Chapter 65: So Hungry

Della’s beautiful eyes fluttered open slowly, taking its time to adjust to her environment. Her eyelids felt so heavy, and her body felt heavier than she remembered.

She groaned a bit, and then looked around.

Malachi’s room.

Then, she heard something beating fast behind her ear.

A heartbeat.

Blinking, she finally looked up, and her eyes fell on Malachi’s face. Very close.

That was when she realised that...she was lying on his body.

His body felt so sturdy and comfortable, and she found it better than the bed. Watching him like this again, so close to her face, was making her heart skip many times.

His eyes were closed, and the sound of his breathing told her he might just be asleep. But then again, it didn’t exactly match the fast rhythm of his heartbeat.

Was he really... asleep?!

As if to answer her question, both of his eyes opened and fell on her.

He had never been asleep.

Della swallowed tightly.

"G...good morning," She whispered.

His gaze fell on her lips for a moment, and something flickered in them, then he looked back to her eyes and replied, "You can get off me now, can’t you?!"

"Oh!" She muttered and rolled off his body into the bed. Everything that happened in the shed had already come back to her the moment she opened her eyes, and she remembered Malachi carrying her back to his room, and then she kept crying for a long time.

She slowly looked up at the man who had just sat up on the bed, her fingers clasping against one another nervously, "Yesterday...,"

He paused, and she noticed how hard his muscles clenched. Like he was trying to keep himself from doing something that wouldn’t turn out well.

"Yesterday," She continued, "Thank you for... coming,"

Her voice was so soft, so achingly beautiful that his soul clenched just listening to it. He wanted nothing more than to lean down to her face and kiss her senseless.

To tell her not to thank him, that he was...sorry for not believing her.

Instead, he looked at her with cold in his eyes, "You’ve kept me in this bed for almost two days,"

She blinked. She’s been sleeping...for that long?!

"Now that you’re awake, continue to look after yourself," He sounded so dismissive and stood up quickly like sitting close to her was now a disease.

She watched him hurriedly put on his clothes and shut the door behind him, leaving her alone on the bed, wondering what she had done wrong again.

No, he just despises her that bad.

Saving her from Garett must have felt irritating to him, and lying in his bed with her to him, was like tolerating her presence and nonsense for too long.

She still recalled how he had comforted her.

You’re okay

I won’t let anyone hurt you again, I promise.

Shhhhhh, Moonfire. It’s me, I’m here now.

Looks like he’s just broken every one of those promises now.

Della sighed, then made to come down the bed. The moment her legs touched the floor, the dizziness came back again, and she forced herself upright for a few seconds so her eyes would stop spinning.

Then, she reached up and touched her head.

At least, the headache had gone down by a lot.

As she walked past the mirror, she noticed something weird about her reflection and quickly looked back again.

No, it wasn’t her reflection but her clothes.

She was now putting on Malachi’s shirt and pants, which looked rather... ginormous on her small frame. She lifted both hands to get a better look at herself, then she sighed.

He probably wanted her out of her clothes and into something that wasn’t him.

Hence, she quickly changed into one of the other clothes Cassian had gotten her.

This time, she did her hair into a messy bun and didn’t take her eyes off the mirror. Although she still looked pale and traumatised, at least she wasn’t dead.

She still had four days before the council meeting, and then two days before the ritual — that is, if she survived the rejection on the day of the council meeting.

Tears prickled her eyes at the thought of it.

Just then, she heard a knock on the door.

When she answered it, Rowan was standing there, "Rowan!" She smiled.

"Miss Astridge," He was holding a silver tray in one hand, "You must be hungry,"

She looked down at the tray, looking confused, "I don’t think that’s mine. I’ve never eaten anything in something that...fancy,"

"Take it, Miss Astridge," His voice was calm, like he had no doubt it was hers.

She took it from him with a smile, then she looked away and whispered, "I’m really sorry about the other night. A rogue attacked, and I didn’t get the chance to—"

"Don’t worry about it," Rowan shook his head slowly, "Just make sure you get everything on that plate. The Alpha may seem... grumpy and cold, but deep down he actually does care about you,"

She nodded like she understood, then she asked again, "Is... Garrett dead?"

"You don’t have to worry about him," Rowan replied curtly, then he gave her a small bow and left, leaving her stunned.

No one...has ever bowed to her before.

She watched him from the door till he disappeared into a corner. Rowan...is the only person, whom right from the beginning, has never really treated her differently. He’s always called her ’Mrs Astridge’, acknowledging that she was the Alpha’s wife, and she’s never really seen or heard a bitter word from his mouth.

Slowly, she returned into the room and closed the door.

She was now in a bit of a hurry because the smell of the food was suddenly so intoxicating and it was as if, if she didn’t eat it, she was going to die the next second. She sat down on the floor and lifted the tray cover away, revealing about five meals that made her mouth water.

Her stomach grumbled.

Why the hell was she this hungry?

Because you haven’t eaten for two days!

In a few minutes, Della was lying on the carpet with a hand gently tapping her full belly, while the empty tray sat next to her. She was so full that she could barely move.

Her own mini-feast.

It tasted so delicious she wished she could rewind time and eat it all over again.

Then, she recalled when she had asked Rowan whether Garett was still alive, and he had told her not to worry about it.

Does that mean he was dead?

Barely alive?!

Most important...

"I don’t wanna push crater of stones anymore!!" She cried out loud to herself.