Chapter 29 Killed in a Coup
Arach’s voice in Seara’s mind sounded like the growl of a broken machine. The Lycan hadn’t stopped howling in protest since Seara began tossing a few pieces of clothing into her worn backpack.
\[Seara, stop! Are you crazy? Austin is our mate. If you leave now, this bond will torment us both.\] Arach snapped in a highly emotional tone.
“I don’t care, Arach! You saw that vision yourself. The Wolfe family slaughtered my mother. I’m sharing a bed with the son of my family’s murderer!” Seara snatched the emergency potion bottle and stuffed it into her bag with trembling hands.
\[It’s just a blurry vision! Don’t let your fear ruin everything. I don’t want to be far from him. His scent… I need his scent!\]
“Enough!” Seara closed her eyes tightly. With the last of her inner strength, she imagined a thick concrete wall separating her consciousness from Arach’s.
She blocked her internal connection with Arach. Instantly, the atmosphere in her head went silent, though a stinging sensation lingered in her chest from the forced disconnection.
Seara slung the bag over her shoulder. She stepped toward the bedroom door, intending to slip out through the service entrance. But just as her hand touched the doorknob, the door swung open from the outside.
Austin was standing there. He was still wearing the shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, but his aura was no longer as relaxed as it had been during breakfast.
“Going for an afternoon picnic, Sweetheart? You forgot to invite me,” Austin said with a forced, playful tone. His eyes glanced at the backpack on Seara’s shoulder.
“Move aside, Alpha. I want to get some fresh air outside the pack,” Seara replied coldly.
Austin chuckled, though his eyes glinted with a sharp golden light. “Fresh air usually doesn’t require a bag full of spare clothes and medical supplies. Are you trying to run away?”
“That’s none of your business,” Seara replied with a sharp glare.
Austin stepped forward, forcing Seara back into the room. “Of course it’s my business. You’re wearing the mark on your neck that I bit. Wherever you go, you’re still mine.”
“I’m not your property.” Seara tried to push against Austin’s broad chest, but the man didn’t budge an inch.
Austin’s expression turned serious. His narcissistic humor vanished, replaced by an Alpha’s authority that weighed down the air around them. Without a word, Austin grabbed Seara’s wrist and dragged her out of the room.
“Let go! You’re hurting me, Austin.” Seara tried to shake off Austin’s grip, her face contorted in pain.
Austin didn’t care. He dragged Seara toward his office at the end of the hallway. He opened the thick wooden door, shoved Seara inside, and locked it. The room was equipped with high-grade soundproofing, no one outside would be able to hear a thing.
“Now, talk!” Austin ordered coldly. He leaned against his large desk. “Why did you suddenly want to leave after what we went through this morning?”
"You want the truth?" Seara threw her bag on the floor. She was breathing heavily. "I saw my past through Lionra. I saw my mother running to save me from the black lycans chasing us. And you know what name my mother called out?" Seara’s voice hung in the air, a harsh sigh clearly audible from her lips.
“The Wolfe family. That’s your family, Austin!” Seara snapped, tears welling in her eyes.
Austin was stunned. His eyes narrowed. “The Wolfe family?”
“Yes! Your mother, your father, or maybe your grandfather… they hunted my family like criminals. And you deliberately marked me, so I couldn’t run when you finally decided to finish what your family started, didn’t you?” Seara accused in a hoarse voice. The tears flowed uncontrollably.
Austin fell silent for a moment, then let out a hollow laugh that sounded painful. “Trapping you? Seara, listen to me carefully. I didn’t even know you had family in Nightshade.”
“Don’t lie!” Seara shouted.
“I’m not lying!” Austin snapped, startling Seara.
Austin stepped closer, closing the distance between them so Seara could feel the heat of his body. “Do you think my life has been easy? My parents were killed in a bloody coup when I was still a teenager. I became Alpha at a young age because there was no one else left. I’m still searching for the bastard who slaughtered my father and mother.”
Seara was stunned. “What?”
“The Wolfe family you saw in your vision might be a rebel faction, or a part of the past I don’t even know about. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of marking you, giving you the position of Luna, and letting you defend my Beta right in front of me!” Austin rubbed his face in frustration.
Seara fell silent. Her anger, which had been boiling over, now collided with a reality just as bitter.
“Lionra projected that vision onto you, didn’t she?” Austin asked more calmly.
Seara nodded slowly.
“Lionra is amazing, but she’s not a god. She told me earlier that her visions can be distorted if she’s not in top physical condition. And guess what? She’s been suffering from severe stomach cramps this morning because she ate some stupid abalone,” Austin stared intently at Seara.
Seara recalled the moment she’d healed Lionra earlier. She had indeed sensed a point of pain in the Seer’s abdominal area. Her golden light had worked harder there. “He was really pale just now.”
“The vision you saw might actually come true, but your interpretation of my involvement could be completely wrong. You’re punishing me for sins my own family might not even have committed,” Austin took Seara’s chin in his hand, forcing her to look into his golden eyes, which now seemed sincere.
Seara felt a tug in her stomach. She didn’t know what to believe, but there was some truth to what Austin had just said. She wanted to believe that everything she’d seen earlier was a mistake.
"I love you, Seara. The Moon Goddess who guided me to have you. You are the only woman brave enough to resist my charm."
The tension in Seara’s shoulders slowly melted away. A wave of shame washed over her. She had blocked Arach, packed her bags, and viciously accused Austin—all because of a single, unverified vision.
"I’m sorry," Seara whispered. "I just… I was afraid of losing the only clue I have about my mother."
Austin let out a sigh of relief. He pulled Seara into his embrace, holding her tightly as if afraid she would vanish if he loosened his grip. "Don’t ever run away again. If there’s a problem, hit me, yell at me, but don’t leave.”
Austin loosened his embrace slightly, then kissed Seara’s forehead before moving down to her lips. The kiss was no longer demanding like it had been that morning, but a silent promise of protection. Seara returned it, letting her defenses crumble completely.
“Come on, back to the room. You need to tidy up the mess you made in that bag,” Austin teased, wrapping his arm around Seara’s shoulder.
They walked back to the room in a much lighter mood. Austin pushed Seara into the room and helped her pick up some scattered clothes.
“I’m borrowing your bathroom for a bit. Don’t try to escape through the window, or I’ll install silver bars,” Austin threatened with a mischievous wink.
As Austin entered the bathroom, Seara sat on the edge of the bed. She noticed Austin’s phone lying on the nightstand, right next to her backpack. The phone’s screen suddenly lit up, displaying a notification of an incoming message from an unknown number.
Seara didn’t mean to peek, but the photo that appeared in the notification made her freeze.
It was an old, worn-looking photo. In the photo, a young man who looked exactly like Austin stood in front of an old gate. Beside him, a woman held a tiny baby wrapped in silver velvet—the exact same fabric Seara had seen in her vision.
Below the photo, a short message read:
A gift for the Alpha. The truth about your Healer is here.
Seara’s heart began to race again. Whoever sent this message knew something neither Austin nor she did.
Seara put Austin’s phone back; she didn’t want to be presumptuous and open it after what had just happened.
However, Seara’s thoughts didn’t stop there. To Seara, their past was far more intertwined than they had imagined.