Chapter 66: _ You’re Obsessed With Her
~Axel’s Point Of View~
After leaving Luis, I thought I’d swing by the butcher’s to retrieve the meat I’d paid for. Maybe give it to some starving wolf in the pack—Lord knows plenty of them could use it.
What I didn’t expect was to meet María José in such a state.
She had bumped into me, her chest rising, beads of sweat lining her entire face as though she had just escaped a beast. What made it all the more heart-wrenching was that she had.
The butcher, that bloody bastard, had some guts. I did put him in his place but it wasn’t enough. I had to handle this matter from its roots.
And I did. I didn’t care if it was her, the butcher, or her father that I needed to fight. I just knew I had to do something.
Her skin had taken on a sickly pallor. Her cheeks were hollow, her wrists too thin. And then there were the bruises—fading yellow and purple splotches peeking out from under her sleeves, her collarbone, her jaw.
I felt my stomach turn.
This wasn’t just the work of exhaustion or malnutrition. No. This was something worse.
This was neglect. This was abuse.
And what infuriated me most was the way she carried it. Like she had accepted it. Like she thought she deserved it.