mention of that name, Marcus Monroe’s eyes narrowed. "Shawn Monroe? He’s in Norgate?"
Paige Summers’s mouth fell open. ’Dammit,’ she thought, ’I let it slip.’ But faced with his piercing gaze, she immediately abandoned any thought of hiding the truth and had to awkwardly explain the whole story.
When she finished, she felt extremely anxious.
Although her intention had been to use Shawn Monroe to strike a blow against Sheldon Reid, in a way, her actions were a betrayal of Marcus Monroe.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt she was in the wrong. She hung her head, dejected. "I’m sorry. I should have discussed it with you before making that decision."
Marcus Monroe tapped his fingers twice on the table, his expression cold and aloof. "You were considering the bigger picture, I suppose. There was nothing wrong with the action itself. A shame Shawn Monroe is as useless as ever." He snorted. "He had just conquered Norgate, but before he could even get a firm grip on it, someone else snatched the prize."
"Someone else? You mean Kiera Walsh?" She wasn’t too surprised by that. No secret stays a secret forever. ’Kiera Walsh must have discovered his identity!’
"Not Kiera Walsh. It was Nora Lowell."
"Huh?!"
This time, Paige Summers was well and truly stunned.
’Does Nora Lowell... really have that much influence? Did she secretly bribe the real power players in The Power Corps and team up with them to take down Shawn Monroe?’
Marcus Monroe’s lips curled into a smirk. "Logically, that would be impossible. But if Nora Lowell mutated into a formidable Zombie Leader, one who could even speak... well, that’s a different story."
The reports were apparently confirmed.
Reportedly, not only had Nora Lowell mutated into a Zombie, but she could also summon other Zombies and even Mutant Beasts. As a result, the people of Norgate, completely unprepared, were subjected to a siege. With Nora Lowell coordinating the attack from within, the creatures essentially washed the city in blood. Not even the Citadel, where her father Gryphon Lowell resided, was spared.
The Central Army suffered heavy losses at the beginning of the attack.
Kiera Walsh, ever cautious, naturally retreated with his remaining troops when he saw how things were going, which in turn threw the gates wide open for Nora Lowell.
At this, Marcus Monroe sneered. "Kiera Walsh was probably scared out of his mind by the situation. If he had led his men and fought to the death, Nora Lowell and the Zombies she summoned wouldn’t necessarily have gained much of an advantage. A pity. Norgate should probably be renamed Rotburg now."
Paige Summers was utterly floored.
It was a plot twist so wild that even she couldn’t process it.
’Nora Lowell turned into a Zombie?!’
’She can talk, she can summon others, and she took over an entire city!!!’
She took several deep breaths before she felt calm enough to think clearly again.
"I saw Quentin Sutton in Central City. Back then, he said Nora Lowell had fallen into Shawn Monroe’s hands. I never thought things would change this dramatically! So, you’re saying Nora Lowell controls Norgate now?"
"That’s right. The inside and outside of Norgate are now occupied by Zombies or Mutant Beasts," Marcus Monroe continued nonchalantly. "Quentin Sutton? That rat’s still alive? Heh..."
Paige Summers’s mouth twitched.
’So... venomous. I have no idea how to respond to that.’
Marcus Monroe looked over, seeming to be in a surprisingly good mood. "A huge thorn in my side has been removed. Since there’s nothing else going on, want to go check out Rotburg?"
He might have phrased it as a question, but the look on his face clearly said, "And that’s settled."
Paige Summers pressed her lips together hard.
It’s not that she didn’t want to go.
’With Marcus in this state, she couldn’t possibly feel at ease letting him go alone.’
And she had her own concerns about Nora Lowell, too.
’She and that woman were like fire and water. If Nora could speak, did that mean she could think? If that was the case, now that Nora had finally obtained another powerful advantage she’d craved, there was no way she would just ignore Paige.’
’She might be the next target.’
’If she could observe the situation up close, know her enemy and know herself, she could prepare accordingly.’
But the problem now was that Ben was unconscious. She had to take him back to Central City for treatment!
It took only a moment to weigh her options. In the end, she said, "I can’t go."
Marcus Monroe lifted his chin slightly. "Reason!"
Paige Summers briefly explained Ben’s situation.
After she finished, Marcus Monroe was silent for a long moment before tossing out a lukewarm, "Fine, don’t go." Then he shot to his feet and strode out.
Watching his retreating back, Paige Summers reached up and rubbed her temples.
’He’s so difficult to handle!’
’There wasn’t a single trace left of the gentle, patient man who had once cared for her.’
Even though there was a subtle connection between them now, allowing her to sense some of his emotions, she still couldn’t understand what the current Marcus Monroe was thinking.
She didn’t leave Marcus Monroe’s room right away. Instead, she leaned back against her chair and tilted her head up to look at the ceiling.
A flicker of loneliness crossed her face.
’This can’t go on.’
’No one could say when, or if, he would ever recover. What if he was like this for the rest of his life?’
’Perhaps, from this moment on, her attitude had to change. She had to stop comparing, stop regretting, and start seeing him as a different Marcus Monroe.’
「Outside Silvanus Base」
Paige Summers sat quietly on Sweetie’s back, with Sean Raines standing beside her. Across from them stood Marcus Monroe and the members of the Orange Team.
"I’m leaving. You... you be careful," Paige Summers said with a sigh. Marcus Monroe stubbornly refused to reconsider going to Norgate, leaving her no choice but to part ways with him. She was truly afraid Ben’s condition couldn’t wait any longer.
Marcus Monroe stared at her coldly, saying nothing.
Paige Summers gave an awkward twitch of her lips, then simply nodded to the other members of the Orange Team, preparing to depart.
Sean Raines looked back and forth between the two of them, a thoughtful expression on his face. He then shrugged, deciding to stay out of their business.
He took a step, about to swing a leg over Sweetie’s back, when suddenly, a figure shot toward them! The approach was too fast and too sudden for Sean Raines to even react before a heavy kick landed squarely on his rear.
The kick sent him flying straight toward the members of the Orange Team.
And those men, quick on the uptake, immediately surrounded and restrained him.
Meanwhile, Paige Summers sensed something was wrong. Just as she was about to make a move, someone settled in behind her. An arm clamped tightly around her torso from behind, while another hand began to grope around her waist.
’Marcus Monroe!!!’
Paige Summers gritted her teeth in anger. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Shut up!"
Marcus Monroe’s voice was perfectly calm. As he spoke, his searching hand stopped.
He yanked the corpse bag from an inner pocket of Paige’s clothing and, without hesitation, tossed it to his men. "Give this to that guy and send him back to Central City."
Pinned by the other men, Sean Raines roared, "Marcus Monroe! What the hell is the meaning of this, you bastard?!"
Marcus Monroe clearly couldn’t be bothered to answer. He slapped Sweetie’s flank and commanded, "To Norgate!"
Sweetie was always obedient around him. Its occasional showing off was predicated on Marcus not taking issue with it. But now, with Marcus unleashing his full aura, it realized instantly that he was serious.
Almost instantly, Sweetie shot into the sky, carrying them both.
Paige Summers, her face flushed red, struggled against Marcus Monroe’s chest but couldn’t break free. She had been mentally screaming, ’This defies all logic!’
But now, seeing Sweetie actually take flight, she suddenly stopped. Like a deflating balloon, she gave up resisting and looked down listlessly.
Down below, Sean Raines was still fuming, but when a member of the Orange Team handed him the corpse bag, his movements immediately became cautious. Seeing him store it away with extreme care, Paige Summers finally relaxed a little and turned her head forward again.
Marcus Monroe’s arm loosened its grip slightly, now feeling more like an embrace.
He lowered his head, speaking close to her ear. "Unless that guy is hopelessly stupid, he’ll find Levi Young as soon as he’s back in the city. What else is there for you to be worried about?"
After a long moment, Paige Summers sighed.
His ’act first, ask for forgiveness later’ tactic infuriated her, but she discovered she couldn’t stay angry at him for long. What she felt more than anything was helplessness.
"Fine. But next time something like this happens, can we please discuss it properly?"
Marcus Monroe scoffed. "Didn’t I?"
Paige Summers struggled to turn and look at him, an utterly thunderstruck expression on her face. ’So, asking that one question back in the room... that was his idea of a *proper discussion*?’
’I had no idea you were such an arrogant, overbearing tyrant!’
