She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 04

She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 04

His voice brushed against my ear, warm and teasing, nothing like the panicked boy who’d screamed Chloe’s name from the shore a moment ago.

I went completely still. I’d been choking on lake water only seconds ago, but the panic vanished

entirely.

Water still churned around us, but his palm felt hot against my skin, and the arm around my waist

didn’t waver.

The same eyes that had looked so worried about Chloe up on shore now caught the light on the water, soft and playful. There wasn’t a trace of concern for Chloe left in them.

He’d been faking it. All of it.

The realization hit so hard I almost laughed. Every ounce of dread I’d been carrying just dissolved.

All the hurt, all the fury, melted into something warm I didn’t have a name for.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him hold me steady. My lips found his ear.

“Not bad. But you almost gave me a heart attack.”

Raymond laughed, a low, quiet sound, and swam us toward the shore.

His strokes were smooth and sure. The water was freezing, but pressed against him, I couldn’t feel

On the other side of the lake, Brandon had dragged Chloe out.

She was hunched over, coughing up water, hair plastered to her face. Her makeup was smeared beyond repair. She looked like a drowned rat.

She looked up just in time to see Raymond carrying me through the water, my arms still around his

neck.

Her mouth fell open. She froze.

Her jaw worked, but nothing came out.

The Raymond who had frowned at me? The one who defended her and invited her along? How could

he be holding me like I was the only thing that mattered?

-…

How could he have chosen me without a second’s hesitation and whispered jokes in my ear while, she struggled in the water?

Brandon was holding Chloe upright, but his expression had gone dark.

He watched Raymond shield me, and it finally clicked-every time Chloe had brushed him off, every lie she’d fed him.

Whatever love had been in his eyes soured into something ugly. His fingers dug into Chloe’s arm

without him even noticing, and she yelped.

“Brandon, you’re hurting me!” Chloe shook him off, but her eyes never left Raymond.

“Raymond, why did you save her? She pushed me in!”

Raymond helped me onto the shore. He grabbed a towel from a nearby bench, wrapped it around my shoulders, and brushed the water from my face with his thumb.

Every movement was careful, tender. He never once looked at Chloe. She might as well have been

invisible.

Only after he’d pulled me behind him did he finally look up.

The warmth was gone. The eyes he turned on Chloe could have frozen the lake solid.

Something shifted in the air, the raw authority of the Beast King’s bloodline rolling off him in waves. Chloe and Brandon both stumbled back a step before they could stop themselves.

“She pushed you?” Raymond’s voice dropped, quiet and laced with contempt.

“Chloe. Did you really think I couldn’t see through every pathetic little game you played?”

His gaze flicked to her trembling hands, then to her eyes, where the scheming still hadn’t faded.

“The very first time you pressed yourself against my arm, that little ‘accident,’ and flashed the marks on your wrist to make Valerie look bad? I knew exactly what you were doing.”

“You thought that would work on me? I played along because I wanted to see just how far you’d go. Valerie’s been putting up with you for years. I wanted to give you enough rope to hang yourself.”

Every drop of color drained from Chloe’s face.

She backed away, shaking her head, like she could make it untrue if she denied it hard enough.

“No. That’s impossible. You had feelings for me. I could tell. You defended me. You invited me

today…”

“Defended you?” Raymond’s eyebrows went up, and the contempt on his face sharpened.

“I gave you exactly what you wanted to hear so you’d get comfortable. Comfortable enough to show your hand. I wanted everyone to see who you really are, and you made it easy.”

“And inviting you today? I wanted to see if you’d cross the line when it mattered most. You didn’t disappoint. You actually dragged her in with you.”