Chapter 639: What the Pack Heard

The room had been quiet for too long.

Sophia hadn’t made a sound in over an hour, and somehow that silence felt worse than the screams that had come before it. At least the screams had meant she was reacting. Fighting. Feeling something.

Now there was nothing.

Orion sat beside her on the bed, close enough that his knee brushed against her thigh, his gaze fixed on her face like he could force her to wake if he stared hard enough. One of his hands rested near hers, not quite holding it, but close enough that he could feel the faint warmth of her skin.

She looked... peaceful.

Too peaceful.

He didn’t trust it.

"She should’ve reacted by now," he said quietly, his voice rough from disuse.

Across the room, Lysander stood near the desk, flipping through a small notebook he hadn’t written in for a while. It was more habit than focus at this point—his attention was clearly on Sophia, even if his eyes weren’t always on her.

"Perhaps this is a peaceful time she’s remembering. We should let her be," Lysander told him.

"Are you certain?" Orion asked him.

"Not very. The silence could be one of two things. Either she’s in a peaceful time, like I said, or this is even worse, and we have to brace ourselves for what comes next," Lysander told him.

Orion released a sigh.

That did nothing to ease the tension in the room.

Ronan, who had not left since Sophia sobbed the last time, finally straightened, a weary sigh escaping him.

"I’ll go check on Kairen," he said. "We still need to start cultivation on that corpse plant before it rots."

Orion barely glanced at him and only gave a nod in return.

Ronan hesitated just long enough to glance at Sophia, something unreadable flickering across his expression, before he nodded once and stepped out of the room.

The door closed quietly behind him.

The silence inside remained.

—

Ronan exhaled as soon as he was out of the medical facility, rolling his shoulders like he could shake off the tension clinging to him.

Corpse plant.

Right.

Something normal.

Something that didn’t involve screams echoing in his head long after they’d stopped.

He was going to make it to where Kairen currently was, but he didn’t even get far.

A hand caught his arm.

Another grabbed his shoulder.

A third body stepped into his path.

Ronan blinked, looking between them slowly.

"...You people are getting very comfortable manhandling me," he said dryly.

Daniel didn’t let go.

Caspian didn’t move.

Madam Tyler simply watched him.

Yeah.

This wasn’t optional.

Ronan sighed. "Council hall, I assume?"

No one answered, and Ronan let himself be dragged to the council hall.

The doors shut behind them with a dull thud that echoed more than it should have.

Ronan rolled his shoulder once he was released, glancing sideways at his father.

"You’re awfully strong for someone using one hand," he remarked casually.

Daniel chuckled, completely unfazed, and flipped him off.

"Good to see you too."

Ronan huffed a quiet laugh.

Then Daniel’s expression shifted.

The humor didn’t disappear entirely, but something sharper settled beneath it.

"What’s going on?"

Ronan blinked, then tilted his head slightly, playing it off with practiced ease.

"What do you mean?"

Daniel didn’t even bother pretending to entertain that.

"Don’t play that game with me."

Ronan sighed softly, scratching the side of his neck. "Who said I was playing a game?"

Caspian stepped closer, a hand on his lower back. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Everyone in the pack heard it," Caspian said.

Ronan didn’t respond.

"That scream," Caspian continued, his gaze fixed on him. "We know it was Sophia."

Madam Tyler still hadn’t spoken, but her attention was unmistakable.

"You can stop pretending you don’t know what we’re asking," Caspian added.

Ronan exhaled slowly through his nose.

There it was.

No point dodging it anymore.

"...Yeah," he admitted quietly. "You’re right."

Daniel crossed his arms, watching him closely.

"Then talk."

Ronan ran a hand through his hair, pausing for a second before speaking.

"You all know Sophia’s condition."

Caspian nodded immediately. "Amnesia."

"Yeah. That."

He shifted his weight slightly.

"According to Lysander... she’s recovering her memories."

Madam Tyler’s shoulders stiffened just slightly, and Caspian’s brows drew together.

Daniel didn’t move, but his gaze sharpened.

"Recovering?" Caspian repeated.

Ronan nodded. "Not all at once. But... yeah."

Madam Tyler finally spoke, her voice quieter than usual, but steady.

"...It’s like that time again?"

Ronan glanced at her and gave a small nod. "Yeah. Lysander says she’s not just remembering things. She’s reliving them."

The words settled heavily in the room.

"She’s feeling everything exactly as she did the first time," he continued. "Same pain. Same fear. Same... everything."

Caspian’s brows furrowed in thought.

"So when she screams..." he began.

"She’s not reacting to now," Ronan finished. "She’s reacting to then."

Silence followed.

A thick, uneasy silence.

"So in a way," Ronan added quietly, "she’s stuck there while it’s happening."

Madam Tyler released a slow, unsteady breath.

"What exactly could she be going through..." she murmured. "What more did her mother do?"

Ronan hesitated for a fraction of a second, then looked at her.

"Do you know her mother?"

Madam Tyler shook her head slowly. "Not personally."

Her expression darkened slightly.

"But I know enough."

Ronan didn’t interrupt.

Madam Tyler’s lips pressed into a thin line.

"I do know one thing," she said. "When Sophia was very young... her mother tried to drown her. That was the one memory she told us about when she first started recovering it."

Silence followed again. Heavy and uncomfortable.

Ronan didn’t say anything.

Didn’t react outwardly.

But something in his chest tightened.

Because that was only a fraction of it.

And they had no idea.

He wondered, briefly, what their expressions would look like if they knew everything.

If they knew who Sophia’s mother really was.

He pushed the thought away.

Now wasn’t the time.

Caspian shook his head slowly, exhaling.

"She’s such a sweet girl," he said quietly. "And she’s been carrying all that?"

Ronan didn’t answer.

Because there wasn’t anything to say to that.

Daniel, however, hadn’t spoken.

Not once since Ronan started explaining.

And that, more than anything, put Ronan on edge.

Because his father wasn’t the type to stay quiet unless he was thinking.

Ronan felt it before he saw it—the shift in attention.

The weight of his father’s gaze settling fully on him.

"What else are you not telling us?"

Ronan swallowed.