Chapter 5 The Alpha King Has a Really Great Figure

Avira's POV

“I won't say anything!”

I answered quickly, and immediately warned myself that my life mattered most. The Alpha King did not need my extra sympathy.

Kylan looked at me for a moment, then loosened his fingers.

I stepped back a few paces and quietly rubbed my wrist.

“Get out, and close the door behind you.”

He braced himself on the edge of the desk. The moment he sat down, I heard a faint intake of breath.

No, I still had to remind him. It wasn't out of sympathy. It was because if I walked out of here and something happened to him afterward, everyone would think I had done something to the Alpha King. If I got accused of treason then, I would really be finished.

“You need to call for a physician.”

“It’s just an old wound. I can handle it myself.”

“It’s exactly because an old wound is bleeding again that it’s harder to deal with! That only proves you didn’t take proper care of it before.”

He looked over. I stopped where I was. I didn’t dare move closer, but I didn’t leave either.

That small wet patch on Kylan’s sleeve kept spreading. Clearly, the wound was seeping even more badly now.

“Alpha King, tell me who I should call. I’ll only fetch that physician. I won’t shout all over the castle that you’re injured.”

“Do you not understand what get out means?”

Of course I understood, but I couldn’t just walk out like this, for both our lives.

I felt around and found the bell pull by the desk, but I still didn’t dare tug it. I just gripped the cord and stared at him.

Kylan glanced at my hand, then bit back a sigh through his teeth.

“That’s enough. Let go.”

The next second, he reached out and pulled the bell cord himself.

By the time the butler came in, he was already sitting back in his chair, his bloodstained hand hanging beneath the desk.

“Call Alex over. Tell him you have a slight fever. Don’t alarm anyone else.”

The butler nodded at once and withdrew. My goal had been achieved, so I edged a step toward the door, planning to slip away.

“Avira, you stay.”

Damn it. Why was there still something involving me?

I stopped and saw Kylan leaning back in the chair, a fine layer of sweat already beading on his forehead.

“Wait until the physician arrives. Then you can go.”

I let out a breath of relief, pulled the door nearly shut, and returned to the desk, choosing a spot a little farther from him to stand.

While waiting for the physician, he still wanted to go through documents. But the moment his hand touched a folder cover, he hissed and stopped. In the end, he only pushed it farther away.

Tsk. So what if he was the Alpha King? He got injured too. He felt pain too. Good. Let him suffer a little. Maybe then he would understand people like us at the bottom.

Kylan suddenly lifted his head and glanced at me. I immediately went alert and stopped drifting off. Just as I was guessing what else he might order me to do, hurried footsteps finally sounded outside the door.

The physician named Alex was a gray-haired man carrying an old leather case. He came in, asked nothing, and went straight to Kylan’s side to examine him.

“It bled again?”

Kylan nodded. “Maybe the clothes weren’t loose enough. I must have rubbed against it by accident.”

So Alex had known all along that Kylan was wounded. I relaxed a little. At least someone could testify for me now that I had not harmed the Alpha King. Of course, that was only if this Alex was a decent person.

But someone this familiar with Kylan probably wasn’t that good either.

Alex looked at the huge stack of documents on the desk and seemed to understand that Kylan had been working at high intensity again today, so he shrugged.

“Alpha King, you said the same thing last time. The clothes are truly innocent. You should have rested after coming back wounded from the border. But no—you work in the day, and work at night too. How is the wound supposed to heal?”

I lowered my head and suddenly felt a bit of respect for this physician.

I only complained about Kylan in my head. He actually dared to say it to his face?

Kylan looked at me, seemed to hesitate a little, then answered Alex:

“The poisoned arrow has already been removed. What other problem could there be?”

“Alpha King, that was a wolfsbane silver arrow. An ordinary person would die from being struck by one! You really care nothing for your own health.”

I lifted my head in surprise.

Wolfsbane was deadly poison to wolf-kind, and wounds left by silver were harder to heal than ordinary cuts. Alex was right. If I were hit by something like that, I would drop dead on the spot. Yet Kylan had come back injured and still looked that well. He really was worthy of being Alpha King.

Physical condition: plus one hundred points.

By the desk, Alex had already taken out scissors to cut open Kylan’s sleeve, but after one look at the cluttered tabletop, he withdrew his hand.

“Let’s go to the bedchamber. There’s no room to deal with it here, and you can’t keep sitting.”

Kylan didn’t move. He stared at me as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Alex followed his gaze to me. After waiting a moment, he asked, “Do you need her to help you over?”

“No.”

Kylan finally stood up. I quickly opened the door and hurried ahead down the corridor first, holding open the bedchamber door for them.

Once both of them had entered, I watched Kylan sit down by the bed. Alex reached out, placed a pillow behind him, and he leaned back against it with rare obedience.

Alex instructed the butler to prepare washing tools and clean cloth, then to find one more person to help.

I thought that should mean I was no longer needed. Just as I was about to slip out, Kylan said, “No need to find anyone else. Let her stay. The fewer people who know, the better, in case word reaches the old Luna Queen.”

God, how touching. Kylan and the stepmother who had supported his succession really were so close. To keep the old Luna Queen from worrying, he had decided to sacrifice my time tonight alone? I should probably take back the hundred points I had just given him. Kylan really did not deserve such a high score from me.

Alex turned to me. “What’s your name? Have you ever cared for a wounded person before?”

“Her name is Avira.” Kylan cut him off. “She’s my personal maid. If you teach her how to treat wounds, I’ll have to trouble you a lot less.”

Then my wrist would probably break a lot more times. I looked at Kylan, remembered how hard he had gripped me just now, and worked very hard to suppress the urge to roll my eyes.

“Alpha King, I can do things like pour coffee and deliver documents, but I don’t dare handle wounds. If I can’t learn it, can someone else be assigned?”

Kylan’s gaze paused on my wrist.

“Listen to him first.”

Alex opened the leather case and showed me the wrapped instruments inside.

“I’ll do the wound cleaning and the medicine myself. You’ll hand me gauze, hold the lamp, and if necessary support the clean dressing. I’ll tell you where to place your hands. Don’t touch anywhere I don’t mention.”

I looked at those things and nodded, then turned to ask Kylan:

“It doesn’t sound too hard. But should nursing work be counted separately for pay?”

Alex looked at me as if he had seen a ghost, like he had never met such a bold maid.

Kylan pressed one hand to his forehead. “How much this time?”

Alex’s expression became even more ridiculous.

I grinned. “At the castle’s night nursing rate. Six silver coins for the day.”

On my first night here, I had already asked around about the wages for every kind of work in the castle. When money was involved, no one was going to fool me.

“All right.”

Kylan agreed very readily this time, perhaps because the wound really hurt. Sure enough, if you wanted to talk money with him, you had to do it when he wasn’t fully clear-headed.

Under Alex’s urging, the treatment officially began. Holding the lamp, I stepped to the bedside.

Kylan began unfastening his buttons.

The open collar, his chest, and the abdomen tensing with each breath all appeared clearly before my eyes in the light from the lamp in my hand.

The Alpha King really did have... a very good body.

I tried hard to keep my gaze following Alex’s hands, but I still accidentally caught sight of Kylan’s firm abs.

At that instant, I tightened my grip on the lamp handle and had to force myself again not to let my eyes wander, fixing them on the bandages instead.

It was only when Alex spoke to remind me that I realized the light had tilted onto the wall, and I hurriedly corrected it.

“I’ve never done this kind of work before, sorry,” I explained softly, but I sounded terribly guilty.

Kylan looked at me, and a teasing smile showed in his eyes.

But the next second I had no mind left to think about what it meant. Alex had already cut open Kylan’s shirt sleeve, and I saw the thick bandages soaked through with blood, the layer closest to the wound stuck tightly to the skin.

Kylan’s brows were drawn tight. I didn’t dare look around anymore and focused on keeping the light from interfering with Alex’s work in the slightest.

Alex used damp gauze to gently moisten one corner beneath the bandage. As the cloth lifted away, an opened arrow wound was exposed.

The edges of the wound were gray and dim, and fresh blood was running down his forearm.

I gripped the lamp handle tighter, and my breathing stopped for a moment.

In the daytime... he had been carrying this wound while standing under the ladder and holding me steady. How much must that have hurt?

Kylan suddenly reached out with his uninjured hand and steadied the lamp in mine.

“I’m fine. Don’t shake. Alex won’t be able to see.”