I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 08

I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 08

He saw everything.

He went completely still.

“You two…”

Theo pressed against my side, a collar with a little bell fastened around his neck. He bit his lip, eyes damp. “Miss Maren, why didn’t Adrian knock? My face is burning…”

I pulled the blanket over him.

I pointed at the door. “Get out!”

It took a second for him to even react.

His mouth opened and closed. He looked hollowed out.

“You touched him… and you bought that little snake a collar just like mine…”

“You’re into this needy little act now?”

Something in me snapped.

“What, should I like YOU instead?”

“Adrian, just leave me alone!”

The catnip pillow slipped from his arms. He swayed, staggered, and caught himself against the wall.

His breathing came out ragged.

His voice fell apart, and the tears came all at once, fast, uncontrollable, streaming down his face.

“You’re saying you don’t like me?”

“How can you not like me…”

“Not even a little?”

It was the first time I’d ever seen Adrian cry.

My chest seized up so tight I couldn’t breathe.

Adrian was the kind of cat who’d grit his teeth through blood and pain without making a sound. He never

cried. Not once.

But he was crying now. Because of me.

Did I like him?

I’d told him I liked him a thousand times in three years.

When he first came home with me, his skin was covered in bruises and injection marks. It took weeks of

care before he’d even let himself nuzzle against me.

But after our first time together, something shut off in him.

I didn’t blame him.

Even after I realized he resented me, even when it gutted me, I’d tried to think about what was actually fair.

He was companion-class. Intimacy wasn’t something he needed or owed me. Keeping him with someone like me, someone who wanted too much, would only hurt him more. I’d been trying to do the right thing. For both

of us.

I didn’t answer. Adrian’s sobs turned raw, gasping, barely able to get air.

He dragged the back of his hand across his face.

“I get it…”

“I won’t get in your way anymore, Maren.”

He was gone before I could get a word out.

I threw the blanket off and started after him.

But Theo caught my arm from behind, and I heard him crying softly.

“I know you care about Adrian. But he said he’d never leave, right? So you don’t have to worry…”

“I’m so hungry. It hurts…”

The agency had warned me, real intimacy-class hybrids needed physical intimacy to stay healthy once they

bonded with an owner.

I stayed frozen for three seconds.

Then I gently pried his hands off me.

“I said something I shouldn’t have. Let me go talk to him first, and I’ll come back to you. Be good.”

Theo sat on the edge of the bed and watched me go. His golden ears drooped, and his eyes were rimmed

red.

Then he got dressed and followed me.

Adrian wasn’t in the guest room.

He wasn’t anywhere in the house.

Outside, the storm was ripping through the night. Where would he go in this?

Dread settled in my gut.

I grabbed an umbrella and ran out.

He’d left his phone behind. I couldn’t find him in the downpour, so I messaged the agency, desperate for some

way to track him.

The message bounced back. [This agency does not exist or has closed.]

My heart dropped.

I looked up too late. A car was swerving across the road, coming straight at me.

There was no time to move.

Someone slammed into me from behind, hard enough to shove me out of the way.

Everything went black.