Chapter 93
Chapter 93
The hallway went completely silent.
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The little girl was still clinging to my leg, face pressed into my jeans. “Thank you, Luna,” she said again, softer this time.
I froze. Blood was all over my hands from the candle holder. I didn’t know what to do, correct her or just let it sit there. My throat felt tight. I raked my fingers through my hair, smearing more blood in it by accident. Great. Very cute. Very stable.
Damien shifted back right beside me. Bones cracked, fur disappeared, and suddenly he was standing there naked, breathing hard. He looked at the pack members staring at us, then at me. His jaw was clenched.
I swallowed and gently touched the girl’s shoulder. “You’re safe now, okay? Go sit with the others.”
She nodded and ran off toward the safe room.
Damien reached for my bleeding hand in front of everyone. His fingers brushed mine, careful, warm, way too gentle for a man who had just ripped a rogue apart. I pulled back fast, shaking my head.
“I’m fine,” I said, voice low. “Don’t.”
He respected it and dropped his hand, but his face hardened. I could see how much he hated seeing me hurt. His eyes stayed on the cut across my palm like it personally pissed him off. His nostrils flared once, and for a second I thought he might actually go hunt down the rogue again just to kill it twice.
I turned away and kept moving. My hands were still shaking but I grabbed more towels from the supply closet and started helping the next injured person. A servant lady had a gash on her arm. I wrapped it tight, pressing the towel down while she hissed through her teeth.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said quietly.
“I do,” I muttered, tying the knot. “Sit down over there.”
She stared at me for half a second, like she wanted to say something else, then nodded and sat where I pointed. I moved before I could feel any of it too deeply. If I stopped, I knew I would start crying, and absolutely not. Not in front of all these people who had spent days whispering about me like I was bad luck with legs.
Damien stayed close, watching me. “Sienna, you need to get checked.”
“Not yet.” I moved to the next kid, a boy with a scraped knee. “Hold still, buddy. This will sting for a second.”
The boy nodded and let me clean it. His bottom lip trembled, so I gave him the softest smile I could manage. “You’re doing better than most grown men in here.”
He blinked, then smiled a little. A couple pack members who had been watching started helping too. One guy brought me more bandages without me asking. Another held the door open while two servants carried an injured woman through. The mood shifted slowly, awkwardly, like everyone was realizing at the same time that maybe I was not the walking disaster they wanted me to be.
11:47 Thu, May 21
Chapter 93
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Alice showed up late, pushing through the crowd. She looked around, eyes wide. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”
People started thanking me as I worked. “Luna, thank you.” “You saved my daughter.” “We owe you.”
Alice smiled but her eyes looked irritated. She kept glancing at me like she couldn’t believe they were saying it. Her fingers tightened around the edge of her dress, and she gave this little fake concerned look that honestly made me want to roll my eyes into another dimension.
Damien saw it too. Of course he did. His gaze cut to her for one second, cold enough to shut her up before she even opened her mouth again. Then he looked back at me, and his face softened in a way that made my chest do the stupidest little flip.
Damien finally had enough. He caught my wrist when I reached for another towel and pulled me down a quiet side hallway away from everyone.
“Give me that,” he said, taking the candle holder from my stiff fingers.
I let him. My hand was still bleeding. The second we were away from the crowd, my shoulders dropped like my body had been pretending the whole time. Damien noticed. He always noticed. He set the candle holder down and stepped closer, blocking the view from the hall with his body.
“You scared me,” he said, voice low.
I looked away. “You were the one bleeding out earlier.”
“That’s not the point.”
“That is literally the point.”
He exhaled through his nose, then grabbed a clean cloth from a shelf and started wiping the blood off my palm, slow and careful. No big speech. Just him breathing steady, eyes focused on my hand like nothing else existed right now.
I watched his face. “You’re hurt too. You should be resting.”
He didn’t look up. “Not until you’re taken care of.”
The cloth moved gently over the cut. It stung but his touch made it better somehow. I stayed quiet, letting him work. My chest felt tight. He bent his head lower, blowing lightly over the cut before pressing the cloth back down. It was such a tiny thing, but it made my throat close.
“You keep doing that,” he muttered.
“Doing what?”
“Running straight into danger like I don’t need my heart to function.”
I tried to laugh, but it came out weak. “You’re dramatic.”
His eyes lifted to mine. “Only with you.”
11:47 Thu, May 21 ♫
Chapter 93
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That shut me up so fast it was embarrassing. I leaned back against the wall, and he moved closer, one hand braced beside my head. He still held my injured hand between us, thumb rubbing carefully along the side of my palm. The hallway was dark behind him, the chaos still loud in the distance, but for a second, everything shrank to his face and his breathing.
“You called me Luna in there,” I whispered.
His brows pulled together. “You are my Luna.”
“I mean they called me that too.”
“I heard.”
“I don’t know how to feel about it.”
He leaned closer, voice rough. “Feel whatever you want. You don’t owe anyone the perfect reaction.”
I blinked fast, hating how much I needed to hear that. His lips brushed my forehead, soft and slow. I closed my eyes and let myself lean into him for one second. Just one.
The healer ran up right then, out of breath. She looked at my hand, then at Damien, then back at me. She leaned in and sniffed the air near my cut.
Her eyes went wide.
“Your blood…” she said slowly. “It no longer smells fully human.”
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11:47 Thu, May 21 ♫
