Chapter 216: DWELLING ON THE PAST

For some reasons unknown to Seara, Silas managed to find her here. He came ten minutes later, just as her coffee was warm enough.

"You used to dislike coffee because you said the taste was bitter." That was the first thing that Silas said when he walked behind her.

Seara was startled because she expected solitude, only to find her adoptive brother. Silas looked worn out, with dirt and mud still on his clothes, and his hair was disheveled. Like the other people, he had dark circles under his eyes, indicating how tired he was.

If he were this exhausted, he should have found somewhere to sleep, not bother her.

Without a second thought, Seara wanted to leave. She didn’t say anything because, for her, there was no point in that; she was not in the mood to have small talk or a full-blown conversation with Silas. There was nothing they could discuss anyway.

What did he want to talk about? The past?

"Don’t leave, please."

Not only was Silas very quiet when he moved, but he was also very fast. He stopped Seara from leaving as he grabbed her by the elbow.

"I don’t mean to make you upset. Can we talk? Today is very rough. How are your cuts? You can’t heal yourself now; you shouldn’t have been so reckless and put yourself in danger."

If Seara couldn’t sense the devil, she would have suspected Silas had been compromised by his eagerness to have a conversation with her.

"You don’t need to care, and I don’t want to talk to you," Seara said sharply; she didn’t even try to be polite with Silas.

When they were little, their relationship was very close; she saw him as her hero because he was the only one who would stand up for her. But then he ignored her completely, without telling her what she had done wrong.

Her twelve-year-old self was so scared to find out she was being ignored for no reason at all. Seara still remembered how she begged him to talk to her and tell her what she had done wrong, but Silas would refuse to speak to her.

In the end, when she was bullied, and Silas knew very well Seara couldn’t stand up for herself, lest she get into bigger problems with their mother, he wouldn’t say anything. He would pretend he saw nothing.

Silas didn’t bully her, but he didn’t do anything either to stop them or shield her. And after a year of trying to find out what she had done so wrong, Seara gave up. From then on, they pretended that each other didn’t exist.

Therefore, Seara didn’t think she needed to stop pretending right now, especially when she was no longer bullied and could stand up for herself.

"There is nothing to talk about. Let’s keep it that way." Seara swatted her hand, but Silas didn’t want to let her go, which annoyed her. "Let me go, Silas. I don’t like this."

His grip on her wrist was getting painful, even more when she tried to wriggle her hand free, yet Silas didn’t budge. He stared at Seara as if this was the first time he had seen her.

"Are you still mad at me?"

Seara shook her head. "No, I am not."

"You are still mad at me, Seara; I know that."

"You know nothing about me, Silas." Seara didn’t like it when someone assumed an emotion that she didn’t feel. She was not angry; in fact, she felt nothing. However, she was annoyed that he stopped her.

"You are angry because I didn’t do anything to help you before." Silas shook his head. "I have begged the elders not to punish you severely because it was not your fault for losing your wolf spirit. It was not that you were not favored by the Moon Goddess. You were poisoned, and that’s very different."

Upon hearing this, Seara wasn’t sure whether she had to laugh or to cry in response to that, because at the very least, Silas had acknowledged the logical fallacy in the accusations and the punishment she faced.

She was punished for the crime she didn’t commit, while the perpetrators were free; they were unscathed.

The more Seara thought about how unfair it was, the angrier she was. Silas shouldn’t have brought it up because right now, not only was she physically tired, but she was also mentally worn out with the rage that suddenly raked her body.

Seara took a deep breath to control her emotions, and Silas took that as a sign that he was right and that Seara was still angry with him.

"Seara, I know what I have done was so shitty, and you are free to judge me for it, but there is a reason why I treated you like that."

"This is not the time to clear the air." Seara tried to wriggle her wrist again, but to no avail.

At this point, Seara thought dealing with the toddlers was better than facing Silas’s stubbornness. He always got what he wanted because he was the man of the family, the one who was destined to carry on the legacy, especially now that he had risen to the rank of beta in the pack.

"Seara, you can’t avoid your family forever."

"I have been trapped in that dungeon for three whole fucking years!" Seara was finally angry for real now, and she was even madder because Silas thought he had proved himself right, saying that Seara was angry from the beginning.

If only he hadn’t poked her here and there and stopped being a jerk by letting her hand go, she wouldn’t need to scream at him in the end.

He was the one who had provoked her.

"Guess what? I can live without all of you!"

Seara jerked her hand as hard as she could—she didn’t care if she had to break her wrist in the process—and thankfully, Silas had enough marble in his head to know he would end up hurting her for real if he insisted, so he let go of her hand.

"If anything, I think my life is better without all of you in it." Seara was burned with rage; she wanted to slap him, but she didn’t want to touch him anymore. She wanted to leave, and that was what she did. She turned around and left.

The coffee in her hand was already cold and spilled. Seara didn’t even realize it. In her attempt to get away from Silas, she didn’t even notice her skin was burning with the warm liquid.

She went to the pantry and poured the remainder of it and washed the glass. What a waste of coffee.

"What are you doing here?"

Seara closed her eyes to hold back her anger. Why would people keep asking why she was where she was? Couldn’t she be somewhere, and people just accepted that without question? It felt like she didn’t belong anywhere.

Seara didn’t need to turn around to know who it was; it was Alpha Rune. He had finally gotten out of the room where his son was being kept in intensive care after being rescued. It was his beta and gamma who relayed his orders because he didn’t want to leave his son alone.

Moreover, Asher was here to give the command.

"Why can’t I be here?" Seara snapped back. She expected Alpha Rune to bite back, but when she turned around and prepared for the next round, the alpha avoided her gaze.

"I didn’t say that you are not allowed to be here." Alpha Rune started to brew his coffee. He needed it.

Hearing that, Seara wanted to say something, but in the end, she wiped her hands and then left. Alpha Rune wanted to say something, but when he was ready for that, Seara had left.

For a moment, he wanted to approach her again, but he changed his mind.

On the other hand, Seara went back to the child care unit to find that Richie had returned and some of the toddlers were sleeping, while the other three were still crying, looking for their parents.

There was this little girl around the age of two who was bawling her eyes out, crying until her face turned very red.

"Shouldn’t we inform her parents? I mean, tell them to stop what they are doing and look after their children first. It is already late; they need to rest too, right?" Seara suggested it because she didn’t have the heart to see the little one cry so hard.

It had passed midnight, so at some point, they needed to get some rest. They couldn’t go on for hours looking for the survivors if, in the end, they could be the victims too.

However, Richie grimaced when she heard that, and in a low voice she explained. "Her father died during the first attack from the Quantum Protocol at the Woodluck Pack, and her mother died during the bombing at her school. She was there, and the only reason why she can survive is that her mother took the brunt when the ceiling of the building collapsed on them."

In other words, this poor baby had no parents left.

"Her brother is the warrior for the pack, and he may be out there, still looking for the survivor. He was a young warrior for the pack."

Seara’s heart ached when she heard that. She stretched out her arms and carried the baby, trying to distract her with toys, but she kept crying for hours.