The mob of high-born socialites surged forward, an avalanche of claws, fangs, and fury.
Lexianna didn't flinch. She tightened the silver tail wrapped around the green lady's throat, fully prepared to snap the woman's neck and use her as a meat shield. It was basic crisis management: liquidate the immediate threat to stall any consequence.
She braced for impact.
It never came.
Something suddenly happened, a strong wind struck and her hair billowed out, the shrieks were instant.
The elite beauties were picked up and violently thrown backward. They crashed into the bioluminescent flower beds, slammed against the jagged statues, and tumbled across the white stone path.
The massive jade table cracked straight down the middle with a deafening snap, teacups and porcelain shattering into a thousand pieces.
Lexianna's tail lost its grip as the shockwave washed over her, dropping the gasping green lady to the floor.
When the wind finally calmed, the dust settling over the ruined garden, a massive silhouette blocked out the violet sky.
Arkin.
He stood directly in front of Lexianna, his dark robes absorbing the ambient light. The air around him was literally sizzling, thick with the smell of pure, concentrated killing intent.
He didn't look at the groaning women. He looked straight at the head of the ruined table.
"How dare you, Mother?"
The Demon Luna had managed to stay in her bone throne, shielded by her own aura, but her immaculate crown of hair was slightly disheveled. She stood up, her hands slamming onto the cracked jade.
"What is this behavior, Arkin?!" the Queen demanded, her voice trembling with a mixture of shock and outrage. "You would attack the noble daughters of the realm for this—"
She didn't finish the sentence. The sheer, suffocating weight of Arkin's aura spiked, cutting off the oxygen in the garden entirely.
All around the lawn, the high-born ladies were dragging themselves off the ground, clutching their chests and coughing up blood. The elegant tea party had been instantly reduced to a triage center.
Arkin turned his back on the Queen. He stepped toward Lexianna and reached down, his large, calloused hand gripping her upper arm to effortlessly haul her up from the ground.
He pulled her flush against his chest, his eyes frantically scanning her body for injuries.
Then, he saw it.
The right side of Lexianna's face was already swelling. The flawless, ethereal makeup she had painstakingly applied was marred by a stark, violent red handprint that stretched from her cheekbone to her jaw.
Arkin froze.
The temperature in the garden plummeted to sub-zero.
The dark, dying-star black of his irises instantly ignited into a luminous, feral ruby red. The muscles in his jaw locked so hard it looked like the bone might snap.
"Who touched her?"
The voice didn't sound like Arkin. It was a lethal, vibrating hiss that seemed to echo from the very depths of the Abyss. It bypassed the ears and struck directly at the soul.
Every single person in the garden flinched. The moaning beauties went dead silent, pressing themselves flat against the grass. Even the Demon Luna visibly paled. She grabbed the forearm of her trembling maid and took a definitive, cowardly step backward.
Lexianna felt the absolute, unhinged violence radiating off the man holding her. It was too much. If he let go, he was going to level the entire courtyard and everyone in it.
"Arkin, it's fine," Lexianna muttered, slipping back into her CEO tone. She reached up to touch his chest. "Don't worry, I already handled—"
Arkin's head snapped down.
He threw her a glare so dark, so violently intense, that the words died instantly in her throat. It wasn't a look of anger directed at her; it was the absolute, non-negotiable command of an apex predator telling his mate to stand down.
Lexianna shut her mouth. A smart executive knew when a board member had gone completely off the rails. You didn't argue with a hurricane.
Arkin looked back up at the terrified crowd. A thick, pulsing blue vein strained against the scarred skin of his neck, practically popping under the pressure of his rage.
"I will ask one more time," Arkin repeated, every syllable a death sentence. "Who. Laid. A hand. On you."
Lexianna let out a quiet sigh. She surrendered the floor.
She let her body go soft, leaning her weight casually against the wall of his chest. Without a word, she raised an elegant, perfectly manicured finger and pointed directly at the sobbing mess of floral green robes crawling away near the broken table.
Arkin's ruby gaze snapped to the target.
The lady in green froze. The color drained entirely from her face, leaving her a sickly, ash-grey. She stuttered, a pathetic, wet sound escaping her lips as her eyes darted wildly around the garden.
She scrambled backward, her hands slipping on the spilled tea and blood.
No, the lady mouthed, panic completely hijacking her nervous system.
She closed her eyes and desperately channeled her core, attempting to pull her magical aura inward to disappear.
"Come here."
It was a soft command, devoid of any shouting.
A tendril of dark red mist slithered out from Arkin's shadow. It moved faster than the eye could track. Just as the green lady's body began to fade into the spatial tear, the mist whipped around her throat like a noose.
It violently yanked her out of the ether.
The lady crashed back onto the white stone path, sliding across the ground until she was hovering mere inches from Arkin's boots, suspended entirely by her neck.
"Please," she whimpered, tears streaming through the dirt and blood on her face. Her hands clawed desperately at the red mist, her legs kicking. "My Lord, please, I didn't—she disrespected—spare me—"
Arkin looked down at her with the cold, detached boredom of a man stepping on an insect.
He slowly raised his right hand.
He didn't chant. He didn't draw a weapon. He simply looked at the sobbing, begging noblewoman, and clenched his fist.
The sound was wet, immediate, and utterly final.
The red mist constricted with the force of a hydraulic press. The green lady's body violently convulsed once, and then went entirely limp. Before the body could even drop to the floor, it dissolved.
A sharp, high-pitched wail echoed through the garden as the lady's soul was violently ripped from the universe, dissipating into nothingness.
Lexianna stared at the empty space where a woman had been a second ago. Her breath hitched. He really is crazy.
Arkin lowered his hand. The mist vanished.
He didn't spare the ash a second glance. He slowly turned his head, his glowing ruby eyes locking onto the Demon Luna.
The Queen was trembling. Her knuckles were bone-white where she gripped her maid's arm. The absolute dominance of her son had finally shattered her arrogant delusion.
"This should be a last warning to you, Mother," Arkin said. The volume of his voice was normal, but the threat echoed off the palace walls.
The Luna gulped audibly. She forced her stiff, terrified facial muscles to move, lifting her lips into a sickly, trembling half-smile in a desperate attempt to salvage her dignity.
Arkin pulled Lexianna tighter against his side, his hand wrapping protectively around her waist.
"My woman is pregnant," Arkin announced.
The words dropped into the silent garden like a live nuclear bomb.
"And no one," Arkin continued, his voice dripping with venom, "even you, has the right to touch a single hair on her head. The next person who tries will not just lose their life. I will eradicate their entire bloodline."
The Queen's eyes rolled back. She swayed, practically fainting into her maid's arms.
Lexianna whipped her head to the side, staring up at Arkin's sharp, unbothered jawline. Her mouth fell open, her eyes wide with horror and dumbfounded disbelief.
"I am pregnant?!"