Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce!-Chapter 183

Kael’s POV

My hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

The road blurred past. Buildings. Lights. People who didn’t matter.

All I could see was that phone call. All I could hear was my mother’s voice.

Shaking. Terrified. The kind of fear that came from living through something too many times.

"Kael, you need to come home. Now. It’s Lucian. It happened again."

Again.

That one word said everything. Meant everything.

The speedometer climbed. Sixty. Seventy. Eighty.

I didn’t care about traffic laws. Didn’t care about anything except getting home.

Except getting to my brother before it was too late.

"Kael." Aria’s voice cut through the haze. Soft. Worried. "Talk to me. What happened?"

I kept my eyes on the road. Foot pressed harder on the accelerator.

The engine roared. The world outside became a blur of colors and shapes.

"My brother." The words came out tight. Controlled. "He’s... in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

The traffic light ahead turned red. I blew through it.

Aria grabbed the door handle. Didn’t say anything.

Smart woman.

"Lucian used to be an Alpha." The words started spilling out. Raw. Unfiltered. "Not just any Alpha. He was brilliant. Strong. The kind of leader people would follow into hell and back."

My jaw clenched.

"Then he started using Wolfsbane."

I heard Aria’s sharp intake of breath.

"It started small. A little here and there. Just to take the edge off, he said. Just to relax. Just to forget."

The steering wheel creaked under my grip.

"But it never stays small. It never stays controlled."

I took the next corner too fast. Tires squealing.

"My father..." I forced the words out. "He found out. And instead of helping, instead of getting Lucian into treatment, he beat the shit out of him."

Aria’s hand found mine on the gear shift. Warm. Steady.

"Every time he found drugs in Lucian’s room. Every time he caught him high. " My voice got harder. Sharper. "He’d drag him to the basement. Lock the door. And we’d hear the screaming."

The memory made my stomach turn. Made bile rise in my throat.

I could still see it so clearly. Too clearly.

"My mother would beg him to stop. Throw herself between them." My knuckles went white on the wheel. "It didn’t matter. Magnus would hit her too. Throw her aside like she was nothing."

I could still see her. Crumpled against the wall. Blood on her face. Tears streaming.

Looking at me with those desperate eyes. Silently begging me to help.

"And Lucian..." I swallowed hard. "Each beating made him worse. Made him need the drugs more. Made him sink deeper into that hell."

The vicious cycle. The endless nightmare.

Pain led to drugs. Drugs led to beatings. Beatings led to more pain.

Around and around until my brother wasn’t my brother anymore.

Until he was just a shell. A broken thing held together by addiction and trauma.

Aria’s fingers tightened around mine.

"When I finally beat Magnus. When I drove him out and took over as Alpha." I paused. "Things got better. Lucian stopped using. Started healing. It’s been three years since his last relapse."

The mansion came into view. Looming against the night sky.

"Three years," I repeated. "Until tonight."

I parked the car. Killed the engine.

Sat there. Breathing hard.

"Kael." Aria’s voice was gentle. "Whatever’s waiting inside. Whatever happened. You’re not alone."

I looked at her.

At those silver-grey eyes. At the determination in her face.

God, I didn’t deserve her.

"My mother is kind," I said quietly. "Gentle. Nothing like..." I gestured vaguely. "Nothing like the monsters you’ve dealt with. She won’t judge you. Won’t look down on you."

Aria’s expression shifted. Something vulnerable flickering across her features.

I got out of the car. Walked around to her side. Opened her door.

She took my offered hand. Let me help her out.

Together, we walked to the front entrance.

The door was already open. Light spilling out onto the stone steps.

My mother appeared in the doorway.

Silver hair loose around her shoulders. Eyes red from crying. White dress wrinkled like she’d been clutching it.

"Kael." Her voice broke. "Thank God you’re here."

"Where is he?" I cut her off gently.

"His room. I couldn’t move him. He’s too heavy and I’m not..." She trailed off. "Please. Help him."

I followed her through the mansion. Down familiar hallways. Past rooms I’d grown up in.

Everything looked the same. But everything felt different.

Because Aria was here. In my home. Meeting my family.

My mother led us to Lucian’s wing. The east side of the house. The part we’d renovated after Magnus left.

She pushed open his door.

The smell hit me first.

Sweat. Vomit. That chemical tang of drugs burning through someone’s system.

And there he was.

His skin was gray. Waxy. The color of death.

His arm was covered in fresh track marks. Bruises blooming purple and yellow where he’d missed the vein. Stabbed himself over and over trying to get the needle in.

A syringe lay discarded nearby. Empty. Used up.

My stomach turned.

This was my brother. This broken shell. This addict.

Not the Alpha he should have been. Not the leader he could have been.

Just... this.

My mother knelt beside him. Her hands shaking as she smoothed his hair back. The gesture so tender. So full of love despite everything.

"I found him like this an hour ago." Tears streamed down her face. "I tried to wake him. Tried everything. But he won’t respond."

Her voice cracked completely.

I knelt on his other side. Checked his pulse.

Weak. Thready. But there.

"He’s breathing," I said. "But we need to get him to a healer. Now."

My mother nodded. Relief flooding her features.

I pulled out my phone. Started to dial.

"Wait." My mother’s voice stopped me. "There’s more."

I looked at her.

She was staring at the syringe. At the drugs. At Lucian’s destroyed body.

"I know where he got it." Her voice was barely audible. "I know who gave it to him."

My blood ran cold.

"Who?"

She took a shaking breath.

"He’s been seeing someone. A girl. I thought..." She closed her eyes. "I thought it was good. Thought he was finally moving on. Finding happiness."

"Mother."

"Her name is Serena." The name came out like poison. "Serena Shadow Moon."

The world stopped.

Shadow Moon.

"I kept pushing him to find someone," my mother continued. Guilt thick in her voice. "Kept telling him he needed to move forward. To find love. To be happy."

She pressed a hand to her mouth. Held back a sob.

"I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know she was Shadow Moon blood. She hid it so well. Changed her name on all the dating apps. Pretended to be from a different pack."

My hands curled into fists.

"And when Lucian finally figured it out..." My mother gestured at her son. "He confronted her. Asked why she’d lied. Why she’d deceived him."

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"She laughed. Said it didn’t matter who she was. Said she could make him feel good. Make him forget. Make everything better."

My mother’s voice cracked completely.

"Then she gave him the drugs. The same drugs that nearly destroyed him before. The same poison from the same cursed family."

She looked up at me. Her eyes burning with a rage I’d never seen before.

"That family dealt the drugs that ruined your brother years ago!" Her voice rose. Raw. Broken. "Cain Shadow Moon sold Wolfsbane to him."

She grabbed my shoulders. Shook me.

"And now his sister does the same! They’re all the same! Every single Shadow Moon! Demons! All of them!"