My Rib Is Her Guitar Pick Chapter 02

My Rib Is Her Guitar Pick Chapter 02

“Sunniva, you’re awake?”

The door to my hospital room opened, and Malak walked in. He took my hand, his eyes filled with concern.

“The Healer said your fifth rib was too badly damaged to save. They had no choice but to replace it with a titanium-alloy rib implant. I’m sorry. I should have protected you.”

If I hadn’t heard everything with my own ears, I probably would have surrendered to his false tenderness just as I always had.

But now I knew that his most genuine tenderness was reserved for someone else.

I silently pulled my hand from his and asked, “Where is my silver dagger?”

Malak’s expression changed. “Why do you need your silver dagger?”

I raised my head, my voice calm.

“I’m going to punish the person who shoved me down the stairs and make sure she pays for what she did.”

Malak seized my hand, his eyes turning vicious.

“Are you out of your mind? Sera is performing at the Moon Goddess Festival in a week. How can you be cruel enough to destroy her future?”

His grip nearly crushed the bones in my wrist, but I held his gaze.

“So I’m supposed to let the two of you destroy my future instead? Stop pretending, Malak. There was a delay before the anesthetic took full effect. I heard everything. You wanted to take my rib.”

Malak froze, and guilt flickered across his face.

I ignored him. I had already spotted the dagger inside the bag beside my bed. I needed to get my rib back.

But before I could, Malak snatched the dagger away. With a pang of grief, I realized that my strength and reflexes were nowhere near what they had once been.

Malak pinned me to the bed and lifted my chin with the silver dagger. The blade bit into my skin as fury blazed in his eyes.

“Sunniva, are you still angry because Sera kissed me?”

“If you hadn’t thrown your drink at her in front of everyone, she never would have pushed you. You started it, so you should face the consequences. Giving her your rib is nothing more than the compensation you owe her!”

His sheer self-righteousness made me laugh bitterly.

“I never knew proper etiquette involved shoving your tongue down someone else’s mate’s throat. Or did you simply enjoy getting intimate with her? Fine. Then let’s break the mate bond. I don’t want to be your Luna.”

For the first time in the five years since we had sealed our mate bond, I said those words.

Malak’s expression stiffened before he scoffed.

“Break the mate bond? Don’t make me laugh, Sunniva. The only reason you kept climbing through the warrior ranks was to break into elite pack society and leave all that lowborn Ironcrest trash behind, wasn’t it?”

“You’ll become part of the Ashwood family soon enough. You’ve gotten everything you ever wanted, so spare me the independent-woman act.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

Yes, I had chosen the warrior path and fought my way up the ranks because higher-ranking warriors earned more.

But I had also wanted to prove that I was more than the lowborn label everyone had forced on me. I wanted to succeed through my own strength, not use a mate bond as a shortcut into a higher class.

I had never known this was how Malak had seen me all along.

He had once told me he was drawn to how hard I fought for everything I earned. Now he had forgotten every promise he had made.

Malak glanced at his watch and released me. His voice softened.

“Sera will be awake in half an hour. I need to bring her breakfast. If you’re hungry, ask one of the Healer’s aides to bring you something from the hospital kitchen.”

When he reached the door, he seemed to remember something and looked back at me.

“Sunniva, don’t forget that your father ran up a debt of two hundred thousand gold coins at the casino last year. Then he was beaten nearly to death in a rogue camp. I brought in specialist Healers overnight, saved his life, and cleared his debt for him.”

“Your parents signed the surgical consent as your next of kin. Vesna Ironcrest wanted to buy a condo in Highridge Enclave and came to me for four hundred thousand gold coins. To them, trading one of your ribs for the life of comfort and status Vesna wanted was a bargain.”

“The bonding ceremony will go ahead as planned at the end of the month. If you want to report everything to the Elders, I won’t stop you. You’ll simply have to repay the medical expenses along with Vesna’s debt.”

The door closed in front of me.

I collapsed against the pillows, covered my face, and laughed bitterly at myself.

In Malak’s eyes, our mate bond, my career, and even my body were all things he could put a price on.

A debt could be repaid, but a life could not.

Malak was forcing me into submission, and he was doing it all to protect Seraphina.

I borrowed a phone from one of the Healer’s aides and dialed a number I had for someone in Stormhowl Pack.

“Hello, Alpha Vinterborn. Could you… lend me some money?”