Chapter 400\u00a0<\/p>\n
23\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in Mooncrest First Hospital, Theo stood beside the tall window at the end of the corridor, his fingers tapping absently against the glass. Though he had just returned from a weeklong academic exchange in Northern territory, his mind was far from focused on medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had almost said something to Kael moments ago-about what he thought he\u2019d seen in the emergency bay of Mooncrest Second Hospital. A flash of a familiar figure in the arms of Lucien Duskgrave. A limp she-wolf with matted hair and skin far too pale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had convinced himself it wasn\u2019t Riley Vale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now, doubt crept in like frost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo hadn\u2019t been oblivious to the whispers surrounding the Vale family. Though he\u2019d buried himself in academic lectures and clinical rounds, the gossip among nurses and junior healers traveled far and fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the mere two months since Riley\u2019s release from the rogue prison, she had been hospitalized several times-each time gravely injured. Once with whip marks across her back and a shattered pinky; another time, unconscious with a severe head wound and signs of infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every time, it was Riley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Never her adopted sister, Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet the pack always insisted it was Riley who \u201ccaused trouble,\u201d who \u201churt\u201d Tessa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Riley was the abuser\u2026 why was she the one always lying broken on a hospital bed?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo remembered that night weeks ago-when Riley fled to Southend, trying to catch a train to other territory. She had been barefoot, bleeding, and terrified. And he-like Kael-had dragged her back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d believed then that he was helping. That the pack needed her to \u201ccome to her senses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back now, he saw it for what it was: a desperate escape from a place she never saw as home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His guilt coiled like a serpent around his heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had tried to run. Again and again. And every time, they forced her back-only for her to end up more broken than before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo\u2019s expression darkened, his jaw clenched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere could she have gone this time?\u201d Kael had asked earlier, brows furrowed in worry. \u201cShe\u2019s weak, has no money. What if she\u2019s hurt again-out there alone?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo had only given a vague, \u201cMaybe,\u201d in reply. But inside, he was seething.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because Kael still didn\u2019t get it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riley wasn\u2019t \u201cjust being difficult.\u201d She wasn\u2019t running from responsibility. She was running for her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He thought back to the report: Riley had a missing kidney. With such a compromised body, she shouldn\u2019t\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
14:34 Sat, Jan 3 G D\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 400\u00a0<\/p>\n
even be capable of shifting into her wolf form.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, during the last lunar flare, she had.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several witnesses saw her half-shift-fur white as snow, eyes blazing silver. It defied logic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what broke Theo\u2019s composure even more than her resilience\u2026 was his own role in her suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had mocked her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dismissed her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Believed every lie Scarlett fed the pack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The realization hit like a hammer: he had been someone\u2019s weapon, wielded blindly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through the frosted glass of the infirmary door, he saw Alpha Alaric gently stroking Scarlett\u2019s hair as she cried into his chest. The scene churned his stomach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cfather\u201d had never once visited Riley in the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Scarlett? One sniffle and he came running.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo turned away sharply.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got rounds,\u201d he muttered to Kael, and stalked down the corridor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he didn\u2019t head toward the patient ward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He made for the security office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riley\u2019s case was riddled with inconsistencies-and Theo wanted the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The door to the monitoring room was locked, but he keyed in his staff code. A monitor flickered to life, showing rows of timestamped footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He began typing in the timestamp from the prior night. The moment when Riley was said to have \u201cattacked\u201d Scarlett.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A red message blinked onto the screen: \u201cVIDEO FILE MISSING.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo frowned, tried another angle-from the hallway outside the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cVIDEO FILE MISSING.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His frown deepened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These videos weren\u2019t simply corrupted. They had been manually deleted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And only a handful of people in the entire hospital had clearance to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Someone was covering tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His mind moved fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
14:34 Sat, Jan 3 G\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 400\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pulled up the staff login records.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finished\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only one name appeared on the access log during the deletion window-Dean Elira Blackthorn, the Pack Medical Alpha and hospital administrator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo\u2019s stomach turned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why would Dean Blackthorn help erase evidence? And who put her up to it?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pieces weren\u2019t all there yet, but one thing was certain: Riley was no longer safe under pack protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She hadn\u2019t been for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo exited the room with urgency in his stride.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had one more stop to make.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of the ward, he knocked on a heavy door. A nurse opened it, nodded, and let him in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, in the dimly lit VIP recovery suite, Tessa lay in bed, her pale skin glowing faintly in the moonlight. through the blinds. Her expression was vacant, eyes unfocused, like someone deep in thought-or memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo stepped inside quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTessa,\u201d he said gently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her gaze flicked toward him, guarded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to ask you about what happened last night. And I want the truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She blinked slowly, then looked away, lips pressing into a tight line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theo stepped closer, but there was no softness in his voice now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Riley really attack you? Or were you just afraid she\u2019d speak before you could bury her again?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tessa didn\u2019t respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But her silence was louder than a scream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
856\u00a0<\/p>\n
W\u00a0<\/p>\n
3\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.<\/p>\n
Midnight Letters by Daniel Crowe 400 Chapter 400\u00a0 23\u00a0 Finished\u00a0 Back in Mooncrest First Hospital, Theo stood beside the tall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pack-princess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}