Chapter 13

Nora walked in with a bright smile. "Clara, Silas is such a good boy, isn't he?"

Silas hurried to speak up. "Of course I am. Right, Clara?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah. Most of the time."

Silas muttered, "That's not fair... I'm good all the time."

Seeing this massive, burly werebeast act so defensive was inexplicably adorable.

Nora handed me the confirmation agreement to sign.

As I picked up the pen, a sudden memory surfaced of the day I bought Kaelen. We had sat together, the tip of his nose red, his expression a messy mix of tears and joy. He had looked so endearing that I couldn't stop glancing at him.

Flustered, he had apologized. "Sorry, I'll pay more attention to my appearance from now on."

I had laughed. "You look perfectly fine right now."

Kaelen had laughed with me. "What's fine about it?"

That was one of the rare times I ever saw him smile. I could still recall the curve of his lips, the way his left canine was just slightly longer than the right.

I shook my head, forcing the memory away. No matter what he used to be, he wasn't that person anymore.

In the other room, Kaelen lay staring blankly at the ceiling.

Nora finished reading the official transfer announcement.

Kaelen offered a self-deprecating smile. "I used to think this bed was terribly uncomfortable," he murmured. "Only today did I realize it's actually quite nice."

He sat up and followed Nora out the door. His steps were painfully slow. But until the moment he finally left, neither Silas nor I spared him another glance.

Armed with a pair of scissors, I turned my eager attention to Silas. "I watched a video where an owner trimmed their werebeast's ear fur into perfect little rounds. It looked amazing. Let me try it on you."

"But we have to agree right now—if I mess up, you aren't allowed to get mad."

Silas obediently lowered his head, his ears as soft as clouds. "As long as you're the one cutting it, I'll love it."

The front door clicked shut.

Kaelen was gone.

A long time later, Nora told me that Vivienne hadn't bought Kaelen after all.

"She found out he couldn't have children and threw a massive tantrum at the Therian Registry," Nora explained. "She said he'd wasted her time, acting so arrogant when he was clearly defective."

I hadn't expected Vivienne to be completely in the dark about Kaelen's condition. "So what happened to him?" I asked, a sudden dread creeping in. Was he sold off to the red-light district?

Nora hesitated before answering. "He got sick. Severe depression. He wouldn't even speak to anyone. The manager had no choice but to apply to have him scrapped."

"But now he works at an orphanage," she added softly. "Being around those kids actually seems to calm him down."

After hanging up, I stood in a daze for a long while.

Silas wrapped his arms around me from behind. "Are you worried about him? If you really are, we could buy him back. I wouldn't mind."

He said he didn't mind, but his arms were wrapped so tightly around my waist he was practically squeezing me in half.

I turned around and pinched his cheek. "When are you going to learn to stop saying things you don't mean?"

Silas was wonderful in every way, but he was always so careful, so desperately eager to please me. Whatever I asked of him, he was willing to do. I was genuinely terrified that if I ever did something terrible, he would just quietly clean up the mess for me. I wanted him to feel secure enough to express his true feelings.

I pinched his cheek harder, hoping to teach him how to reject my unreasonable behavior. But even as his skin flushed bright red, he didn't pull away. Instead, his eyes practically sparkled as he looked down at me.

Defeated, I sighed. "Why don't you tell me it hurts? You know you're allowed to say no to me, right?"

Silas shook his head. "You only pinch me. You don't pinch anyone else. That means you like me."

"If you like me, I'm happy. So it doesn't hurt."

I felt a mix of exasperation and deep affection. "You really are..."

"You really are..." I leaned up and kissed his red, swollen cheek. "You're just too adorable."

As I pulled back, I suddenly noticed how heavy and warm the air in the room had become. Silas was clearly restless, his tail wagging in a steady, rhythmic sweep.

I tried to step away, but his hand closed gently around my ankle. "Our children will be even cuter than me," he murmured. "Do you want to try?"

I shook my head frantically. "I don't want to!"

It was still the middle of the day!

Silas tilted his head, considering my words for a moment, before pulling me right back into his arms.

His expression was completely serious. "You told me I needed to learn how to refuse you. So, I refuse your 'don't want to'."

"Is that what I meant?! I—stop kissing me—"

***

Fortunately, I've always been good at making peace with my own choices.

And maybe, just maybe, this counted as Silas's first real step toward learning how to love like a normal person.