Chapter 116: ¹¹⁶: I did it!

Mother Elena placed the orb onto the wound on Athena’s back.

A low groan escaped Athena’s lips as soon as the orb made contact with the wound, her body instinctively tensing from the pressure around the injury. However, she didn’t budge.

Mother Elena immediately steadied her hand and closed her eyes, concentrating her powers once again on the wound. A faint sheen of sweat appeared along her forehead as she focused all her attention on suppressing the dark magic coursing through Athena’s body.

She remained like that for several moments, completely still except for the slight movement of her fingers as she channeled her magic.

Finally, she felt the dark magic begin to subside. Mother Elena let out a strained breath of relief.

"Keep her like this," she gasped as she carefully pulled her hand away from the wound and placed the orb back into the box.

Her expression remained tense. "Don’t move her until I come back with the things I need for the next step."

Damian nodded immediately. "Okay." He watched as Mother Elena carefully moved toward the door, making sure to leave the room as sneakily as possible so that the grandmother wouldn’t notice her absence or discover Damian inside.

Once the door closed behind her, Damian’s gaze returned to Athena.

Her eyes were still closed, and her breathing remained faint but steady. Fine beads of sweat had formed across her forehead, making Damian’s chest tighten with worry.

He stared at her pale face for a few seconds.

"You are so strong, Athena," he whispered.

He slowly raised his right hand and used the sleeve of his shirt to gently wipe the sweat from her forehead.

There was an unusual softness in his eyes as he looked at her. "I promise you, I will stay with you through every step from now on." His voice was barely above a whisper.

He then placed his hand beneath her ear, gently caressing her cheek with his thumb. "Get well quickly. It hurts to see you like this," he whispered, his voice trembling slightly.

As he continued looking at her face, his own eyes gradually turned red. He quickly blinked, trying to hold back the emotions building inside him.

Just then, the door to the room opened again. Damian immediately looked up. His mother stepped inside, carrying a large box in both hands.

"Mother, what happened? Is it something serious?" He said not moving even slightest, afraid he would hurt Athena, while his eyes were fixed on his mother’s worried expression.

"It was serious," Mother Elena replied quickly, sitting beside him and Athena as she opened the box she had brought with her. "But don’t worry. She will be fine after I place this medicine on her."

She reached inside the box and pulled out a small bottle filled with a thick green paste. Carefully, she applied the medicine over both of Athena’s wounds before placing a clean bandage over them.

She looked up at Damian. Her eyes immediately fell upon his hand, which was still resting gently against Athena’s cheek.

"What are you doing?" she asked, shaking her head at her son’s dumbfounded expression. "Move your hand and help me wrap this bandage around her waist!"

"Ah? Yes, Mom." Damian immediately pulled his hand away, looking down and suddenly finding it very difficult to meet his mother’s eyes.

He quickly focused on the bandage instead, helping her carefully wrap it around Athena’s waist.

After the wounds were properly bandaged, Mother Elena moved back and placed both the medicine box and the rosewood box back inside the cabinet. She closed it securely before turning around.

Her gaze fell on Damian, who was still holding Athena with his left arm, keeping her body suspended in the same position.

"Place her back onto the bed now," she said, moving across the bed again to help him.

Damian nodded. He carefully lowered Athena onto the mattress, making sure not to disturb the freshly bandaged wounds. Once she was settled, he gently pulled the quilt back over her.

After stepping away from the bed, Damian looked at his mother. From the serious expression on her face, he knew he would have to explain everything now.

Mother Elena also looked up at Damian, her eyes filled with worry. "How could you not notice how much pain she was experiencing if you were with her?" she asked, her voice low but filled with disbelief. "Her wounds were flaring with dark magic. It must have caused pain so excruciating that it would have been enough to kill any grown wolf!"

Damian’s eyes widened. He glanced at Athena in shock before looking back at his mother. "Mom, she didn’t show it even once on her face," he explained quickly. "If she hadn’t reacted so strongly to some strange thing in her room, I would have never known she was in pain!"

He paused, his expression changing as he remembered what had happened. Only now did he realize that Athena must have been deliberately hiding the pain she was feeling so that she wouldn’t worry him.

"Even after that episode, she told me she was fine and that I shouldn’t worry about her."

"She reacted to something in her room?" Mother Elena asked, looking at Damian in confusion. Her brows furrowed as she tried to understand what he meant. "Where were you two?"

"Mom, we had gone back to her pack," Damian replied, keeping his head lowered.

"What?" Mother Elena’s eyes widened in shock. She glanced at Athena before turning back toward Damian, disbelief written clearly across her face.

"How could she have gone out of the pack when Mother had specifically told her not to?" she demanded. "Mother will not be happy about it when she finds out!"

"She didn’t want to go. It was me who suggested it," Damian said quickly.

Mother Elena stared at him in shock. "What? What did you say?" she asked, her voice rising slightly despite her attempt to keep it low. "You! You suggested that she do that? Why? Don’t you know how strict your grandmother is when it comes to going in and out of the pack?! It is dangerous, Damian! How could you?"

She placed a hand against her forehead, already imagining how furious her mother would be once she found out what had happened.

Then her expression suddenly changed as another realization struck her. "No wonder she was able to find a way out of my illusion," she said, staring at her son. "It was you who had taken her after all!"

Mother Elena shook her head in disbelief, suppressing the urge to simply walk around the bed and hit her foolish son for putting them in such a situation.

But just then, a faint groan came from the bed. Both of them immediately turned toward Athena.

"She is gaining consciousness!"