The Alpha's Little Slave

Chapter 61: Topsy-Turvy I

Pain bristled through my body. Every inch of my skin felt as though it was burning, and even my bones felt like they were all cracked and mended together all over again. I didn’t know how long I had been asleep or unconscious. All I knew was that one moment, I was on the floor of the arena, and the other, I was...

Where was I?

There was a faint warmth against my skin, and my eyes trailed after the trail until my eyes landed on a figure. My sight was blurry, but even so, I could make out the features of the person seated right in front of me.

"Blaise?" I muttered. I reached out, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear the fogginess from my eyes, but to no avail. "You seem a little different. Did you cut your hair?" I paused, a sudden worrying thought striking through my head. "Was it Damon? Did you guys get into a fight?"

"What?" The man furrowed his brows, shaking his head. His voice cracked a little at the end of the word, and he hurriedly cleared his throat. "I’m not―" He stopped himself short, exhaled, then said, "No, of course not. Why would he?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. "I just thought that he might’ve... done something to you to get back at us. He’s mean. I don’t trust him."

Blaise turned quiet, his body unmoving. I couldn’t make out the expression on his face, and I reached out. However, he jolted back sharply when my hand drew near, avoiding my touch. A shot of pain dashed through my heart; I hadn’t expected he would dodge away so suddenly. However, I tried to let it bother me too much.

"I― My..." He paused, sighing. "My brother wouldn’t hurt me like this. Not over something so trivial."

"Is this really trivial to him?" I asked. For some reason, there was a sour feeling that settled deep within the tresses of my heart. There was a different question that a part of me wanted to ask.

’Was I that trivial?’

However, I quickly shook that thought away. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking of something like this, now when I was already mated with someone else. In the grand scheme of things, Damon and how important I was to him shouldn’t matter to him.

He wasn’t supposed to be important to me, likewise. Not enough for me to care about how he thought of me.

"You need rest," Blaise said after a moment of silence. "I’ll leave you be. I should go―"

Panic rushed through every fiber of my body. The thought of being left alone, especially when my vision wasn’t exactly the best, was terrifying. I reached out instantly, faster than Blaise could dodge, and grabbed his wrist.

Upon my touch, Blaise jumped a little in his skin, pulling back just a little, but my grip held firm. I didn’t let him retract his hands, and after the initial shock, he made no move to completely pull away as well.

"No, please," I said, my lips trembling. "Couldn’t you stay for just a while longer? Blaise, why are you leaving so soon? Is it because... I lost?"

"I..." Blaise’s words trailed off. I could hear hesitance in his voice, followed by a loud, audible sigh. "I need to head to the borders soon. Alpha’s orders."

"Damon isn’t here," I said. "Just for a while more, please? I... I want to stay with my mate for as long as I can." freewēbnoveℓ.com

I could tell that Blaise was still reluctant, but in the end, he breathed in deeply and then exhaled. He sat back down after, returning to his position right by my side, and I could instantly feel all the tense muscles in my body relax.

"Lie down properly," Blaise said, his voice chiding.

I did as told, and my eyes followed after his every movement as he reached over and adjusted my pillow and blanket for me. After he was done, I sank into the soft bed, a wave of drowsiness filling me all of a sudden.

Yet, I didn’t dare to shut my eyes for any longer than a blink of an eye. I was afraid that if I did, I would fall asleep, and when I finally awoke, Blaise might’ve already left for the borders. Who knew when I would be able to see him again after that?

So instead, I did everything I could to keep myself awake. I stared at his face, willing his features from my memory to reality. I tried to picture his expressions, the emotions I often caught on his face, or even just a sharper outline of how I remembered him to be. We hadn’t spent much time together, but it seemed like I had already ingrained every last detail of him into my mind, burning it into my head.

For some reason, however, the image I had of Blaise didn’t match the one I saw before me― or at least, however much I was able to see.

"Why are you staring?" he asked. I thought I caught annoyance in his voice, but quickly realized it was more embarrassment than irritation. "Shut your eyes and get some rest. You need it if your body is to recover faster."

"You just..." The words were caught in my throat.

It sounded ridiculous, every way I looked at it. No matter how many times I played out the scene in my head, I didn’t know how I could phrase my thoughts to make it sound right.

How was I supposed to say that my mate reminded me of another man? This was ridiculous, and I had no doubt of the amount of pain Blaise would feel if he heard it from my lips.

"Just?" he prompted.

I shook my head. "I just... I wanted to say that I... What if I don’t get to see you again for a good long time if I do fall asleep?"

He scoffed, and I could even picture him rolling his eyes, along with an indulgent smile shaping his lips.

"You―" He sighed once more, an action I never noticed he did very often last time. That only ignited the fire of curiosity in my heart. "Damon said that you can visit if you’re recovered and trained enough."

"He did?" I asked, perking up a little. That was a surprise.

"Yes," he affirmed. "And that’s why you should be using your time to rest, not attempt to distract me from leaving."

"Alright then," I said.

Snuggling further into the covers, I allowed the waves of drowsiness to wash over me. I could feel myself getting tugged further and further into sleep, and soon enough, I was no longer able to keep myself awake any longer.

"Rest well, Harper," he said.

"Mhm," I hummed. "I will."

When he stood up to leave again, I reached out once more, gently holding his fingers. He sharply turned back, surprised that I had held him back again.

I wasn’t sure what came over me. Maybe I had been knocked a little too hard in the scuffle just now, maybe it was my sleepiness rewiring my brain. Or perhaps, it could even be a mix of both. But I mustered a smile right as my eyelids grew heavy, slowly drifting shut.

"And thank you, Damon."