Moonbound: The Rogue's Second Chance-Chapter 105 - I’D RATHER BLEED FOR YOU

"Did what?" Serena asked.

Darius pushed himself from where he was and sat on the other side of the bed looking straight ahead. Serena swallowed hard and followed his lead, sitting upright, the sheets bunching around her waist. A faint chill ran down her spine.

She had an inkling of an idea of what he was referring to, but another part of her hoped he was wrong.

"That mark that you bear on your neck is not mine. So I ask, who did it?" Darius asked in an eerily calm tone.

Serena’s fingers tightened around the pillow in her lap. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach, and she silently screamed into herself. This was a terrible position she had found herself in, one she had tried so hard to avoid.

Whenever wolves got partnered up, they would typically mark themselves. It was an innate ward to keep others away– to say this person belonged to another. Serena and Cullen had marked themselves, and these special marks do not fade with time or with the death of the person who marked the other.

It was never a mistake to be marked. There were horrors, of course, cases of people forced, branded against their will. But Serena’s story was not like that. She had a husband. A different world entirely before she ever stepped foot into Ironshade.

"I am sure you heard my question."

The words struck hard. Serena bit her bottom lip and tasted the faint sting of blood. She would have to take Feyra’s advice now, tell him the truth. Not all of it, that would be too much.

"I heard you," Serena replied.

"I did not tell you everything about me because I was scared," she confessed. Her fingers brushed over her collarbone absently.

Scared of what would change if she let him in. Scared of what she might lose. Serena was NOt a fool, she knew what complete honesty could cost her.

"And I apologize for that," she added, voice softer now. "I wasn’t sure how you would take it."

She glanced at Darius, but he still refused to look at her. His eyes stayed forward, fixed on nothing, and worry pinched deep in her belly. The distance between them, though only a few feet, felt like a chasm.

"It was not maliciously done," Serena began, touching the side of her neck. It was done in such a frenzy that she and Cullen joked about it. They had said their initial vows and promises in the middle of the night at the spot where they had met for the first time.

"I had..." Serena trailed off. She wondered how she could say this, but she had to at this point. Blatant lies would just worsen her situation. "I had a partner once, but he died years ago."

Serena squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then opened them to see Darius staring at her with a perplexed expression.

"You had a husband?" he asked with slightly widened eyes.

"Yes, I did. That is the reason for this mark."

Darius leaned fully into the headboard and shook his head. What a revelation this was. It did not even explain anything to him except for the mark. And the whole time she had been hiding it from him. He scoffed and looked at the ceiling briefly.

He was at a loss for words; it was not anything he would have imagined. Such an idea would have never crossed his mind.

"He is gone now," Serena said quietly.

"That is not what I am..." Darius trailed off and ran his hand through his hair. "You didn’t think to tell me before?"

"When would I have? I was having my fate decided by your council, now I am playing the role of an ambassador... I am so different from your pack." Serena’s nose flared out slightly as she spoke. "I didn’t come here planning to talk about him. I didn’t plan to be anyone’s fated mate."

"Neither did I, but here we are."

And then a beat of silence passed between them. It made Serena uneasy. Darius hadn’t moved since she spoke, hadn’t blinked much either. He just stared straight ahead.

"Darius," Serena called out softly.

He turned to her. He had a crestfallen expression, and he looked down at the sheets. "This between us... does it mean anything to you?"

Serena blinked slowly; she had not expected that sort of question from him. "Yes, it does. It means a great deal to me."

Darius gave a single nod, as if that confirmation hurt more than it helped. His eyes shifted past her, settling on nothing again. Inside, his thoughts scattered. Serena had a husband before now? The word husband repeated itself like an echo. His chest tightened with a mix of confusion and jealousy he could not name.

What did he look like? What kind of man was he? Did he make her laugh the same way I do? Did he die loving her?

He shoved down those thoughts and then looked at her neck. She had been marked before, an undeniable truth.

"This feels as though I am trying to catch up to a life that never accommodated me," he muttered.

Was it not strange? The moon goddess had seen this and decided to make his soulmate Serena. It felt bitter on his tongue. Would this be some sort of sign that doom and gloom awaited him just like his father?

"Yes, I loved once, but that part of my past is buried and long gone. I had never planned for it to be this way..."

Serena looked like she was grasping at straws now. Darius spoke the most between them, but now it felt like she was appealing to a doll.

"I’ve seen what loving someone can cost. I watched my father bleed himself dry for a bond," he said at last, his voice stripped of all its usual sharpness. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Darius looked at his palm and ran his thumb over it. Just last night he had said he cared for Serena, and he really meant his words. This undeniable attraction he harboured towards her was one he could not ignore; neither could he suffocate it.

"Then why haven’t you walked away yet?" Serena asked, barely above a whisper.

She watched him closely for his next words. She half-expected a rejection. It would come from how things had drastically changed. Now Darius knew she once had a lover.

Darius turned his head and finally met her eyes.

"Because I think I’d rather bleed for you than feel nothing at all," Darius said.