I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 11

I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 11

I walked home in a daze, every moment from the past two months with ‘Theo’ replaying in my head

He wasn’t Theo

He was

I pushed open the front door.

He was on the couch in those fuzzy bear pajamas, watching a true-crime show.

The second he saw me, he fumbled for the remote and switched the channel.

“Miss Maren, you’re back?”

“Did you find a burial plot?”

I just stared at him.

His easy smile faltered.

“What’s wrong, Miss Maren?”

“Are you sad? Want me to make you something sweet? You’ll feel better…”

I called his name.

“Adrian.”

His pupils blew wide. Panic flashed across his face, and he stammered, “What… what are you talking about? Adrian’s gone. Is Miss Maren still not feeling well…”

1 cut him off.

“Stop pretending. I know you’re Adrian.”

I stepped closer. He flinched back into the couch.

“I don’t know how you managed to swap appearances with Theo, but why did you lie to me?”

“I… I’m not.”

“Stop running from it and tell me the truth!”

My voice broke on the last word.

His tail went limp. He stopped fighting.

“Yes. I altered our DNA.”

“That night, I didn’t actually leave. After you went out looking for me, I told him you loved me more. I

convinced him to go to the lab.”

He was too trusting. He wanted you to like him so badly that he agreed to switch places with me Just like

that

1 spent twenty years in that lab I knew every drug and every procedure inside and out. Changing our

appearances was nothing’

My vision blurred with tears. “Why?”

He looked up. His face was streaked with tears, and he was laughing, this awful, broken laugh tearing out of

him

“You’re asking me WHY?”

“Because you always want something new. And I had nothing left to give.”

“You didn’t want me anymore. You only wanted him…

“Becoming him was the only way I could stay!”

He was shaking, fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white

I had the truth now. It settled in my chest like ice.

Tears ran down my face and I couldn’t stop them.

1 only agreed to the swap because you kept pushing me away. Because they told me forcing you into the wrong role would destroy you”

You were my whole world I loved you. That’s why I let you go

“How could you do that to Theo? You’re no different from the people who did this to you

That one landed hard His whole face collapsed

“Even if I know you love me now, what does it change? He died saving you I’ll never live up to that Not for

the rest of my life’

Td rather have been the one who actually died At least then you’d be mourning me instead of him’

‘After we swapped, the people from the lab found us. They caught us both

His voice dropped. “I felt guilty So I helped him get out and stayed behind They set the whole lab on fire

barely made it out alive.

He looked straight at me, and the faintest, saddest smile crossed his face

“Every day since then, I’ve been grateful I let him go. Because if I hadn’t, there would have been no one on that

road to save you.”

Thank God you’re okay’

I stared at the face I’d come to know. And the man behind it had never felt more like a stranger

Even my voice was shaking.

“Adrian, Theo was alive. He was a living, breathing person!”

“How can you talk about it like it was nothing? Like his life didn’t matter?”

“If you hadn’t played with my feelings, I never would have gone out that night. And if you hadn’t lied to him, if you hadn’t sent him to that lab, he’d still be alive…”

He stood there and took every word. Like a man waiting for the final blow to come down.

His face held nothing but grief.