Chapter 136: ¹³⁶: Yes I did it.

Chapter 136: 13?: Yes I did it.

"Okay, I do have a hand in exposing them to the pack," Damian admitted. He said it so openly, without even the slightest trace of guilt, that I stared at him in disbelief.

"I had a bone to settle with them, so I looked into their background. Once I found out what horrible things they were doing, I decided to expose them. What’s wrong with that?" He sounded almost confused by my reaction, as though what he had done was completely reasonable and there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.

"Damian, are you even listening to yourself?" I asked, staring at him in disbelief. His coldness toward the situation unsettled me more than his confession itself.

Until now, everything I knew about Damian was connected to his sweet, bubbly, and protective nature. He had always been the kind of person who could make a tense situation feel lighter with a stupid joke or a goofy smile. Even when he was annoyed with me, there had always been warmth underneath it.

I had never imagined seeing him like this. So calm, so cold and lastly so completely unapologetic while talking about someone from his own pack.

"You said you had a bone to settle with them," I continued, my voice rising as I struggled to understand him. "But I had already told you that those girls didn’t do anything to me, and you had no right to do anything to them." I said as I pointed a finger at him, my frustration finally spilling over.

I had wanted to keep my anger contained. I really had. But looking at his face, which still didn’t hold even an ounce of guilt, made it almost impossible.

"Damian, I told you not to do anything to them!" My voice echoed slightly through the small living room. "Then why did you?" I took a breath, trying to calm myself, but the words kept coming. "I seriously told you not to interfere in my matter!"

The moment the words left my mouth, I stopped. My raised hand slowly dropped to my side. I looked away from him, my gaze falling toward the floor as an uncomfortable feeling began to spread through me.

Guilt; It crawled into my chest, heavy and suffocating. I had been the reason Damian had become angry with those girls in the first place. If he had investigated them because of what they had said about me, then perhaps I had somehow become the starting point of everything that had happened afterward.

And now those women were going to face the consequences of breaking the pack’s laws. I hadn’t wanted that. Whatever they had said about me, I had never wanted their lives to become entangled in something this serious.

"This was my matter," I whispered. My voice had lost all the anger it had carried moments ago.

I slowly raised my head and looked back at Damian. "Did those girls really break some pack laws... or did you fake that thing?" The thought had appeared in my mind so suddenly that I blurted it out without thinking.

The moment I saw Damian’s expression change, however, I regretted it. His eyes widened slightly. For the first time since I had entered the house, his carefully controlled expression cracked.

Disbelief crossed his face. " You think I’m someone who would put fake cases on anyone?" His voice was quieter than before, but there was something in it that made my heart sink. He took a step toward me. I instinctively held my breath. His expression was no longer cold or emotionless. Instead, disappointment was slowly replacing everything else.

"Damian, I didn’t mean it like that," I said quickly. I swallowed, suddenly wishing I could take the question back. I knew how terrible it sounded now that I had said it aloud.

But Damian only shook his head. The small movement carried more hurt than anger, and somehow that made me feel even worse.

"Save that explanation and listen to me now," he said. There was still disappointment in his eyes, but his voice had settled into a strangely calm tone.

"I don’t need to forge a fake case against them to get what I want. If they really had been innocent, then I had other methods to teach them to remain in their lane."

A faint smile appeared on his lips as he said the last part. I stared at him, confused. What was there to smile about?

His expression wasn’t playful like it usually was. There was something colder behind that smile, something that made me realize just how serious he had been when he told me that whatever he did after finding out about those girls would be his problem.

"After what they said about you, you’re still here defending them?" he asked, looking at me in disbelief. His eyebrows drew together as he studied my face. "Do you even know what those two girls were doing?"

I remained silent. I knew what the nurse had told us. One of them had broken a claimed bond, while the other had smuggled a drug from the clinic. But I had no idea how serious either of those crimes actually was.

Until a few moments ago, I had been convinced that Damian might have fabricated those charges just to get back at them because of what they had said about me.

That thought had filled me with guilt. I had been terrified that my thing with those girls had somehow pushed Damian into doing something so extreme. But now that I knew they had actually committed those crimes, the guilt inside me wasn’t quite as overwhelming.

Still, I couldn’t completely let go of my sympathy for them. I didn’t know what those crimes meant in this pack. I didn’t know what punishment awaited them. And that uncertainty made it difficult for me to decide how I should feel.

If these were truly serious offenses, then perhaps I had no reason to feel sorry for them. But if they weren’t as terrible as Damian was making them sound, then I couldn’t help but wonder whether he had gone too far simply because of me.

If I hadn’t been involved, Damian could have confronted them privately. He could have warned them or dealt with whatever they had done without making the entire pack witness their downfall.

Now everyone knew. Their names had become public. Everyone in the pack would look at them through the lens of what they had done. How would they live among their own people after that?

I wasn’t defending what they had done. I just didn’t know enough to judge them yet.

"What were they doing?" I finally asked. I took another small step away from Damian, creating a little more distance between us.

I didn’t know why, but seeing this side of him so suddenly was making me strangely nervous. This wasn’t the Damian I had become accustomed to.

Damian noticed the way I had moved away. He chuckled softly as he looked at my face.

"You don’t even know what they were doing, and you were already sympathizing with them?" There was genuine disbelief in his voice.

I opened my mouth, but before I could respond, he continued.

"Athena, learn to be cruel to the people who are not kind to you." His words made me still. "You can’t always live like this, always giving people the benefit of the doubt."

His smile disappeared. Instead, his expression became serious as he looked directly into my eyes. "People will always take advantage of your kindness."

I didn’t answer him, or maybe I couldn’t. His words settled heavily inside me. Not because I found them hurtful. But because they were completely true. I had always believed in being merciful in my conduct.

Even when someone wronged me, there had always been a part of me that searched for a reason behind their actions. I had always wanted to believe that perhaps people could change, perhaps there was still something good in them, or perhaps their circumstances had pushed them into doing something wrong.

But what had that kindness given me Nothing but opportunities for people to take advantage of me.

My mind immediately returned to everything that had happened in my own pack, to what I had done with beta Logan. If I had not shown him mercy that day, things could have been different.

I had chosen the softer path because I believed it was the right thing to do. I had given him a death penalty instead of following the procedure of torturing the offender until his death penalty was carried out. Perhaps that mercy had been one of my biggest mistakes.

If I had followed the procedure instead of allowing my compassion to interfere, I might have gotten some answers from him. His behaviour towards my sucession should have alerted me about. amuch larger problem, If I had interogated him I might have learned something that could have helped me.

But I hadn’t. Because I had been foolish enough to believe that showing mercy was always the right choice.