I Rejected My Obsessive Werebeast novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

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Chapter 33

I kept my face still. No softening. No pity. He wasn’t telling me this for pity.

“I’m lucky. I survived,” he said, “because I was too stubborn to die in a place like that. That’s the only reason.”

“You didn’t fight for anyone?”

He looked at me. “Who would I have been fighting for? I didn’t even know my own birthday.

“1

I nodded. Accepted it. Moved on. “When did you start helping the others? The younger ones.

“After I made it out.” He looked past me, toward the window. “I climbed up. Finally got out of the pit. And I looked back.”

His jaw tightened. Just for a second.

“There were hundreds of them. Still down there. Kids who looked exactly like I did when I went in. Rotting in the same cages. Getting beaten by the same handlers. And I realized

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He stopped. Swallowed. “I realized I was the only one who’d made it out who remembered what it felt like. Everyone else who got out either forgot or pretended they did.”

He looked back at me. “I couldn’t pretend.”

I closed the notebook. Set it down on the table in front of me.

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“That conversation,” I said quietly, “hit harder than I expected. Thank you for telling me.”

Kane didn’t respond to that. Just gave a short nod.

I stood up. At some point, Silas had slipped away without me noticing I paused in confusion for a moment before deciding to go find him.

“Thank you for your time, Kane.”

He nodded again. “You’ll get the interview slot. You earned it.”

I smiled, turned to leave.

My boot caught the edge of the rug.

—

It happened fast the toe caught, my weight pitched forward, my arms came up too late to catch myself. I felt myself going down.

Then a hand on my arm. Another at my shoulder. Firm. Steady. Kane had moved before I’d even finished falling. He righted me, held me upright just long enough for my feet to find solid floor again.

“Careful,” he said.

Footsteps behind me. I turned.

Silas was standing at the mouth of the hallway. His hands were in his pockets. His face was unreadable.

His eyes were on Kane’s hand. His voice was cold. “What are you doing?”

I bounced back out of Kane’s hold like I’d been electrocuted. I stepped backward, caught my own toe again. Recovered barely. My face was burning. I could feel it crawling up from my neck to my ears.

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“The rug caught my foot,” I said quickly. “Kane just — he caught me. That’s all.”

Silas didn’t look at me. He looked at Kane. Then back at me. Then/at Kane again.

His jaw unclenched. His shoulders shifted a fraction, but I’d been around him long enough to read it. The tension bled out slowly.

He stepped forward, pulled me in against his side with one arm around my waist, and reached out to shake Kane’s hand with the other.

“Thanks for looking after her,” he said. Tone was even. Controlled. But his arm around me said something else entirely.

Kane took the handshake. Nodded once. Didn’t comment on the atmosphere, which was probably the smartest thing he could’ve done.

“You should watch your step,” he said. “Next time.”

“Thank you.” I replied.

“I’ll take care of her. “Silas’s grip on my waist tightened, and he turned me toward the door.

We walked out like that. His arm stayed locked around me through the driveway, around the corner of the house, past the gate. I didn’t complain.

Not until we were around the corner did his fingers finally loosen. Just a little.

The car started. Silas pulled out and drove down the street without saying anything.

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