Chapter 3 #2
"Great performance." I laughed mockingly. "Should give you an award. Best Actress, Sera Connelly, for her role as 'I Know Nothing,' successfully fooling her idiot mate."
Lillian stepped forward then, gently taking my arm like soothing an enraged beast.
"Damon, calm down." Her voice was soft but carried subtle guidance. "Maybe... maybe Miss Connelly really doesn't know. After all, you've been rejecting her. Her mother might think she's useless and didn't tell her the family's plans. She might just be... a pawn being used."
She was defending Sera? I looked at Lillian in surprise. She was always so innocent and kind, convinced that everyone in the world had a good heart. Nothing like Sera, who was all calculation and knew nothing but how to hurt others.
I turned back, looking down at Sera.
"I kept you out of pity." My voice was calm, like stating a fact. "But you need to know your place. Stabilizing the bond, stabilizing my body and power—that's your only value."
I didn't know what other tricks she and her vicious mother had planned. Keeping her controlled was the only thing I could think of right now. And she clearly didn't want to sever the bond. Forcing it would seriously damage my body.
Her face went paper-white, lips trembling.
"You... you can't do this to me..."
"I can." My voice was cold as ice. "You're my property now, Sera. My father bought you, then transferred you to me because of the mate bond. You'd better face reality."
My wolf let out a piercing howl beneath my skin, so loud my head throbbed. It was protesting, furious, opposing me in an almost manic way. But it didn't matter. I was the master of this body.
Over the next few days, I spent as much time as possible with Lillian, giving her enough security.
The healer had received orders and was accelerating the development of a drug to weaken the fated mate bond's influence. I placed Sera in the servants' quarters farthest from the main house, strictly forbidding her from stepping foot near it.
Until that evening. I was in my study handling paperwork when Lillian suddenly burst in.
This time she wasn't crying—she was terrified, face ghost-white. She threw herself into my arms, shaking like a leaf.
"Damon! Help me! Sera... she tried to kill me!"
I caught her, frowning. "Calm down. Tell me what Sera did?"
Lillian gasped, pointing at a thin red line on her arm. "Sera! She... she cornered me in the garden and gave me tea. I took one sip and felt dizzy, then she scratched me with her nails. She said... she said if I don't leave you, she'll make me pay!"
I narrowed my eyes. This sounded absurd.
"You're sure it was her?" I released Lillian, tone turning serious.
"Absolutely! And... and I feel colder and colder!" As Lillian spoke, her body went limp and she fainted in my arms.
"Lillian!" I scooped her up, rushed out of the study, shouting for the healer.
Lillian's condition looked bad—her skin took on an unnatural purple-blue tint. When the healer arrived, he examined her wound and pulse with a grave expression.
"My lord, Miss Lillian has been poisoned—this is a rare wolfsbane from the extinct New Moon Pack, extremely vicious. If we hadn't caught it early, her life would be in danger."
From the New Moon Pack?
My gaze swept over the crowd. I had my second-in-command Marcus bring Sera over.
When Sera was brought in, she still had that fake pitiful look. It disgusted me.
Marcus forced her to her knees. Following my instructions, he interrogated her.
After hearing the questions, her expression shifted from pitiful to shocked. Again, I had to admire what a decent actress she was.
She tried to break free from Marcus, lunging toward me. "Damon, I didn't... I don't know anything about wolfsbane! I haven't even been to the garden these past few days. How could I poison her? And that poison—I've never even heard of it! Lillian... she's lying!"
"Lying?" I let out a cold laugh, the rage inside me erupting like a volcano. "You got any proof? Sera, what else can you do besides playing the victim? You're just like your mother. You'd do anything to climb your way to the top!"
"No! That's not true!" Sera's tears streamed down her face. "I-I can't even leave the servants' quarters. There's no way they could have seen me!"
She didn't look like she was lying. For a moment, I hesitated. It was true that her showing up in the garden to poison Lillian made little sense.
I was about to ask for more details when Lillian's weak voice came from behind me.
"She-she's lying..."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Damon, the servants and guards around me, they can all testify."
I questioned everyone around Lillian, including the servants and the guards stationed near the servants' quarters. Every single one of them said that Sera had gone to the garden to see Lillian.
In an instant, my anger shot through the roof.
How much of what came out of her mouth was actually true?
I looked at Sera's tear-streaked face, and before I knew it, the memory of my mother dying from her illness years ago resurfaced in my mind.
History was repeating itself.
Like all those mistresses before her, she wanted to get rid of Lillian. She wanted to turn me into another Alfred. She wanted to destroy the Blackwood family.
I couldn't let that happen.
Not again.
"You want me to believe you?"
I walked toward Sera step by step, watching her retreat in fear. That familiar sense of satisfaction rose within me again.
"Your explanation is nothing but a worthless piece of trash. Sera, you're just as despicable as your mother."
My voice turned colder.
"Since you enjoy playing dirty, I'll make sure you learn the price of it."
I turned to the guards behind me, my voice devoid of emotion.
"Take her to the dungeon. No one is allowed to see her without my permission. Let her reflect on what the Blackwood family's rules mean."
"Damon! Damon!"
The guards dragged Sera away. She struggled against them, screaming my name, her cries as desperate as a wounded animal being dragged away.
But I didn't turn around.
I looked at Lillian's bloodless lips, and only one thought remained in my mind.
I could not let these two women destroy this family.
Sera would pay the price.