She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 06

She Stole My Seventh Beast, I Smiled Chapter 06

Fists and boots rained down on him from every angle.

He howled, but there was nothing he could do. He curled into a ball on the ground and was forced to

take it.

Chloe hung limp between the two soldiers holding her, watching Brandon get beaten, watching

Raymond’s cold stare, and it finally hit her. There was no getting out of this.

The arrogance was gone. The charm was gone. She was just a girl with tears streaking her face and her nose running, sobbing like her world had ended.

“Valerie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I’ll never go near your beastmen again, I swear. I’ll never hurt you again. Just tell Raymond to let me go. Please. I’m begging you…”

She reached out toward me, grasping at nothing. I watched her and felt absolutely nothing.

Years of cruelty didn’t disappear just because she choked out an apology.

Every time I’d let it go, she’d taken it as permission to do worse. She’d tried to destroy me. Why should I give her anything?

“Chloe.” My voice came out steady. Quiet. Final.

“The second you dragged me into that lake with you, we stopped being sisters.”

“Everything you’ve done is going to catch up with you. And I’m done protecting you from it.”

Chloe’s sobbing cut off. She searched my face for something mercy, hesitation, anything.

She didn’t find it.

Her whole body sagged. Only the soldiers were keeping her upright. Her eyes had gone blank.

Raymond’s men carried Chloe out. They dragged Brandon behind them, his face swollen beyond

recognition. The amusement park crowd swallowed them up, and then they were gone.

When it was over, Raymond pulled me in close and didn’t let go.

We found a place to change into dry clothes, and he got me a hot coffee.

The warmth spread through me with every sip, chasing out the last of the cold.

I leaned into Raymond while he toweled my hair dry. For the first time in as long as I could remember, everything felt still.

For the first time in years, someone chose me without conditions. I didn’t have to walk on

eggshells, didn’t have to hide my beastman like a secret, didn’t have to swallow accusations I

hadn’t eartied.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.” Raymond’s voice was low, tinged with guilt.

“I should’ve called her out sooner. You shouldn’t have had to carry it this long.”

I shook my head and pressed my palm against his cheek. “Don’t. It’s not your fault. I was the one who let her walk all over me for years. I didn’t even fight back.”

“Never again.” Raymond caught my hand, brought it to his lips, and held it there. His eyes were steady, certain.

“As long as I’m here, no one touches you. Not Chloe. Not your parents. No one.”

I believed him.

He was the Beast King’s son. He had the power to make it true.

When I’d finished the coffee, Raymond took me home.

I couldn’t put this off.

I pushed the front door open. My parents were in the living room, and they looked like they’d been waiting to explode.

The tea on the table had gone cold. Crumpled papers littered the floor.

They already knew about Chloe.

The second she saw me walk in with Raymond, my mom was on her feet, voice already at a scream.

“Valerie! You have some nerve showing your face here. Where is your sister? What did you do to

her?”

>My father slammed his fist on the table and shot to his feet, jabbing a finger in my face.

“You ungrateful little… Chloe is your own flesh and blood, and you sided with some guy to have her dragged away? You get her back right now, or I swear to God, Valerie, you will regret this.”

Not once did they ask if I was okay. Not a single question about the girl who’d been dragged into a

lake.

There was only ever one daughter in this house, and it had never been me.

A lifetime of favoritism, exposed in thirty seconds. Whatever hope I’d been holding onto, that maybe, just once, they’d choose me, crumbled.

I looked at my parents and felt nothing at all.

“Where Chloe is isn’t up to you anymore. She targeted a beastman’s intended mate, deliberately repeatedly. Under beastman law, that comes with real consequences.”

I lifted my chin and met their furious stares.

“I nearly drowned today. And neither of you has asked me once if I’m okay. That tells me everything I need to know about what kind of parents you are.”

“Oh, please. Nothing happened to you. So she stole a few beastmen. She’s your sister! It was just a prank. What’s the big deal?”

“But you… you’d really go this far over something like that? What is wrong with you, Valerie?”