The Moment I Let You Go Chapter 02
An ambulance was waiting at the base of the mountain.
Once the paramedics patched up my cuts and gave me the all-clear, we headed home.
Nadia stopped at the front door. Reaching up on her tiptoes, she ruffled Killian’s hair and put on a mock-stern voice. “You can’t treat Ada like that anymore, got it?
“Even if you don’t like her, she’s still a girl.”
Killian just kept his head down, quietly taking the scolding.
I stood off to the side, taking in their equally flawless faces.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it—how could the werebeast I’d raised for years take a virtual stranger’s side over mine so easily?
Just the night before, Killian had nearly torn a group of thugs apart while rescuing Nadia.
When I stepped in to pull him back, he had actually bared his teeth at me.
But the second Nadia said, “Ian, no,” his fangs instantly vanished.
I had raised my hand and slapped him—the first time I’d ever hit him.
The crack was sharp.
I just stared at him, dead serious. “Killian. I am your owner.”
I never thought that one sentence would piss him off enough to ditch me in the middle of the mountains.
“I left markers on the trail. You were just too stupid to notice them.
“Adelyn, as long as you stop telling people you’re my owner, I promise we can live together without any drama.”
That was what he had told me before we hiked back down.
But I was genuinely exhausted. I was so sick of feeling upset every time I watched him fawn over Nadia.
It was messing with my work, too. Lately, I’d been so distracted at the clinic I almost missed the vein a few times, terrifying the already skittish rabbits I was trying to treat.
I looked at Nadia and finally said it. “If you really like Killian, I can transfer his ownership to you.”
Killian whipped his head around, his voice uncomfortably loud.
“Are you seriously still mad about what happened on the mountain today?
“Adelyn, is this really necessary?”
I touched the cut on my forehead, thought about it for a second, and said, “Yeah. It is.”
“What is that supposed to mean? You’re the one who insisted on adopting me in the first place, and now you’re pretending to give me away just to scare me.”
He was getting visibly worked up, the veins standing out on his neck.
I didn’t get it. Shouldn’t he be thrilled?
After all, he had always wanted a respectable woman like Nadia to be his owner.
Nadia placed a hand on his tense arm muscles, her voice soft and soothing. “Don’t yell at Ada. She’s just angry and saying things she doesn’t mean.
“If she really wanted to hand you over, she’d have brought out the bonding pact.”
Killian stepped aside at that, looking like he was mulling it over.
I gave a tight nod. “Wait here. I’ll go inside and get it.”
But I tore through my room and couldn’t find it.
A cold sweat of anxiety started to prickle on my skin. Then, I heard a scoff from behind me.
“You usually hide it so well and never let me touch it. Why can’t you find it now?”
Killian didn’t look angry anymore. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, looking perfectly calm and confident. “It’s a little late to regret your words now, don’t you think?”
He always talked to me like that. So harsh.
Blinking back the hot sting in my eyes, I kept my mouth shut and kept scouring the floor.
Finally, I found the bonding pact wedged deep in the gap behind my bed.
I walked back outside holding the document, just in time to see Killian getting into Nadia’s car and shutting the door.
“Wait!”
I yelled, sprinting after the vehicle.
The car didn’t stop.
Nadia checked the rearview mirror. “Looks like Ada’s really taking this hard.
“She’s crying.
“You sure you don’t want to get out and tell her we’re just catching a movie?”
Killian smirked at my reflection in the mirror as I chased after the car. “No. She was so quick to talk about giving me away. I’m going to let her feel what it’s really like to lose me.”
He stuck his arm out the window and tossed something into the street.
I tripped and hit the pavement hard.
Lying there was the yellow amulet pendant—the one I’d worked so hard to get for him, now just tossed aside like garbage.
I let out a shaky breath, gripping the bonding pact tightly in my hand.
A bone-deep exhaustion settled into my chest and radiated down my limbs.
