I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 12

I Bought the Wrong Beastman, and He Begged Me to Keep Him Chapter 12

I took Adrian to the Everbrook field office.

I told them everything.

Agent Merritt cuffed him and had him transferred to federal holding to await trial.

He studied me for a long moment.

“I didn’t think you’d actually bring him in. If Tessa hadn’t sworn you would, I’d have come to take him in

myself.”

I forced a hollow smile.

“I love Adrian. But not more than another person’s life.”

“Some things you can’t undo.”

Adrian was sentenced to ten years in federal prison.

During the trial, he asked to see me.

I wasn’t far away. But I didn’t go.

They told me he fell apart completely.

I brought Theo’s remains home from the morgue and buried him in the backyard under the old oak tree.

I hoped that in his next life, no one would ever inject him with anything again. And that he’d never end up with

someone like me.

He’d suffered so much, and he’d been so good. He deserved better than anything I gave him.

In the years that followed.

I never let anyone else get close.

Tessa worried about me. She couldn’t help it. “You can’t stay frozen forever, Maren. Theo wouldn’t want this

for you.”

I never had an answer for her. Something inside me just wouldn’t heal.

That night.

I dreamed of Theo again.

Not blood this time. Not the road. Just a garden, green and alive, bursting with flowers.

He was chasing butterflies through the blossoms, clumsy and slow, the way he always was.

When he saw me, he lit up. A purr rumbled from his chest, and he ran to me.

“Miss Maren!”

“I love you so, so much. No one was ever this good to me. You fed me and kept me warm, bought me toys I

liked, gave me a collar with my own name on it, and held me through every thunderstorm…”

“You made me feel like more than just a dumb cat nobody wanted. You never called me stupid. You always said I was good.”

“Because of you, I was the happiest cat in the whole world.”

“I hope you will be happy too…”

“I want you to have the happiness I had.”

It was only a dream. And then it was over.

I woke up staring at the ceiling. The pillow was soaked.

I got up and went to the framed photo of Theo on my nightstand.

I lit a candle beside it.

The candle flame flickered. I closed my eyes and clutched his old collar to my chest.

“Please, God. Watch over Theo. In his next life, let him be safe. Let him be happy.”

“Please.”

Outside the window, the stars seemed close, and the moon was bright.

It was time to go on living.

(The End)