Chapter 137: ¹³⁷: Loosing again.

Chapter 137: 13?: Loosing again.

Not knowing the storm that was brewing inside me, Damian continued, his expression turning more serious as he finally explained what those two girls had actually done.

"Those girls were committing grave crimes, Athena. One of them was cheating on her mate, while the other was helping her by smuggling small amounts of Romor every time so that she could keep her affair hidden from her mate."

I felt completely stupefied. For a few seconds, I could only stare at him, trying to process what I had just heard.

Cheating on one’s mate was considered one of the most horrendous things someone could do in this world. A mate bond wasn’t just a relationship that could be broken and forgotten.

From everything I had learned in my life till now, I knew it was something far deeper, it could literally put one’s life in danger if their mate cheated on them. My eyes widened as I looked at Damian. "What... the claimed bond... does that refer to a mate bond here?" I finally managed to ask.

Damian nodded slowly. "Yes, a claimed bond is essentially a mate bond." There was a slight hesitation in his voice when he answered, almost as if he was choosing his words carefully.

But soon, his usual serious tone returned.

"Both of them were doing something really unforgivable. One cheated on her mate, which is a major violation of our pack laws and is considered a serious offense throughout the werewolf world. And the other was helping her while smuggling a forbidden drug that can literally suppress a person’s connection with their mate."

He paused, letting his words sink in. "That drug allowed her to hide the fact that she was being unfaithful. Her mate wouldn’t be able to properly sense the bond or realize what was happening."

I swallowed hard. The more I heard, the more horrified I became. A moment ago, I had still been wondering whether Damian had somehow exaggerated their crimes just to punish them because of me.

Now, I couldn’t even bring myself to think that way. "If one girl was cheating on her mate, then why was the other one helping her with the smuggling?" I asked, my brows drawing together in confusion. "What did she get from assisting her in something so... barbaric?"

I couldn’t understand it. How could someone willingly support cheating, especially when they knew how serious a mate bond was? And to go as far as smuggling a forbidden drug just to help someone hide it from their own mate? That was something I couldn’t comprehend.

Damian let out a quiet sigh, his gaze shifting away from me for a moment. "She was also involved with that man."

My eyes widened again.

"The three of them were involved together," he continued, his voice lowering. "All three of them will be held equally accountable, and they will be dealt with according to pack law."

I remained silent. Somehow, hearing that made everything feel even worse. This wasn’t simply one person making a terrible decision while another foolishly helped her. All three of them had apparently been involved in the same thing.

Damian’s eyes slowly returned to mine. There was a strange expression in them now, almost as if he could see the thoughts running through my mind before I even said them.

"You don’t have to worry about anything," he said, taking a small step toward me. His voice softened slightly. "And neither do you have to take any guilt over this."

I looked at him, my lips parting slightly.

Before I could respond, he continued. "Whatever happened to them, they are responsible for their own actions. No one else is responsible for it." His words were firm, leaving little room for argument.

I lowered my gaze for a moment, my fingers unconsciously curling against my palms. Some part of me still felt uneasy. Not because I thought those girls were innocent anymore. After hearing everything, I couldn’t defend what they had done.

But because I knew exactly why Damian had looked into them in the first place. Because of me. And perhaps that was what still bothered me.

"And don’t think I did this because of your matter," Damian added suddenly.

I looked back up at him.

He folded his arms across his chest, his expression becoming almost deliberately indifferent. "I am the grandson of this pack’s Luna. Doing this was part of my duty toward my pack, nothing else. His voice was calm, too calm.

I looked at him, squinting my eyes as he maintained that completely unbothered expression, almost as if he were telling me not to assume anything beyond what he had explicitly said. According to him, he hadn’t done any of this for me in the first place.

But I wasn’t dumb enough to believe that. If this truly had nothing to do with me, then why had he bothered looking into those girls’ affairs in the first place? Why had he gone out of his way to find out what they were doing?

I rolled my eyes at his not-so-nonchalant expression before crossing my arms over my chest as well, deliberately mirroring his stance.

"Okay, I know you are too cool for something as cliché as taking revenge," I said, a faint smile tugging at my lips despite everything that had happened. "Now, don’t you think we should move and make something for dinner? Mother Elena will probably be tired when she comes back. We should at least have some food ready for her."

I was about to move towards the kitchen when Damian immediately raised his hand, stopping me. "You stop!"

I blinked at him. He gave me a stern look before pointing towards my room.

"I will do the cooking. You go and take some rest. Or change, or do anything else you want. Just don’t come into the kitchen."

"But I should at least help," I protested, looking at him as he turned towards the kitchen.

He didn’t even bother turning around this time. "No. For what I said, you aren’t allowed to do any work." His voice carried the same stubbornness I had already become familiar with. "I don’t want to get scolded by my mother when she finds out that I made you work while you were still recovering."

I sighed, watching his back disappear into the kitchen. "Such a stubborn person," I muttered under my breath, though a small smile still lingered on my face.

All these days I had been here, I hadn’t even been allowed to do the bare minimum, like taking my own plate to the sink. At times, it almost felt like too much. I wasn’t used to having people fuss over me like this, especially after everything that had happened in my own pack.

Still, I knew it wasn’t because they thought I was incapable of doing anything. It was simply their kindness towards me.

I slowly turned around and headed towards my room. There wasn’t much else I could do anyway. With such large bandages wrapped around my entire abdomen, even moving too much was enough to make me uncomfortable.

The treatment was going smoothly, and thankfully, the pain had also started coming under control because of whatever heavenly magic Mother Elena was using to keep the Dark magic in my wounds concealed.

I still didn’t completely understand how she did it. All I knew was that whenever she treated my wounds, the unbearable pain that usually reminded me of the darkness buried inside my body would slowly fade into the background.

For the first time since everything had happened, I could actually breathe without constantly feeling as though something was tearing through me.

I sat down on my bed, carefully leaning back against the pillows. Mother Elena would probably be caught up with the situation at the clinic today. But would she even have time to bring my test reports?

The thought alone made the little peace I had managed to find disappear. I stared at the ceiling, my fingers unconsciously tightening around the edge of the blanket.

Those tests had been on my mind ever since Mother Elena had mentioned them. I didn’t know what she had suspected. And somehow, not knowing felt worse than knowing something terrible.

I forced myself to take a slow breath. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t keep drowning in every possibility. Whatever those results showed, I would deal with them when they came. For now, I just needed to rest.

Time passed quietly, and eventually the sounds from outside became fewer and fewer. I wasn’t sure how long I had been lying there when I finally realised it was getting very late into the night.

I shifted beneath the blanket, wondering if Mother Elena had returned yet. Just then, I heard her familiar voice outside my room.

I immediately sat up. Before I could even get out of bed, the door opened, and Mother Elena entered the room with Damian following closely behind her.

My eyes immediately moved towards her face. Something was wrong. The moment I saw her expression, the small amount of calm I had managed to gather throughout the evening vanished.

Mother Elena looked deeply worried. There was something heavy in her eyes, something that made her features look unusually tense.