Chapter 27: Ungrateful prick

Chapter 27

Isabella was fading. The copper scent of her own blood filled her nose, and the world began to tilt into a dark, quiet abyss.

Her hands which had been clawing at his skin, now merely rested on his shoulders, her fingers curling weakly into his hard muscle.

She survived the pack just to be a juice box for a ghost, she thought bitterly, her chin dropping as her strength evaporated.

But just as the darkness was about to claim her, the harsh sucking on her lips stopped. The iron grip on the back of her head shifted, the fingers trailing down her neck with a slow, almost reverent touch.

Lucain’s eyes finally faltered open. They weren’t the dull, dying embers she had seen in the forest.

They were twin pools of deep red liquid, glowing with a lethal clarity that cut through the cave’s gloom like a blade.

He didn’t pull away immediately. He lingered there, his forehead resting against hers, his fangs slowly retracting from her mangled lip.

He let out a long, shaky exhale that tasted of her own blood. Isabella gasped, her lungs greedily pulling in the damp cave air.

She slumped against him, her head spinning so fast she felt like she was underwater. “You…” she rasped, her voice a pathetic shadow of itself.

“You… absolute… monster.” Lucain sat up with a sudden, fluid grace that shouldn’t have been possible for a man who was dying ten minutes ago.

He didn’t let her go, he kept her straddled over his lap, his large hands anchoring her waist as if she were the only thing keeping him grounded to the earth.

He looked at her, really looked at her, with an intensity that made her feel naked. His gaze fell to her bleeding lip, then up to her wide, terrified eyes.

A smear of her blood was on his chin, making the pale perfection of his face look terrifyingly beautiful.

When the recognition finally hit him like a physical blow. Lucian’s pupils constricted until they were mere pinpricks in a sea of crimson.

The hazy, predatory instinct that had driven him to feed snapped back into consciousness. He realized exactly whose blood he was tasting, whose heartbeat was drumming against his own, and whose soul was currently bond to his.

“You?!” The word was a snarl of pure disbelief. Before Isabella could even blink, his hands—which had been holding her with such intensity—shoved her away with a violent burst of strength.

Isabella was tossed back like a ragdoll. She let out a pained groan as her knees scrubbed harshly against the uneven stone of the cave floor.

The rough ground shredded her skin, adding a fresh sting to her already lightheaded state.

“Are you fucking mad?” she wheezed, her voice cracking as she clutched her aching stomach.

Lucian didn’t answer. He scrambled to get away from her, his movements frantic as he tried to put distance between them.

He attempted to surge to his feet, his royal pride demanding he stand over her, but his body hadn’t fully processed well.

His right leg buckled beneath him, giving way with a sickening pop, and he crashed back down to one knee.

He looked at her with a mixture of horror and disgust, as if she were a plague he had accidentally inhaled.

Isabella’s head spun from the sudden blood loss, the edges of her vision flickering black, but her anger was a hot flame that kept her upright.

She sat up, her breath hitching, and wiped the smear of blood from her chin with the back of her hand.

She looked weak, yes, her face was the color of chalk and her hair was a tangled mess but she stared straight at him with eyes that could literally kill.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she rasped, her chest heaving. She was so pissed. “I just dragged your massive, lead-filled body three miles. I almost fought a fucking twelve-foot demon dog for you. I literally performed a pain transfusion ritual I didn’t even know was real just to keep you from turning into a puddle. And you… you try to eat me, and then you look at me like I’m made of shit?”

She let out a dry, bitter laugh that turned into a cough. “I should have left you to the sun. At least the sun wouldn’t have been an ungrateful prick.”

Lucian gripped the stone wall, his knuckles white, his fangs still partially visible as he fought the urge to lung again—not to feed, but out of sheer, panicked confusion.

The bond was screaming at him, a humming vibration in his marrow that told him she belonged to him, and he to her.

“You shouldn’t have touched me,” he hissed, his voice trembling with a lethal edge.

“You should have just left me to fight off the purification. You have no idea what you just did, wolf. You’ve anchored a King to a peasant. You’ve stained my soul with your common blood.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Isabella shouted, her voice echoing off the cave walls. “Next time I’ll make sure to find a more royal way to save your life! Do you want a written apology while you’re dying in the dirt?”

The air in the cave grew heavy, the tension between them thick enough to choke on. But the argument was cut short.

The sound of the Sentinel’s heavy breathing outside had turned into a series of sharp, agitated barks.

Both heads snapped toward the cave mouth, Isabella, despite her lightheadedness, scrambled to her elbows, her heart climbing into her throat.

Standing right at the threshold was a woman. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, dressed in a simple, flowing gown of deep forest green that seemed to absorb light itself.

Her hair was a wild, cascading river of black, falling over her shoulders as she reached out a slender hand.

To Isabella’s absolute shock, the terrifying twelve-foot Sentinel—the same monster that had just tried to shred them—was leaning its massive, skeletal head into her palm.

The creature wasn’t snarling. It was purring, a rumble of affection, as the lady gently petted the matted fur between its rotting ears.

“Shh, boy,” the woman whispered, her voice was like a song. “You’ve done your job. Let mama finish it.” Immediately she said that her terrifying white eyes looked straight to Isabella.

Isabella went rigid.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep