Page 58 of Knotted By the Triad

“Kitchen. Okay, where’s the kitchen?”

He pointed weakly toward a doorway.

“Stay here.” I took two steps before turning back and pointing at him. “And don't try to get up.”

“Yes, Princess.”

His eyes were already closing again. Yet, here I was, blushing because he’d called me princess. I needed to get it together. I hurried through the doorway and found the kitchen. My gaze landed on the ice chest.

If I wasn’t in a life-or-death situation, I would’ve chuckled at seeing the modern item CiCi had written into the book. Looking away from it, I found a basin, filled it with hot water, and started opening cabinets and drawers until I found clean cloths.

There was even a small collection of medical supplies tucked inside one cabinet, which I grabbed. In another cabinet, I found a bottle of moonshine. Perfect. And in an adjacent room, I found some clean linen.

Anything that could clean a wound or soak up blood came with me. I washed and dried my hands before picking up my supplies and heading back to the living area. When I returned, Daemin hadn't moved. I set the basin on the floor and dropped to my knees beside him.

“Daemin?”

His eyes opened slowly. “I'm here.”

“Good. I’m going to start cleaning the area around the wound now.”

“Okay, mate.”

I dipped one of the cloths into the warm water and wrung it out before carefully cleaning the blood around the wound. His stomach contracted beneath my touch, but otherwise, he barely reacted. Considering how deep the fragment looked, that bothered me.

“Can you feel this?” I asked, praying he hadn’t lost feeling in the area.

“Yes, I feel it.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you react then?” I asked.

“Trying not to scare you any more than I already have,” he whispered.

My hand stilled.

“Are you talking about when you tore another dragon's throat out in front of me?”

His eyes opened and met mine. “Did that scare you?”

I'd watched Daemin become something terrifying. I'd seen his dragon covered in blood. I'd watched him tear through another dragon because that dragon had tried to kill me. It should have scared me.

But when I thought about that moment, fear wasn't what I remembered. I remembered him getting between us, shielding me from that beast. I remembered his dragon carrying me away even as poison spread through his body.

I remembered falling and realizing he'd deliberately turned beneath me so that his body hit the ground instead of mine. I didn’t fear this man because of what he’d done tonight. I feared what he made me feel. I feared that come morning, I’d lose him to the omega he truly loved.

“No,” I said quietly. “You didn't scare me when you killed that dragon.”

“No?”

“No.” I rinsed the blood from the cloth before returning it to his side. “Your dragon had plenty of opportunities to hurt me tonight. He didn't. He protected me. Thank you.”

“But you don’t look... happy.”

I sniffled. “I guess I’m still in shock,” I lied.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I looked his way again. “For what?”