Too Late, Alpha. My Silence Was Goodbye Chapter 04

Too Late, Alpha. My Silence Was Goodbye Chapter 04

When Ophelia pushed the door open again, four guards followed closely behind her.
“The Alpha is gone,” she said coldly. “No one is here to protect you now.”
Mara’s hands were bound together, and she was dragged to Crescent Lake behind the estate. Ophelia grabbed her by the hair and forcefully shoved her head into the freezing water.
“This is how Theo died. Didn’t you claim it was just an accident? Then you can find out what an accident feels like!”
Ice-cold water rushed into her nose and lungs. Unable to exert any strength with her injured leg, Mara could only struggle in vain beneath the surface. Whenever she was on the verge of losing consciousness, Ophelia yanked her up to let her gasp for air before plunging her back down. She did it over and over again.
Submerged in the water, Mara thought she heard the desperate cries of a child.
“Mom, why won’t dad save me?”
She couldn’t tell if it was a hallucination or the actual echoes of Theo’s final moments.
The eleventh time she was shoved underwater, the silver shrapnel in her wound pierced a blood vessel. The surface of the lake quickly turned a faint red, causing the guards overseeing the punishment to finally panic.
“Madam, her inner wolf has already fallen into a deep slumber. If you continue, she really will die,” one of them warned.
Only then did Ophelia release her grip.
Mara sank back into the water, and the last thing she saw was the reflection of the moon shattered by the blood on the surface.
When she woke up again, she was already back at the hospital.
Lucian sat by her bedside, his clothes still stiff with dried lake water. He held her hand tightly, his eyes completely bloodshot.
“I’m sorry. I’ve already dealt with those four guards and warned my mother. She won’t t***h you ever again,” he promised.
Mara stared at him. She had nearly been drowned alive, yet all he had done was issue a warning to his mother. He still hadn’t revealed the truth to the Elder Council, nor had he cleared her and Theo’s names.
“Okay,” she simply said, offering him the exact same word as before.
Lucian’s fingertips suddenly tightened around her hand. “Don’t do this to me,” he murmured, his voice dropping low. “You can curse at me, bite me, or fight with me like you used to. Just don’t agree to everything I say.”
Mara closed her eyes and replied softly, “I’m tired.”
Lucian sat in silence for a long time before suddenly mentioning that his stomach was starting to hurt again. He seemed desperate to use an old habit to prove that nothing had changed between them. However, halfway through his sentence, he noticed her extensive injuries and quickly corrected himself.
“I have the recipe with me, so I’ll brew it myself. I’ll be the one taking care of you from now on,” he promised.
He leaned down to press a k**s to her forehead. However, the mate mark didn’t burn with warmth the way it used to.
Lucian’s expression shifted for a fraction of a second, but he ultimately convinced himself that Mara was just too weak to feel it. Before leaving the room, he promised that once he finished taking care of the funeral arrangements, he would come right back to stay with her.
Once again, he didn’t return.
When the final notice arrived from the Lunar Registry, there were only 3 hours left until the bond severance took effect.
The transport from the Northstar Sanctuary was already parked outside the territory. Mara didn’t have many belongings to pack. She only wanted to uncover the final piece of the truth behind Theo’s death before she left.
Leaning heavily on her crutches, she made her way to Selena’s hospital room. Without Lucian there to witness it, the frail innocence on Selena’s face vanished completely.
“Are you here to beg me to give Lucian back to you?” she mocked with a smirk, her eyes landing on Mara’s cast. “How pathetic. You almost died in that lake, yet he still finished eating dinner with me before rushing back to you.”
Mara quietly switched on the recording device in her pocket and asked calmly, “What exactly happened the day Theo fell into the water?”
Selena stared at her for a few seconds before the corners of her mouth slowly curled upward. “Do you really want to know?”
“I do.”
“When the waves crashed over us that day, Theo and I both fell into the water at the same time. Theo didn’t know how to swim, so he kept screaming for his dad. But I was closer to Lucian, and all I had to do was call out his name once.” She leaned closer to Mara, a cruel smile playing on her l**s. “Of course Lucian was there, and he’s always known perfectly well that I can swim.”