They had no idea who I was, but judging from the way they were behaving, they clearly understood that keeping Kianda satisfied was far more important than questioning why some unknown woman had suddenly been brought to the family table.
“Uncle…” the young woman muttered again, frustration evident in her voice.
“Stop calling me that,” Kianda said nonchalantly.
“It’s so annoying.” The scratch on her face disappeared almost immediately, the skin repairing itself until there wasn’t even a mark left behind.
I couldn’t help staring.
Their healing abilities were truly ridiculous.
Kianda seemed completely uninterested in her reaction.
He simply turned toward me and began piling food onto my plate, ignoring the fact that the servants had already filled it.
“Eat,” he ordered.
He added more.
“Eat.” More food landed on my plate.
“Eat, eat, eat.” I stared at the mountain of food accumulating in front of me before finally looking at him.
“That’s a lot,” I muttered.
He leaned closer, lowering his voice so only I could hear him.
“If it’s a lot, then that means you have enough energy to serve me.” My face immediately flushed.
I wasn’t even sure what he meant by that, and judging by the strange way his eyes glimmered with amusement, I had a horrible feeling that he knew exactly what kind of thoughts his words were putting into my head.
I quickly looked away, pretending to be interested in the food.
Around the table, however, nobody was pretending.
Everyone was watching us.
Kieran and Ann had finally reached the dining room and taken their seats farther down the table, deliberately leaving a wide distance between themselves and Kianda.
Apparently, nobody was foolish enough to sit too close to him unless they absolutely had to.
I glanced around the table and found several pairs of eyes fixed on me, while others kept shifting nervously between Kianda and Kieran.
The silence was almost unbearable.
I had no idea what these people were thinking, but I was beginning to realize something very clearly.
Whatever Kianda was doing, whatever relationship he had with this family, and whatever reason he had for keeping me beside him, everyone at this table was afraid of him.
And somehow, I had become the one person he had decided to parade around as his expensive pet.
“You aren’t trying to get me killed, right?” I whispered, unable to ignore the way everyone around the table kept staring at me.
Their expressions made goosebumps rise across my skin, and I had a horrible feeling that sitting here beside Kianda had somehow painted an even bigger target on my back.
“Aren’t you already facing death?” Kianda whispered back as though my concern were completely ridiculous, casually serving more food onto my plate.
“Why would anyone need to kill you when you’re already dying?” I stared at him for a moment before slowly lowering my gaze to the mountain of food in front of me.
“Yeah…” I muttered.
“You’re right.” There really wasn’t much I could say to that, so I immediately kept my mouth shut and focused on eating.
The silence around the table didn’t last long.
“Uncle…” Kieran finally spoke, his voice carrying across the dining table.
“That’s my bride who was offered to me.
Don’t you think you’re messing things up?” I looked up immediately.
Kieran’s expression was dark as he stared directly at Kianda, clearly unhappy about the situation.
Before Kianda could respond, another man took his seat beside me, leaning back comfortably as though the tension surrounding the table had nothing to do with him.
“You already have a woman sitting close by,” Kellan remarked casually.
“How many more do you want?” Kieran turned toward him so quickly that I almost laughed.
“You—” For once, the Supreme Alpha seemed completely lost for words.
Kianda, however, looked delighted by the exchange.
He rested his chin against his hand for a moment before suddenly turning his attention toward Kieran.
“Give me Ann,” he said casually, as though proposing the simplest trade in the world.
“I’ll exchange her for Rida.” My hand stopped halfway to my mouth.
Ann.
So I had been right.
There really was something going on here.
I slowly glanced toward Ann, who was seated beside Kieran, and the moment she heard Kianda’s words, her eyes lit up with unmistakable hope.
My stomach sank.
Kieran’s expression, however, darkened instantly.
“Don’t you dare suggest something like that!” he snapped, his voice reverberating through the dining room.
“How can you even compare Ann to that lowly, ugly nonexistent breed?” The words struck me harder than I expected.
My fingers slowly tightened around the spoon in my hand as I lowered my gaze toward the table, pretending to be far more interested in my food than I actually was.
Lowly.
Ugly breed.
After everything I had endured, I should have been used to being spoken about like I was worthless.
But somehow, hearing it from the man I had been brought here to marry still hurt.
“Say that again.” For a moment, nobody moved.
The dining room had fallen into a silence so complete that I could hear the faint clinking of a spoon somewhere at the far end of the table.
I remained in my seat with my eyes lowered, pretending that Kieran’s words had not affected me, but the sudden tension filling the room made that impossible.
Something had changed, and even though I couldn’t explain what it was, every instinct in my body was telling me that I should keep quiet and stay out of whatever was about to happen.
Kianda had stopped smiling.
The change in his expression was so subtle that I almost missed it.
The amusement that had been lingering in his eyes only moments earlier had disappeared completely, replaced by something far colder.
His fingers remained wrapped around the handle of his spoon while his gaze stayed fixed on Kieran, and for the first time since I had met him, I didn’t see the playful man who seemed to enjoy teasing everyone around him.
I saw something far more dangerous.
“Say that again,” he repeated, his voice low enough to make the words sound even more threatening.
Kieran’s jaw tightened as he stared back at him.
“I said—” He never finished.
The glass sitting in front of him suddenly exploded.
The sharp sound tore through the dining room, sending fragments of glass flying across the table.
Several people gasped as one of the shards struck Kieran across the cheek, leaving a thin cut that immediately began bleeding.
Nobody dared to move, and even Kieran seemed to remain frozen for a moment as he slowly raised his hand and touched the wound before looking at the blood staining his fingertips.
“Uncle.” Kianda finally lifted his eyes.
“I heard you the first time,” he said calmly.
“I simply wanted to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood you.” Kieran pushed his chair backward and rose to his feet, and the instant he did, his Alpha aura erupted through the room with enough force to make the entire dining table tremble.
The pressure swept over the servants first, forcing several of them down onto the floor as they struggled beneath its weight, while plates rattled violently against the table and cutlery clattered against the polished surface.
I felt the air become unbearably heavy around me, pressing against my chest until my own body began to weaken beneath the overwhelming force.
Then Kianda laughed.
It wasn’t the playful laughter I had become accustomed to hearing from him.
This laughter was low and quiet, almost disturbingly amused, and something about it sent a shiver down my spine.
“You’re doing this at my table?” Kieran’s eyes flashed red as he glared at him.
“You brought an unknown woman into our family dining table and chained her like a pet.
Do you really expect me to sit here and watch you humiliate everyone here?” Kianda slowly rose from his chair.
There was no dramatic transformation and no visible indication that he had released any power, yet the atmosphere around him changed so abruptly that I could feel it even from where I sat.
The temperature seemed to drop, and the shadows beneath the furniture stretched farther across the floor, creeping toward Kieran as though the darkness itself had begun responding to Kianda’s presence.
Kellan immediately pushed his chair backward and looked around the room.
“Everyone stay where you are.”