ARIA’S POV
He kicked the door open and his presence came with literal light.
“Hmmm!” I struggled since my mouth was wrapped with a piece of cloth.
“What the hell!” Draven rushed to me.
He untied my mouth first, before going behind the chair to undo the knots that held my hand behind the chair.
“Who did this to you?” He probed.
I was still too scared, breathing too heavily to respond.
“Talk to me,” he demanded, but being scared was not the only reason I couldn’t speak.
“I don’t know,” I responded, “one minute I was standing in the hall, the next minute the lights went out and I found myself here.” I explained.
Draven was done with the ropes, allowing me to stand up from the seat which had been my prison for the last ten hours.
He placed his forehead in his palm, a clear sign of exhaustion.
“What do you mean one minute you were standing here and…how dumb can you be?” Disappointed was an understatement for his expression.
“I swear. Everything happened very fast,” I tried to explain.
Draven rolled his eyes and walked to the door, grabbing my hand on his way out.
We sighted a guard in the hallway and Draven called his attention, “tell Ragner to call back the army,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.”
”You had an entire army looking for me?” I asked, I couldn’t help but feel flattered.
Draven stared at me briefly and continued walking, holding my hand firmly like he did not want someone to take me away again.
His actions seemed to be communicating differently from the agreement we had on paper.
“What part of keeping up appearances don’t you understand?” he said, just before he pushed the door of his room open.
“Ella!” I exclaimed upon the sight of her, feeling really relieved.
Being around her was the only thing making me feel like my life was not completely in shambles, even though by every other standard, it was.
Draven walked over to his study desk and kept looking out the window.
I took a seat, with Ella on my lap and played with her using hand gestures.
It was a perfect rhythm that got interrupted a few minutes later by Ragner’s entrance.
“You’re safe,” he said to me with a bit of relief in his voice.
“Take Ella to her room.
It’s late,” he said, “station three men at her door and one inside with her,”
”Yes sir,” Ragner took Ella from me and walked away.
I turned to Draven, waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t as much as spare me a glance.
A few minutes of silence was all I could take before heading for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He waited long enough for me to get to the door before his thick cold voice penetrated the silence.
“My room.
It’s pretty late.
I need to rest,” I responded, “I’ve had an unpleasant day,” I added, slightly irritated that I had to state the obvious.
“You live in this room now. As soon as Ragner returns I’ll have him supervise the guards as they move your stuff here.” He threw the words around in the most nonchalant manner.
“Uhm…I don’t want to remind you, because I don’t think I should have to, but this is a year long contract. I don’t have to sleep in your room. It’s for the appearance and there’s no one here I need to put on a show for.” I argued.
“There’ll be no show if you keep disappearing and getting yourself locked in abandoned corners of the royal house,” Draven stormed out of the room, almost pushing me by the door.
My jaw was left hanging.
‘Well, why is your home big enough to have abandoned corners?’ I wanted to yell, but I knew it was pointless.
Draven must have already been far gone.
I was still standing there, trying to process everything that had happened, trying to remember something, but all that I remembered was what I already said.
I followed a sound and what I thought was a dress and when the lights went off, I felt a hand press against my face.
The door opened strongly, almost pushing me down, but drawing me back into consciousness.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were behind the door,” Ragner apologized.
“It’s alright,” I moved away to the couch a few meters away.
“Come in,” at Ragner’s order, about four guards followed behind him carrying hefty luggages.
“What is all this?” I queried.
“The Alpha had some clothes custom made for you. They just arrived and luckily, we don’t have to move them twice,” Rager used hand gestures to show the men where to go.
There was another door built into the left wall, which was a walk-in closet.
I had never owned these many boxes of clothes in my life, not even when my father seemed to have it all.
“Where’s Draven? I can’t stay here,” I said to Ragner.
“He convinced you’d be safer here. He’s not so sure about leaving you on your own,” Ragner replied.
“So Ella is safe with guards and I have to be under his personal protection?” I tried to make sense of it, but I still couldn’t see a reason for Draven and I to share a room.
“Everyone knows better than to lay a finger on a single hair on Ella’s body,” Ragner said with a smile and then walked out of the room.
I looked around and into the closet where they had just delivered more clothes than I could wear in a year.
I stared at the bed Draven and I had to share, knowing that my mate was yearning for him.
“This is bad!” I exclaimed under my breath, “This is really bad!” There was no better way to put it.
“I don’t have to deal with this. It wasn’t part of our agreement,” I braced myself to be stubborn and rushed to the door, but as soon as I opened the door, I heard the sound again–the same one I had followed and got myself tied up.
I looked at every corner of the hallway but it was empty.
Could anyone else hear this?
Was I hallucinating?