The Comments Told Me To Run, He Wouldn’t Let Me Chapter 01

Crippling social anxiety had ruled my life for as long as I could remember.

I was a grown woman who’d never even had a boyfriend.

Every heat cycle, the only thing that got me through was breathing in Alden’s pheromones.

[The ML is so pitiful. His stepmom saved him once and now he’s stuck letting his leech of a stepsister use him every single day.]

[He was FINALLY about to meet the FL today and one phone call dragged him right back. I can’t.]

[Thank god he only promised to look after her until she turned twenty. Two more weeks and he’s FREE!]

[And if the stepsister keeps clinging after that, just toss her into the Sea of Oblivion and let the sharks have her!]

Sharks. I was terrified of sharks.

Alden’s fingers were already on his top button. I grabbed his hand before he could undo it.

He looked down at me, his expression flat.

The words barely made it past my throat.

“Th-thank you, Alden. But you don’t have to do this anymore.”

“I won’t need your help again.”

…

My true form was a rabbit.

I was born premature, and my body never caught up. Malnourished from day one.

Most rabbit shifters were skittish. I made them look brave.

On my first day of kindergarten, I took one look at all those faces, held my breath, and blacked out.

My mom pulled me out and kept me home for a few days.

When she sent me back, I held my breath and passed out again.

The doctor—a deer shifter—said if I kept this up, I’d do real damage to myself.

Better to just have my mom teach me at home.

My mom agreed.

But her true form was a koala.

All she wanted out of life was to cling to the tree in our yard and chew leaves.

She was lazy.

Not particularly bright, either.

But god, was she beautiful.

One day she saw Alden Blue on the news. Eight years old, already a mech design champion, already accepted into the imperial military academy.

She showed up at the Blue family’s front door.

One bold move, and she got exactly what she came for—she married his father.

The good life lasted only a few months.

She was a glutton. She ate a cookie that had been meant for Alden, and it killed her.

The cookie was poisoned.

A gift from Alden’s best friend.

The kid was jealous, so he’d laced it with poison.

Alden was supposed to eat it.

My mom got to it first.

And just like that, she was gone.

I was four years old and completely alone. The most pathetic little rabbit you’d ever seen.

I shifted into my rabbit form, dug a hole in the Blue family’s garden, and buried myself in it.

Alden dug me out.

He rubbed the top of my head.

“I’ll take care of you from now on,” he told me.