Chapter 134: Adeline is Selena’s Niece?

Author’s POV~

Lucas and Logan sat side by side on the long velvet couch, their backs locked straight and rigid, their golden eyes fixed entirely on their parents.

"Adeline’s parents betrayed the lycans," Selena said, her voice dropping into a register that was chillingly low and cold. "And they paid for that with a brutal, agonising death."

Lucas swallowed hard, a cold knot forming in his throat. "Her parents were close to the high-ranking lycans?"

"Extremely close." Selena nodded once, her movements stiff. "Her father, Fredrick, was an alpha. Not just any pack alpha, mind you. He was the supreme right hand and military commander of the High Concord of the Four Thrones."

Lucas and Logan froze instantly.

The twins stared at their mother as if she had just grown a second head, their minds struggling to compute the sheer magnitude of what she had just said.

"Wait," Logan whispered, his voice barely audible over the crackling fire. "Fredrick? The Fredrick? The legendary master strategist who commanded the entire elite military forces of the empire?"

"Yes," Selena spat.

"The one they still teach about in every war academy across the continent? The military genius who won three consecutive border wars without losing a single soldier? And also the same person who betrayed the Royal Lycans."

"The very same man," Alpha Daren rumbled from the dark corner of the room, his massive arms crossed over his chest.

"Under the direct authority of the Four Thrones?" Lucas whispered, horrified. "He served the royal families face-to-face?"

"He stood right at their right hand," Daren confirmed, stepping forward into the light. "Every major royal decree went through his hands. Every battalion moved on his word alone. He was the sharpest, most ruthless blade the High Concord ever possessed."

Logan let out a shaky breath, running a hand over his face. "And Adeline is his bloodline. That wolfless, pathetic girl we treated like trash, the one we kicked around the pack house like a stray dog... is the daughter of the High Concord’s greatest commander."

"Does she know?" Logan asked quickly, his eyes darting to his mother. "Does Adeline have any clue who her real parents were?"

"No," Selena’s answer shot back like a fired bullet—fast, hard, and absolute. "She doesn’t know a damn thing. And she never will."

"Never?"

"Never," Selena’s eyes glittered with dark triumph. "And I made damn sure of that the exact moment I dragged her into our pack house."

Lucas blinked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"The salve," Selena murmured, a cruel, mocking smile stretching across her lips. "The nightly tonic I forced her to drink every single evening before bed."

"You mean that foul-tasting medicine?" Lucas stared at her. "The one you told us she needed for her weak, sickly constitution?"

"Yes," Selena laughed softly.

"I told her it was medicine to keep her frail body alive. But it was never medicine. It was a neuro-toxin blend, slowly erasing her strength, her wolf’s power, and every single memory of her childhood. Little by little, year after year, everything she was before she came to us evaporated, until there was nothing left inside her head but a blank, empty slate who didn’t even know her own name."

Logan stared at his mother in utter disbelief. "You wiped her memories? You deliberately lobotomized a child?"

"I made damn sure she would never remember her parents’ faces," Selena snarled, stepping closer. "Or their names. Or what they were. She deserved to live in the dark."

"But Mother," Lucas protested, shaking his head. "Why go through all this? If everyone despises her parents, why take Adeline in at all? Why not just leave her to rot in the streets?"

Selena let out a harsh, dry scoff. She turned her back on her sons and walked slowly toward the stone fireplace, staring down into the embers.

"Adeline’s mother owed me an insurmountable debt. And with Scarlett gone, who was going to pay it back? Besides... Scarlett was no stranger to me."

The twins exchanged a tense, uneasy look.

Selena spun back around. Her face had set into stone, her eyes burning with decades of unhealed, festering hatred.

"Scarlett was my sister," she hissed.

Logan’s jaw dropped. "Your... sister?"

"My elder sister, adopted by our parents," Selena’s voice trembled with a violent bitterness.

"She waltzed into our house with nothing to her name. And yet, she managed to take everything away from me. My parents’ affection. Their constant attention. Their praise. Every dress I wanted, every honour I worked my ass off to earn, she took them all effortlessly, flashing that sweet, saintly smile of hers."

"She was a viper wrapped in silk," Selena continued, her voice rising in pitch. "Everyone in the pack thought she was an angel dropped from the Moon. Everyone adored her. And I was forced to stand in her miserable shadow my entire life like a lowly servant."

Logan frowned, pieces falling into place. "So Adeline is your sister’s daughter. Your niece."

"Yes."

"And you took her in solely because of that?" Logan asked, horrified. "To enact some sick, twisted revenge?"

Selena laughed, a broken, manic sound that echoed in the quiet hall.

"Yes!" She nodded slowly, her eyes wide. "That was the master plan from day one. To take Scarlett’s precious daughter and force her to scrub the very floors of the estate her mother once looked down upon. To make her kneel before me in the dirt every single day for the rest of her miserable life."

"But why take her memories?" Lucas pushed, stepping forward. "Why make Adeline forget who she is? You hated Scarlett, Mother, not an innocent child. You can’t just ruin a girl’s entire existence just because—"

Alpha Daren cut him off. He stepped directly into the light, his voice dropping into a heavy, suffocating rumble.

"Because she deserves worse," Daren said slowly, his tone flat and merciless. "Adeline deserves absolute hell. Just for drawing breath as the spawn of those two monsters."

"Father..." Lucas whispered, taking a step back.

"Do you have any idea what Fredrick and Scarlett did to this family? To our family?"

Neither of the twins could find their voice to answer. They don’t know.

Daren turned his scarred face toward his sons, his dark eyes shimmering with a raw, ancient pain that terrified them more than his anger.

"You both know what happened to Chloe the night she was born, don’t you?"

Lucas and Logan nodded slowly.

"She went missing right out of the cradle," Lucas said quietly, his throat tight. "It took us ten agonizing years to track her down."

"She didn’t just go missing," Daren corrected, his voice dropping to a gravelly growl. "A royal infant doesn’t simply vanish from a locked nursery guarded by elite alphas on the night of her birth." Daren’s massive hands curled into white-knuckled fists. "Our daughter was stolen. Kidnapped and..."

His voice cracked. He slammed his hand against the mantelpiece, stopping to drag a harsh breath into his lungs before forcing the words out.

"Kidnapped and ripped straight from her mother’s arms before she even opened her eyes for the first time."

Selena pressed both hands tightly over her mouth, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably as hot tears spilled down her cheeks.

"What? Who?" Lucas breathed, the question tearing out of his throat. But even as he asked it, the horrific realization bloomed in his chest, draining every drop of color from his face.

"Fredrick," Daren said. "And Scarlett."