CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER 2

Lyra woke to cold that had sunk all the way into her bones.

Snow still fell in light flakes. She had walked farther into the woods than she meant to after leaving the ceremony, and at some point her legs had simply given out. Now her wolf was too drained from the broken bond to keep the frostbite at bay.

Every breath she took felt like a struggle. The place behind her ribs where the mate bond used to live throbbed with a deep ache.

She pushed herself up on trembling arms and for a long moment she just sat there in the snow, staring at nothing, trying to remember how to want anything at all.

She had no money. No plan. Nowhere that felt safe.

Only home.

The walk back through pack territory was worse than she expected.

Word had already spread like wildfire. She felt her skin prickled with awareness as neighbors stopped to watch and murmur as she stumbled past.

In this pack, a rejected mate was the easiest wolf to discard and blame.

Lyra kept her head down. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, significantly recalling that the future she had built her entire life around no longer existed.

Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall where anyone could see.

By the time she reached the familiar porch of her family’s house, her legs were shaking so hard she had to grip the railing to stay upright.

She stood there for a moment and realized she no longer knew if she was still welcome inside.

Lyra barely had the chance to knock when the front door swung open, and her stepmother, Brenda, stepped out onto the porch, clutching a warm cup of tea.

Her lips curved into a satisfactory smile the instant her eyes landed on Lyra’s disheveled state.

"Well, well," Brenda drawled. "Look who finally decided to drag her foolish face back home."

Lyra paused at the bottom of the porch steps, her pulse racing. "Brenda… please. Just for a few days. I need to rest."

"Rest?" Brenda let out a mocking laughter. "You think you can just march back in here after abandoning this family for three years? Running off to the borderlands to play house with the Alpha’s son?"

  

"I helped him," Lyra rasped. "I had to help keep him alive."

"And what did it get you?" Brenda slurped her tea slowly, her eyes flashing with a flicker of malice.. “Nothing! You played the selfless, little, good girl, bleeding yourself dry for a man who turned around and handed the throne to my daughter the moment he got the chance . Evelyn was smart. She stayed right here, kept her hands clean, and let you do all the ugly, dirty work at the borders. And now she is the future Luna!"  

The words hit Lyra right at the chest, worsening the pain of the fresh, broken bond. "So you knew she had eyes for my mate? You supported her?”

"Of course we knew!" Brenda sneered. "We aren't fools. You were always a gullible girl. You thought being sweet and hardworking would earn you a place with the heir?”

Lyra shook her head. “It came natural bevause he was my mate!”

“The world is too selfish, Lyra. Servants barely get rewarded.” Brenda added briskly.

Brenda gestured aggressively toward the road. "Get off my porch. You are an absolute disgrace to this family, and I will not have a discarded maid ruining Evelyn’s reputation."

Right by the living room window was her father behind the curtains. Lyra stepped closer.

“Father… please.”

He said nothing, simply moved further into the house, abandoning her completely.

The last string inside Lyra’s heart snapped. No tears came this time. The pain felt so deep it passed through the grief and settled into numbness.

Without another word, Lyra walked past Brenda, went straight to the small, dusty shed in the backyard where her old childhood trunk was stored, and shoved her few remaining hand-me-down clothes into a faded bag.

She swung the bag over her shoulder and stepped back out, ready to leave the territory forever, even if it meant wandering the rogue lands until her broken bond finished her off.  

Ding-dong.

The sudden, loud chime of the front doorbell made her stop.

Brenda rushed to open the door, expecting a delivery or a congratulations gift for Evelyn.

Instead, a tall guard clad in the unique armor of the bloodmoon’s estate stood on the porch.

He held out an envelope adorned with a red wax seal. 

Brenda’s satisfied expression faltered for the first time.

“What is this?” she asked, snatching the envelope.

“Delivery for Lyra of the lower district. Direct orders from the estate. She is to read it immediately.”

Brenda’s eyes narrowed, but she had no authority to refuse. She thrust the envelope toward Lyra with open irritation.

Inside was a single sheet of paper that held a short note.

She read it once. Then again, slower.

“By order of the Bloodmoon Pack Estate.

Lyra,

Following your formal rejection, you are hereby reassigned to service within the main estate as a general maid.

Report to the servants’ entrance at first light tomorrow. Quarters will be provided in the lower staff wing.

Refusal will be treated as open defiance of the heir’s authority. You will be stripped of all remaining pack protection, hunted as rogue, and subject to immediate execution if found.”

Brenda burst out laughing behind her. "A maid! Keon actually put it in writing! He summoned you to clean his and Evelyn's floors so you can watch them rule together! Oh, that boy is far more ruthless than I thought!"  

Lyra barely heard her, a cold form of rage beginning to form in her heart.

Keon hadn’t just rejected her.

He had made sure she would stay close enough to see it every day. He wanted to ridicule and torture her and he was making sure to use the very authority she had helped him earn to make it possible.

Lyra folded the letter and slipped it into her bag.

“The order is received and understood. I will report to the estate at first light tomorrow.”

The guard gave a single nod, as if that was the only acceptable answer, then turned and left without another word.

“Now, get off my porch!” Brenda barked condescendingly

Lyra did, garnering the tiny scrape of dignity she had left.

She had no where else to go.

Keon had made sure of that.