My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 363

Chapter 363: Chapter 363 ALTERED PERCEPTION

ETHAN’S POV

Kieran’s call so early in the morning set me on edge.

The message made things worse. “Bring Celeste to Nightfang. Now.”

The command was clipped, edged, the strain in his voice hinting that his control was wearing dangerously thin.

Anger under ice.

Everything was still raw from the Hunting Festival, the rogues, the trap with Celeste drugged and staged, the growing evidence that someone was targeting Sera.

Now...whatever this was.

Celeste was unstable; that was the kindest word for it. Since admitting her wolf was gone—silenced or severed or worse—she’d been oscillating between brittle composure and jagged hostility.

Bringing her into Nightfang in her current state would have been like tossing a lit match into dry timber.

So, no, I didn’t bring her.

Corin, thankfully, agreed without argument when I asked that he remain at Frostbane with Celeste and keep an eye on her.

Then I set out for Nightfang with Maya.

When we arrived, the air itself felt wrong.

There’s a difference between tension and grief. Tension hums. Grief drags.

This dragged.

Kieran met us in the foyer. He looked composed. But his eyes were darker than usual, not with rage, but with something heavier.

His gaze flickered behind us, but he didn’t comment on Celeste’s absence.

“Sera’s upstairs,” he said instead.

I followed him to the guest suite in the Alpha wing and found Sera sitting at the desk, laptop open, screen paused on a frame I couldn’t quite make out.

She turned when we walked in, and I stilled.

Seraphina Lockwood had never been physically imposing, but ever since she’d been unsealed, power radiated from her like heat from asphalt in summer.

Now that power felt compressed inward, imploding rather than expanding, making her seem diminished.

“Watch,” she said, her voice too steady for the storm in her eyes.

I watched.

Silence enveloped the room as the videos played, one after the other, and the narrative I had believed for eleven years shattered in front of me.

Only when the screen went black, cutting off as Sera and Kieran stumbled into the room, did I take a breath.

Maya whirled on Kieran. “So it’s true. You really did make the first move?”

Sera sighed. “That’s not the point, Maya.”

The absolute devastation in my sister’s voice gave Maya pause. She moved toward her best friend and placed a hand on her shoulder, her brows drawn in concern. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

Sera wordlessly turned back to the laptop and opened another file.

This one was different. An office. Shadowed figure. Distorted voice.

“I will purchase the full archive.”

I felt something shift inside me as I watched the envelope slide across the desk, recognizing the familiar cadence despite the filter.

When the screen went still, the silence in the room was suffocating.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

I couldn’t defend Celeste. She’d crossed that line a long time ago.

But I had believed our father was stern, strategic, political to a fault—but not cruel. Not willing to bury one daughter’s innocence to cover the other’s guilt.

Now that evidence scorched the silence between us.

But instinct refused to accept the simplest interpretation.

“Sera,” I began carefully, “this was before your seal was removed.”

Kieran’s gaze flicked to me, sharp. “What are you insinuating?”

“I’m not excusing this,” I added quickly. “I’m saying...we have to consider whether they were also operating under altered perception.”

Sera’s expression cracked. “You think they were influenced?”

“I think we’ve seen enough evidence of psychic manipulation in the last month to not rule anything out."

"I’ve seen Celeste since the seal was broken," she pointed out. "She was the same. Worse, if that’s possible."

"But we have no way of knowing the extent of the effect the sealing had on Father.”

“He watched it,” she whispered. “He saw. He knew.”

“Yes.”

“And he still buried it.”

That, I couldn’t deny.

I moved closer, lowering my voice. “I don’t have the perfect words to articulate this, but when the seal was removed, it was like scales dropping from my eyes. Like I was seeing you for the first time. As if my mind was only just processing that you were my sister, that I was supposed to love you.”

He leaned back slightly, bracing his elbow on what looked like the arm of a chair. “What happened?”

I swallowed. “I’m sending you a video. Watch it, and then answer something for me.”

Without waiting for permission, I lowered the phone and reached for my laptop. My hands were steadier now than they had been an hour ago.

I pulled up the encrypted file, selected the relevant clips, and hit share.

The progress bar crawled across the screen. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the faint hum of the laptop.

“Check your messages,” I said.

Corin’s eyes shifted downward as his phone chimed. The video call window shrank as he opened the files. I watched his expression as the footages began to play on his end.

His posture straightened. His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. When the distorted voice said, ‘I will purchase the full archive,’ his gaze flicked back up to me briefly, then returned to the screen.

When it was over, he did not immediately speak.

I held his eyes through the screen and asked, “Can psychics forge evidence to that degree?”

“In general, falsifying physical archives is extremely difficult,” he answered after a beat. “However...we can implant suggestive tendencies. Alter perception. Encourage certain decisions.”

My pulse leapt, a hammer in my veins.

“You think someone could have influenced him?”

“I think,” Corin replied carefully, “that if your father was already predisposed to prioritize reputation, nudging him toward suppression wouldn’t require rewriting his mind. Only amplifying what was already there.”

That was worse somehow.

“And Celeste? Could she have been influenced, too?”

Or was my sister just an evil bitch through and through?

Corin paused for a long while.

And then: “We may need to speak to Brett.”

My brows knit together. “Brett? Why? What does he have to do with this?”

“There are connections you’re not aware of,” Corin said softly. “And Brett has something he intended to confess to you during this trip anyway.”

I frowned harder. “What?” 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“It’s not my story to tell,” he replied. “If you allow it, I’ll ask him and Maris to come directly to Nightfang. They just landed. I can fill them in on the way.”

I hesitated for the second it took to look at Kieran and receive his permission.

“Bring them.”