"How could humans be this heartless?" Darius's voice was a low, dangerous rumble in the sterile hospital room, filled with terrifying understanding and cold fury.
Ariana stirred, a soft sound escaping her lips. The oppressive weight that usually clung to her was gone, replaced by a dull ache, but also a strange, unfamiliar lightness in her limbs. She blinked slowly, her eyes fluttering open to soft, diffused light. She was in a bed. A hospital bed.
"Alpha Darius?" she whispered, her voice raspy, weak.
Darius's head snapped towards her. He was sitting beside the bed, his large hand gently holding hers. His grip tightened slightly at her voice. The usual mask of coldness he wore was absent. His golden eyes, usually hard and unreadable, were filled with something raw, vulnerable, and intensely protective. Relief washed over his face, a stark contrast to the rigid control he usually maintained.
"Ariana," he said, his voice rough with emotion. "You're awake."
"How... how did I get here?" she whispered, trying to push herself up but feeling too weak.
He squeezed her hand gently. "You collapsed. At the manor. We brought you here." His jaw tightened, the grimness returning to his expression. "Dr. Sharma... she ran tests. On you, on your medications."
He paused, looking at her,
"so, what about my medications, do I need another one?" she questioned and
his next words were a hammer blow.
"You don't, Your medications were swapped, Ariana," he stated, his voice low and certain. "The ones you've been taking... they weren't what the labels claimed. They contained substances designed to keep you weak. To suppress... everything. They were poisoning you."
Poisoning? Her? The dull ache vanished, replaced by a jolt of pure shock. Her family... Elena... the sickness...
"Poisoning me how?" Ariana's voice was thin, filled with disbelief. It didn't make sense. They were her family. Even if they treated her badly, they wouldn't... would they? She looked like them, like Elena. How could they do that to their own? "But..they are. my family... Elena. is my twin sister.. how can you be sure they did this?"
Darius's gaze was grim, absolute. "Based on the evidence. The analysis of the drugs. The falsified medical reports linked to Dr. Hart. She has been apprehended and is being questioned now." He stood up, beginning to pace, his movements restless, agitated. "My father is handling the Cummings. They are aware we know about it, and they're probably regretting why they sent Elena here." His golden eyes were hard, promising retribution. "As for Elena... she is confined to her rooms at the manor. She will not harm you again."
Elena. It had to be Elena. Or her father, or Lila. The thought sent a cold shiver down Ariana's spine, quickly followed by a surge of anger. Betrayal of this magnitude... it was a physical pain.
"Cecilia?" Ariana's voice was urgent, fear piercing through the shock. Her grandmother. The only one who had ever truly loved her. "What about Ama? Is she safe? I hope they didn't harm her!"
Darius stopped pacing, looking at her with a softening in his eyes. "She is safe. Miss Lorette is with her, watching closely. And we have wolves ensuring her protection. Your grandmother..." he hesitated, then his voice was firm, heavy with unspoken meaning, "...is the only one in your human family line we trust."
Miss Lorette. Loyal, kind Miss Lorette. Ariana clung to that name, a small beacon of safety in the horrifying darkness of this revelation.
Darius returned to the bedside, his expression intense. He looked at her, truly looked at her, seeing past the manufactured frailty. "You endured years of this, Ariana. Believing you were dying. Carrying that burden... thinking it was just you, being weak." His voice was rough with a mix of awe and anger. "Not knowing they were the ones harming you. Day after day." He shook his head slightly, a gesture of disbelief. "Their own child... I still can't fully comprehend it." He looked back at her, his gaze searching hers. "Ariana... you are stronger than you know. To survive that... to keep going..."
He started pacing again, his wolf's agitation palpable. "This changes everything," he stated, the words sharp, definitive. "The original arrangement... it was a lie built on lies. A monstrous deception." He stopped, turning back to face her fully. His golden eyes were fierce, protective. "I want you to know this, Ariana. You were never a burden to me. Not truly. And you were never a burden to your family. You were a victim. You lived your entire life believing a lie, believing you were sick, not knowing you were being poisoned by your own blood."
And he, Darius, the Alpha, had been a pawn in their cruel game. Married to a woman being poisoned right under his nose, under his roof. The thought filled him with a cold, simmering fury aimed squarely at the Cummings and, most of all, at Elena.
He came back to the bedside, reaching out his large hand, not with the Alpha's usual authority, but with a surprising, breathtaking tenderness. He gently brushed a strand of hair from her forehead, his touch sending a jolt through her. This simple gesture, so unexpected from the formidable Beast, made her heart flutter, a wild bird trapped in her chest, "I don't even know what to say, Alpha Darius, I...I"
"Shhhh...Get your strength back, Ariana," he said, his voice low, rough, a command laced with something much deeper. "Rest. Heal. There are things you need to learn. Things you need to understand... about yourself. About them." He paused, his golden eyes locking with hers, intense and possessive. "And know this." His voice dropped, a powerful, absolute claim. "You are mine now. My wife. My mate, not a substitute, No one touches you and No one will dare to harm you."
His words weren't a declaration of gentle affection, not yet. They were something fiercer, more primal. A powerful claim of ownership, a fierce possessiveness born of the horrifying realization of her vulnerability and the monstrous wrong done to her. He wasn't just the distant Beast anymore; he was her protector, his presence a shield against the world that had tried to destroy her.
He held her gaze for another long moment, the intensity in his eyes relaying everything left unsaid. Then, slowly, he released her hand, nodded curtly, and strode from the room, leaving her alone in the quiet space.
Ariana lay there, the silence buzzing around her. Poisoned. By her family. The girl who accepted her fate, the sickly substitute waiting to die, felt impossibly distant. In her place was a woman who had been lied to, betrayed in the most horrific way, deliberately harmed, and yet... survived. A woman who was at the center of a horrifying, unimaginable conspiracy. And a woman who, despite everything, despite the shock and the fear, felt a strange warmth spreading through her chest, a stirring of something real and powerful towards the complex, fiercely protective, terrifyingly possessive man who was now irrevocably, undeniably, her mate. She wasn't just surviving anymore. She was awakening.