Chapter 214 – Ruin Translator: Atlas / Editor: Regan Looking at the unconscious Leah, Ishakan sighed. He knew she was in poor condition physically, but he had still behaved ferociously. Shaking his stiff manhood a few times, he drained the last few drops of his s3men. “Ahh...” Just looking at the white, naked body before him made the heat rise again. Surely, if she saw it, she would be terrified. Frowning, Ishakan tried to calm down as he cleaned himself and then Leah, covering her carefully with a blanket against the cold. Rising to open the windows, he sat back against the headboard and pillowed her head on his thigh, lifting a cigar to his mouth. His eyes half-closed as soon as he drew the first puff, and smoke rose into the air as he exhaled slowly. He had been smoking significantly more lately. And he knew why. Gazing into the smoke with lost eyes, he glanced down at the woman in his lap. Leah’s silver hair was scattered and disarrayed, sleeping so soundly that no one could dare to wake her. Gently, he stroked her slender neck with his brown fingertips. Her body was so frail, it seemed even the slightest squeeze would break it. Compared to the strength of a Kurkan, she was as fragile as a newborn kitten. But this fragile woman could make Ishakan do whatever she wanted. The center of his world, the wife who held a part of his soul. Bending, he kissed her on the head. Ishakan was not a very emotional person, so he had rarely felt such intense emotions. Except anger. He had felt anger, when he was a child slave. But since his coming of age ceremony, no one had dared to be reckless with Ishakan, so there had been no reason to be angry. That had only changed when he met Leah again, and for the past half year, he had experienced many emotions with an intensity he hadn’t felt in years. “......” Quietly, he chuckled. Honestly, he couldn’t remember most of that day. Only fragments remained. But the moment when his bride had been caught in the black smoke was still horribly vivid. It had shattered him. He wasn’t sure he remembered it correctly. He had been barely hanging onto his sanity when he ordered everyone to Estia immediately. Haban and Genin had sobbed as they tried to stop him, begging him not to go. They had been covered in his blood. Belatedly, he had realized that all the Kurkans that had attended the wedding were doing the same, throwing themselves on him and clinging to his body to restrain him. From that moment on, he had had only one purpose. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 He wouldn’t get her back unless he did it carefully, so Ishakan tried his best to keep his composure, but he was held together with string. As the days passed, the line between his reason and his nature blurred. His patience was wearing thin. Watching Leah straining to please Blain made his blood boil. Ishakan looked down at her left hand, and the red mark on her ring finger, weighted by that heavy ring. Gently, he brushed it with a fingertip, but the mark did not fade. Slowly, he intertwined their fingers, gripping hers as if he would never let go again, no matter what happened. In her sleep, Leah frowned. Maybe he had held her harder than he intended. But he didn’t let go of her hand. He couldn’t. Even if she didn’t recover her memory before the wedding, he would take her to the desert. She would surely hate him. She would reproach him for his barbaric behavior, bound by her love for Blain. And just as she had been when he kidnapped her the first time in the field of eulalies, she would be frightened. It would be strange to play that role again, but he would do it if there was no other way. His golden eyes glinted, and the veins in the back of his hands bulged through his skin. He was being patient. He was being as patient as he could. But he would not see her become another man’s wife. He couldn’t stand that. He had already ruined her life once. He would ruin it again, as many times as he had to. That was why Leah had to remember the past. Before he destroyed everything.