Chapter 8 - Meeting Selene

RHEA

My heart skipped a beat as I walked down the stairs. There were workers all around, but they were minding their own business.

In the dining room, Travis and a woman were already there. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but her laughter echoed across the house. When she saw me, her laughter stopped, but the smile was still wide on her face.

Standing, she left her seat and rushed to me.

“You finally decided to leave your room, huh?” she said as she stood in front of me.

I paused, unsure of how to react to the sudden friendliness. Firstly, I didn’t know who she was, and I was afraid my reaction might stir up some misunderstanding. But seeing how close she was to Travis, they could be lovers. She could be his girlfriend or something.

Chuckling to suppress the tension within me, I nodded. “Yeah. Food is necessary, and I heard Mr. Travis loves to eat with everyone.”

My gaze shifted to Travis, who had begun to eat as if my presence wasn’t forced by him.

“Really…?” The smile on the woman’s lips froze. “Oh! That’s just who he is,” she added. “Don’t keep standing here. Come eat before the food gets cold.”

She held my hands and pulled me toward the chairs.

However, before I could reach the chair, my legs bumped into hers, and that was also the moment she decided to let go of my hands. The sudden release of her grip made it extremely hard to prevent my body from falling.

In the end, I stumbled to the ground, hitting my butt hard and mercilessly.

“Ah!” I groaned, biting my lower lip to suppress my shout, because if I truly reacted to the intensity of the fall, the whole house would shake. “Fuck…!”

“Rhea!” The woman rushed over and stooped to my level. Her eyes were filled with so much worry and concern that it made it impossible to think she intentionally did what she did. But I doubted she had such intentions. Even if she were Travis’s partner, my presence would help them achieve their goal, which was having a child. She wouldn’t attempt to hurt me, knowing that endangering me could equally endanger the baby in my womb.

“How did you fall? Aren’t you watching your steps?” She raised my elbows and rubbed them gently. Her voice shook with fear and concern.

“I… maybe…” I pointed nowhere in particular since I couldn’t even give a clear explanation of why I really fell. “I lost my balance,” I muttered, smiling to assure her that I was fine.

I peeked in Travis’s direction; he was still eating. He didn’t spare me a glance even though he heard that I had fallen. Scoffing, I rolled my eyes and tilted my head. Even if he didn’t care about me, he should at least care about his baby.

“Lost your balance? That could endanger the baby’s life, and you know how much it means to Travis. That’s his baby,” she said aloud as she helped me up.

From her words, I picked up that she wasn’t related to the baby in any way, but I couldn’t say the same about the relationship between her and Travis.

“You have to be careful henceforth, Rhea.”

“Don’t tell her to be, Selene,” the man who had been eating as if his life depended on it deadpanned. He raised his cold gaze and stood up. “Don’t tell her to be careful. I want her to put my baby at risk and see what would happen to her.”

I blinked. My lips parted, but I couldn’t formulate an utterance. His eyes reddened and his jaw clenched. The atmosphere became so chilly that goosebumps covered my skin.

He started taking steps forward.

“This is what I hate about humans. They are weak and unstable. They fall every damn time… every damn time.”

I took steps backward while he kept erasing the gap between us. My breath hitched.

“I…”

“There’s something else you haven’t been told, kitten,” he muttered, stopping just a few inches away from me. “Consider yourself dead if anything happens to my pup.”

His lips curled into something sinister. He leaned forward, causing me to tilt my head backward. His orbs probed mine for seconds.

“You have only one duty, kitten. Carry the baby… safely.”

Then he blinked and stood straight.

I let out a deep breath. I thought I could die from that stare, but somehow I managed to survive.

“Travis, you are scaring her. It isn’t her fault she slipped,” Selene intervened. She stepped forward and shielded me from him.

“I don’t care, Selene. It’s her duty to stop herself from falling. She would have done that if she weren’t a weak human.” His voice was getting louder. “Leave here!” he ordered.

“Trav…”

“You fucking heard me, Selene. Leave right now!” He looked around. “I want only Rhea here.”

Instantly, everyone left the room except Selene and Darian.

“Selene,” Darian called.

Selene turned, held my hands, and shook her head. With a smile, she said, “Don’t be scared, Rhea. He’s just being protective of his baby.”

Pursing my lips, I stared blankly. Selene said he was just being overprotective, but I didn’t believe that. Right now, he resembled a predator, and I definitely didn’t want to be his prey.

Darian jerked her hands from mine and dragged her out, leaving just me and the boiling Travis in the room.

I turned my gaze. “I…”

He closed in on me before I could say “Jack” and grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t think I don’t know your tactics, kitten. You are trying to hurt my pup, huh?”

“What?” My face twisted. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” he growled.

“I…” I swallowed. He looked like he could kill me on the spot, and God forbid I die in his hands. “I didn’t know Selene’s legs were in the way, so I bumped into them.”

I felt bad mentioning Selene’s name in the whole story, but there was no other choice. He needed to know the full story and stop making it seem like I was the careless and clumsy one.

However, I didn’t expect him to release a few bubbles of laughter after hearing that.