CHAPTER THIRTY ONE: PARANOIA

I barely slept that night. Every time I closed my eyes, Seraphina's final words echoed in my mind: DON'T TRUST ANYONE COMPLETELY, NOT EVEN SOMEONE YOU LOVE.

By morning, I had made my decision. I couldn't live with these secrets anymore. I needed answers, and I needed them from Kieran.

I waited until after breakfast, when most of the pack members had dispersed to their daily activities.

Kieran was in his office, reviewing patrol schedules, when I knocked on his door.

"Come in," he called.

I stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

The diary felt heavy in my hands, hidden behind my back.

"Kieran, we need to talk."

He looked up from his paperwork, immediately sensing the seriousness in my tone.

His silver eyes searched my face with concern.

"What's wrong, Laila?"

I took a deep breath and pulled the diary from behind my back, setting it on his desk between us.

The change in Kieran's expression was instant.

His face went completely white, then flushed with anger.

His emotions hit me like a physical blow - shock, rage, and something that felt like panic.

"Where did you find that?" His voice was deadly quiet.

"In your room. Hidden in the back of your closet."

"You went through my things?" He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor.

"You violated my privacy?"

"Your privacy?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Kieran, this diary contains information about my parents, my heritage, my entire life! And you kept it from me!"

"You had no right—"

"I had every right!" I interrupted, my own anger flaring.

"This is about me, about my family! Seraphina wrote about my mother, about the conspiracy that killed my parents. She even had visions about me!"

Kieran's jaw clenched. "You read it."

"Every word. Including her warnings about not trusting people who keep secrets from me."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Kieran stared at the diary like it was a poisonous snake, his emotions a chaotic mix of anger, guilt and fear.

"Laila," he said finally, his voice strained.

"You don't understand—"

"Then explain it to me!" I slammed my hand on the desk.

"Explain why you hid something so important from me. Explain why you let me believe I was nobody special when you had proof that my parents were murdered for who they were!"

"Because I was protecting you!"

"From what? The truth?"

"From exactly this!" He gestured wildly at my angry face.

"From the fear and paranoia that consumed Seraphina! She became obsessed with conspiracies and hidden enemies. It destroyed her peace of mind!"

"Maybe because she was right!" I shot back.

"She was murdered, Kieran. Just like she predicted."

His face crumpled slightly at that, pain replacing some of the anger.

"Seraphina died because she went out on a dangerous patrol with inadequate backup. She died fighting rogues who had invaded our territory."

"Is that what you really believe? Or is that just what you tell yourself so you don't have to face the truth?"

"What truth?" His voice was getting louder now.

"That some shadowy conspiracy killed her? That's madness, Laila!"

"She had evidence! She knew someone was feeding information to the people attacking special bloodlines."

"She was getting close to exposing them, and they killed her for it!"

"Evidence?" Kieran laughed bitterly.

"Paranoid theories written in a diary? Dreams and visions? That's not evidence, Laila."

"That's the desperate imagination of someone who couldn't accept that bad things sometimes just happen!"

I stared at him in shock. "You really don't believe any of it."

"I believe Seraphina was troubled. I believe she let her fears consume her rational thinking."

"And I believe that if you go down the same path, it will destroy you just like it destroyed her!"

"So you decided to lie to me instead? To keep me ignorant and helpless?"

"I decided to give you a chance at a normal life!" he shouted.

"A life where you didn't have to look over your shoulder constantly, wondering who might betray you next!"

"That wasn't your choice to make!"

"I love you! It's my job to protect you!"

The word 'love' stole my breath.

"Kiera..."

Kieran's emotions shifted, becoming more complex.

Frustration mixed with something deeper, something that felt like desperation.

"This is about love," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"I love you, Laila. I've fallen completely, hopelessly in love with you."

"And I can't stand the thought of watching you become consumed by the same fears that ate away at Seraphina until there was nothing left of the woman I once knew."

His words should have made me happy.

A few days ago, they would have.

But now, with Seraphina's warnings fresh in my mind, they just made me angrier.

"How can you say you love me when you don't even trust me with the truth about my own life?"

"Because I know what the truth will do to you! I've seen it before!"

"You mean you've seen what keeping secrets did to Seraphina," I corrected.

"Maybe if you had believed her, if you had taken her seriously, she would still be alive!"

The accusation hung in the air between us like a beam.

Kieran staggered backward as if I had actually hit him, his face going white again.

"That's not fair," he whispered.

"Kieran, She came to you with her suspicions, and you dismissed them. She tried to warn you about the conspiracy, and you called her paranoid."

"She died trying to protect people like me, and you've spent the last five years pretending none of it was real!"

Tears were streaming down my face now, but I didn't care.

Years of suppressed anger and pain were pouring out of me.

"Maybe if you had listened to her, if you had helped her investigate instead of making her feel crazy, she would have found the proof she needed."

"Maybe she wouldn't have had to go out alone to gather evidence. Maybe she would still be here!"

"Stop," Kieran said, but his voice was broken.

"And maybe," I continued relentlessly, "just maybe, my parents would still be alive too."

"Because if Seraphina had been able to expose the conspiracy five years ago, they never would have gotten the chance to come after my family!"

"Stop it, Laila!"

But I couldn't stop. All the grief and rage I had been carrying for my parents, all the confusion and hurt from learning about the lies, everything came pouring out at once.

"You let them die! All of them! Because you were too stubborn and too arrogant to listen to someone who was trying to save lives!"

Kieran's control finally snapped.

His eyes flashed with furious alpha energy, and his voice became a commanding growl.

"Enough! You will not speak to me that way!"

The alpha command hit me like a physical force, and for a moment, my werewolf instincts almost made me submit.

Almost made me back down.

But my anger was stronger than his authority.

"You don't get to command me into silence," I said, my own power rising to meet his.

"Not about this. Not when it's my life, my family, my truth that you've been hiding!"

The clash of our energies filled the room with tension so thick it was hard to breathe.

"I kept that diary from you to protect you," Kieran said through gritted teeth.

"And I would make the same choice again."

His words hit me like ice water. He wasn't sorry.

He wasn't going to change.

"Then we have nothing more to talk about," I said quietly.

I turned toward the door, but Kieran's voice stopped me.

"Laila, wait. Please."

I looked back at him. His anger had faded, replaced by desperate pleading.

"Don't let this come between us. Don't let Seraphina's paranoia destroy what we have."

"Seraphina's paranoia?" I repeated slowly. "Is that really how you see it?"

"I see a woman who let fear consume her life, and I won't watch it happen to you too."

I shook my head sadly.

"You still don't get it. This isn't about fear or paranoia. This is about truth."

"And if you can't see the difference, then maybe Seraphina was right to warn me about trusting people who claim to love me while keeping the biggest secrets of all."

I opened the door to leave, but turned back one more time.

"I thought you were different from Damien. I thought you respected me enough to treat me as an equal."

"But you're just another man who thinks he knows what's best for me better than I know myself."

"Laila—"

"I need space, Kieran. I need time to think about whether I can be with someone who lies to me for my own good."

I walked out, closing the door quietly behind me, leaving Kieran alone with Seraphina's diary and the wreckage of our relationship.

As I walked down the hallway, I could feel his anguish through the walls, but I didn't turn back.

I had learned the hard way that love without trust was just another form of control.

And I was done being controlled.