She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 05

She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 05

He stepped forward, and the sheer weight of his presence bore down on her.

Chloe’s legs gave out. She hit the ground with a hard thud, scrambling backward on her hands,

trying to put distance between herself and Raymond.

“I didn’t. I didn’t push her. She threw herself in. She’s framing me!”

“Framing you?”

I stepped out from behind Raymond. She looked pathetic on the ground, and I didn’t feel even a shred of pity. Just satisfaction.

“Seven beastmen, Chloe. You took seven from me. Every single time, you called it ‘testing their loyalty,’ and then you slept with them and bragged about it to my face. Did you think I’d just forget?”

“I gave you chance after chance, and you pushed further every time. You wanted to leave me with nothing before the bonding ceremony. No options. No choice but whatever feral reject the state shoved down my throat. You wanted to ruin my life.”

“You told everyone I was jealous, that I was unhinged. But you were the monster all along.”

I crouched down to her level and looked her dead in the eyes.

“You said you already had Brandon. You said you had no reason to take Raymond. So why did you keep going after him? Why did you badmouth me to his face? Why did you drag me into the lake with you?”

Chloe’s mouth opened, then closed. She had nothing.

Her jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscles twitching, and her eyes burned with something

feral. Not shame, not guilt. Pure resentment.

“Because I can’t stand it. Why you? What makes you so special that the Beast King’s son chose you? I’m prettier than you. I’m the charming one. Anything good should be mine.”

“The beastmen. Raymond. All of it. Mine.”

There it was. Every ugly truth she’d been hiding, out in the open.

Brandon stood off to the side, listening. His face had turned to stone.

It finally sank in. He’d never been anything to Chloe. Not for a single second.

Just a tool she used to get close to other beastmen and make me look bad.

She’d never loved him. She could barely stand the sight of him.

Humiliation crashed over him.

Brandon lunged forward, grabbed a fistful of Chloe’s hair, and hauled her off the ground.

“You bitch! I gave you everything, and I was just a pawn to you? You told me we’d bond. You looked me in the eye and lied!”

Chloe shrieked, clawing at his grip on her hair.

“Let go of me, Brandon! You think a reject like you gets to touch me? I’m a Vance. Touch me again,

and my parents will destroy you.”

“A Vance?” Brandon let out a sharp, ugly laugh.

“You stole your sister’s beastmen, played me like a toy, and tried to drown her. You think the Vance name means anything when it comes out of your mouth?”

Before Chloe could answer, shadows moved in from every direction.

Raymond’s men. All of them.

They’d been stationed around the park the whole time, waiting for his signal.

One look from Raymond was all it took. They moved in and closed the circle around Chloe and

Brandon.

These were veterans, battle-hardened soldiers who’d fought alongside the Beast King himself. Every one of them looked like he’d handled worse before breakfast.

Chloe collapsed. Whatever fight she had left vanished.

She couldn’t even scream. She just stared, white-faced, mouth hanging open.

“What are you going to do to me? My parents will… they’ll come after you for this!”

Her voice shook. She was still playing the only card’she had left.

Raymond’s laugh came out dark and humorless.

“The Vance family? Your parents don’t have the power to threaten me, and they know it. They stood by while you tormented Valerie for years. I’ll be settling that score with them, too.”

He turned to his men.

“Take her. Under beastman law, deliberately targeting a beastman’s intended mate is a high crime. She will answer for every count.”

His gaze landed on Brandon. “And this one was an accomplice. He doesn’t walk away clean, either.”

Two of them hauled Chloe to her feet. She hung between them like a rag doll.

Brandon swung at the nearest one. A fist caught him square in the jaw, and he dropped.