Chapter 282: Cryptic words

Miyuki stared at the man sitting on the bed, utterly dumbfounded.

For several seconds, she couldn’t even remember how to breathe. Her gaze darted between his violet eyes and the spot where the white cat had been sitting moments earlier, desperately trying to convince herself that she had imagined the entire thing.

She hadn’t.

The man before her was real. And judging by the amused expression on his face, he was enjoying her confusion far too much..

Before her mind could even begin to organise the mountain of questions crashing against her thoughts, Yuki responded softly, his velvety voice cutting through the quiet. "I am not a ’werecat,’ Yuki.".

Miyuki’s jaw dropped slightly. It was perhaps the most direct piece of personal information he had ever volunteered about himself, but her shock immediately doubled as she blinked, remembering his terrifying ability to read her thoughts as if they were printed across her forehead.

Still, looking at him up close, she couldn’t get over just how sinfully gorgeous he was—his long silver hair catching the ambient blue light of the room, his violet eyes glowing like polished jewels. Her lips parted, and she opened her mouth to demand answers—

AAGH!

A blinding, sharp pain suddenly hammered straight through her temples. Miyuki gasped, her vision going completely white as her knees buckled beneath her.

Before she could hit the hardwood floor, Yuki moved with terrifying, silent speed, catching her easily against his chest. He scooped her up and smoothly guided her back onto the plush mattress...

"Careful," Yuki murmured, his voice laced with an otherworldly, ancient resonance. "The foreign energy attempting to settle in your veins is clashing directly with your internal spiritual balance.".

Miyuki’s brows furrowed in deep confusion through the pain. Foreign energy? He didn’t use medical terms like "toxins," "microbes," or "nerve agents." What in the world did he mean?

Yuki’s gaze settled over her face; his eyes were intense and unreadable, as if his violet eyes were looking straight through her physical flesh and peering at her very soul. Slowly, his eyes drifted away from her, landing on Kaden, who remained slumped motionless in the armchair beside the bed..

A quiet, cynical snort escaped Yuki’s lips. "How remarkably foolish," he muttered under his breath, shaking his head. "Channelling raw Alpha magic while absorbing someone else’s neurological pain... He is practically digging his own grave."

By doing that, Kaden’s body wasn’t repairing the harm of absorbing the pain. Yuki clicked his tongue at the thought while the golden blonde beside him was completely confused.

Miyuki’s aching head throbbed harder as she tried to make sense of his cryptic words. What did he mean? She was completely unaware Kaden had been channelling the pain to himself.

"Why... why are you here?" Miyuki rasped out, her throat dry.

Yuki didn’t answer. He gently laid her back against the dark silk pillows, his eyes shifting down to the thick, neat stitches closing the claw mark on her forearm.

Miyuki had never been able to figure this mysterious man out. Driven by a sudden, desperate surge of curiosity, she began rambling, spilling one urgent question after another before he could fade away. "Do you know what’s happening to me?! Why did you show up at Aevia’s wedding reception?! Why can no one else see or sense your presence?! And why on earth is Kaden sleeping so deeply right now?!"

It made zero sense. Kaden was a battle-hardened military General, and Kieran was a top-tier Alpha researcher whose private laboratory was just down the hall. There was no universe in which an unknown, highly powerful entity could slip into this villa at such close proximity without triggering their lethal predatory instincts. She could still feel Kieran’s lingering magic pulsing from the hallway!

Yuki dropped his hand from her shoulder, letting out a soft, tired sigh. "You ask far too many questions, Miyuki. Being overly nosy will not save you." He responded in a dismissive tone.

Miyuki’s scowl deepened, her emerald eyes narrowing with raw frustration. "What are you hiding from me?!" she hissed, her voice shaking. "I am losing my absolute mind because of your endless silence!"

Yuki looked down at her, his expression softening into a look of profound, haunting sorrow. He reached out, resting his cool, broad palm gently against her burning forehead.

"Try to rest, Miyuki," he whispered softly, his velvet voice dropping into a rhythmic, hypnotic cadence. "The night is cold... just like the night you were brought into this world, during a blinding, icy blizzard."

Miyuki’s breath caught.

The night she was born?

How could he possibly know that?

She tried to lift her head, determined to demand an explanation, but a strange heaviness had begun settling over her eyelids. "Wait..." she mumbled, struggling to keep her eyes open. "How do you know about..."

Her voice trailed off. She blinked repeatedly, fighting the sudden drowsiness. She didn’t want to fall asleep. Not when she was finally close to getting answers.

The man continued to rest his hand against her forehead. Miyuki’s eyelids grew heavier. Just before they closed completely, she heard him speak again

"I’m sorry I can’t protect you." His voice was barely above a whisper. The words carried a sorrow so profound that Miyuki felt it settle in her chest before she could understand why.

"I’ve always been a failure," he continued, his voice breaking around the confession. "Unable to protect anything dear to me.".

Miyuki wanted to ask what he meant. She wanted to know why he sounded as though he had been carrying that regret for a very long time, and why hearing it made her heart ache.

But sleep claimed her before she could form the words. The man slowly withdrew his hand.

For a while, he remained beside the bed, watching her sleep. Then his gaze shifted towards Kaden..

The humour returned to his expression, although it did little to conceal the sadness lingering in his violet eyes. "Honestly," he murmured, "you Ravencourt boys have a remarkable talent for making things difficult."

Outside the beachside villa, torrential rain slammed violently against the glass, lightning flashing across the pitch-black ocean sky.

Down in the private laboratory, Kieran had spent hours mixing chemical compounds, failing repeatedly until—finally—a single reaction stabilised. The high-concentration synthetic formula held its bond, neutralising the nerve-disrupting agent under the digital microscope.

Kieran’s exhausted blue eyes lit up with brilliant triumph.

’Well, well,’ his wolf chimed in his mind, sounding deeply relieved. ’Looks like you won’t be stripped of your medical license after all, Doctor.’

Kieran quickly logged the exact ratio in his research journal, proceeding to synthesise two concentrated, luminous gold pills—a masterwork compound featuring the highest cellular regenerative potency ever created. The rogue toxin destroyed a wolf’s natural immunity and healing capacity; if this compound could forcefully override the neural block, Yuki would be completely saved.

Kieran sealed the two golden pills inside a sterile glass container and stepped out of the laboratory, adjusting his rolled-up sleeves.

FLASH!..

A sharp stroke of lightning illuminated the dark, high-ceilinged corridor.

Kieran ground to a sudden, absolute halt. Every single hair on his arms stood on end. A primal, instinctual terror seized his heart—the exact feeling a prey animal experiences when a vastly superior predator steps into its territory.

’It’s coming from the master bedroom,’ his wolf growled internally, his voice trembling with rare, uncharacteristic panic.