Chapter 32 MY HERO
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
SAMANTHA’S POV
Moments ago the hall had been roaring. Chanting. Screaming. Laughing. Now every sound seemed trapped in everyone’s throat as the body lay motionless on the altar floor. Blood pooled beneath his head, thick and dark, spreading slowly like it had a mind of its own.
He was dead.
My breathing came out shallow and broken as I stared at him, my eyes refusing to look away even though every part of me wanted to scream.
Then Kane moved.
The sound of his boots against the floor cut through my daze and before I could process it, he was standing in front of me. His hands reached for the ropes binding my wrists and the moment his fingers brushed my skin, I flinched.
Not because of fear. Because of relief.
My chest tightened as he worked. The ropes fell away and I sucked in a breath that felt like my first in years. My hands shook as blood rushed back into them and tears blurred my vision before I could stop them.
I had never been this grateful in my entire life.
I stared at him, unable to speak, my lips trembling as emotions crashed into me all at once. Fear…. Shock….. Relief…..Confusion
“What have you done, Kane?”
The voice thundered from behind us and I shrieked before I could stop myself.
My heart slammed violently against my chest as I turned, already knowing who it was. The Widow Collector.
The only man in that hall who could stand against Kane and not bow.
He stepped forward slowly, his presence heavy and suffocating, eyes burning with fury as smoke curled faintly from his mouth.
Kane did not turn immediately. He finished untying the last knot, then straightened, placing himself fully in front of me.
He said nothing.
The silence stretched.
As Kane was about to move, he chanted a spell gluing him to the ground.
“I asked you a question,” the Widow Collector said, his voice low and dangerous. “What have you done?”
“Exactly what I should have done,” Kane replied calmly.
The Collector’s lips curled in rage. “How dare you disrupt the smooth flow of the ritual.”
The hall seemed to tremble with his anger and I instinctively stepped closer to Kane, my fingers brushing the back of his shirt. Smoke thickened around the Collector as his fury grew.
“The ritual can go on without her,” Kane said, his voice hard.
“She is a mutate,” the Widow Collector snapped.
Kane laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“But she is mine. She is my mutate.”
“I paid seven hundred million dollars for her. I bought her. I own her. I am her master,” he continued, each word firm, unyielding. “Permit me if unlike the others, I do not feel safe sharing what belongs to me.”
The Collector’s eyes flashed. “The ritual must go on.”
“I do not care,” Kane replied sharply. “You are a beast among humans and I am Kane. You are strong, but believe me when I say I have the power to make you disappear if I want to. And you know that.”
The temperature in the hall dropped.
“I will not ask again,” Kane said, his eyes changing color as anger flared through him.
“Release me. Now.”
For a moment, I thought the Widow Collector would attack.
Instead, his gaze flickered to the blood staining the altar. “You spilled blood on the altar. That is a debt you must pay.”
Kane nodded once, like he had already accepted that cost long ago.
Without another word, he bent and lifted me into his arms.
The sudden motion startled me and I gasped softly, instinctively clutching his shirt as he turned away. My body fit against his chest like it had been made to, and the realization made my stomach twist.
I did not understand the mix of emotions rushing through me.
Fear still lingered, but it was tangled with something else. Awe. Safety. Admiration.
Even though my life had changed for the worse the moment I became his, standing here now, I could not deny it.
Having Kane was the best part of it all.
My heart began to beat strangely as I stared at his face. Not fast. Not slow. Just wrong. Unsteady. Every time his jaw tightened or his eyes hardened, something inside me reacted.
I did not know what it meant.
I only knew that looking at him made my chest ache.
“Be warned, Kane,” the Widow Collector called after us. “You know the rules.”
“I am certainly not forgetting,” Kane replied without turning. “I am only taking control of what is mine.”
The doors opened and light flooded in as he carried me outside.
What were they talking about?
What rules?
Was there something about Kane I did not know?
The questions swirled in my mind, unanswered and unsettling.
As we moved toward the car, I felt something warm in my abdomen. A strange sensation that made me frown, but my thoughts were too scattered to focus on it. His men surrounded us instantly, alert and protective, scanning every angle.
Then Kane stumbled.
It was subtle at first, just a slight falter in his step, but then his body stiffened and he collapsed to one knee, gasping for breath.
Fear slammed into me.
“Master,” I whispered, my hands gripping him tightly.
His shirt was soaked in blood. Not splattered…..Soaked. I shook to the ground
“Boss,” Abel called out, rushing forward, his face etched with concern.
“I am fine,” Kane said, though his voice was strained. He tried to stand and nearly fell again.
“You are losing too much blood,” Abel said urgently.
“I know,” Kane replied. “Just get me home.”
Abel helped him into the car, supporting most of his weight, and I was gently placed beside him. My hands trembled as I stared at Kane, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing.
Was this the same man who had just challenged the Widow Collector?
The same man who carried me out like
nothing could touch him?
He had done all of that while bleeding. While in pain.Respect settled deep in my chest.
So did fear.Not fear of my fate if he died. That thought barely crossed my mind.I was afraid for him.For Kane.
I watched his face as his breathing grew heavier, his jaw clenched tightly as if he was refusing to give pain the satisfaction of breaking him. Admiration burned in my eyes, mixed with something dangerously close to care.
I had planned revenge once.
I had planned to use his daughter to hurt him.
Now the thought made my chest ache with guilt.
“Stop staring at me,” he said suddenly, his tone cocky even now.
I snapped my eyes away immediately, my cheeks burning.
But my heart refused to calm.
I did not just belong to Kane.
Somewhere along the line, without meaning to, I had started to feel something for him.