Chapter 8

Suddenly, Damien's face darkened, and his arms holding me loosened.

"Elara, am I really that embarrassing to you?"

"I'm not Kaelen. I earned my mate through my own abilities. Why should we sneak around?"

"The Blackwood family has strict traditions. Once I, Damien Blackwood, choose a woman, I won't change my mind. A secret marking is impossible."

Thinking I still had concerns, Damien immediately let go of me and stepped back.

Before he could retreat completely, I took the initiative. My arms around his waist tightened, pulling us close together again.

"Damien, do I really not deserve your trust?"

"In your eyes, am I the kind of woman who plays both sides?"

"Are you looking down on me, or questioning your own judgment?"

For all these years, whether in the royal pack or the werewolf council, Damien's word was law. No one had ever dared speak to him like this.

I was the only one.

"Then what do you mean? Getting marked but not announcing it - how is that different from having an affair?"

Seeing Damien's angry and frustrated expression, I suddenly became interested and deliberately teased:

"Then what about the past three years? Every time I had pack business dealings, you'd send me gifts under different pretenses. What was that?"

"A love token from a secret admirer?"

Damien's spine stiffened, his voice weakening: "How did you know those things were from me?"

I looked up, meeting Damien's dark eyes, my pink lips parting slightly: "Because besides you, no one else in this world remembers my birthday."

When I was the omega servant's daughter, Martha said we were just servants and didn't deserve such fancy celebrations.

When I became the Vance family's daughter, my birthday was the same day as Seraphina's.

So the Vance family only celebrated Seraphina's, afraid outsiders would learn about the family's scandal.

Only Damien had sent me different gifts for seven years straight.

Seeing his years of secret feelings exposed so clearly by me, Damien's heart stirred.

But he was confused. "If you understood my feelings long ago, why did you still choose Kaelen three years ago?"

"What does he have that I don't?"

I lowered my eyes, a flash of self-mockery in them: "He's not better than you in any way. But when I was 15, I was falsely accused of breaking a vase in the Vance house. I knelt in the snow for three days and nights. When I fainted, he saved me."

"Kaelen was once the only light in my darkness."

As soon as I finished speaking, Damien's pupils darkened suddenly, his voice carrying anger: "Who told you that he was the one who saved you?"

This time, Damien pushed me away, his eyes showing hurt and anger.

I didn't know which words had upset him, but I still answered his question.

"When I woke up in the pack healing den, he was the one taking care of me."

Damien laughed bitterly.

"Elara, I thought you were pretty smart as a child. How could you mistake your own savior?"

His words hit like a thunderbolt. I froze for several seconds, my head spinning.

"Mistake?"

"If he didn't save me, why would he stay by my bedside?"

Damien's face grew darker as he spoke word by word:

"Elara, listen carefully. The person who saved you back then was me."

"The Blackwood family had some issues at the time, so I had to rush back. I asked Kaelen to help take care of you!"

"From beginning to end, I was your savior. Even when Kaelen helped care for you, I paid him for it - I gave the Croft family a territorial agreement."

My lips moved, but no words came out.

Damien stepped closer until he had backed me into a corner, more serious than ever: "Elara, if you fell in love with Kaelen because of this, then I can tell you - you loved the wrong person."