A taste of the BloodClaw pack

Lyra sobbed until she slowly fell asleep.

Alpha Kai had watched over her all night until the sun broke through the clouds, indicating the mornings arrival.

He had never been one for dramatics or emotions, but he could not deny that Lyra had truly been maltreated. It only added to the disdain he felt for her former mate.

He knew Dorian would have found his way back to his pack by morning to lick his wounds and recalibrate. If he knew Dorian well, that would not be the last time he would make an attempt on Lyra's life or try to drag her back just to humiliate her in return.

Dorian was like a kid. If he would not get a toy, no one else was allowed to have it. And if he had it and was done with it, he would rather throw it away or let it languish, than have someone else take it from him.

He turned towards Lyra to wake her up, her skin was pale from all the ordeals she had been through the night before. He lightly tapped her bandaged shoulder that he had worked on while she slept.

Lyra woke with a start, then rose slowly to her feet.

"I don't think I'm in the position to walk, Alpha Kai" she grumbled.

"There's no need for that, we won't be walking"

Alpha Kai said, picking up everything and filling them in his satchel, looking around the clearing for anything he may have missed.

"What do you mean? Are we already there?" Lyra asked, looking around for nothing in particular.

"No, Lyra Darling. We will be winnowing there." he said and walked towards her.

"what is a wi-" Kai grabbed her hand and then there was darkness.

                   ****************************

Lyra's eyes blinked, as she adjusted to the quick flash of darkness and then light. She smelled jasmine first—then saw clouds. So many dark clouds, it would definitely rain for days if they fell.

Lyra spun slowly, her brain still working on overdrive, they were in a house, a very large round house with wide open floor to ceiling windows all around it that framed the sweeping view of endless mountains.“Welcome to the BloodClaw pack,” was all Kai said.

It was the most beautiful place Lyra had ever seen.

The large building they were in had been perched atop one of the large gray stoned mountains that circled them all the way into the horizon.

The hall around them was open to the elements, no windows to be found, just towering pillars and gossamer curtains, swaying in that jasmine-scented breeze thick with the scent of rain.

Little seating, dining, and work areas dotted the great hall, sectioned off with those curtains or lush plants or thick rugs scattered over the moonstone floor.

The floors were smoother than granite. Much better than the terazole floors they had in the grand ball rooms of the Nightlight park.

A few balls of light bobbed on the breeze, along with colored-glass lanterns dangling from the arches of the ceiling. What stunned Lyra most was the silence.

She had expected screams of torture, children crying for their dead mother's, and fathers begging for their lives to be spared. It was the famously dreaded BloodClaw park after all.

But there was nothing.  Not a scream, not a shout, not a plea to be heard.

Behind her, a wall of white marble arose, broken occasionally by open doorways leading into dim stairwells.

The rest of the BloodClaw pack had to be there. No wonder she had not heard anyone screaming, they must have all scurried to run from their wicked Alpha.

Then the thought struck her like lightening!

"You could do it that the entire time?! You had the power to-what was the name again?

"Winnow" Alpha Kai supplied.

"Exactly, you had the power to winnow us straight to your pack lands and yet you made me walk for five hours straight?!" Lyra yelled incredulously.

When Alpha Kai did not make a move or try to defend himself, her brain burned as everything she had gone through began to play back.

"You did it on purpose, didn't you? You knew. You knew we were being followed and you left me all alone on the floor, set me up nicely as bait for Dorian to find me. You did that" Lyra said, walking up to him and jamming her pointer finger into his broad chest.

"I can't accept or deny your accusations, Lyra darling" Kai replied, a shit eating grin displayed on his lips.

"You could have saved me. You could have literally brought me here right from the door of the pack banquet, but you put my life in danger, Why?" She asked, the hurt roaring in her head and heart. She could not believe she had even tried to be vulnerable and friendly with him last night.

" I needed to see who you were, how you transformed and how you would cope when angry and also in the face of danger." Alpha Kai explained simply, crossing his tattooed arms over his chest.

Realization dawned on her.

"Is there anything you've done since we met that wasn't planned before time?" Lyra asked.

"No, Luna girl. There's nothing. I'm always 10 steps ahead of everyone else" he replied smugly.

“This is my private residence,” Kai said casually, like they weren't just talking about him risking her life. “How dare you—”Kai snorted. “You really are feisty when it does not involve using your fist. What are you expecting from me, an apology?.” He asked as he stalked closer, his movements pure feline, those icy gray eyes turning subdued—lethal. “You’re welcome, you know."

" For what?”Lyra asked.

Kai paused less than a foot away, sliding his hands into his pockets.

“For saving you from your ex husband and mate." he answered smugly. Lyra stiffened.

"Saved me? Saved me?! Was it before or after you planned to put my life in danger repeatedly?" She yelled.

Kai gave no warning as he gripped her arm, snarling when she tried to pull away.

"Be grateful that they are people who care about you enough to ask me of all people for a favor. Be grateful that I thought about it and decided to give the quest to find and retrieve you the time of day. I don't grant favors. I'm not the moon goddess. Bless her heart. I am Kai Wilder. I do not concede or run errands, so be grateful that I thought you worthy enough"

Cold sweat broke of Lyra's body.

Somebody knew her. Somebody had begged for her to be brought back.

But Lyra was sure she had no family left since the day her father died. She had always been alone. So she wondered;

"Who... Who was it that asked you for a favor? Who had begged for me?

Kai turned around to face her.

"Your mother"