Free Web NovelChapter 41: DIDN’T LET GO
Chapter 42
Lumi
The cold from the concrete brick wall was slowly seeping through the thin green silk of my dress, chilling me right to the bone.
My heels were discarded somewhere near my feet, and my knees were tucked tight against my chest as the tears kept flowing, hot and messy.
The loud, muffled bass from inside the club was still thumping against my skull, a brutal reminder of how horribly wrong this night had gone.
*"Everything I’ve ever done... was because of Neve."
Ren’s words kept repeating in my head like a cruel loop. It shouldn’t have hurt so bad. I was the one who told him he was just a boy.
I was the one who threw my age in his face. But hearing him admit that I was nothing more than a chore he did for his sister felt like a slap.
I pushed myself up against the wall, my limbs heavy and clumsy from the alcohol. The street was dark, the alley even darker, and the city felt completely massive and terrifying around me. I didn’t have my purse. I didn’t have my phone. I didn’t even have a coat.
I stumbled out toward the mouth of the alley, my bare feet stinging against the cold pavement. I tried to squint through the darkness, hoping to spot a taxi, but the street was mostly empty except for a few distant headlights.
Suddenly, a shadow stepped out from the side of the building.
"Well, well. Look who got dumped out in the cold."
I froze, my heart leaping into my throat. Through the foggy blur of the alcohol, I recognized the face.
It was him. The stranger from the dance floor. The look in his eyes wasn’t confident or flirty anymore. It was bitter, humiliated, and incredibly angry.
"Get away from me," I slurred, trying to step around him, but my balance was completely shot.
"Where’s your little boyfriend now, huh?" the man hissed, stepping directly into my path and blocking the sidewalk. He smelled heavily of cheap whiskey and sweat.
"He think he can just disgrace walk away? And you... you think you can just use me to make a point and then leave?"
"I don’t want anything to do with you," I said, my voice shaking as I backed away until my shoulder hit the cold brick wall again. "Leave me alone. I’m going home."
"You’re not going anywhere by yourself looking like that," he said, a nasty, predatory smile spreading across his face. He reached out, his large, rough hand clamping tightly around my bare upper arm.
The touch made my stomach turn. It wasn’t like the dance floor. This felt real, dangerous, and completely terrifying.
"Let go of me!" I screamed, pulling back with everything I had, but the alcohol made me weak. My feet slipped on the pavement.
"Come on. I’m taking you home," the man grunted, his grip tightening until it painfully bruised my skin. He began to forcefully drag me down the dark side street toward a parked sedan. "Let’s see how much your little protector cares when you’re in my car."
I thrashed against him, open-palm striking his chest, but he was too heavy. The world was spinning in dark, terrifying patches. I opened my mouth to scream for help, but the sound caught in my throat.
One second, I was being violently pulled forward, my bare feet scraping against the floor.
The next second, the air completely vanished.
There was a sound like a rushing wind, followed by a terrifying, fleshy thud that echoed off the buildings.
The grip on my arm vanished so instantly that I stumbled forward, crashing to my knees on the cold ground.
I scrambled to turn around, coughing as I pushed my hair out of my face.
The stranger was on the floor. He had just been hit but I don’t know who. The truth was that I knew who it was before looking up.
He lay under the dim amber glow of a distant streetlamp, bleeding heavily from his nose and mouth, his body twitching silently as if he were completely half-dead.
Standing over him was a monster.
Ren’s chest was rising and falling in violent, ragged movements. His eyes weren’t dark anymore—they were glowing with a terrifying, wild amber light that belonged entirely to his wolf. His hands were curled into fists, dripping with the stranger’s blood.
"I told you not to touch her," Ren said. His voice didn’t even sound human. It was a deep growl that vibrated through the gravel beneath my knees.
The stranger didn’t move. He just groaned, completely incapacitated.
I sat on the cold ground, my breath hitching in my chest as I stared up at the massive silhouette of the man who had just left me to freeze.
"Ren..." I whispered, my voice small, broken, and completely laced with the heavy alcohol in my system.
But Ren didn’t look at me. Not even for a fraction of a second.
The wild, glowing amber in his eyes slowly faded back into pitch black, but his expression remained a completely frozen, angry mask.
He didn’t offer me a hand to help me up. He didn’t ask if I was hurt. He didn’t look to see the bruises forming on my arm where the man had held me.
He just turned on his heel and started walking back toward the main street, his heavy leather jacket shifting with his broad shoulders.
I stood there, completely confused, my mind swirling with a thousand conflicting emotions. He had left. He had literally driven away.
But he had come back. He had come back for me, even after all the horrible, venomous things I had screamed at him in that alley. frёewebηovel.cѳm
I didn’t move. I just stayed frozen on the concrete, staring at his retreating back.
He stopped walking and tilted his head slightly, his profile sharp and completely unreadable against the city lights.
"Are you coming or not?" he asked. His voice completely flat, devoid of any warmth, any anger, or any emotion at all. It was the voice of a stranger.
A heavy lump formed in my throat, a mixture of shame and the lingering effects of the shots..
"Ohhh," I said sloppily, my voice sounding incredibly small and embarrassed as I scrambled to my feet, grabbing my heels from the ground and running to catch up with his dark, silent shadow.
The car ride back to the apartment was suffocating. The only sound was the low, steady hum of the engine and the occasional click of the turn signal as Ren navigated the dark streets.
I sat slumped against the passenger door, my bare feet pressed against the floor mat, clutching my discarded heels to my chest like a shield.
My head was pounding from the alcohol, but the sheer terror of what had just happened in that alleyway had sobered me up just enough to realize how horribly things had escalated.
I kept glancing over at Ren. His large hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were completely white, and his eyes never strayed from the road ahead. The blood on his knuckles had dried into a dark, terrifying crust.
He came back, my mind kept whispering through the foggy haze. He actually turned the car around and came back.
He was furious with me—that much was obvious—but he hadn’t left me.
When the car finally pulled up to the apartment building, the silence became even heavier.
He turned off the ignition, pulled the key out, and opened his door without saying a single word. He didn’t wait for me. He didn’t come around to open my door.
I watched him walk toward the door, his broad shoulders tense beneath his leather jacket.
A sudden, desperate wave of panic hit my chest. I didn’t want this silence. I wanted him to yell at me. I wanted him to look at me, even if it was with anger. Anything was better than this cold, agonizing indifference.
As I opened the passenger door, a toxic, reckless thought popped into my drunk brain.
If he won’t talk to me, I’ll make him look at me.
The moment my bare feet touched the pavement, I let my knees buckle on purpose. I let out a soft, sloppy gasp, intentionally stumbling forward and letting my heels drop to the ground.
"Ouch..." I whimpered, making sure my voice sounded as weak and helpless as possible.
It worked. He froze instantly. He didn’t turn around immediately, but his shoulders dropped slightly before he exhaled a long, heavy breath.
He walked back to where I was leaning heavily against the side of the car, pretending I couldn’t even stand up straight.
Without a word, he reached down. He didn’t carry me this time, but he wrapped one large, warm arm securely around my waist, pulling my side flush against his hard chest to support my weight. freewebnovel.cσ๓
My skin ignited where he touched me, that familiar, electric jolt sizzling through my veins despite the alcohol.
"Can’t walk," I mumbled against his shoulder, letting my head loll back.
He didn’t reply. He just kept his grip tight, practically anchoring me to his side as he guided me through the lobby and up the elevator.
I could feel the rigid tension in his muscles, the way he was deliberately keeping his face turned away so our eyes wouldn’t meet.
When we finally stepped inside the apartment, the entire place was completely empty.
There was no sign of Neve. Her coat wasn’t on the rack, and her shoes weren’t by the door.
My foggy brain remembered her squealing about her boss flying across the country for her.
She had obviously followed him, choosing to spend the night elsewhere, leaving Ren and me entirely alone in the quiet apartment.
Ren steered me directly toward the sofa, intending to drop me off and walk away.
But the moment my knees touched the cushions, I tightened my fingers around the fabric of his leather jacket and didn’t let go.
