Free Web NovelChapter 27: What’s Wrong
KADEN’S POV ƒгeewebnovёl.com
I sat there on the bed, staring down at her in complete shock. I let out a heavy breath, my mind racing as I quickly pulled up my underwear and trousers, zipping them up before leaning forward. Reaching down, I yanked the blindfold off her face.
The moment the fabric cleared her eyes, I saw they were completely clouded with thick tears, her face flushed red from crying. A heavy knot twisted in my stomach. What the hell was going on?
"What the hell is going on with you?" I demanded, my voice sharp with a mix of frustration and confusion.
She completely ignored my question. She just lay curled on the stone floor, sobbing loudly into the quiet room while her right hand frantically massaged her left shoulder.
Groaning angrily, I shifted off the bed and knelt beside her. I reached out, intent on pulling her up by her arms to make her look at me, but the moment my hand brushed her left side, she let out another sharp, broken shriek. I noticed her left shoulder looked stiff, slightly swollen, and completely out of alignment.
My brow furrowed. "Do you have a broken shoulder?" I asked. The question didn’t come from a place of care—it came from pure, bubbling rage. A dark thought flashed through my mind. Did she do this to herself? Was she trying to kill herself just to escape me?
"How did you break your shoulder, Rebecca?" I roared, my wolf snapping at the edges of my mind. "Speak!"
"One... one of the heavy iron bars fell on me," she choked out through her heavy tears, her voice cracking in pure pain. "In the storeroom..."
"The storeroom?" I asked, completely taken aback, my eyebrows knitting together in deep confusion. "What the hell were you doing in the storeroom?"
"The storeroom!" she yelled right back at my face, a sudden burst of raw, weeping anger giving her the courage to defy me. She slowly pushed herself up to her knees, clutching her broken arm tightly against her chest, her blue eyes blazing through her tears. "Don’t act like you don’t know, Alpha Kaden! The deal was for me to be your breeder! To be your sex slave! It was never the deal for me to be your domestic slave!" ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Domestic slave?" I repeated, my voice dropping. The confusion in my chest was rapidly turning into something else.
"Yes! First you accused me of using dark magic on you and your brother, and now you send me to work at the construction site! Carrying heavy materials with a blocked wolf!" she screamed at me, the heartbreak and exhaustion pouring out of her. "How cruel can you possibly be?!"
Hearing her yell at me in my own quarters made my wolf snap. Before I could stop myself, I lunged forward, my hand wrapping tightly around her throat, pinning her words down. "Watch the way you speak to me, breeder," I growled out, the warning vibrating through my palm.
But as I looked down at her pale face, her human fragility hitting me full force, I felt a sudden jolt of realization. I quickly let go of her neck, pulling my hand back as if I had been burned.
Angrily, I stood up and marched back over to the bar, pouring another heavy splash of whiskey into my glass just to keep my hands from shaking. I took a slow sip, my mind processing what she had just said.
"Did you actually work at the construction site today?" I asked, keeping my back turned to her.
"Don’t act like you didn’t order it," she murmured from the floor, her voice weak and filled with immense physical pain. "Martha told me it was your direct command."
My fist clenched around the crystal glass so tightly I thought the glass would shatter. Martha.
Earlier today, I had run into the head maid in the corridor. I had been furious, guilty, and desperate to get Rebecca out of my sight. I remembered my exact words to her: "Give my breeder some work to do. She shouldn’t be lazy... Just keep her working."
I had assumed Martha would give her standard domestic chores—sweeping the halls, folding laundry, or helping in the kitchens. I never for a second intended for her to be sent to a heavy, dangerous construction site. Especially not with a silver choker locked around her neck that stripped away her supernatural strength and left her completely human. Martha had twisted my words into a sick punishment of her own.
"I am a man of my word," I groaned out, my voice deep and dark as I drank the rest of the liquor in one sharp gulp. I turned around to face her, my jaw tight. "I brought you to this pack to be my breeder. That was the punishment, and that was the deal. I have no interest in exceeding that by making you a common labor servant in my mansion."
Rebecca looked up at me, her wide eyes blinking through her damp lashes, filled with deep curiosity and confusion. "So... you didn’t know about this? You didn’t order them to send me there?"
The vulnerability in her voice irritated me. I couldn’t let her see the sudden storm of anger brewing inside me toward my own staff.
"Get dressed and get the hell out of my room," I ordered harshly, turning away to refill my glass yet again.
Slowly, whimpering and crying out in sharp pain with every micro-movement, she reached down and picked up the blue dress from the floor. It took her what felt like an eternity to pull the fabric over her head, her broken left shoulder making her gasp for air as she struggled to slide her arm through the sleeve. Once the dress was finally on, she just stood there by the edge of the bed, trembling, completely frozen, not knowing what she was supposed to do or say next.
"Leave!" I yelled, turning my head to meet her gaze.
The moment my eyes locked onto hers, my heart stopped for a second. Her sea-blue eyes—the ones that had been so bright, sparkling, and fiercely alive the very first day I brought her here—now looked completely dull, empty, and drowned in pure sorrow.
And suddenly, for the first time since the night Helen died, a sharp, suffocating wave of genuine guilt pierced deep into my heart.
