Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 76: The Accusation

Chapter 76: The Accusation

Aveline lifted her chin, her eyes bright with stubborn resolve. "Then I’m not going with you."

If Hamilton did not deserve a place beside her while she was with Theron, then she would choose Hamilton.

It was easier to say than to feel. Easier to stand on principle than to admit what was happening inside her.

Because her mind understood. Her heart did not.

Sothing in her chest felt as though it were being torn apart by that choice, and she hated that Theron was the one making it hurt this much. Hated that, for a mont, he looked almost heartless to her.

Her throat tightened as she swallowed the ache. She glanced down at the obedient little creature beside her, who was resisting every instinct in its body just because she had asked it to. Hamilton was bigger now than when she had first seen him—nearly the height of her waist when he stood, broad-bodied and sharp-toothed, with the terrifying ability to breathe fire.

He could overpower her. He could overpower Theron, too.

And yet here he was, sitting so still beside her, looking at her as though her word was the only law that mattered.

All because she had shown him kindness.

Aveline’s chest tightened.

"Let’s go, Hamilton," she said softly.

And Hamilton followed at once, like a loyal little hunting dog.

How, then, could Theron call him a monster?

Theron released a heavy breath as he watched her turn away. Why was she making this so difficult?

He fell into step behind her. "Do you have any idea what those creatures can do?" he asked, his voice roughening with urgency. "They destroy villages. They kill people. I have seen one tear a baby apart with my own eyes. Aveline, stop."

But she did not stop.

She turned her head only slightly. "Is that why you put them in cages and drag them around?" she asked coldly. "Because they are dangerous? Then why not kill the ones causing harm? Why drag the calm ones around?"

Her voice had gone sharp, but there was conviction in it too.

In one night, she had seen enough to know that not all of them were mindless monsters. So held emotion. So held fear. So responded to kindness the sa way any human being might.

That did not make them beasts.

It made them alive.

And that ant humans had no right to cage them all just because they looked frightening.

She reached down and patted Hamilton’s head, her expression softening for the creature alone. She had promised herself she would take care of him, and that was exactly what she intended to do.

"Aveline!" Theron called after her again.

But she kept walking.

The little beast beside her turned back at him and even stuck out its tongue.

Theron’s jaw clenched so hard it ached. He wanted, very badly, to wipe that smug expression off the creature’s face. But he forced himself to hold back for Aveline’s sake.

"Aveline, if you are not coming with , then where will you get your food?" he asked, trying a different approach. "You do not know how to hunt, and you can barely tell poison berries from mushrooms."

Aveline gave a small scoff. One thing she did know well was poison in food. She could see what food was good for her. "You do not need to worry about that."

Theron realized it a little too late.

He hurried after her again. "Then what about hot baths?" he asked. "You are not seriously planning to go back on principle if it ans giving that up."

She did not answer.

"Your dicine, then?" he said, his voice turning sharper with each word. "What will you do about your dicine?"

That made her falter. She did want her boobs to grow.

Theron saw her steps slow, and a faint flicker of relief passed through him. He did not know why that particular thing mattered so much to her, but if it ant he could reach her, then he would use it.

Aveline kept her face turned away, but the hesitation in her steps betrayed her.

And Theron, seeing that small fracture in her resolve, knew at once that he had found the one place where her stubbornness could still be reached.

"Co with , Aveline," he said quietly.

She had every intention of walking away. She even tried.

But then she turned back and faced him, and with all the dignity of a starving woman pretending not to be starving, she held out her hand.

"Give them to ," she said.

In the early morning light, with her blonde hair catching gold and her crystalline blue eyes fixed on him in bare-faced desperation, she looked both ridiculous and heartbreakingly sincere.

Theron fought the smile tugging at his mouth.

"That dicine only works if it is taken imdiately after it is made," he said. "The pills are unstable after a day."

Aveline stared at him, searching his face for the amusent he clearly deserved to have. When it did not co, her expression shifted ever so slightly.

He wasn’t lying.

Which ant... She drew back at once and started to walk away again. She’d be flat-chested for the rest of her life then.

"Aveline!" Theron called after her.

It seed she had no intention of listening.

He exhaled through his nose, a mixture of frustration and disbelief tightening in his chest. She truly believed that creature was no different from her—that it deserved her protection, her loyalty, her concern. And perhaps that was exactly why she was being so impossible.

"We do not know anything about them," he said, forcing his voice to stay steady. "That is precisely why we have to study them. It is not as though we are tornting them for no reason."

He took a step closer.

"And you do not know what that creature might do to you. It could turn on you at any mont."

Aveline stopped.

Slowly, she turned her head.

"And then it would be on , would it?" she said coolly. "You do not need to worry about that."

Theron’s patience, already frayed, thinned further. "What hold does that hideous thing have on you?"

Aveline scoffed.

Then, before he could react, she reached out, grabbed his collar, and hauled him down to her level.

Theron’s eyes widened at the sudden force of it. His gaze dropped instinctively to her mouth, the movent so involuntary that it left him briefly stunned.

And then she leaned closer.

Closer.

Until the space between them vanished, until her breath brushed his lips, until her words ca against him in a whisper so soft it felt like a blade.

Theron saw her eyes briefly land on his lips, and his heart skipped a beat.

A kiss?

But it was sothing far more devastating.

"Because you killed his mother, Theron," she whispered.

His breath stopped.

"He beca an orphan because of you," Aveline continued, her eyes bright and unyielding. "And I took responsibility because it was my fault too."

Theron stared at her, all color draining from his face.

I did what?