The force of the slap sent Blair staggering sideways. Her vision flashed with blinding white light, her temple throbbing where the skin burned. But Vivian didn’t stop there. Reaching out with sharp, predator claws, she grabbed the collar of Blair’s crooked dress, violently shaking her.
"Apologize!" Vivian screamed, her fox ears pinned flat against her head in pure, unhinged fury. "Get down on your knees and apologize to me for impersonating the mistress of this house! Tell me you’re nothing! Say it!"
"Stop it! Miss Vivian, let go of her!" Thomas shouted, rushing forward despite his bruised face to pull Vivian away.
"Get off me, you old fool!" Vivian snarled, using her beast strength to shove Thomas backward. He stumbled against the corner of a display cabinet with a heavy thud, gasping for air.
Maya stepped back, her heart hammering against her ribs. The sight of blood pooling on the white floorboards made her tiger instincts scream that this had gone way too far. "Vivian! Stop! Look at how much blood she’s losing—"
"I don’t care!" Vivian shrieked, raising her hand to strike Blair a second time. "She needs to learn her place!"
Blair’s body trembled uncontrollably. The physical pain in her face and wounded hand was agonizing, but it was the sudden, crushing pressure inside her chest that made her world tilt.
Refrain from bleeding at all costs...
The doctor’s warning flashed in her mind once again, but it was too late. The deep slices across her palm and the physical trauma of the assault had set off the fatal internal chain reaction. Her blood pressure spiked wildly. Inside her lungs, the delicate, inflamed blood vessels ruptured.
Cough cough!
A violent, racking cough tore through Blair’s throat. She couldn’t stop it. Blood spilled past her pale lips, dripping heavily onto the front of her dress and splattering across the cold tile.
"Ew! Disgusting!" Tiffany shrieked, jumping off the sofa and backing away in horror. "She’s spitting blood! Does she have sme sort of disease?! What a bad omen."
"Look at her..." Vivian gasped, recoiling a step, though her face remained twisted in disgust rather than remorse. "Bleeding like a dying stray on the floor. Is this the ’wife’ you were talking about, Thomas? She’s practically a corpse! There’s no way the Deruno brothers would take one good look at her and mary her!"
Thomas was speechless. He had no idea. If he knew...
Blair couldn’t speak. Her lungs burned as if filled with liquid fire. Every gasp for oxygen brought only the suffocating taste of iron. Her knees buckled beneath her weight, her legs giving out completely.
As she fell, her hand clutched feebly at her chest. Tears leaked from her blurring eyes, her gaze drifting toward the ceiling.
Is this how it ends...? she thought silently, her mind slipping into the dark, icy waters of unconsciousness. I tried so hard... I just wanted to be useful, I just wanted to live... Someone... I wish... someone would save me...
But who exactly would sev her? The Butler who was getting hit because of her? These high ranking noble beast women who looked at her like bug under their feet? Or was it her husbands who were busy at work?
No, there was no one. She was alone, even now.
Just as she was giving up, footsteps began to echo lightly against the marble hallway outside the grand double doors.
Someone had returned early.
"Ugh, those board members are so damn noisy..." he muttered under his breath, wincing at the lingering sensory headache. "All they do is yell over each other for hours... So noisy, so annoying. I’d rather be sleeping,"
He pushed open the parlor doors, expecting the usual quiet, empty space.
Instead, the metallic, overwhelming reek of fresh blood hit his hyper-sensitive nose like a physical blow.
Lukas, the husband that had returned, froze in the doorway.
His golden eyes widened as his gaze swept across the chaotic scene—the shattered glass, the spilled tea, Thomas standing with a bruised and swollen cheek, Vivian with her hand still raised, and Blair...
Blair was collapsing toward the cold tile, her face pale as ash, bright red blood dripping from her lips and palms.
"What..." Lukas’s voice dropped into a low, terrifying whisper.
Before Blair’s head could strike the cold floor, Lukas vanished from the doorway in a dark, feral blur.
He used his speed to get to her and he caught her mid-fall, wrapping his arms around her frail, limp frame and pulling her against his chest.
Blair’s head slumped weakly against his shoulder, her blood staining the front of his coat. Lukas looked down at her unconscious face, feeling her shallow, thready pulse flutter weakly against his fingers.
His white fox ears flattened hard against his head, not from noise this time, but from a wave of lethal, suffocating rage. He didn’t know why he had acted first before thinking, but that didn’t matter... Not while she was bleeding and unconcious.
Lukas slowly lifted his head, his golden eyes glowing with a terrifying, unhinged light as he locked his gaze onto Vivian, Maya, and Tiffany.
"Who..." Lukas growled, his voice vibrating with a dangerous, predatory frequency that made the glass chandeliers tremble above. "...did this to her?"