Chapter 143: Manufactured Performance
[CASSIAN POV]
There was no other good explanation for everything that had happened. My body was no longer acting like my own. Instead, it answered the beck and call of the evil siren who had already captured my two brothers under her spell.
She poisoned me. I wouldn’t have lost control of my own body otherwise.
I gritted my teeth and looked down at the infernal tent in my pants, reminding myself that this was only happening because of the fact that I was poisoned.
That’s right. Violet was right. Maybe Briar had poisoned Rowan and Soren previously, and then she cured them with her feminine charms. That would perfectly explain why they were running around her like headless chickens, desperate for even a small morsel of attention. Now, she had poisoned me as well, and my body was merely reacting as a result of it.
I gritted my teeth, my mind filled with hatred for Briar. I never thought that she would stoop so low so as to get her revenge on us.
Sure enough, my body caught up to what my mind knew all along: that Briar was an untrustworthy snake. Finally, with that in mind, I started to calm down. I could feel the heat slowly receding, and I quickly regained some semblance of rationality and normalcy.
Finally, with my lower half corralled, I turned back to approach Violet again. Her eyes darted downwards, and upon seeing that my boner had vanished, there was a faint hint of disappointment in her eyes. She looked down at the blankets, and I caught how her shoulders slumped as she curled into herself.
"It’s all my fault for falling sick." Violet bit her lower lip. She looked at him with watery eyes. "Now I can’t even please you... Alpha Cassian, I’m so sorry."
"It’s fine," I said awkwardly. "Falling sick happens to everyone."
Well, not me obviously. I had been poisoned. But as far as Violet and the rest of the pack knew, I had simply fallen ill after running around the last few nights, searching for the runaway prisoner Briar Argyris.
My face grew somber once more at the thought of Briar. Her infuriating face entered my mind. Suddenly, I stiffened. Briar was currently left alone with Healer Samuel. I had assumed that Samuel might follow me to visit Violet. After all, as a healer, caring for patients was his job.
However, I had completely forgotten that he had expressed his immense dislike for Violet long before she even became the Luna of the Shadowclaw Pack. He didn’t like her, even more so than everyone else. If it weren’t for the fact that he was such a skilled healer, he would’ve never been assigned to care for Violet in fear that he might one day poison her instead.
Thankfully, Samuel had always kept work and personal affairs separate and had never tried anything of the sort.
Yet, even though Samuel was notorious for hating nearly everyone in the pack, there was one person he didn’t seem to hold the same resentment for.
Briar.
For some reason, he kept a polite distance, but there was always something different about his tone whenever he had to speak to her. Samuel was almost playful whenever it came to Briar, and the way he smirked at her whenever she said something witty and careless made me clench my teeth in annoyance.
No matter what, Briar was still our fated mate. Even if I hadn’t marked her, my idiot brother did. In the eyes of the Goddess, she was already Rowan’s partner. Yet, she didn’t seem to have any qualms about interacting so carelessly with other men, especially someone who was unmated like Samuel.
Just the thought of their interaction made my body heat up with anger.
"Alpha Cassian, is there something wrong?" Violet asked again. She was still on the bed. I could see her reflection from the glass windows, her eyes wide with curiosity and worry.
"N-No," I said, my voice cracking slightly. I had to clear my throat and try again. "No, everything is fine."
"Are you sure?" Violet asked, frowning. "Perhaps it’s your illness. I heard from the healers that the infirmary was broken into last night. Your health must’ve taken quite the blow as a result."
I bit the insides of my cheeks to force myself to calm down. Once I was sure that everything appeared normal, I turned back and glanced at Violet.
"Yes," I said.
"It probably worsened because of Briar..." Violet said, trailing off. She sighed, shaking her head. "I just don’t understand what is going on inside her head. Why is she running around like that? She should’ve just stayed put and saved everyone the trouble. Now poor Alpha Rowan and Alpha Soren have to clean up after her mess..."
"I wouldn’t be too worried about Rowan and Soren. They’re busy handling the break-in." I added after a bit of thought, "Their weird behavior isn’t related to Briar."
I was basically just lying through my teeth at this point, but the less she knew, the better it would be. Violet had the tendency of sticking her nose into places she shouldn’t be.
"Really?" Violet said. Her eyebrows shot up her forehead, as though she was surprised to hear my words. "But I thought―"
"She’ll be staying in her room from now on," I said, cutting her off. "Don’t worry about her. She won’t have the chance to go near your room either. You can rest easy and focus on getting well."
"But I heard that Alpha Rowan isn’t planning on locking her door," Violet said. Her eyes quickly became watery again. "Tell me the truth, Cassian. Is it because Alpha Rowan is planning on taking her as a concubine?"
I had to bite the inside of my cheek again to prevent myself from cussing out. The rush of pain was pretty much the only thing stopping me from rolling my eyes. I finally realized what it was that irritated me.
If she went through this song and dance only to ask me this question, I would be severely upset.
This could have been an email. Or a message via the mind link.
I could have better things to do with my time.
As soon as I had that thought, Briar’s face floated in my mind again. I gnashed my teeth. I refused to believe I would be ’doing’ her anytime in the future. Kissing her was the most amorous bodily contact that I could endure.
"Alpha Cassian?" Violet asked, her frightened, worried voice entering my ears and distracting me from my memories of Briar. "Are you keeping quiet because... you don’t want to tell me the truth?"
"What truth? Don’t be ridiculous," I scoffed, crossing my arms. The faintest hint of irritation slipped into my voice before I could stop it. "There’s nothing to tell."
For some reason, I was getting tired of Violet’s little manufactured performance. I had eyes, and since I was also someone who had actually experienced being on the verge of death, I couldn’t help but compare Violet’s condition to my own, along with Willow’s and even Briar’s.
Violet’s body simply wasn’t looking or behaving like someone who was so greatly ill that she needed my presence to help her recover. In fact, she didn’t even seem like she needed Healer Samuel to help. All she needed was probably a good meal and a good night’s sleep. She even smelled like shower gel.
Not like Willow, who needed intensive care and daily visitations from Samuel. Her body carried the stench of illness that still persisted after returning to the pack; no amount of body soap was able to wash that off of her.
And lastly, Violet’s condition was certainly not like me, who needed Briar’s unwilling kisses to save myself from death.
My lips twisted as Briar once again came into my mind.
Even if I hated her to my very core, I had to admit that even she looked sicker than Violet on her healthiest days. Only recently had her cheeks filled out and actually had some color that wasn’t due to anger, outrage, or humiliation― and even then, Briar’s arms still resembled the legs of a sparrow. Like I could twist and break them with no effort at all.
Compared to all of us, Violet looked so healthy, like she could run a marathon right this second.
"...Are you sure?" Violet asked hesitantly.
"Relax," I said, walking to the door. "Rowan isn’t that stupid."
He was, but I wasn’t going to tell Violet that and have her spend the next half an hour crying again. That idiot had already marked Briar, after all. And it seemed like he was very keen on taking her as his proper Luna without giving Violet a proper explanation, or even a heads-up.
Since he wasn’t doing it, I see no reason why I should be the one to break the news to her and handle her emotional breakdown alone.
Even when we had our marriage ceremony, Rowan and Soren had refused to mark Violet properly. They found all sorts of excuses, and originally, I thought that they were simply leaving their chastity for Willow, pledging their love for her by remaining mateless forever.