Chapter 23 23

Chapter 23 23
Selene 

I remained silent as Cassius carried me into the beaker’s room. My body was in so much pain and I actually felt like I was dying. But still, I did not allow a tear to drop down my eye and I continued to convince itself that it was all happening for a purpose. For revenge. I was going to get revenge on Dain and his family and luckily, Gracia had been added to the list. I would fucking kill her. 

“Yiu did not have to carry me.” It was so unusual that Gracia just decided to whip me after days. I was not a fool and I knew exactly why she was doing what she was doing. Gracia liked Cassius. It was so obvious from the way that she acted and what if she did what she did because she was jealous that Cassius helped me? That was what I could think off and heavens was definitely going to punish her for that. She literally asked me to go that she had forgiven me. 

And why was Cassius carrying me? People were staring at us as we walked. People as in the maids. And I noticed them murmuring. I knew that they could easily identify that I was a maid due to the collar on my neck, so I hid my face in his chest. 

“You are injured. There is no way that you would walk.” He told me and I sighed. Actually, I would be able to walk. I was still a fucking werewolf and I was already planning on gleaming myself a little once I got to the room. I was not going to fully heal so that I would not arise any suspicions. 

“Im a slave.” I told him. He was the Beta. A fucking Lycan. What Cassius was doing was something that you would never see in a hundred years to come. Not ever. Not among the werewolves or Lycans, they were wicked and cruel. They had no sympathy over humans. 

“But you are a living thing.” He told me and I sighed. But we were also not friends. I was a common slave. I had only met Cassius once. Ke knew nothing about me. 

We arrived at the healer’s place and he took me inside. My back was all wounded, the cloth I wore torn so badly it barely clung to my chest. Every step he took made the lash marks burn like fresh fire.

The healer, old and sharp-eyed, looked up immediately when we entered. The bowl in his hands stopped mid–movement.

“Beta Cassius,” he breathed, bowing his head quickly. “What brings you—”

Then he saw me. Or… what was left of me.

His eyes widened, not with contempt, he wouldn’t dare show that in front of the Beta—but with alarm.

“My lord, she—she is hurt.”

Cassius didn't release his hold on me. “She was whipped.”

The healer’s gaze flicked over my body. The torn cloth covering my breasts. The blood dried on my ribs. The long, raw slices down my back.

He swallowed. “Set her on the table. Gently.”

Cassius obeyed without hesitation, placing me on my stomach on the wooden surface. The wood was cold against my skin. The moment I was laid flat, pain shot through my entire spine. My breath caught in my throat.

The healer moved around the table quickly, his hands trembling slightly not from fear of me, but fear of displeasing Cassius.

“Who did this?” he asked.

“I didn’t ask you that,” Cassius answered, voice low.

I felt his eyes on me. Heavy. Unreadable.

The healer approached with cautious steps, as though afraid his movements might anger the Beta. He reached for my torn shirt.

“My lord,” he said softly, “I must remove what remains of this garment. It’s sticking to the wounds.”

Cassius nodded once. “Go on.”

I closed my eyes.

The healer’s fingers were gentle but the cloth was stuck in patches where the blood had dried. When he peeled it away, it tore skin with it. I gasped, biting hard on my lip.

“Easy, child,” the healer murmured. “I’m sorry.”

He wouldn’t normally apologize to a slave. But Cassius stood three feet away, watching everything.

When the cloth came free, it left me completely bare from the waist up. I instinctively tried to reach forward, to cover myself, but my arms trembled too much.

Cassius noticed.

Without saying anything, he stepped behind me, positioning himself so the healer blocked most of his view and his presence blocked anyone else’s.

I didn’t know if he meant to protect my modesty, or if he didn’t care at all. I didn’t know anything about him.

The healer leaned closer and I felt the air shift as he inhaled.

“These lashes… they’re deep,” he murmured. “Some were struck with claws, some with a whip. And her skin… gods, she’s been cleaned with nothing.”

“She was left like this,” Cassius said.

There was something dangerous in his voice, something quiet and lethal.

The healer quickly began gathering supplies—bowls of water, salves, herbs, cloth. He moved with urgency now, nervous fingers fumbling slightly. He kept glancing at Cassius like a man terrified of failing him.

“Forgive me, Beta,” he said, “but this will hurt her greatly. Humans don’t—”

Cassius cut him off. “Just do it.”

The healer nodded and dipped a cloth into warm water mixed with stinging herbs. He pressed it to my back.

I screamed.

Not loud, but enough that Cassius flinched.

“I must clean the lashes thoroughly,” the healer said quickly. “If the dirt stays, the wounds will rot.”

I nodded into the table, my breath shaking.

He kept cleaning. The rag dragged over torn, raw skin. Every wipe felt like fire. My fingers twitched uselessly on the table.

Cassius moved to stand closer to my head. His voice lowered.

“Breathe.”

I tried.

But the healer pressed again, harder this time, and a broken sob escaped me.

The healer tensed. “My lord, I—”

“Work,” Cassius ordered. “But do not cause her more pain than you must.”

“Yes, Beta.”

The healer resumed, slower this time, more careful. Yet every touch still hurt. Sweat gathered on my forehead. My vision blurred.

When he finished cleaning, he reached for a jar of thick green paste.

“This will numb the pain,” he said. “But the first contact will burn.”

I expected Cassius to say something maybe order him to skip it. But he remained silent.

The healer smeared the paste across my back.

I screamed into my arms.

The burn was unimaginable like hot needles were dragging across every lash mark. My legs kicked involuntarily. My hands clawed the table.

Cassius’s hand came down on my arm not painfully, “Look at me,” he said softly.

I lifted my head, tears blurring his face. His golden Lycan eyes locked onto mine. “It will pass.”

I didn’t believe him.

But I held his gaze anyway.

Slowly and slowly, the burn eased. The pain sank into a dull, heavy ache. The healer sighed in relief.

“It’s working. She won’t feel the next part as harshly.”

“What's next part?” I croaked.

The healer didn’t answer. He lifted a thin metal tool. Cassius stiffened.

“You’re not cutting her,” he said.

The healer paled. “Beta, the lashes have sealed unevenly. They will heal twisted. She won’t be able to bend her back without agony.”

Cassius looked down at me, jaw hard.

“Do it,” I whispered again.

His brows furrowed. “Are you certain?”

“I’ll suffer forever if you don’t,” I whispered.

Cassius exhaled slowly. A long, heavy breath.

“Do it,” he told the healer.

The healer began. The metal split open the crookedly closed cuts. Not deep, not enough to bleed much, but enough for me to feel it even through the numbing paste.

I trembled violently. My teeth chattered. My breath came in gasps.

Cassius stayed beside me the entire time.

Silent.

Unmoving.

A presence I didn’t expect but somehow needed.

When the healer finished, he spread more paste over the reopened cuts and wrapped my torso with long, tight bandages, covering my chest with more care than anyone had shown me in years.

“She will need rest,” the healer murmured. “Days of it.”

“She’ll have it,” Cassius said and I held back a smile.