Page 47 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
The fact that it had taken Raven’s collapse for me to discover the state of her accommodations bothered me. I’d had closets that were bigger than that place. Not only was the security system nonexistent, but the place was literally a walking health hazard.
I’d known her falling out with the Ivory Moon Pack had repercussions, but for an alpha heir to live in such squalor was simply unthinkable. I hated that I’d been so desperate to keep up the boundaries between Raven and me that I’d missed such an essential detail about her life.
And for the first time, I wondered what else I’d missed about the specifics of Raven’s exile and the loss of her inheritance. I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever it was, Elias had a substantial role to play in it.
“My home is perfectly fine,” Raven snapped. “You are just used to living in larger-than-life buildings.”
I didn’t blink.
“And you are ill.”
Raven rolled her eyes as though I was overreacting.
“It’s just a cold. I’m fine.”
But she hadn’t been fine when I caught her midfall at the office or when I waited for the doctors, my every breath laced with terroras Raven lay small and still in my arms, her temperature steadily rising.
“Werewolves don’t have colds,” I bit out more harshly than I’d intended. “Do you know how compromised your immune system has to be for you to catch a cold like a human? Do you even attempt to look after yourself?”
Raven shot me a belligerent glare, her lips parted to give what would have undoubtedly been a colorful retort, but I didn’t give her a chance.
“You will be staying in my pack house till I can trust you to live unsupervised,” I informed her.
“Trust me to live unsupervised?” Raven bristled, letting out an enraged gasp of disbelief as she ripped the duvet off her body. “I dare you to stop—”
Her words choked off into a stunned silence as she noticed.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, but I would,” I didn’t bother to hide my smirk, folding my arms as I watched Raven grapple to comprehend her current situation. “I have too much experience with your hardheadedness not to, Raven.”
The cuffs attaching Raven’s wrists to the headboard were lined with soft downy feathers designed with enough give in the extending chains that Raven could move around freely in bed without being hindered or getting injured.
“You can’t just cuff me to your bed!” Raven hissed viciously.
“I just did,” I deadpanned, standing on my feet to retrieve the breakfast tray that had just been delivered to my door. Raven’s glare didn’t falter as I brought the tray over to the bedside, so naturally, I couldn’t help but tease her.
“Say ahhh,” I said, offering her a warm piece of toast.
Raven didn’t even look at my hand; rather, her glare intensified for a moment, then her expression went carefully blank.
“Damien.” Her voice was smooth and devoid of inflection. “Once you take these cuffs off, and you will take them off eventually, I will make you pay for this.”
I shrugged unbothered.
“First, you’ll have to beat me in a sparring match. A feat you haven’t accomplished in…” I pretended to struggle to remember. “Was it one, two months of training?”
Raven’s sober facade fell apart, a brilliant flush rising to her cheeks as she snatched another piece of toast from the tray, her eyes still sparking with anger as she ate, and I could barely hold back a smile at her belligerence.
It wasn’t until Raven was half asleep after clearing the tray of food and having her medication that she spoke again in a small, hesitant whisper.
“Why did you defend me at work?” Her eyes struggled to stay open. “I know you don’t like me.”
Once, I would have agreed with that statement, but now her words felt like sharp edges of broken glass twisting beneath my skin. I drew the sheets over her body, tucking her in gently.
“We are a team, Raven,” I whispered, the truth of every word resonating within me. “I’ve got you.”
“The Silverstone Packhas changed a lot since the last time I was here,” Raven remarked offhandedly as we walked through the marble foyer.
