With a heavy heart, Damon silently walked up to the sleeping woman and stopped by the bench, his resentful eyes fixed on Gloria's face.
After looking at the sleeping Gloria on the bench for a long time, he said, "Wake up."
Gloria woke up when she heard a noise in her daze.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Damon standing beside her. Instantly, she was no longer drowsy.
She opened her mouth but did not know what to say. Facing Gabrielle's brother, what could she say anyway?
She figured that Damon wouldn't want to hear her crying foul at all. Yet should she apologize to him? She was the one who was set up. Why should she apologize?
Gloria slowly lowered her head and did not speak.
Damon looked at Gloria. He wanted to hear what she would say to him after three years.
He waited for a long time, yet she did not say a word to him.
"Miss Carter, don't you have anything to say to me?"
Gloria opened her mouth, only to find that she had nothing to say.
She could easily say "I'm sorry" to anyone because she wouldn't be beaten up so much after saying those words. However, Damon, Gabrielle's brother, was the only exception. She couldn't say those words to him. He would never hear those words from Gloria.
"Miss Carter, I'm Gabrielle's brother. Are you sure you really don't have anything to say to me?" Damon shouted at Gloria as his heart was burning with rage.
He wanted to see the guilty look on Gloria's face.
Meanwhile, under his agitated and angry gaze, Gloria, who had been keeping her head low in silence, slowly raised her head. She looked into Damon's eyes, which were filled with resentment. Unlike his eyes, hers were clear and upright.
"What are you going to say to me?" Damon's words came through his gritted teeth.
Even his muscles were trembling in anger. He thought, 'Why isn't there a trace of guilt on her face? My sister is dead! Even that can't make her feel guilty?'
Gloria smiled as she looked at the fierce-looking Damon and said calmly, "Beta Damon, can't you tell? I have answered you already."
She often hunched her back and curled up like a rat. But now, she stood upright and faced Damon's resentment fair and square. This posture was Gloria's answer.
She had done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide from Gabrielle's brother.
Gloria looked at the sky and realized that it was going to rain.
She stood up and walked into the villa quietly.
Damon could not believe his eyes. Gloria left without saying a word under his gaze.
He wanted to run after Gloria and question her more, but what Patrick had said to him in the morning was still ringing in his ears.
Damon's expression changed.
He thought, 'Alpha Patrick is so protective of this woman. Unless I want to be banished, I shouldn't do anything to her now.'
It was only when Gloria entered the room that the uncomfortable feeling of being stared at from behind finally disappeared.
As soon as she entered the room, her whole body went limp. She could not imagine how she would suffer in the days to come.
What happened between Damon and her today wasn't over yet.
She shook her head to put all the thoughts in her mind away for a moment.
The sky gradually darkened. A man and a woman were eating quietly in the dining room of the Alpha's villa in the Black Thorn Pack.
The food in front of Gloria was delicious, but she had no appetite.
She put the salad into her mouth on autopilot. Suddenly, Patrick handed her a plate of cut steak.
Gloria glanced at the plate beside her and did not refuse him.
Yet she didn't touch the food on the plate while she was eating.
Patrick saw her movements and arched an eyebrow. He picked up a piece of steak with a fork and put it next to her mouth. He said softly, "Try it."
Gloria's stomach churned as she looked at the piece of beef on Patrick's fork, but she opened her mouth unwillingly due to the pressure of the gaze overhead and ate it anyway.
She chewed on the beef briefly and was about to swallow it.
"I don't mind feeding you with my mouth," Patrick said in a flat voice.
Gloria instantly got his point.
Before she swallowed it, she paused. She dared not swallow it, challenging Patrick next to her.
She chewed the beef in her mouth carefully, looking at Patrick out of the corner of her eye.
At the same time, the last soup was served.
"Wait," Patrick said. He picked up the napkin on the table and wiped his mouth. Then he held out his hand to stop the maid from putting the soup in front of Gloria.
"She doesn't eat basil," he said in a low and deep voice while nimbly picking out the basil from the bowl.
Then Patrick ordered Damon, "From now on, don't add basil to the food."
He picked out the basil in the soup and then pushed the soup in front of Gloria and said, "It's without basil now. Finish the soup."
Perhaps Patrick was the only one who could turn sweet words into commands.
Damon stood to the side, the muscles on both sides of his cheeks bulging, and he clenched the hand that he had kept behind his back into a fist tightly.
He thought, 'How could Alpha Patrick remember such a detail?
Poor my Gabrielle, if Alpha Patrick had already put her behind his mind.'
Damon's eyes shone abruptly with a cold light. He would not allow that to happen.
He made up his mind and he must act quickly.
Time passed quickly, and it was already winter.
Life in the Alpha's villa was peaceful, but it somehow made Gloria panic inexplicably.
Ever since Patrick took her to the villa, her life every day was very regular.
From others' eyes, he was nothing but thoughtful to her.
If it was a different woman, she would have been utterly moved by Patrick.
However, the more he cared for her, the more uncomfortable Gloria felt.
He always liked to sit by the bedside of the bedroom and read under the bedside lamp when she was bathing.
When she came out of the bathroom, he would stand up, take the hairdryer in his hand, and walk up behind her, running each finger through her hair.
He also enjoyed kissing her bossily in the morning.
There were other intimate behaviors like these.
Yet Patrick never had sex with her or marked her.
But he would often make those intimate gestures to Gloria that were supposed to be made between mates as if they had already performed a ritual in the presence of the Moon Goddess.