"Lukas!" Vivian gasped, her furious scowl melting into an instantaneous, breathtaking smile.
She took a dainty step forward, adjusting her fur coat as if the scene around them were merely a minor misunderstanding. "You’re back early! Goodness, you arrived just in time. This household staff has completely fallen apart."
Lukas didn’t answer. He didn’t move an inch. His arms remained wrapped around Blair’s limp, bleeding frame, his senses bombarded by the sharp, metallic stench of her blood soaking through his coat.
"We were just putting this arrogant human in her place," Vivian continued casually, waving her hand with a dismissive chuckle. "She had the audacity to pass herself off as the lady of this house! She was clumsily dropping tea, making a mess, and then throwing a dramatic fit. She barely cut herself, Lukas—she’s completely overreacting to get attention."
"She didn’t just cut herself, Master Lukas," Thomas’s voice cut through the air, raspy and firm.
Vivian’s head snapped toward the butler, her amber eyes flashing with a silent, deadly threat. But Thomas stood his ground, ignoring her venomous glare as he held his bruised cheek.
"Miss Maya and her companions refused to accept Mrs. Deruno’s status," Thomas reported smoothly, his tone laced with iron. "They insulted her, forced scalding tea over her, and when Mrs. Deruno tried to clean the shards to keep the peace, Miss Vivian deliberately stepped on her hand—grinding her fingers into broken glass until she bled."
The air in the parlor dropped ten degrees.
Vivian’s smile faltered. "Thomas! How dare you frame it like that—"
"You stepped on her?" Lukas murmured.
His voice wasn’t loud. It wasn’t even a roar. It was a flat, terrifying quiet that made Maya’s tiger instincts scream at her to back away.
Lukas looked down at Blair’s hand. Her pale, small fingers were shredded, caked in dark crimson blood that was still dripping onto his trousers. The sight made his blood boil—not because he admitted to caring for this weak human, but because of the sheer, unbridled disrespect.
She is a Deruno, his mind snarled. She signed our contract. She sits in our home, so she is ours.
To have a group of arrogant socialites walk into his estate, strike his butler, and crush his legal wife’s hand into broken glass was a direct, humiliating spit in the face to the Deruno name.
No one gets to treat a Deruno like this. Especially not under their own roof.
"Lukas, listen to me," Maya tried to intervene, her voice shaking slightly as she raised her hands. "Vivian was just angry because—"
"Shut up, Maya," Lukas growled, his golden eyes flashing with a unhinged, feral light. His white fox ears flattened hard against his skull, filtering out their pathetic excuses as noise. "All of you... shut your mouth."
Vivian swallowed hard, her composure finally cracking under his suffocating predator pressure. "Lukas... she’s just a lowly human. Why are you getting so worked up over a bug?"
"She is the woman whose name sits next to mine on a legal document," Lukas hissed, his upper lip curling to reveal sharp, gleaming fangs. "Which makes her off-limits to useless pests like you."
He didn’t waste another second arguing. Every second Blair spent bleeding against his chest, her pulse fluttered weaker and weaker. Her skin was turning dangerously cold, her lungs wheezing with a wet, terrible rattle.
"Thomas," Lukas barked, his voice cutting through the room like a whip. "Call the medical wing. Tell them to bring a specialist who actually knows how to treat frail human bodies. If she stops breathing before they get here, I’ll tear down the medical wing myself."
"Right away, Master Lukas!" Thomas bowed hastily and rushed toward the internal comms.
Lukas lifted Blair higher into his arms, ignoring the fresh blood smearing across his neck and shirt. He didn’t look at Vivian, Maya, or Tiffany again as he turned his back on them, his steps heavy and swift as he carried his unconscious wife.
"Lukas! You’re leaving us here for her?!" Vivian screamed behind him, her voice shrill with disbelief.
Lukas paused mid-step, his head turning slightly as his golden eyes locked onto Vivian with pure, venomous disgust.
"Don’t call my name like I know you," Lukas hissed, his white fox ears flattening hard against his skull. "You are noisy. So damn noisy. Get out of my house."
Maya stepped forward, her hands trembling as she tried to explain. "Lukas, wait! We didn’t really mean it! We didn’t know she really was Mrs. Deruno! If we knew—"
"You! Get out too," Lukas glared at her, the lethal weight of his predator gaze making Maya flinch violently.
"Lukas, I’m your cousin!" Maya stammered, her voice high and desperate. "We are related! We are family! You can’t treat me like this."
"I don’t have a family member who brings a friend to humiliate my wife in my own house," Lukas snarled coldly. "Get out."
He turned to Thomas, who had just finished dialing the medical team.
"Thomas," Lukas said, his voice echoing through the silent, terrified parlor like sub-zero ice. "If those three are still in my house when I come back, I won’t just step on their hands. I’ll give them double what they did to Blair."
"Understood, Master,"
With that, Lukas turned on his heel and walked away, carrying Blair down the long, dim corridor toward his own wing.
Every step he took was swift and deliberate. He pushed open the heavy, soundproof double doors of his private suite and laid her down gently on the center of his bed.
Against the pale sheets, Blair looked terrifyingly small. Her face was drained of all color, her lips stained with crimson, and her shredded hand continued to drip blood onto his dark duvet.
Knock, knock.
Thomas stepped quietly into the room, his glasses back in place, though his left cheek remained visibly swollen and bruised.
"Master Lukas," Thomas reported in a low, respectful tone, keeping his voice subdued for the fox pureblood’s ears. "I have informed the head of the human medical wing. Dr. Vane and a trauma team are on their way up now with specialized oxygen equipment and blood coagulants."
Lukas gave a tense, rigid nod. "Good. Make sure—"
AH—!
Suddenly, a sudden, blinding neural spike shot straight through Lukas’s brain.
The intense stress, the lingering stench of blood in the air, and the sheer fury boiling in his veins triggered a violent sensory overload. Lukas winced, his breath catching in his throat as he grabbed his temple, his white fox ears flattening tight against his head. The invisible pain felt like a hot needle plunging directly through his skull.
"Master Lukas!" Thomas stepped forward, his eyes filled with immediate concern. "Your sensory attack—shall I fetch your neural suppressants?"