The Moment I Let You Go Chapter 04
I hired a moving van and hauled the merman and his glass tank to my hotel.
“I’m sorry,” I told him once we were inside. “My place isn’t set up for you right now, so you’ll have to stay here temporarily.”
I helped the merman—Daniel Moore—out of his tank and eased him into the hotel bathtub.
Being crammed in that tiny space for so long had left his arms and tail stiff and incredibly weak. He had to lean his entire body weight on me just to move. His dense chest muscles pressed so hard against my collarbone that it actually hurt.
Feeling my face heat up, I stepped back and turned on the shower. “Okay, here’s the tub, and this is the showerhead.
“You can adjust the temperature right here.
“When the water gets dirty, just pull the plug to drain it.
“Tomorrow, I’ll hit the werebeast supply store to grab your essentials, and then I’ll come bring you home.”
Daniel leaned against the edge of the tub, his long, silver-pink hair draped loosely down his back.
He looked up at me, his eyes misty. “Ms. Lexington, am I going to be your secret second companion now?”
The sudden question caught me completely off guard, and I choked on a startled cough.
He must have picked up the scent of another werebeast on me.
I waved my hands frantically, desperate to clear things up. “No, no, I don’t do things like that.
“I do have another werebeast right now, but I’ll be rehoming him soon.
“Once he’s gone, you’ll be the only one in the house.”
“Thank you.”
Daniel suddenly pushed himself up. Water trickled down his well-defined chest, trailing over the sharp, muscular ridges of his lower abs.
Suddenly, I didn’t know where to look.
Then, a pair of cold lips pressed gently against the cut on my forehead.
“Ms. Lexington, this is my way of repaying you.”
The sharp sting immediately started to fade.
I turned toward the mirror and caught a faint, pearlescent shimmer vanishing into my skin.
The cut had already closed up significantly.
I reached up and brushed my fingers over the spot.
So this was what it felt like to have a werebeast actually want to repay kindness?
It dawned on me then that I only knew his name, and I wanted to ask him more about himself. Just then, however, my phone started going off with a barrage of voice messages.
I meant to hit the transcribe button, but my finger slipped, and the audio blared out loud.
Killian’s angry voice echoed clearly through the cramped bathroom. “Where are you?
“Why aren’t you home yet?
“Let me be perfectly clear—I don’t care where you went or what you’re doing, but I need to sleep, so you need to get back here immediately.”
Killian had been medically discharged from active duty after suffering severe psychological trauma on a high-level mission.
When I first brought him home, he struggled with terrible insomnia night after night.
At first, I had no idea how to comfort him. Then, remembering how a sick pet I once treated had loved to be held, I tried cradling him until he fell asleep.
Back in those early days, he actually ended up scratching my face.
I started carefully trimming his nails and filing down his claws.
Gradually, Killian stopped fighting it. He got used to my scent and eventually started demanding that I be there for him to sleep every single night.
But he belonged to Nadia now, so why was he calling me?
Especially since, ever since meeting her, he constantly complained that I smelled weird whenever I held him.
Daniel frowned.
He probably thought I was pathetic.
Not wanting to look like a fool in front of him, I stepped out of the room to text Killian back. But before I could, a heavy thud echoed behind me.
I jumped at the noise.
Daniel had collapsed onto the tile. His wet hair clung to his fish tail, and he looked up at me with a heartbreakingly pitiful expression.
“What happened?”
I asked, rushing back to his side.
“I think my wound reopened.”
That’s when I finally noticed it—a deep gash running right along the side of his tail.
A pool of blood was already seeping across the white floor tiles.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? You shouldn’t be moving around.”
“I’m sorry,” Daniel murmured, dropping his gaze.
“Ms. Lexington, I just wanted to see you out before you left.”
I was so used to Killian’s harsh treatment that Daniel’s sheer gentleness completely disarmed me. An overwhelming wave of sympathy washed over me.
Looking down at his injured tail, I remembered how he had repeatedly slammed himself against the glass tank, practically destroying himself just so I would take him in.
I started to stand up.
But Daniel wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. His voice shook with sorrow. “Ms. Lexington, it hurts.
“Could you please stay with me tonight?”
I dreaded to think about the kind of hellish conditions he must have survived to cause such intense anxiety in everything he did.
I gently patted his head. “I’m not leaving. I just need to run to the pharmacy, and I’ll be right back.
“Oh, I forgot to mention—I’m the best werebeast doctor in the area.
“No one leaves my care in bad shape,” I told him proudly.
He rested his head against my side, softly nuzzling his cheek against me.
It was a level of pure dependency I hadn’t experienced once in the entire five years since I adopted Killian.
Honestly, it felt really good.
I stepped into my hotel room, clutching a plastic pharmacy bag, just as my phone rang.
I picked it up.
“Why aren’t you answering my texts?” Killian yelled through the speaker.
“Adelyn, I already forgave you. Are you seriously going to keep ignoring me?
“I can’t sleep because of you. Where are you? I’m coming over.”
