My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 258

Chapter 258: Chapter 258 STILL BECOMING

SERAPHINA’S POV

Freshly showered and changed, I sat on the edge of the narrow bed in Elias’s cabin, my bag open at my feet, the envelope resting on my knee.

The seal bore the faint shimmer of layered encryption runes—subtle, elegant, and unmistakably Alois’s work.

I broke it.

Inside, a dense stack of papers waited, but one sheet stood apart. It unfurled with a gentle whisper, ink blossoming into focus beneath my fingertips.

’Seraphina,

I kindly request that you accompany a small escort unit transporting a batch of special medical equipment to a coastal transfer station.’

My brow furrowed as I kept reading.

The next paragraph piqued my interest.

The “equipment” was a newly developed medication—miraculously effective against a rapidly mutating lycanthropic infectious disease that had already taken hold in several border regions.

Highly unstable. Highly coveted. And, if it fell into the wrong hands, catastrophic.

Hence, the disguise and escort.

And then I reached the final section.

’As compensation for your time and discretion, you are granted encrypted offline access to ninety percent of the Institute’s core research library—except, of course, the Origin Archives.

More details of your trip are attached.

Till we meet again,

A.’

I stared at the words, my mind briefly going blank. Ninety percent of the core library.

Not abstracts. Not summaries. The actual data. All the research I’d hoped to comb through. Maybe more than I would’ve ever been trusted with under normal circumstances.

A shaky, half-hysterical laugh escaped me.

“That’s...insane,” I muttered.

Elias, who had been leaning against the doorframe, watching me patiently, huffed. “That’s Alois.”

I looked up sharply. “Do you have any idea what he’s just asked me to do?”

“Yes,” he said simply.

I dropped the letter into my lap. “Why? He barely knows me. How can he trust me with such a responsibility?”

Elias’s gaze softened a fraction. “It would seem to me,”—he shrugged—“that he knows enough.”

I glanced down at the rest of the documents.

One was a map of the coastal highway route the escort team would take, marked clearly where it would overlap with the path to my next destination.

Suspicion prickled faintly. “He knows I’m heading to Seabreeze Pack.”

“He knows everything,” Elias said with another shrug. “He’s the most brilliant seer the lycans have produced in centuries. He probably foresaw you arriving before you were even born.”

I opened my mouth—and then closed it, because that somehow didn’t feel like exaggeration.

I remembered Alois’ words when he’d first seen me in his office, even though I had no appointment. ‘So the visitor I was expecting has finally arrived.’

Still, questions burned on my tongue. I wanted—needed—to ask why the director had helped me so much, why he seemed to know exactly what I sought, whether he understood more about the hollow in my soul than he let on.

But if he wanted to answer, he would have come to me directly. Sending a message through Elias instead was as clear a dismissal as any.

My time at the institute was coming to an end.

As if he possessed the same gift as Alois and could read my thoughts, Elias cleared his throat. “I suppose this is goodbye.”

I looked up at him. “And if I wanted to stay longer? If I wanted to ask Alois more questions?”

His wry smile was only slightly apologetic. “You already know the answer to that.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “And if I ignore the errand? If I instead scour this institute looking for him?”

Elias snorted. “Then you’ll wake up in thirty years, and realize you’ve spent half your life going round in circles. Alois will not be found unless he intends it. When he wishes to disappear, he does so thoroughly. Even I don’t know where he goes.”

I inhaled slowly. “That’s what I thought.”

I exhaled, looking back at the letter. “I suppose this is his way of telling me I have enough to keep moving.”

Elias studied me for a long moment, then inclined his head. “You’ve gained more in a few days than most gain in a lifetime. Don’t cheapen that by clinging.”

I huffed. “You sound like him.”

“I learned from the best,” he said dryly.

Once my bag was zipped and slung over my shoulder, the cabin felt...smaller. Not in a suffocating way. In the way a place does when you’ve outgrown it.

Before stepping outside, I paused.

“I need to make a phone call.”

Elias nodded once. “I’ll give you privacy.”

I stepped onto the porch alone, the mountain air cool against my skin, and tapped Daniel’s name on my phone.

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