I Rejected My Obsessive Werebeast novel Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Behind it – stairs. Going down. The light was dimmer here, a single row

of yellow bulbs lining the ceiling at intervals, casting long shadows between them. The air was colder. Damp. It smelled different — something like fear.

I went down. The staircase ended at a corridor that stretched in both directions. The walls were concrete, unfinished. On either side, iron doors were set at regular intervals, each one marked with a number.

Room 1. Room 2. Room 3.

I moved quietly, my footsteps absorbed by the thin layer of grime on the floor. From somewhere deeper in the corridor. I heard movement – the scrape of metal on stone, a low murmur of voices,

I stopped at the corner and pressed my back against the wall, leaning just enough to see around the edge.

A man was dragging a cage across the floor. It was small – dog–crate small- and inside it, a werebeast was curled into itself so tight its spine pressed against the bars. I couldn’t tell what species. The body was too thin, arms wrapped around its knees, skin mapped with fresh bruises and cuts that hadn’t started healing yet.

The man didn’t look at the cage. He didn’t look at the werebeast. He just dragged it forward like it was luggage, the metal screeching against the stone floor, and disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.

I pulled back against the wall.

My heart was hammering so hard I could feel it in my throat. I closed my

0001

00

4

RG

1526

eyes for one second, two seconds, forcing myself to breathe

Don’t panic. Don’t move yet. Think.

I turned to go back up the stairs, and nearly walked straight into someone

Footsteps echoed from below. I turned just as someone stopped on the landing a few steps down.

Connor.

He was holding a clipboard against his chest, his knuckles white around the edge. He looked up at me, and for a split second, something flickered across his face, but he shut down so fast I almost missed it.

He looked thinner. His cheekbones were sharper than I remembered, his jaw tighter. The dark circles under his eyes hadn’t improved.

We stood there. separated by half a flight of stairs.

–

From somewhere deep in the corridor behind him. I heard it — the drag of chains across stone, and a low. rough voice barking an order I couldn’t make out

Neither of us moved.

“You shouldn’t be here.” he said. His voice was barely above a whisper.

“Work,” I said “I’m investigating the werebeast disappearances,”

The word disappearances hit him like something physical. His eyes shifted, and then he locked it down.

He glanced over his shoulder toward the corridor. Then back at me.

“Why do you care?” he asked. His voice was lower now.

4

RG

1524

بيقين

“Work.” I repeated “I need to know where those werebeasts are going

Connor stared at me. The clipboard in his hands creaked.

“And what happens when you find out?” he said. “What are you going to do with the answer?”

I studied his face. The tension in his jaw. The way his eyes kept darting past me, toward the stairs, toward the exit. Like he was calculating how fast he could get me out of here.

“Sounds like you know something.” I said.

His gaze snapped back to my face. He held it for a long moment. Then the moment closed.

“You’re not going to find anything.” he said. “This isn’t something you can touch. Aurora.”

“Tell me what you know.”

His fingers tightened around the clipboard. “I don’t know anything,” he said

He stepped aside, pressing himself against the wall. leaving the staircase clear

“Go.” he said. So quiet I almost didn’t hear it. “Leave. Don’t come back

here.”

I didn’t move. Not yet.

“Connor-”

“Go.”

The word came out sharper than he meant it to. He flinched, just barely.

00

4

ORG

15263

and looked away

eld his profile for a second, then I turned and walked up the stairs.

His footsteps went the other way – deeper into the corridor, toward the sounds of chains and voices. He didn’t hesitate. He just walked into the dark like he’d been doing it for a long time.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify