Chapter 254: Do you like it when you’re hurt, little bird?

Rubbing my aching wrists, I watched stealthily as Damian reinstalled the front seats of his monster of a car.

He had helped me get out, and the hand without the metal cuff hadn’t posed any issue at all—it had slipped free easily as soon as the guy shifted the driver’s seat back a fraction.

The passenger side, however, had forced the devil to unscrew the entire frame. The cursed bracelet was stuck fast, and the mere sight of the giant looming over me—deftly and masterfully dismantling the seat with his bare hands—tightened a coil of wild, uncontrollable tension deep inside my chest.

Damian did everything himself. Looking at him and remembering his status as the pack’s heir, no one would ever have guessed he was capable of manual labor like this. I had fully expected him to take the car to a mechanic while I burned alive from sheer humiliation.

The sight of the massive man towering over me, trapping me within the tight confines of the cabin, made my stomach turn to ice, then crumble into ash. His silent yet terrifyingly confident presence, coupled with the searing heat radiating from his aura, spilled through my bloodstream like a prickle of feverish pain. It made breathing nearly impossible. The air itself seemed to crackle with static.

He hadn’t uttered a single word since I agreed to his insane conditions—though I still had only the vaguest idea how his twisted mind had conceived such an offer in the first place.

To become his official girlfriend...

It felt like a sick joke. Damian clearly had something broken in his head if, right after flatly stating he only wanted me temporarily as a toy and a servant, he suddenly offered me the title of his official girlfriend.

Turning away from the broad expanse of the Alpha’s back, I stared blankly at my wrist. I buried my face in my hands, clutching my hair so tightly it hurt. I tugged hard at the roots, as if the physical pain could drown out the chaotic turmoil tearing my mind to shreds.

How had everything spiraled so out of control? What had I done wrong? Only I could manage to get trapped in such a ridiculous, inescapable mess. It had to be karma. Or a curse.

"Come here, Hart."

His low, rumbling growl resonated right beside my ear, making my entire body flinch. I whipped around, finding myself practically nose to nose with him. An electric shock surged across my skin, paralyzing whatever sanity I had left. Before I could pull back, he leaned in and slid one possessive hand around my waist, unceremoniously sliding his other arm beneath my knees.

The very next moment, taking advantage of my confusion, he stepped back, lifting me out of the car into the parking lot with terrifying ease. The realization that this monster was holding me in his arms pierced every cell of my body with primal terror. I parted my lips to protest, but couldn’t even force out a pathetic word. Instead, my hands instinctively wrapped around his powerful neck, trembling with the fear that he might just drop me right then and there out of spite.

"What the hell are you doing?" Trying with all my might not to look at him, I could distinctly feel my trapped heart hammering so fast and painfully in my chest that it felt like it would break right through my ribs.

"Do you want to walk to the apartment barefoot on the dirty asphalt?" Damian chuckled. Scorching my sensitive skin with his hot breath, he whispered directly into my ear, sending a trail of searing sparks sliding across my entire body. "Do you like it when you’re hurt, little bird?"

"Give me back my shoes, and I’ll walk on my own!" Jerking my whole body within his arms, I tried to pull away so that his intoxicating scent and breath couldn’t reach me.

But he only pressed me tighter against himself—so hard that everything inside me twisted in agony, fluttering from his abnormal heat and, perhaps, the fear freezing my throat. His proximity was damn terrifying, fracturing my instincts, even if I didn’t sense any direct threat from him at this exact moment.

"I can’t," the guy chuckled again, shrugging lazily. "I threw them out."

"But why?!"

"Because they were covered in blood and filth."

Kicking the car door shut with his foot, Damian walked completely calmly toward the brightly lit entrance of the high-rise. A sharp pinch of despair tightened in my chest, because I didn’t have any other shoes, and I couldn’t even imagine how I would go buy new ones. In Damian’s giant house slippers? Right through the city in my socks?

Removing my hands from his neck and folding them across my chest in a defensive gesture, I tried to detach myself, hiding deep within myself. And honestly, what did I expect from someone like him? To him, all my belongings were just pathetic trash. He hadn’t even considered for a second that if something got dirty, it could simply be washed and made clean.

But Damian was a wealthy, arrogant bastard who had been accustomed since birth to using and tossing into the scrap heap whatever had outlived its usefulness according to his lofty standards.

It would likely be the exact same with me. He would use me, and then cast me aside to hell the moment I became useless. A scratching, icy shiver slithered down my spine at the thought.

Right by the apartment door, the Alpha unexpectedly tossed me slightly in his arms, knocking every last breath from my lungs in a single instant. I didn’t even have time to squeak before a sharp, fluid motion slung me over his broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes, his heavy hand locking firmly beneath my knees.

"You’re going to drop me!" Clutched tightly in my fists, the fabric of his shirt gave way as my nails accidentally grazed the bare skin of his back. The sudden contact sent a violent shudder through his frame, and he instantly coiled tight—like a wild, dangerous beast bracing itself to spring.

"I won’t drop you."

The moment we crossed the threshold into the apartment, the guy finally set me down on the floor. But the instant my feet touched the cold tile, a grim realization washed over me. I wasn’t going to be walking normally anytime soon.