I Never Loved You Anyway Chapter 03
I held on tight and let out another quiet sigh.
“Logan,” I murmured, closing my eyes.
I meant every word.
“Whenever you decide you’re tired of settling, we can just call it quits.”
That was a close call.
I had almost fallen for a substitute.
I tilted my head back, staring blankly up at his face in the pale moonlight.
Logan really did look exactly like him.
Especially that day. It was uncanny—even his voice and facial expressions were a perfect match.
Thinking back, I’d only actually met the guy twice.
The first time, I was locked in a sweltering, cramped storage closet, hyperventilating my way through a panic attack.
The noise I made woke him up.
He crawled out from under a pile of busted cardboard boxes, muttering curses and dragging his massive, filthy tail behind him.
Then he clamped a scarred hand over my mouth and nose.
He made me listen to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, guiding my breathing again and again until I finally leveled out.
Once I caught my breath, I asked him his name.
He just flashed me a cheeky grin.
Playing it cool, he said,
“I don’t give out my name when I help people.”
The second time was the day I graduated high school.
Genevieve and I had gone to watch an underground beast fight.
And there, inside a blood-stained steel octagon, I actually saw him again.
The hyped-up crowd below the ring kept chanting at him, “Wolf!”
Wolf.
Was that his name?
I froze right in front of the cage, and my gaze locked onto the werewolf’s cold, red eyes.
A brief flash of surprise crossed his face.
But that split-second distraction was all it took. His opponent—a drugged-up, aggressive hyena—lunged, tearing off a huge chunk of his flesh.
Blood poured from the gash; it was deep enough that I could see bone.
Meanwhile, the manager standing next to me was proudly pitching his fighter. “Wolf never loses.
“Even when he’s mangled and bleeding out, as long as he’s still breathing, he’ll fight back and win.
“Just put your money on Wolf, miss—you’re guaranteed to turn a profit.”
Raising my voice over the deafening roar of the crowd, I pushed the words past my tight throat. “How much?”
“Whatever you want to bet, just put it down—”
“I’m asking how much it costs to buy his freedom!”
I was usually too timid to make eye contact with anyone, but that day, pure anger made me stare a hole right through him.
My shouting actually startled the manager.
He studied my young face and gave a mocking smirk.
“Little girl, there are plenty of rich women who want to buy him.
“They offer serious money, but he’s never leaving this cage.
“He escaped once already. When a werebeast escapes and gets caught, there’s only one way it ends for them.
“They fight in the arena until they die—”
Before he could finish, Genevieve—who’d been standing there quietly with her arms crossed—let out a harsh laugh, openly calling his bluff.
“Seriously, man, do you just get off on lying to kids?
“All that garbage about big money and fighting to the death is bullshit.
“We both know you’ll do any dirty job if the price is right.”
Genevieve was right.
“Name your price,” I said, keeping my gaze steady.
Seeing I wasn’t backing down, the manager rolled his eyes and casually tossed out an outrageously high number.
He did it on purpose, knowing damn well I couldn’t afford it.
But when Genevieve saw me tearing up in frustration, she didn’t mock me the way she usually did.
Instead, she pressed her lips together, thinking for a second, and handed me a bank card.
“This is the first time in your life you’ve ever wanted something this badly,” she said.
When she looked at me, her expression was a mix of awkward pity and a trace of guilt.
“I took first place in the mental power competition. “
“The prize money gets deposited onto this card in two months.”
“Consider it my way of making things up to you.”
Making up for what?
All those lonely years when my parents acted like I didn’t exist?
I honestly didn’t know how to feel about that.
I just quietly replied, “Thank you, Genevieve.”
That day, I had to empty out my entire personal savings just to cover the deposit to see Wolf.
He was wearing a heavy collar with an iron chain around his neck, resting quietly inside the metal holding cage.
His breathing was so shallow I could barely even hear it.
