Chapter 2: Family Conflict

Cassian’s jaw tightened until it looked like it might crack.

Lyra didn’t move.

She couldn’t.

Then the healer added something softer, more uncertain.

“He asked for his daughter… there isn’t much time.”

The words settled like stone.

His daughter.

Not her.

It couldn’t be her.

Not after everything.

Not after he had cut her out of his life like she never existed.

Cassian turned sharply toward her, fury exploding in his expression.

“You hear that?” he snapped. “Even now, he still calls for Selene. Even now, in his last moments, he refuses to acknowledge you.”

Something inside Lyra finally snapped.

Her voice came out sharper than she intended. “You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t spent ten years being reminded that I destroyed this family?”

Cassian froze for half a second, then his anger surged again.

“You slept with your sister’s future mate!”

“I didn’t seduce him!” Lyra’s voice echoed down the corridor before she could stop it.

Several guards turned their heads.

She didn’t care.

Her throat tightened painfully as years of silence pressed against her chest.

“No one ever listened to me,” she said, quieter now, almost broken. “Not once.”

And then the memories came back like a flood she could no longer hold back.

Ten years ago.

The Crimson Moon Festival.

A night meant for celebration, for bonds, for fate to decide what hearts belonged together.

She had been young then. Naive enough to believe she could still be seen. Still be wanted. Still matter.

But Darius Blackthorne had never looked at her.

He only looked at Selene.

Perfect Selene. Loved Selene. Chosen Selene.

While Lyra had always been the mistake no one spoke about openly—the daughter born without a wolf, the disgrace hidden behind closed doors.

That night, she had watched the announcement of their union from a distance, something inside her quietly collapsing.

And she had run.

She had drunk until everything blurred, until her thoughts stopped making sense, until the world itself felt distant and unreal.

Then came the missing pieces.

Fragments of heat.

Unfamiliar touch.

A voice she couldn’t fully recall.

And darkness she never fully escaped.

When she woke, she was in a bed she didn’t recognize.

Darius Blackthorne beside her.

And everything after that turned into chaos.

Selene’s scream still haunted her memory like a wound that never healed.

Then came accusations.

Shame.

Her father’s hand striking her so hard she hit the floor.

“You are a disgrace.”

The Dominion turned on her overnight.

Whispers followed her.

Spit landed near her feet.

Names she never asked for were forced onto her skin.

No one asked what she remembered.

No one asked what was real.

Only what they wanted to believe.

Then came the pregnancy.

Then came the forced marriage.

Darius took responsibility, not out of love—but out of duty.

Always duty.

“Selene left because of you,” Cassian said now, pulling her back into the present. “She couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as you.”

Lyra let out a hollow, broken laugh. “And what about me? Did any of you ever wonder what I lost?”

Cassian looked at her like the answer was obvious. “You took everything from her.”

“No,” Lyra whispered. “Everything was taken from me first.”

“Enough.”

Her mother’s voice finally broke through, weak but firm.

She had risen from her seat, her strength almost gone, but her authority still clinging to her voice.

She wouldn’t look at Lyra.

Not fully.

But her words were clear.

“Go see your father.”

Fear crawled through Lyra’s chest.

Because she knew.

Once she stepped inside that room, nothing would remain the same.

Still, she moved.

The surgical room was dim, filled with the steady beeping of machines and the metallic scent of blood and medicine.

And there he was.

Alpha Regulus Vale.

Once feared across territories.

Now lying still beneath white sheets, his strength reduced to fragile breaths and pale skin.

For the first time in her life, he looked human.

Lyra’s steps slowed.

Her throat tightened as tears blurred her vision.

This was the man who had erased her.

The man who had told her she no longer existed to him.

The man who had walked away without a second glance when she begged him to stay.

And yet…

“Father…” she whispered.

His fingers moved slightly.

Her breath caught.

His eyes opened slowly.

For a brief, impossible moment, something changed in his gaze.

Not hatred.

Not anger.

Something far more fragile.

Regret.

His lips parted.

“Ly—”

The monitor screamed.

A sharp, continuous alarm filled the room.

Flatline.

“No!” Lyra grabbed his hand, panic breaking through her voice. “Please—don’t leave me!”

The doors burst open.

Cassian rushed in, followed by their mother.

And then—

Cassian shoved Lyra away violently.

She hit the floor.

Their mother collapsed over the bed, crying out as the healers rushed in.

Cassian’s wolf surged beneath his skin, silver markings flashing with rage.

“You killed him,” he said coldly.

Lyra didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Something inside her had gone completely silent.

Later, she stood in the corridor like a shadow of herself, watching through glass as healers tried in vain to bring him back.

Pack nobles began arriving.

No one looked at her.

That wasn’t new.

Then a voice broke through the noise behind her.

“You have my condolences, Lady Mirelle.”

Darius.

The air shifted the moment he entered.

Tall. Cold. Controlled.

Even after ten years, his presence made space itself feel smaller.

Her mother immediately clung to him, trembling.

Cassian spoke to him in low tones.

Lyra stood apart.

Always apart.

Then Cassian said it.

“I contacted Selene. She’s returning by morning.”

The words hit like ice.

Lyra lifted her gaze instinctively.

Darius was already looking at her.

Something passed behind his eyes—too quick to name.

Then it vanished.

And in its place was the same distance he always gave her.

Selene was coming back.

The woman who was supposed to be Luna.

The woman everyone still believed this world belonged to.

A quiet dread settled in Lyra’s chest.

Because she could feel it.

Everything she had been holding together for ten years…

Was finally about to break.

And the only thing she could think about as her hands trembled was one truth she refused to lose—

No matter what happened next, she would protect her son… even if the entire world turned against her.