Free Web NovelChapter 217: Chapter 217
Riley’s POV
I shut my eyes and waited for the hit, my chest rising unevenly as I struggled to breathe through the pain that sat heavy in my ribs.
Every inhale felt wrong and my body was already at its limit. My arm lay useless at my side, blood soaking into my sleeve, my legs barely responding when I tried to move them.
I could feel them standing over me, I could hear the low growl building in their throats certain, like they had already decided this was the end for me.
I stayed still because I didn’t have anything left to fight with, and for the first time since this started, I knew I wasn’t getting out of it.
Then something slammed into the wall so hard the sound echoed through the entire space.
My eyes snapped open immediately, my body reacting before my mind could catch up, and what I saw didn’t make sense at first.
Daphne and Wendy were no longer on me. They had been thrown across the space, their bodies hitting the wall with a force that made it crack slightly on impact before they dropped.
Their shift came right after, fast and rough, nothing like the transformation they had earlier.
Their wolf forms broke apart into human shape like something had forced it out of them, their limbs snapping back into place in a way that looked painful even from where I lay.
They hit the ground hard, both of them gasping, disoriented, trying to push themselves up.
I turned my head slowly, my vision still slightly blurred, and then I saw him.
Cane stood there, not even close to them. His shoulders were tight, his posture straight, and his eyes were locked on them with a kind of anger that didn’t need to be loud to be understood.
Daphne tried to get up first, her hand pressing against the ground as she forced herself onto one knee, and Wendy followed right after, but they didn’t get the chance to recover. Cane barely moved, just a slight motion of his hand, and whatever force he used hit them again immediately.
Their bodies were slammed back into the wall even harder than before, and this time they didn’t try to get up again. They stayed down.
The space went quiet.
I tried to take a proper breath and failed halfway through it, the pain forcing a sharp sound out of me before I could stop it.
Cane’s head turned instantly, his attention snapping away from them and landing on me, and his countenance changed the moment he saw me properly.
He moved fast, closing the distance in seconds before dropping to his knees beside me. His eyes moved over me quickly, taking in the blood, the way I was lying, the way I struggled to breathe, and for a brief second his hands hovered like he was deciding how to touch me without making it worse.
Then he picked me up.
One arm slid under my back, the other beneath my legs, and the moment he lifted me, pain shot through my ribs so sharply I gasped and grabbed onto him without thinking.
"Stay still," he said, his voice low and firm.
"I’m trying," I muttered, even though my voice came out weaker than I wanted.
I heard footsteps behind him and didn’t need to turn to know the guards had arrived.
"Lock them up," Cane said without looking back.
"Yes, Alpha," one of them answered immediately.
I turned my head slightly anyway, just enough to see Daphne and Wendy being lifted from the ground and dragged away. Neither of them resisted, neither of them looked at me, and within seconds they were gone.
I let my head fall back against his arm, my body heavy and exhausted as he stood fully and adjusted his hold on me before walking. Each step was gentle and even through the pain I could feel the tension in him, the way his grip stayed firm like he wasn’t about to let me get hurt again.
When we entered the halls, everything changed.
Servants stopped the moment they saw us, some lowering their heads instantly, others turning away like they hadn’t seen anything at all. No one spoke. No one asked questions.
I became aware of how I looked in that moment, covered in blood, barely conscious, being carried through the halls like I couldn’t even stand on my own, and something uncomfortable rose in my chest.
I shifted slightly out of instinct and immediately regretted it when pain flared again.
"Don’t move," Cane said.
"I wasn’t doing anything," I replied, even though I stopped moving completely after that.
I glanced up at him, studying his face, the tight set of his jaw, the way his gaze stayed forward like he was avoiding something.
"You’re fully healed now?," I asked after a moment.
"Yes," he replied simply.
"Good," I muttered. "At least what I did worked."
He didn’t respond, and the silence stretched between us again as we kept walking until we reached a door.
He kicked it open and carried me straight inside before shutting it behind us.
He walked to the bed and placed me down, not rough but not gentle either and the moment my back hit the mattress, the pain in my ribs flared again.
I sucked in a breath, turning slightly to try and ease it but it didn’t help.
Cane moved away immediately, crossing the room to a cabinet and pulling it open. He took out a kit, then another, and returned to the bed without wasting time.
"Don’t move," he said again.
"I can’t even if I wanted to," I replied.
He started working. He adjusted my leg slightly, and the moment he touched the injury, I hissed and grabbed onto the sheets.
"Hold still."
"I am holding still," I said through my teeth. "My body just isn’t cooperating."
He ignored that and kept going, cleaning the wounds carefully, his movements focused. When he moved to my arm and lifted it slightly, pain shot through me again.
"That one is bad," I said.
"I know," he replied.
At least he answered that.
He continued wrapping the injuries, checking everything properly, and the entire time he didn’t look at my face. Not once. I noticed it more the longer it went on, the way he kept his focus on anything else, like avoiding eye contact on purpose.
"...I didn’t mean what I said the other day," I said quietly.
"You meant it," he replied without looking up.
"Not like that," I said, but he didn’t respond again.
I let out a slow breath and lifted my hand to my neck without thinking. The moment my fingers touched the skin there, I froze.
The mark was still there.
My brows pulled together as I pressed against it slightly. freёwebnovel.com
"I rejected you," I said, looking at him. "Why is this still here?"
He paused for a second, then continued working.
"It doesn’t work that way."
"Then how does it work?" I asked.
He didn’t answer and that annoyed me.
"You’re not going to explain anything, are you?" I said.
Silence.
He finished wrapping my arm and stood up.
"There," he said. "You’ll heal."
"That’s it?" I asked. I stared at him. "You’re just going to leave after that?"
"Get some rest," he said.
"You’re avoiding me, Cane are you not?," I said immediately.
"I’m not."
"You are."
He turned toward the door."I’ll be heading out."
My chest tightened at that, and before I could think about it too much, I pushed myself up despite the pain and reached for him.
My hand grabbed his arm just as he reached the door and the sudden pull threw him off balance enough that he stumbled forward.
The next second he was on top of me.
The impact forced a sharp breath out of me, pain flaring again, but I didn’t let go. His hands braced on either side of me, stopping himself from putting all his weight on me, and for the first time since he walked in, he actually looked at me.
I tightened my grip on his arm.
"You’re not leaving like that," I said.
His jaw tightened. "Riley-"
"No," I cut him off.
He didn’t move, didn’t pull away.
"Say something," I said.
"I already did."
"No, you didn’t. You said nothing."
Silence stretched between us.
"You’ve been avoiding looking at me this whole time," I continued. "And you know it."
He didn’t answer.
"Is this about the rejection?" I asked.
That made him pause, just slightly.
"I said I didn’t mean it," I added.
I held onto him tighter, not letting him pull away this time.
"You don’t get to shut me down," I said as I met his eyes, holding his gaze.
"Not so fast," I said quietly.
My fingers traced slightly against his arm as I looked straight at him.
"Cane Dravenmoor."
