Chapter 90
Back in Mooncrest First Hospital, Theo stood beside the tall window at the end of the corridor, his fingers. tapping absently against the glass. Though he had just returned from a weeklong academic exchange in Northern territory, his mind was far from focused on medicine.
He had almost said something to Kael moments ago–about what he thought he’d seen in the emergency bay of Mooncrest Second Hospital. A flash of a familiar figure in the arms of Lucien Duskgrave. A limp she- wolf with matted hair and skin far too pale.
He had convinced himself it wasn’t Riley Vale.
But now, doubt crept in like frost.
Theo hadn’t been oblivious to the whispers surrounding the Vale family. Though he’d buried himself in academic lectures and clinical rounds, the gossip among nurses and junior healers traveled far and fast.
In the mere two months since Riley’s release from the rogue prison, she had been hospitalized several times—each time gravely injured. Once with whip marks across her back and a shattered pinky; another time, unconscious with a severe head wound and signs of infection.
Every time, it was Riley.
Never her adopted sister, Scarlett.
And yet the pack always insisted it was Riley who “caused trouble,” who “hurt” Tessa.
If Riley was the abuser… why was she the one always lying broken on a hospital bed?
Theo remembered that night weeks ago–when Riley fled to Southend, trying to catch a train to other territory. She had been barefoot, bleeding, and terrified. And he–like Kael–had dragged her back.
He’d believed then that he was helping. That the pack needed her to “come to her senses.”
Looking back now, he saw it for what it was: a desperate escape from a place she never saw as home.
His guilt coiled like a serpent around his heart.
She had tried to run. Again and again. And every time, they forced her back–only for her to end up more broken than before.
Theo’s expression darkened, his jaw clenched.
“Where could she have gone this time?” Kael had asked earlier, brows furrowed in worry. “She’s weak, has no money. What if she’s hurt again–out there alone?”
Theo had only given a vague, “Maybe,” in reply. But inside, he was seething.
Because Kael still didn’t get it.
Riley wasn’t “just being difficult.” She wasn’t running from responsibility. She was running for her life.
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He thought back to the report: Riley had a missing kidney. With such a compromised body, she shouldn’t even be capable of shifting into her wolf form.
And yet, during the last lunar flare, she had.
Several witnesses saw her half–shift–fur white as snow, eyes blazing silver. It defied logic.
But what broke Theo’s composure even more than her resilience… was his own role in her suffering.
He had mocked her.
Dismissed her.
Believed every lie Scarlett fed the pack.
The realization hit like a hammer: he had been someone’s weapon, wielded blindly.
Through the frosted glass of the infirmary door, he saw Alpha Alaric gently stroking Scarlett’s hair as she cried into his chest. The scene churned his stomach.
The so–called “father” had never once visited Riley in the hospital.
But Scarlett? One sniffle and he came running.
Theo turned away sharply.
“I’ve got rounds,” he muttered to Kael, and stalked down the corridor.
But he didn’t head toward the patient ward.
He made for the security office.
Riley’s case was riddled with inconsistencies–and Theo wanted the truth.”
The door to the monitoring room was locked, but he keyed in his staff code. A monitor flickered to life, showing rows of timestamped footage.
He began typing in the timestamp from the prior night. The moment when Riley was said to have “attacked” Scarlett.
A red message blinked onto the screen: “VIDEO FILE MISSING.”
Theo frowned, tried another angle–from the hallway outside the room.
“VIDEO FILE MISSING.”
His frown deepened.
These videos weren’t simply corrupted. They had been manually deleted.
And only a handful of people in the entire hospital had clearance to do that.
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Someone was covering tracks.
His mind moved fast.
He pulled up the staff login records.
Only one name appeared on the access log during the deletion window–Dean Elira Blackthorn, the Pack Medical Alpha and hospital administrator.
Theo’s stomach turned.
Why would Dean Blackthorn help erase evidence? And who put her up to it?
The pieces weren’t all there yet, but one thing was certain: Riley was no longer safe under pack protection.
She hadn’t been for a long time.
Theo exited the room with urgency in his stride.
He had one more stop to make.
At the end of the ward, he knocked on a heavy door. A nurse opened it, nodded, and let him in.
Inside, in the dimly lit VIP recovery suite, Tessa lay in bed, her pale skin glowing faintly in the moonlight through the blinds. Her expression was vacant, eyes unfocused, like someone deep in thought–or memory.
Theo stepped inside quietly.
“Tessa,” he said gently.
Her gaze flicked toward him, guarded.
“I need to ask you about what happened last night. And I want the truth.”
She blinked slowly, then looked away, lips pressing into a tight line.
Theo stepped closer, but there was no softness in his voice now.
“Did Riley really attack you? Or were you just afraid she’d speak before you could bury her again?”
Tessa didn’t respond..
But her silence was louder than a scream.