In order to survive, Darius, the Alpha King, requires his mate. He will perish if he does not unite with her by the next full moon. After searching for days, Darius finally finds her but she is not who he thinks her to be.
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GENTLY, DARIUS PULLED her up and got out from behind her. And without a word, he started walking toward the door.
"Hey! Where are you headed?" Ophelia asked, rushing out of the bed behind him.
"To find your adopted brother," he simply said without pausing to even look at her.
Her eyes widened in alarm and she hurried to stand in front of him, successfully blocking his path.
"I can't let you do that, Darius," Ophelia deadpanned.
"He signed his death warrant the moment he began to harbour thoughts of forcing you into a marriage with him," Darius gritted out, his voice laboured and strained.
"But you can't just kill him like that! I may dislike him but I would never wish him dead!" Ophelia argued.
Darius stared down at her with hard eyes which would have scared her if she didn't know that he wasn't angry at her.
Ophelia could see the storm rising behind his eyes which were turning a stormy green. Darius looked about ready to explode the longer he stayed in there without getting his hands on Leonidas.
Her suspicions proved to be true as Darius turned and drove his fist right through the wall. Ophelia gasped at both the sound and the sight before her.
When Darius took out his hand, the wall now had a hole about the size of his fist.
Immediately seeing his bloodied fist, Ophelia's legs moved before she could think, taking him over to her. Gently, she took his hand in hers and led him into the conjoined bathroom.
"Where is the first aid kit?"
"Left cabinet."
Wordlessly, she put down his hand and opened the left cabinet and grabbed the green box, taking out the disinfectant, cotton wool, gauze and bandages.
As Ophelia silently worked on treating his wound, she could feel Darius' eyes on her but didn't bother to lift her head and give him a glimpse. It was the only way to make him realise that she was mad at him.
"I'm sorry for scaring you," he said after some time.
She spared him no glance and kept on working on his hand. When she was done, she dropped his hand and went back to put the first aid box aside, still ignoring him.
"Please talk to me, Ophelia. Yell at me or scold me but please don't ignore me," Darius pleaded desperately.
His frantic voice almost made her want to give in but she stopped herself. Darius needed to understand that he couldn't just hurt himself in front of her and expect everything to be fine and dandy the next second.
That, and the fact that she had never given anyone the silent treatment before so she was slightly excited about it.
Leaving him in the bathroom, she walked into the bedroom, climbed onto the black couch and curled up with the soft fuzzy white pillows on it.
Darius followed her like a moth drawn to a flame, settling beside her instantly.
"I'm really sorry for scaring you, Ophelia, I just needed something to vent on, before I exploded. If there was a way to make you unsee what you just saw, I would do it without thinking twice..."
She cut him off with a scoff. "That is what you are sorry about? Darius, I'm not that weak to get scared by things like that if that's what you are apologizing for."
Darius frowned in confusion. "Then... are you angry because I wanted to hurt your adopted brother?"
The last four words came out with more anger than the rest. It almost made Ophelia smile but she had to keep up the angry front. She threw him a blank look before looking away from him.
"Not that too? Then... don't tell me it's because I hurt myself?"
At his question, Ophelia turned to glare at Darius. Then he broke into a wide smile, unknowingly fanning the flames of her annoyance.
"You think it's funny?" Ophelia asked sternly.
His smile never wavered. "Not at all. I just think I am lucky to have my mate care for me so much. Don't you think I'm a lucky wolf?"
"You... You... You..." Ophelia tried to warn, while pointing a finger at him but gave up completing her words in disbelief.
Darius nodded twice. "I know, I know. I am whatever it is you think I am."
"I can't be bothered with you," Ophelia concluded, standing and walking to the bed.
She had only taken about three steps when strong arms wrapped around her waist, successfully stopping her in her tracks. She sighed deeply feeling his chin being placed on her shoulder, as he pulled her close.
"It's all my fault, Ophelia, but it won't happen again," Darius said softly.
"Promise?" she asked.
"I promise. Now can you stop being mad at me? This was the worst fifteen minutes of my life," Darius said, tightening his arms around her but not tight enough to hurt her. Just tight enough to let Ophelia know that she was going nowhere.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad," she responded with a scoff.
"You underestimate yourself, Ophelia. I can take rogue attacks, torture and silver-inflicted wounds but I can't handle you ignoring me."
Ophelia bit back the smile threatening to come out. She forced the smile down and cleared her throat.
"Big baby."
"Samuel must not hear you call me that. Because if he did, Noriel would get wind of it, too.
"And, it wouldn't take long after that before the entire Royal wolf pack would know that my mate called me a big baby," Darius said seriously but she could hear the underlying amusement in his voice.
"Your Beta sounds like an interesting person." Ophelia smiled.
Untangling his arms around her, Darius came to stand in front of her.
"I don't recall telling you about Noriel," Darius told her.
Ophelia almost smacked herself in the face at her dumb slip-up. If Darius found out that Samuel had told her anything, the poor guy would suffer for it.
"Uh, you did mention him sometime during your explanation," Ophelia lied, nervously curling her toes inside her thick fuzzy socks.
Darius frowned. "Did I?"
"Yes, you did. Anyway, that's not important. Come, tell me more about your pack and culture," Ophelia said, grabbing Darius by the arm and pulling him over to the bed.
As she listened to Darius talk about his people, she could see how much he loved them. Darius' life as a wolf sounded like it came straight out of a book.
The excitement accompanying Darius' words sent a wave of sadness over her. The eighth-day was almost over and soon, he would have just seven days left.
Ophelia was worried about Leonidas returning to take her with him. At that time, he must have been gathering his arms in New York to make things easy for him.
If she was fated to end up in Leonidas' hands, she wanted to help Darius first. No matter what, she would have to get it done tonight.
