Love and Beasts

Chapter 58

After hearing everything from her, the man looked at her as if she was a danger in disguise of an innocent person. "... You're joking, right? There's no way people can be that cruel." "You're right, normal people can't. But devoted hunters aren't people. They are monsters. While beasts on the other hand are more humane than any hunter I've met in my life." "Did you tell police or authorities about it?" "... No, I didn't." "Then did you tell anybody about it except me?" "Yes, I did." "Was this person a beastman?" "Yes." "What did you do to them?" "... Nothing, except for asking them to not share it with anybody else." She gripped her empty cup in her hands, disappointed in herself. The man on the contrary started breathing rapidly, until he roared and reverted into a beastman, while jumping at her. Izabela was caught off guard, surprised by his awoken feral side.

"Why? Why didn't you tell anybody about this? WHY?!" The man snapped, growling at her while holding her by her throat and attempting to choke her. She grunted in pain, as she felt his grip become once stronger and once weaker but still keeping her tight. "You could've saved many innocent lives if you just showed the evidence! If you spoke up! Why didn't you do that, huh?! My wife died three years ago because these hunters decided to lure her into their trap and take her away! Because they had the right to do so! You could've stopped that! You could've saved not only my wife, BUT EVEN THE LIVES OF OTHER BEASTS THAT WERE MET WITH SIMILAR FATE, WHICH IS DEATH BY HUNTERS' HANDS!"

He shouted at her, not caring if his daughter heard them or not from the car. "Because of you, many people died! What's your excuse for that, huh? What is your reason behind not sharing this information with someone that would be moved by this?! TELL ME WHAT!" He snarled again, choking her harder and harder. The girl tried to catch her breath, but it was futile as he was way stronger and heavier than her. "P-... Ple-ase.... S-stop it." She managed to gasp out in-between the choking. And then someone they least expected to come in, spoke. "Daddy, what are you doing to Miss Iza?"

Both of them stilled and looked at the girl, who was looking at them, trying to understand the current situation. That was when the man snapped back to reality, as his pupils from pitch black turned back to their previous color. He let go of the girl frantically, as if he just touched the hot iron, for which she was grateful, as she finally had a chance to take a deep, normal breath. She coughed for a bit and held her throat with one of her hands as she was trying to calm down. She then turned around and saw the man embracing his daughter securely. Seeing him shocked from the previous moment, Izabela only positioned her scarf so there wouldn't be any marks seen by the girl and squatted by the two.

"Miss Iza, what happened to daddy? He looks scared." "... Don't worry honey. Your daddy is probably still shocked after I decided to play a prank on him by surprising him. He got so scared that he thought someone decided to attack him and well, he tripped me over by surprise." "Ahh, okie! But missy, why does your voice sound so weird? You sound not like you." This question was harder to answer to, as the little girl seemed to read from her soul. "Umm, I did something silly and now I have a sore throat. That's why I sound different than usual. Did you sleep well?" "Yeah! I dreamed of a big teddy bear running behind me and then grabbing me and hugging me!" She threw her small arms in the air showing how big the bear from her dream was.

Izabela only giggled, Hope smiled sheepishly and her father didn't say anything. After that the man took his daughter and said it's time to go home.  Nonetheless, she didn't say anything rude to him or show any hurt, but simply kept the act so the little girl won't notice that something is wrong. After driving up to a place the man asked her to drop them up at, Izabela kept waving at them until she lost them from her view completely. The child one last time came to Iza and hugged her, saying goodnight and then tagging along with her father. The man didn't look her in the eye, but she could tell he was shaken by what happened. She then drove off, wishing that no one sees anything suspicious on her neck.