Chapter 261: You are my life

"The vitals are looking positive. Everything is going great, and I’m sure we’ll be able to discharge you soon. In a week or two," the doctor babbled nervously, his hand flying across his digital tablet.

Watching him closely, I could see the tension vibrating through his frame. He kept twitching, jerking his shoulders as if trying to physically shrug off an invisible weight. The moment he finished recording his notes, he practically bolted from the room.

I remained frozen in absolute prostration, his words echoing in my mind: my awakening was about to begin. It felt entirely impossible. A tight knot of doubt twisted inside my stomach. After all, my body had never shown the slightest sign of a proper awakening, let alone a royal or powerful lineage. No sudden shifts, no premonitions. And then Damian had simply injected something straight into my neck—and just like that, everything was supposedly fixed? It felt like a cruel, warped joke played at the expense of my fragile humanity.

"Where are my parents?" I asked, casting a wary glance toward the closing door.

"In the neighboring room," Damian answered, his voice weary and nearly lifeless.

Only then, turning my head to look at him properly, did I notice the alarming change in his appearance. If this formidable alpha heir had once looked utterly immaculate—from his sharply tailored suits down to his composed, commanding aura—now he was a ghost of that perfection. He wore a simple, heavily rumpled hoodie and sweatpants, the kind of loose attire he only ever wore behind closed doors. Every line of his posture screamed of a bone-deep, terminal exhaustion.

"I want to see them."

Flinging the blanket aside, I struggled immensely to sit up on the edge of the bed. As I dangled my legs and tried to touch my bare soles to the cold floor, a violent wave of weakness shot straight through my muscles.

"You aren’t allowed to walk," Damian cut in, his tone harsh and uncompromising.

Rising abruptly from his chair, he closed the distance instantly, pulling the blanket back over my knees to block any further attempt to escape.

"Lie back down. I’ll wake them myself."

Without even looking me in the eyes, he turned on his heel and strode out of the room. Breathing heavily, a part of me actually felt a strange surge of gratitude toward him beneath the frustration. All my outward defiance had been nothing more than foolish bravado; I wouldn’t have been able to stand on my own two feet anyway. My body felt impossibly heavy, refusing to obey my commands as if it belonged to someone else. Perhaps he had understood that better than I did.

Sinking back against the pillows, I cautiously brushed my fingertips over the small bandage on my neck. The skin underneath it stung with a dull, unpleasant throb. What had he done to me? Everything inside me felt foreign, wrong. It wasn’t just the paralyzing physical weakness—it was the terrifying sensation that my flesh was no longer my own, bound instead to a wild, untamed rhythm independent of my will.

Fidgeting restlessly against the mattress, I glanced up at the wall clock. While I waited for my parents, I watched the second hand sweep relentlessly in a circle, cruelly devouring my time.

Two weeks—an eternity. I had fallen terribly behind in my studies, and factoring in the mandatory recovery time here, I was losing nearly a month of my life.

A sharp cramp clenched my stomach. Because sooner or later, everything would revert to the old nightmare. Damn Damian would tear my parents away from me again, lock me back inside his penthouse apartment, and force me to serve him in that humiliating dress. The crushing realization weighed down on my chest like a slab of cold concrete.

"Amelie, our little girl!"

Hearing my mother’s painfully familiar, trembling voice, my entire body shuddered. Whirling sharply toward the door, I stared at them, scarcely believing my own eyes. Deep down, I had half-expected Damian to trick me, terrified of it down to an icy shiver. I had even feared the thought that my parents might no longer be alive and that I would never see them again.

"Mom! Dad!"

My parents froze in the doorway, and I immediately began scanning them frantically. I tried to catch every detail, soon realizing with a wave of relief that they looked wonderful. There were no signs of beatings, no bruises, no injuries, and certainly no sickly thinness. Clearly, they had been treated well.

Taking a few hesitant steps, they approached the bed and embraced me very cautiously. My mother cried quietly, burying her face in my shoulder, while my father remained stubbornly silent, squeezing my hand.

"Mom, did they treat you well there?" I asked, swallowing the lump that had risen in my throat, ignoring the fact that Damian was sitting silently in the corner of the room, keeping a heavy, unblinking gaze fixed on our conversation.

"Yes, sweetie. Forgive us for how everything turned out," my mother sobbed, pulling back. "We didn’t want you to have to go through all this, but we just didn’t know what else to do..."

I froze, fixing a blank, uncomprehending stare on my mother’s face. What on earth was she talking about?

I completely missed the point of these apologies, while my mother only wept, covering her mouth with her palm and saying no more. Meanwhile, my father clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, stubbornly staring down at his boots. Silence instantly descended upon the hospital room like a suffocating cocoon of unsaid words and a sea of terrifying questions.

"What are you talking about, Mom?"

Reaching out a trembling hand, I grabbed my mother by the wrist she had been desperately using to wipe away her tears.

"We simply had no choice, understand? We tried everything, but you were only getting worse, and we were afraid that you..."

"You had already started sleepwalking," my father rasped hoarsely, cutting her off. Raising a gaze full of pain toward me, he continued. "After the last checkup, when we came home, you sleepwalked out in the middle of the night and walked straight into the sea along the coast. I barely managed to drag you out of the water. I was terrified I wouldn’t make it in time, and you didn’t even wake up. The next morning you didn’t remember a thing."

My breath hitched.

"We really hoped that a change of scenery would help, so we agreed to move to the city... but it didn’t," my mother murmured softly.

"I don’t understand what you’re talking about," I said, shaking my head from side to side. Wrapping my hands around my head, I winced painfully as my fingers grazed the bandage on my neck. "I don’t sleepwalk."

"Enough," Damian’s voice sliced through the tension like a blade. "She’s still weak, and you’re explaining things in a way that makes it impossible for her to understand what’s wrong with her."

Opening my eyes, I looked over at the alpha. He had already risen from his seat in the corner and, stepping right up to my bed, sat down on the edge of the mattress beside me.

"Forgive us, but we are trying to explain it to her as gently as possible," my father replied with an edge of irritated resentment in his voice.

"Explain what?" My throat constricted in a sudden spasm, forcing out a dry cough as a heavy wave of drowsiness crashed over me.

Taking the glass of water my mother held out, I took a few quick gulps. Handing it back to her trembling hands, I sank weakly back against the pillow, letting my eyelids flutter shut. My thoughts were tangling together, and the room began to blur around me.

"That you were in danger, but everything is fine now. Your parents will tell you more later—once you’ve rested," the guy stated flatly, giving my parents a sharp, brief nod toward the door.

"Yes... Yes, of course," my mother stifled a quiet sob. Taking my father by the arm, she gently led him toward the exit. "Get some sleep, sweetheart. We’ll be right outside."

As soon as the door closed behind them, I turned a heavy, questioning gaze upon Damian. Something was deeply wrong. Judging by my parents’ frantic explanations, something had been going on with me, but I couldn’t piece the puzzle together.

Besides, everything they had described sounded like absolute nonsense. Nearly drowned? I didn’t even go near the water! I knew all too well that I couldn’t swim to save my life.

"Rest. Stop filling your head with dark thoughts," Damian commanded softly.

Approaching me, he slid his hand under the heavy blanket without warning, slipping his broad palm beneath my back. With one smooth, effortless pull, he guided me lower until I was lying flat once more.

"I could have done that myself. Don’t touch me," I spat through gritted teeth.

Turning my back on the alpha to face the wall, I pulled the blanket higher, attempting to shut him out completely.

"I want to take care of you," he murmured.

Something in his deep voice sounded almost cracked, raw with emotion. The sheer impact of it made my chest tighten with a sharp ache beneath my ribs. A sudden sting pricked at my nose from impending tears. Desperate to calm myself, I inhaled the sterile air of the room and squeezed my eyes shut until colorful spots danced under my eyelids.

"Why do you care? After everything you did, this looks absurd," I whispered huskily, feeling my consciousness slipping away under the crush of exhaustion.

"Because you are the most precious thing in my life. You are my life... my mate," he breathed.

His searing whisper burned against the nape of my neck. The very next moment, the mattress behind me dipped under his weight. A strong, possessive arm wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling me flush against his powerful, warm body.

I gasped as a rich, intoxicating scent engulfed my senses—a soothing aroma that instantly quelled my nervous shaking, sending a shiver cascading straight down my spine at his unimaginable words.

"Sleep. I will keep you warm," a tender voice rumbled directly against my ear.

And that was the last thing I heard before passing out completely. As I drifted into the abyss of darkness, all I felt was my body—burning like a dying star in deep space—ablaze with a living fire within his strong arms.