Chapter 166 CHAPTER 166
The clearing felt colder after the video ended.
Lucas stood still for several seconds, staring at nothing, his breathing uneven. The fear that had flickered in his eyes while watching the screen had not faded. If anything, it had grown.
“You’re saying that happened to me?” he asked again, his voice unsteady. “That she was doing that to me?”
Anna nodded slowly. “I found you like that.”
His chest rose sharply, panic threatening to surface. Then something shifted in him. His shoulders tensed, his jaw clenched, and before either of them could speak again, he stepped back abruptly.
“I need to get out of here,” he muttered.
The next second, he shifted.
The change was sudden and instinctive, fur rippling over skin, bones reshaping with the familiar crack and pull of transformation. In wolf form, he looked larger, more agitated. He glanced once at Sebastian and Anna, eyes wild and uncertain, and then he bolted into the forest, disappearing between the trees in a rush of movement.
The sound of his retreat faded quickly, leaving only the night and the two of them.
Sebastian did not move.
He had sunk onto the ground moments earlier, but now his body seemed to fold inward even more. His hands trembled visibly. Without his wolf, there was nothing to anchor him, nothing to balance the flood of thoughts crashing through his mind.
Anna knelt beside him. “Sebastian,” she said quietly. “What’s wrong?”
He did not answer.
“Do you believe me now?” she asked, her voice softer this time. “I’m not lying. I wouldn’t make something like that up.”
His breathing was uneven. His eyes stared forward, unfocused, as if he were trying to rearrange his entire understanding of the world and failing.
He felt alone.
Not just alone in the forest, but alone inside his own body. Kael wasn’t there. The steady presence he had relied on for years was gone, leaving him with nothing but human fear and confusion.
Anna reached for his arm and helped him stand. He allowed it without protest, though his movements were stiff and unsteady.
“Let’s get you home,” she said.
He nodded faintly.
They walked in silence toward his house. His mind kept replaying the video, Lucas’s confusion, the word fuzzy, the memory of Lunaris, the locker room, the certainty he had once felt that Lisa had wronged him. He remembered how easily Sarah had guided his anger. How she had shaped his conclusions.
When they reached the gate of his house, he stopped.
Anna looked at him. “Go inside,” she said gently.
But instead of opening the gate, Sebastian turned and bolted.
Anna blinked in shock. “Sebastian!”
He didn’t answer. He ran down the road, toward the part of Silverpine where Leonard and Mara lived.
He needed to hear it from her.
He needed to look into her eyes and demand the truth.
His heart pounded violently in his chest as he ran. Without his wolf’s endurance, the effort drained him quickly. His breaths came harder, his legs growing heavy. Halfway there, he slowed, bending forward as he tried to catch his breath.
That was when another thought struck him.
If she could wipe memory…
If she had done it to Lucas…
If she had done it to him before…
What would stop her from doing it again?
What if he went to her now and walked away remembering nothing?
The realization chilled him more than the night air.
He straightened slowly, the urge to confront her warring with the instinct to protect what little clarity he had left.
He couldn’t risk it.
He turned around.
Anna stood near the gate, watching him from a distance, confusion etched across her face.
Before she could call out again, her phone began to ring.
She looked down at the screen and groaned softly. “Mom.”
She answered it reluctantly. Hilda’s voice came through sharp and annoyed.
“Where are you? We told you to be back before bedtime. It’s almost midnight.”
Anna glanced toward Sebastian, who was already walking away from Sarah’s direction and back toward his own house.
“I lost track of time,” she muttered.
“This is not like you,” Hilda continued. “Your father and I have been waiting. What has gotten into you lately? You don’t just ignore us.”
Anna remembered her father’s warning. Be back before bedtime.
She exhaled slowly. “I’m coming.”
She ended the call and looked once more toward Sebastian, but he didn’t look back.
Then she turned and headed home.
Sebastian entered the house quietly.
The front door creaked slightly as he opened it, and the soft light from the kitchen illuminated the hallway. Lydia had just come downstairs for water. She froze when she saw him.
“When did you leave?” she asked, confused. “I thought you went upstairs after the argument.”
Sebastian didn’t answer immediately. He walked past her and sat down heavily at the dining table.
Lydia frowned.
She poured water into a glass and set it in front of him. His hands shook as he picked it up, and he drank it in one long gulp.
She poured another and gently guided it back into his hands. “Slow down,” she said softly. “Take it in sips.”
He obeyed this time, though his fingers trembled so badly she had to steady the glass for him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting across from him. “Sebastian, look at me.”
He tried to speak, but the words tangled together.
“Sarah… she… Lucas… feeding…”
“What are you trying to say, sweetheart?” Lydia asked gently. “Slow down.”
He closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe.
When he finally looked up at her again, the question that left his mouth was not what she expected.
“Mom,” he said hoarsely, “what do you remember about Leonard and Mara?”
Lydia blinked. “Sarah’s guardians?”
“Yes.”
She leaned back slightly, confused. “They’re lively people. Friendly. Though they haven’t been attending pack gatherings much lately. Something changed after their son went abroad.”
Sebastian swallowed. “Something felt off in that house.”
“How?” she asked carefully.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Just… wrong. Like nothing was normal.”
“You’ll have to be more specific than that,” Lydia said.
He hesitated, then asked quietly, “Do we have records of Sarah’s parents? Of where she lived before she came to them?”
Lydia studied him closely now. “We have the documents Leonard and Mara provided. They stated she is their niece.”
“Did anyone verify that?”
She frowned. “I don’t know where you’re going with this. Sarah is your girlfriend. You defended her tonight. Are you having second thoughts because of what your father said?”
Sebastian shook his head slowly. “It’s not because of Dad.”
“Then what is it?”
He met her eyes.
“It’s because of what I just saw.”
Her expression shifted. “What did you see?”
He exhaled shakily.
“I can’t explain it,” he said quietly. “You have to see it to understand.”