Chapter 100: Selfish pt 2

“… I thought it was just the usual Wolfe territorialism.” I paused, looking him dead in the eye, refusing to blink. “But I finally figured it out.”

“Figured out what?”

I drew a long, steady breath, feeling the words gather in my throat like stones. “It’s because you’re a piece of shit, Cassian.”

Cassian went deathly still. It was as if I’d reached out and physically struck him. His hand dropped from my wrist as if the contact had suddenly become toxic. He stared at me, his face a mask of shock, but I didn’t stop. The dam had broken, and weeks of humiliation, fear, and hidden affection were pouring out in a flood of hot, sharp, unstoppable truth.

“You’re selfish,” I said, my voice rising but remaining steady, cutting through the silence of the room. “You’re heartless. You manipulate people like they’re pieces on a fucking chessboard just to see if you can make them move. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. You’re toxic. Controlling. You take what you want, you break it, and then you throw it away the second you’re bored.”

My body was screaming at me. My knees felt like they were made of water, and the nausea was rising in my throat, thick and bitter. My heart was a frantic bird trapped in a cage of ribs, and a cold, prickly anxiety was crawling up my spine. Every instinct I had told me that poking the bear was a death sentence.

But on the outside, I was a statue. I looked calm. I looked collected. I looked like a man who was finally, for the first time in his life, saying exactly what needed to be said.

“And you hate Alex because he’s everything you’re not,” I continued.

“Noah, ” Cassian tried to intervene, his voice lower now, more dangerous.

“He’s kind,” I forged ahead, my voice growing stronger with every word. “He’s genuine. He actually gives a shit about people as human beings, not as assets. And you can’t stand it, can you? You can’t stand that someone like him exists in your world. You can’t stand the idea that someone might actually treat me better than you do.”

I stepped toward him now, reclaiming the space he’d tried to take from me. The anger was bleeding through my words, vibrating in the air between us.

“You hate him because he makes you look like exactly what you are, a cold, manipulative bastard who doesn’t know how to feel anything real. You see him look at me like I’m a person, and it kills you because you don’t even know how to begin doing that.”

Cassian’s face went hard, his jaw set so tight I could see the muscles leaping in his cheek. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

I let out a laugh, bitter, sharp, and jagged. “Don’t I? I’ve spent every waking second with you for weeks. I’ve watched you. I’ve seen the way you treat people. You’re so pathetic, Cassian. So full of your own legend that you can’t handle the idea of someone being better than you. You’re so insecure that you have to lock people in contracts and play games with their heads just to make sure they don’t realize how hollow you are.”

The word hung in the air: Pathetic.

I’d thrown his own insult back at him, and I saw the moment it landed. His eyes flashed with a sudden, violent light. He took a step toward me, his entire body radiating a controlled, lethal fury.

“Watch your fucking mouth, Noah,” he hissed.

“Or what?” I challenged, my chin lifting. “What are you going to do? You’ll punish me? You’ll add more years to my debt? You’ll lock me in another iron-clad contract? Oh wait, you already did that. You’ve already taken everything you could possibly take from me. You own my time, you own my work, and you think you own my head.”

My stomach twisted tighter.

“You know what the real difference between you and Alex is?” I asked, the question slicing through the tension like a razor. My voice was steady, each syllable a jagged edge designed to draw blood. “Alex doesn’t need to force people to stay. He doesn’t need contracts, or threats, or the endless, exhausting manipulation you use to keep people in your orbit.”

Cassian’s jaw clenched, the muscles in his neck cording with the effort to remain still. “Noah… ”

“Alex treats people like human beings,” I continued, steamrolling over him. “Like they actually matter. He listens. He cares. He makes people feel seen, not just managed.”

Cassian stepped into my space, his shadow looming over me. “You think… ”

“And that fucking kills you, doesn’t it?” I cut him off again, my chin lifting in defiance. “The fact that someone can be genuinely kind without wanting something in return. That someone can be successful, powerful, and wealthy… everything you pride yourself on… and still be a good person at the end of the day.”

My heart was pounding against my ribs, a frantic, rhythmic thudding that echoed in my ears. My hands were trembling slightly, the adrenaline flooding my system making my skin feel too tight, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

“Alex doesn’t need to tear people down just to feel powerful,” I said, my voice rising as the words poured out of me. “He doesn’t treat people like toys. Like disposable things he can use and throw away when the novelty wears off. He’s everything you’ll never be, Cassian.”

Cassian’s face went darker, his eyes narrowing into slits of pure, cold fury. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I let out a laugh… sharp, bitter, and entirely devoid of humor. “Don’t I? Your ego is so fucking fragile that you can’t stand the thought of Alex being a decent human being. Because every time he shows a shred of empathy, it makes you look like exactly what you are: a hollow man hiding behind a name.”

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