The Lion's Cat | Completed

23 ⚡ Broken

Chapter 23

My body curls into a ball as tears fall from my eyes, dampening the sheet underneath me. Why am I crying? We're not a couple, so why is my heart hurting so much?

I can hear my feline painfully meowing, trying to comfort me. All Foxy's doing, though, is giving me a headache. She must have sensed my distress caused by her since she quietens down, hiding into a corner of my mind.

The voice of Xavier explaining himself repeats like a broken record, and all I can do is take it in.

"What do you mean by sleeping with another girl?" I asked with a shaky voice.

"I'm sorry, Alexa, but it was the mission. I'm sure you're doing your part as well," he said, not sounding sorry at all.

I blinked back unexpected tears, my hand touching my wet cheeks in shock.
I'm crying?

"Please, say something," Xavier added, clearing his throat.

I sniffed my clogged nostrils while wiping my tears away. "It's fine."

"Don't cry. I don't deserve your tears," he whispered.

I frowned at that. "You don't deserve my tears?"

A forced laugh came out from the other side. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Yes, you did. I don't mind crying for you. You know by now that I have some sort of feelings. It might only be an infatuation, but still, what you did is hurting me. It's a miracle I can still speak without breaking into a full cry," I confessed.

A silence followed until he whispered the words I thought I'd never heard.

"You shouldn't cry because we're just friends. I broke the rule, but it's not that deep, right?"

My eyes widened, not believing in what just happened. "Goodnight, Xavier," I said, hanging up.

How can he say that it's not that deep? He's the one who begged me to be friends with benefits. He's the one who kept pushing for this stupid deal, and now it's suddenly not that deep?

Fuck that.

I wipe my tears off, refusing to cry for him. He's hiding something. I can feel it. I'll just have to get it out of him, one way or the other.

The sound of my stomach grumbling surprises me. I didn't eat that much today, now that I think about it. With that thought in mind, I get out of bed, going downstairs and hating the creaking sound of the metal stairs.

My eyes glow, giving me all the sight I need in the dark, and I take the opportunity to let my feline merge with me. My ears shift, my nails elongate, and a long red tail grows from my tailbone, sneaking out of the dark satin pajama shirt.

My tongue passes over my teeth, feeling my canines pointer than usual. I get to the kitchen safe and sound when a baritone voice reaches my ears.

I tiptoe toward the sound, walking past the dining room, the living room, and going straight to Dante's office.

"Werecats aren't like humans. Therefore you either pay everything now, or you won't get a cat delivered to you," I hear him say.

My arms cross across my chest as I lean against the wall, a few feet away from the door. Too bad I can't hear the other person.

"The race of the cat is unknown even to me, and the price is twenty thousand dollars. Take it or leave it."

Silence follows. The only plausible explanation for this madness is that the clients are asking for werecats instead of humans, which is making Dante cross the line, but why werecats? Why not fairies?  Hell, even mermaids, which are rarer to see.