Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 158

Chapter 158

Camila arrived back at the cabin afraid and sweaty, and by the time the car slowed properly, she was certain her nerves were written all over her face. The whole drive back, she had kept looking at the side mirror on the passenger side, then at the road behind them, then back again, as if staring hard enough would help her catch danger before it reached her. Every vehicle in the distance felt suspicious. Every bend in the road felt too exposed. She kept hoping no one was following them, hoping she was only frightening herself for nothing, hoping all the fear in her chest was just the result of hearing too much and imagining worse. But hope was not doing much for her now. Not after what she had seen. Not after what Dr James had shown her. Not after the shape of those sca dates and those silver shards and that terrible possibility had settled in her head.

Even while she worried about a tail on the road, another fear stayed close behind it, uglier in a different way. She was frightened about how she would break the news to Alpha Ethan. That part had been growing inside her from the moment she left the hospital Her imagination had not stopped since. It had been running wild, taking everything Dr James said and stretching it further, darker, sharper. She kept seeing Ethan’s face in her mind. Kept hearing his voice from earlier. Kept remembering the way hope had come into him after Meadow made progress, and the idea of being the one to sit in front of that hope and tell him what she had learned

made her feel sick.

She wondered, not for the first time that day, why she had gotten involved.

That question had become its own kind of torment. Because when she first agreed to come, it had all seemed manageable enough. Dr Rosenberg had asked her to help the Luna. That was all. Help Meadow. Work through her episodes. Handle the wolf-related issues. Be discreet. Be useful. Nothing in that arrangement had suggested she would end up digging into Alpha Ethan’s condition. Nothing in it had said she would end up carrying information that could destroy lives if it was true.

All Dr Rosenberg had asked her to do was help the Luna.

He had never told her to help Alpha Ethan.

That should have made things feel simpler, but it only made them worse now. Because she knew, even as she kept trying not to say it too boldly in her own head, that Dr Rosenberg might have been involved. He had been part of Alpha Ethan’s medical staff. He was the doctor who signed off on the treatment. His name sat in the records in a place too important to ignore. So now every time she thought of him, the same cold uncertainty came back. Was he one of them? Was he only careless? Was he forced? Did he know exactly what was done? Or was someone even higher using his name and position to bury something ugly?

She kept wondering how deep the conspiracy went.

That thought made the world feel unsafe in a way that was hard to describe. Because if Dr James was right, then this was not just one doctor being dishonest. It meant an operation had happened. Records had been adjusted. Dates had been blurred. Someone had made sure Ethan stayed trapped in that condition for years, and that kind of thing did not happen by accident. Not cleanly. Not quietly. Not without help.

Still, fear made her doubt everything too.

There was a part of her that kept wondering if Dr James had overthought the whole thing. Maybe he had. Maybe she had gone in there already frightened, already suspicious, and he had simply followed that fear to its worst possible end. Maybe there was no

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Chapter 158

silver embedded in Alpha Ethan’s spine at all. Maybe they were all building terror on a misunderstanding.

And if that was the case, then what?

What would happen if they operated and found nothing?

The thought made her stomach twist.

What would happen if they cut him open and there was nothing there except damage they had made worse with their own hands? What would happen if they opened his body searching for proof and found only their own mistake staring back at them? Ethan was already fragile in ways pride would never let him admit aloud. What if they made him more fragile? What if they took what littl hope he had regained and crushed it under the weight of a failed operation?

Then another thought came right behind it.

What if they operated and complications worsened the situation?

That possibility had stayed with her since James first mentioned doing it outside the hospital. No proper theatre. No full support. No clean net beneath the risk. Just speed, secrecy, and necessity. What if something went wrong? What if he bled too much? What if his lungs or heart were affected and they were too far from proper help? What if his body, already damaged and poisorted, could not take another assault? What if she helped set this in motion and then watched the Alpha die for it?

Her hands went cold at the thought.

Then there was the third possibility, the one that somehow made things even more maddening.

What if the silver was being ingested?

If that was what had been happening, then everything became harder in a different way. Because even if they ran blood work on Ethan, it would not solve the problem cleanly. Both possibilities, silver in the spine or silver entering the system another way, would make him test positive. The results would still point to poisoning, but not to its route. And if the route stayed uncertain, then every decision after that became more dangerous.

Camila knew she would have to trust Ethan with the decision.

That truth settled on her heavily. She did not have the right to choose for him. She was not his mate. Not his Beta. Not his family. Not even his personal physician. She was the woman who had gone asking questions and come back with something terrifying in her hands. The best she could do was tell him exactly what Dr James told her and let the Alpha decide what he was willing to risk. It had to be his call. It had to be. Because if things went wrong, if blood spilled or hope failed or truth turned out uglier than either of them expected, he needed to be the one who chose to walk into it.

She had planned exactly that before leaving town. Tell him everything. Hold nothing back. Leave the decision in his hands.

But planning it and carrying it out were not the same thing.

Because if what Dr James said was true, then somebody had not only wanted Ethan crippled. Somebody had wanted him to remain

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Chapter 158

that way. To make sure he never walked again. To make sure he healed badly, slowly, incompletely, if at all. Maybe even to make sure he died young. There was only so much silver poisoning a body could take before something gave way for good. The fact that Ethan was still alive after seven years of this was a miracle in itself.

That thought kept returning.

A miracle.

Because a weaker man might have died.

A body less stubborn might have given up.

A wolf less fierce might have gone silent forever.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna