Chapter 22
908 Words
I began arranging the items one by one. I placed the books on the empty shelf. I carried the mugs and the blanket to the upstairs bedroom. There was no sound except the scrape of cardboard and my own breathing. After everything was arranged as needed, I sat at the edge of the new bed.
My phone vibrated. Video call: Gabriel.
I answered. The screen showed the interior of the black car. Gabriel sat in the back seat, still wearing a dark shirt and coat. His hair was neat, his eyes cold as usual, no sign of fatigue on his face.
“After this I have another meeting until night.”
I only nodded. “Alright.”
Gabriel observed the background behind me, the new bedroom wall, the mattress, the folded blanket.
“You have arranged your things,” he said flatly.
“A little. I just finished.”
“You have no classes today?”
“Yes, I am off. I only want to stay home.”
Gabriel leaned his face closer to the camera. His gaze was still the same, calm, cold, but full of a care that is never spoken as affection.
“Do not go anywhere today, stay inside the house.”
“I do not plan to go out.”
“Good. Do not change that plan.”
Gabriel did not end the call right away. He looked at me for a long time, not speaking, only making sure my face was truly indoors, not outside.
“If you hear anything suspicious, do not go out. Call me or call Valeria. Both are faster than shouting out the window.”
“Gabriel, I am not living on a battlefield.”
“Every place becomes a battlefield after one confession is made,” he replied without hesitation.
I fell silent.
“There are those who are pleased, those who are waiting, those who want to strike. I will not give them a chance,” he said.
I nodded. “I understand.”
“The door is locked?”
“Yes.”
“The top bolt is in place?”
“Yes.”
“The windows are shut tight?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good, stay in the house and answer my call tonight.”
“Alright.”
I thought he would end the call there. But he looked at me two seconds longer before saying briefly:
“Take care of yourself.”
A soft car horn sounded on the other side of the screen, a sign the driver was waiting. Gabriel glanced aside for a moment then looked back at me.
“I have to enter the meeting.”
“Go,” I replied.
He nodded once. “Tonight.”
Then I lay on the bed while turning on the small television in the corner of the room. The local news channel was airing a segment about Bloodfang and last night’s meeting. No names were mentioned, but the flow of rumors was moving faster than official news.
At the bottom of the screen running text appeared:
“GABRIEL BLOODFANG SPLITS FROM SELLY BLOODVEIL — QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘THE WOMAN LIVING IN HIS HOUSE’ ARISE.”
The news then displayed online forum discussions. Comments appeared on the screen, shown as screenshots:
“He threw away a major alliance just because of a human?”
“If that girl stays by his side, Gabriel will never marry.”
“An Alpha must not be ruled by feelings, this is not the human world.”
“If the woman leaves, all problems are solved.”
“That human is an obstacle.”
An obstacle to a relationship. An obstacle to the future. An obstacle to politics.
They did not know my name, did not know what I had given up to live under Gabriel’s protection, did not know that I had never even touched their lives yet to them I was already enough to be made a scapegoat.
Another segment showed a panel discussion. One speaker said,
“If the rumor is true and Gabriel chooses his human foster daughter, then it is reasonable for Selly Bloodveil to withdraw.”
A second commentator added,
“What is worse, as long as the human remains close, the chances of Bloodfang forming an alliance through marriage are almost impossible. No Alpha or Beta will marry someone who lives with a human. That status is already flawed from the start.”
There was a pause. Then another comment appeared that made my breath stop for a fraction of a second:
“Gabriel is still young. He can marry if he wants to. As long as the human is removed.”
Removed.
They said it as if I was not part of anyone’s life, just a stone on the road that could be kicked into a river. I turned off the television. The sound vanished, but the sentences remained.
I looked at my own hands. Nothing special. No power. No bloodline. But my presence was enough to alter the future of the greatest Alpha in this territory, and for some people, that is a sin worth paying for.
My phone vibrated again, notifications from social media reposting the news segment. Even without opening it, I knew the content would be the same, blaming me, mocking me, defining my life without ever seeing my face from one meter away.
“Maybe they are right. Maybe I really am the obstacle…”
- Writer
