78. Interrogation Part I

Selene wanted to bash Altan’s head in.
But it was a mere fleeting thought, and she felt guilty for it.
She released him with a shove. His chest heaved with breath, but it seemed he had no more to say, so she let him storm off. Selene watched him return to the residential building—where, coincidentally, Aura Baran was exiting. Her son shoved past her even when she called his name in worry. She looked out at the clearing, recognizing Selene and Elio across it. Elio bolted over to her.
“Elio? What happened to your brother?”
Ascending the stairs, he met Selene’s eyes, cutting straight through the darkness of night, and said, “He’s just mad that you lied to us, Mama.”
-
When Selene returned to her room and collapsed onto her chair, Lona slapped a letter on the desk. “Read that now.”
“I have half a mind to rip it *and* your tongue, Lona dear, if you use that tone with me again.”
“I don’t care if you fucked Kiran or not, just read his letter.”
Selene’s anger was a flame lowered to a simmer. She sat up and took the paper in her fingers. “What does he want already?” she mused darkly, unfolding it to find not his usual controlled scrawl but slashing letters. Her irritation vanished.
*History is repeating*, he wrote. *My Alphas fucked up and hurt her. She was unconscious by the river, bleeding out, which is exactly what happened to Zinnia one hundred and ten years ago. The coincidence can’t be just that. When she woke up, she felt pain in her neck and stomach. Zinnia’s womb was cut out and she died from being shot in the neck.*
“Fuck, Kiran,” Selene muttered. For all the years they spent together, Kiran never told her the details of his soulmate’s life or death. She *did* know about the tragedy of the dissection. Her hand drifted to her own belly, remembering her threat to him. She hadn’t even thought of the impact that would have; how insensitive of her.
*Don’t take her to your damned garden. There’s an even better chance of her remembering Calla and her death.*
“So we’re back to that.”
*Events of the past are repeating just like them*, the letter contained, and Selene admired his willingness and prose style to reveal this much. *And I’ll be fucking honest: maybe I don’t want her to remember. Maybe her history is doomed to lead to her death*.
Selene frowned deeper. That was suddenly going against everything he fought about with her. It was a serious and dubious theory. Believing Seff could die a violent death just like their soulmates was, in all honesty, terrifying. Neither of them wanted that.
But what did either of them want at this point? To make Seff remember her past lives—or let her live her own in ignorant bliss? To keep her close simply to cling to the tendrils of their lost loves—or let her go, free of their irrational games?
Selene wasn’t sure about anything anymore, which was a bothersome first for her. She was sure that the time finally arose to resume their search for answers.
She read the rest of the letter before balling it into her fist and stood abruptly. Lona watched her with a mix of wariness and eagerness to enact whatever revenge Selene was thinking of. But she was disappointed to hear her Luna say, “I need to pay a visit to Hyacinth.”
-
Selene ran with the devil snapping at her heels all the way to the Magnolia stronghold of the College. It was a far cry from the humble hamlet the pack started off as.
She abandoned trying to banish her thoughts and emotions in favor of letting them whirl inside her head with abandon. *Fuck control, embrace chaos*.
She barged right into the peaceful little world and Shifted, storming through the campus much to the shock, confusion, and fear of the pretty wolves. Her mere presence sent them into a scramble. Someone offered her a pink and green robe that she took but chose to forgo.
“Bring me your *gracious Alpha*,” she roared, aiming toward the building too large for Hyacinth to be titled modest. Mere feet away, the door flung open and there was the pack leader dressed in a rather classy pale green suit. She smiled savagely. “There you are, you cowardly thing.”
The cunning bastard was excellent in acting flustered, shielding his eyes with a hand at her nakedness. “Luna Selene! Please, cover yourself. What can I do for you—”
She strode up to him, dropping the robe, and grabbed him by the ear. He made a strangled noise and only halfheartedly fought back; he knew it was smart not to defy her. His Omega wives watched him be dragged into his own home into the first room Selene had access to: a lavish living room with plenty of fine wood and books.
“Ah, what a scholarly gentleman,” Selene purred as she shoved him into a chair that she moved to the center of the room, kicking over the low table that supported several cups of tea. “Do any of those books tell you how much I enjoy coaxing the truth out of my enemies?”
Hyacinth swallowed and waved away his wives to close the door. They hung the robe on the handle. “N-no, Luna.”
“It depends on how willing the victim is willing to talk.” Selene finally shrugged on the robe. She didn’t want to sully her skin on the other cushioned chair she placed in front of him; she leaned forward in it, forearms braced on her thighs. “So let’s start with a preamble. You like thinking you’re smart, don’t you, Hyacinth?”
“W-what—”
“I said you like thinking you are *smart*, so don’t reduce yourself to play dumb. Your correspondence with me,” Selene began, “about my asking about Seff Bleize’s family history. Do you recall?”
Divided in the decision to keep her glare or shamefully talking to her feet, Hyacinth said, “I recall.”
“Good. So you admit you were sending all the information to Kiran as well. You thrive on the drama. You sat back and read our separate letters asking the same thing and you easily gave up secrets about your own pack members thinking us none the wiser.” Selene leaned back in the chair, basking in the dread on the Alpha’s face. “We had a good laugh over it.”
After the initiation gala, Selene sent an immediate letter to Hyacinth asking for Seff’s background. She had to know if she was who Selene hoped she could be. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Kiran had done the same thing. They had to know if Seff was a lost Amaranth. His first letter revealed that her parents died years ago, Seff being the sole survivor of a tragic accident. He was stingy with the details, which required more exchanges than Selene cared for.
She told Kiran with the intention of sharing the information only to find him knowing it already. It wasn’t hard that Hyacinth thought he was being clever—selling out his supposed friends’ history just to keep in the Alphas’ good graces.
“I came to the conclusion that you still know more than you’re telling.”
As good as he was acting meek, Hyacinth blanched, giving away that he *was* holding back. “Of course not—”
Selene’s patience went razor-thin. She lashed out and grabbed Hyacinth’s face, nails turning to claws, smiling with fangs bared and a growl rumbling in her throat. “Shh, shh, no lying to me, please. I came to a second conclusion: that Linden and Alarik Bleize’s deaths were *not* an accident. You *set it up*.”