Chapter 3

LYRA

I sit in the back of the SUV, watching the trees blur past like green smudges on a canvas, but I’m not really looking at them. I’m too busy contemplating whether it’s too late to fling the car door open and hurl myself into the woods.

Death by wolf-speed escape or dramatic forest collapse sounds preferable to whatever fresh hell awaits me at Zane Wynter’s doorstep.

Alpha Asshole, King of Brooding, the musclebound enigma with ridiculous self-control, and gold eyes that make my spine shiver in all the wrong, and maybe a few of the right, ways.

“Maybe I could just disappear,” I murmur to the window. “Live off berries. Talk to squirrels. Become a woodland creature.”

“You wouldn’t last an hour,” Talia deadpans from beside me. She is the same age as Nova, both of them twenty-six. Only three years older than me, yet she's already been a Beta for five years. Yeah, we have some badass women in our pack. 

Right now, Talia is annoyingly relaxed, sprawled comfortably in the backseat, with her boots up on the leather. Her lavender scent radiates calm. And I hate that she’s right. But of course I'm not admitting that.

“Excuse me,” I say, while flipping my hair over my shoulder, “I could absolutely thrive in the wild. I’ve seen, like, eight episodes of Lost.”

“And how exactly will you file your claws without power outlets or topcoat?”

I narrow my eyes. “I’ll use tree sap and grit. Like a savage.”

She just chuckles and leans her head against the seat.

Up front, our head warrior and trainer, Leon, is focused on the road like he’s leading a military convoy instead of chauffeuring two overly dramatic females into an ally pack's territory. The other warrior, a guy named Kye or Kai or something else monosyllabic and grunty, hasn’t said a word since we left. Which is just fine by me. He only recently joined the pack, and I barely know the guy. But from the weird looks he keeps giving me over his shoulder, he seems afraid that I might lose my temper at any moment and attack. 

I decide to just ignore him. And everyone else in the car for right now. I can't focus on chatter anyway. My own thoughts won’t shut up.

What if I say something dumb?

What if I trip and fall on my face in front of his entire pack?

Worse.

What if I can’t make it on my own? 

What if I can’t learn control? 

What if I hurt someone else?

I sigh and slouch against the window. “Maybe I’ll just catch a disease and die. Something dramatic but pretty. Like fever poisoning. Or pinecone exposure.”

Talia raises a brow. “You have supernatural healing, darling. And that’s not a thing.”

“It should be.”

Silence. 

We drive for about thirty minutes in complete silence, while my thoughts run away with me.

Talia glances at me. “You know this is the longest you’ve ever gone without talking, right?”

My lips twitch, but I keep staring out the window. “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when your brother sends you to rot alone in the pack from hell.”

She’s silent for a second. Then, “please, you know you won't be alone.”

My eyes remain on the passing trees. 

“Yeah… I get some sweaty, tough male bodyguards. Lucky me.”

Leon gives me a dirty look in the rearview mirror, but Talia bursts out laughing.

“No sweaty males, princess. I’m staying with you.”

I blink. Once. Twice. 

And turn slowly towards her. She can't be serious… there's no way Alex and Nova would just let their Beta female go. They need her. 

“What?”

Talia shrugs like it’s no big deal. “You need someone who can make sure you don’t murder anyone. Or cry in the bathtub. Nova thought I would be best suited for the job.”

I scoff, but my throat feels tight. It’s stupid, but it’s the first time today I feel like maybe I’m not walking into this completely alone. Goddess, I love Nova. 

“Please. I don’t cry in bathtubs. I cry in the shower. Way more aesthetic.”

Talia grins. “Of course you do.”

I lean back and close my eyes for a second. 

Because I'll have Talia. So maybe this won’t be a complete disaster. Maybe I’ll survive Zane Wynter’s house of horrors with only mild emotional scarring.

Maybe everyone else will survive, too.

Still…

I tug my compact mirror out of my purse and check my lip gloss.

Just in case, right as the gates of the Eclipse come into view.

And I expected something… darker.

Way more sinister.

You know… Steel gates. Growling guards. Wolves with axes in their teeth or something equally barbaric.

But instead…

“Wait,” I whisper, sitting up straighter as the sleek black gates glide open with a soft mechanical hum, “is this a resort?”

Leon snorts up front. “It’s a pack, Princess.”

But he’s wrong. This isn’t just a pack. This is Pi***rest meets Architectural D**est meets… dangerous bachelor energy.

The Eclipse Pack’s compound rises up around us like a minimalist dream. All the buildings are matte blacks and stormy grays, softened by glass and steel. It's all clean lines and dark wooden accents. 

There are no creepy carvings. Or claw marks from wolves gone feral. 

Only the golden pack sigil. 

It’s so striking, it looks like it could summon a god, or end one. Dead centre is a black sun with golden rays. Surrounded by a golden star. Five-pointed, of course. Each point wraps around moons, arrows, and those creepy little runes that no one will explain but everyone pretends to understand.

Top of the five-pointed star? A pentagram, because of course. Just in case we weren’t already diving headfirst into ‘forbidden magic’ vibes.

And the writing around it? Yeah, no clue what it says. The whole thing looks like it belongs on a hidden altar somewhere deep in the forest, surrounded by dead trees.

Which is probably why I love it.

We drive further into the pack, and the massive pack house comes into view. Five stories tall with obsidian panels and windows that stretch from floor to ceiling. 

It’s modern.

It’s clean.

It’s stunning.

“What the hell…” I breathe, unable to help myself. “I actually… like this?”

Talia leans toward the window beside me, raising an eyebrow. “You? Minimalist?”

She huffs.

Leon parks the car in front of a black stone courtyard. There’s a circular water feature in the centre. Black marble with a golden wolf etched into the base. 

The large front doors of the packhouse open silently as we step out of the car, revealing two Eclipse warriors dressed in fitted black uniforms with a small image of the sigil on their left shoulders.

No flair. Just presence. Controlled power.

No one growls. No one bares teeth.

They simply nod.

It’s intimidating in the most civilised way possible, and I hate it. But Talia just slings her handbag over her shoulder like she owns the place. Leon steps in front, instantly all business.

I fix my lip gloss in the car window’s reflection. Again. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

As we walk forward, my black stiletto heels echo on the stone path. It sounds like a sharp reminder that I’m out of place here.

When we enter the packhouse, I immediately feel it. The hum of his Alpha aura settles in the air in front of us. Even without displaying his real power, the man is intimidating. 

His aura hanging in the air is so cold it sends a shiver down my spine, and the small hairs in my neck rise. Even Talia looks slightly paler than when we walked in, but she quickly shakes it off. Leon and the monosyllabic mute both clench their fists.

The hallway is eerily silent.  It kind of feels like I'm in a horror movie and I know a ghost is watching me, just waiting. That is the vibe you get from Zane Wynter. 

But the walking, talking contradiction that he is, the man somehow has a delicious, utterly intoxicating wine scent that clouds my senses for a few moments.

Fuck, he's close. 

My heart kicks once—hard.

And I hate that it does.

Because for all the calm this place exudes, I remember what that man feels like when he pins me to the earth.

I straighten my shoulders and calm my breathing. 

There is no way in hell I am going to be overwhelmed by matte-finish walls and a glowy-eyed Alpha..

We’re led through Eclipse Pack’s main building in a smooth, quiet line. Everything’s so precise here. Not a single crooked painting or stray shoe in sight. It’s like stepping into an expensive hotel run by trained killers.

The warriors who greeted us at the door turn down a separate hallway in silence and head for a closed door. When one opens the door, I see a glimpse of the room inside. It’s filled with screens, showing different angles from around the pack. 

Of course, this place has cameras.

Without thinking, I move to follow them, trying to get a better view, but a young warrior, who could double as a runway model in full tactical gear, steps in front of me. He guides us down a hallway, stopping outside a large set of double doors and nods politely.

His eyes glaze over, and I can see that someone is mentally linking him. When his eyes focus on us again, he simply informs us,

“The Alpha is in a meeting. He’ll see you shortly.”

My brows shoot up. “A meeting?”

He dips his head, pushes one of the doors open, and disappears before I can demand a better excuse.

Leon walks into the office first, scanning the surroundings before nodding. Kai / Kye keeps the door open for Talia and me, waiting for us to enter first.

We step inside the office. And gods, it’s gorgeous. The entire back wall is glass, overlooking the dense stretch of Eclipse Pack forest. The furniture is all matte black and charcoal gray — sleek, masculine, and almost aggressively minimal.

There’s a massive desk at the far end, not a speck of clutter on it. Just a closed laptop, a mouse, a leather-bound book, and one perfectly centred black pen.

The room is silent. Still.

Too still.

I narrow my eyes.

He knew we were coming.

We weren’t early. We weren’t unannounced. This wasn’t a drop-in surprise.

And yet… Here we are, waiting for him.

“He’s not in a meeting,” I mutter, pacing to the floor-to-ceiling windows. 

“That smug bastard is just making us wait.”

Talia shrugs from her seat in one of the chairs across from his desk, completely unbothered. “He’s asserting dominance. Strategic disrespect.”

“Well, he can strategically kiss my…”

“Lyra,” she warns, her voice flat.

I cross my arms and flop into the leather chair beside her. “Fine. But if he does it again, I’m switching all the art in this place a millimeter off-center.”

Talia doesn’t respond. She’s too busy channelling diplomatic restraint while I stew beside her. Leon remains standing beside my chair while Kye/Kai stands on the other side of Talia. 

Then the automatic glass doors on the other side of the office open.

Finally.

There are no footsteps. No voices. Just the quiet hiss of the doors parting, but no one steps through.

I glance at Talia, who lifts a brow but says nothing.

And then… he’s just there.