LOGINLyra's POV
I stood by the door, his phone in my hands and I became lost in thoughts of the vile things I could do to him.
"You cannot allow him go free" My wolf, Nyssa 's voice was strong and dominant in my head. Her goriness and fierceness could not be ignored.
I thought Kaelen was real, I thought he was different but I was just being naive. My eyes became red, the weight of my decision bearing heavily down on me.
I turned around to leave but in that swift moment, Nyssa took over and I lost all
sense of mortality.
Since Kaelen wanted to play dirty, well game on.
I barged into the room and found out it was not a casual meeting of friends but the alpha and the important people in the pack were all present there.
I scuffed at them and it was the perfect time to say what was on my mind and get back at Kaelen for being a jerk.
"Everyone" I said to make sure all attention was on me, even though my sudden appearance had tilted them up already.
"I am Kaelen's mate" I said and their jaws dropped, more like they were not expecting me to say it out loud but little did they know, I was not yet done.
"I, Lyra Moonfall reject you Kaelen Darkmoor as my fated mate and I cut all ties to you, now and forever"
The look of surprise, hate and anger plastered on each person's face and it gave some kind of weird satisfaction.
Even though I knew what I had done was hurtful and reckless to Kaelen, it was
nothing compared to how he made me feel and in my head, my actions were justifiable or at least Nyssa feels that way.
I turned around, filled with a tingling sensation of accomplishments, I made my way home. I had shut my head to any voice of reasoning and just allowed Nyssa to take the lead.
I arrived at my house, I rushed up the stairs and I close the door behind me. I longed to be by myself, I wished everything would just be over and there was nothing more of that, but that was not the case.
The shame thus the rejection I now know Kaelen is feeling, still doesn't fill me with the happiness or peace that I so desperately need now.
It made me sad and I was heartbroken. I was heartbroken, and it made me sad.
A few minutes after that, I heard a rapping at the door. I sprang from my bed, where I had soaked myself in tears, and went to answer the door. Who is it? That wanted to bring the roof of the house down? I opened up only to find Kaelen's parents by the door.
"How dare you?" Kaelen's mum landed a dirty slap on my face before I could even comprehend what was going on.
"You weak, good for nothing wolf. You have the gods to reject my son? A worthless piece of shit like you" she added again and I opened my mouth to make her understand I was not a toy or plaything for her son but before I could speak up, she had landed another slap on
the face.
I was sure her hand left a scar on my face.
Kaelen's father snatched my hands bare and hauled me outside, drawing a whip from his belt. In less than ten seconds, I had been lashed five times. I felt the pain, but that was nothing compared to what their son had done to me and I don’t regret what I did.
"Take this creep away, she needs to be taught a good lesson." . One she will not forget in a hurry" two huge men came from behind them and each of them held my hands about to drag me away but what broke my heart even more was when I saw my parents watching helplessly as I was beaten and berated.
Not even a word, or a plea to save me from the Beta's, they just turned blind eyes and deaf eyes to my plight and I shook my head in disgust. Why was I unfortunate to have such delinquent and irresponsible parents? They are the reason my life turned out this way and yet they don't see this as the right time to step up and salvage the situation.
They stepped aside and allowed the Beta's to carry out their evil desires on me. My broken heart was shattered by my parents' negligence.
I was hauled away, not that I couldn't fight back but I knew better than to stand against the Beta of our pack. Nyssa was ready to take over and storm out of the hold of the men that held me but the way things were going, anything could be expected from Kaelen’s parents and I couldn't risk losing Nyssa. If I lose her, I automatically lose myself.
They would not hesitate to use wolfsbane on Nyssa.
They brought me down to a dungeon, crumbling and long empty hallways away. It smelled of dead rats and roaches everywhere. I was not transferred, I had been in worse places. They bound my hands and feet to a stake in the center of the dungeon.
They said I should apologize to Kaelen for the humiliation I caused him or they would deal with me.
I scuffed at them.
" Kaelen got precisely what he deserved" I said and I felt a hard blow to my side.
"Is this all you have got?" I asked with a creepy smile on my face.
"You would apologise this instant or this is nothing compared to what you would feel" Kaelen's mum said and I asked her if Kaelen deserved my apology after taking me for a fool? Nothing would make me change my mind, I did exactly what was necessary of me.
"Guys, beat her up" his dad ordered and they hit every part of my body, causing pain and untold suffering to me but I refused to take back my words.
I stood on my ground and told them I would do it over and over again to Kaelen because he deserved it.
My words fueled their anger and they hit me even more until I couldn't take it more.
The metallic taste of blood had filled my mouth and my eyes had swollen that I could barely see.
I tried to hold on but my strength failed me but I was never going to apologise. The dungeon suddenly became dark and it lights out.
The dim light that flashed in the dungeon pierced my eyes and I opened it up, each part of my body was in severe pain. My hands felt weak and my legs froze in pain.
But I felt a warm, soft touch. Different from the sizzling pain in my body.
I managed to open my eyes and see what had become of me only to see a man standing before me.
Lyra's POVI heard Vaelin before I saw him.Not his voice exactly. More the absence of it. Because Vaelin was never silent in the training ground. He was the kind of person whose presence filled whatever space he occupied, always moving, always talking, always generating some kind of noise that told you exactly where he was and what mood he was in without you needing to look.The training ground was completely quiet.I came around the corner of the pack house and stopped.Vaelin was standing in the center of the open space with his arms at his sides and his entire body utterly still in a way I had genuinely never seen from him before. Not the controlled stillness that Thorian wore like armor. Not the deliberate calm that Soren cultivated. Something else entirely. The stillness of a person whose entire nervous system had been taken offline and replaced with a single point of focus.That focus was the young woman standing approximately six feet in front of him.She was not tall. Dark sk
Lyra's POVEliana went still beside me.Not the careful composed stillness she wore like a second skin in formal situations. This was different. This was the stillness of someone receiving information that rearranged something internal before they had finished processing what it meant.I watched it move through her and then watched her put it away."I will speak with him," she said quietly."You do not have to," I said.She looked at me and something in her expression was very old and very tired in a way I had not seen from her before. "Yes I do," she said. "There is still the matter of the original agreement and what is owed under it. That was never fully resolved." She paused. "I made a promise to deal with him permanently and I intend to keep it. But there is a process to that and Draven arriving here suggests he has decided to cooperate with it rather than fight it."I looked at her for a moment."I am coming with you," I said.She started to speak and I shook my head."Not as you
Lyra's POVKaelen walked into the meeting room like he owned it.I had always known he had that quality, that particular brand of confidence that sat on a person like a well-fitted coat, the kind that came from growing up being told consistently that the world was arranged in your favor and you were correct to expect it to stay that way. He had worn it the entire time I had known him at Obsidian and standing here now in Moonveil's formal meeting room with the council seated at the table and me sitting across from the empty chair he was about to take he was wearing it still.He sat down.He looked at the council representatives and nodded with the appropriate deference.And then he looked at me and what I saw in his eyes told me everything about how he had prepared for this moment and what he expected to happen in it.He expected me to react.He had built this entire maneuver around the assumption that putting him in a room with me and giving him an audience would produce exactly the k
Lyra's POVNobody moved.The courtyard held that particular quality of stillness that came right before something broke open and I stood in the middle of it and felt the cold weight of Kaelen's name sitting in the air between us and made a very deliberate decision not to react.Not yet.The young woman with the notebook was watching me with those sharp recording eyes and I understood instinctively that every flicker of my expression right now was being logged and filed and would eventually be read by people who had not been standing in this courtyard watching what had actually happened between the silver light and Margret's open palm and Dorian's complicated rearranging face.I breathed.Thorian's hand found the small of my back and pressed there, warm and steady, and I felt the message in it without needing to look at him. I am here. I am right here. Take your time.I took my time."May I see the complaint?" I asked, and my voice came out level and clear and completely without the fu
Lyra's POVI was dressed and standing at the window before the sun came up.The pack grounds below were already moving, guards at their positions, the careful formal arrangement that Thorian had organized last night settling into place in the pre-dawn quiet. Everything looked measured and deliberate and exactly as composed as we needed it to look, because first impressions with council representatives apparently mattered enormously and Soren had spent approximately forty five minutes last night explaining exactly why with the focused thoroughness that he brought to everything important.Thorian came to stand behind me, his hands settling warm on my shoulders."How are you feeling?" he asked quietly."Steady," I said. And it was true. Not calm exactly. There was a current running through me that was not quite nerves and not quite anticipation but something between both, the feeling I had learned to recognize during training as the thing that happened right before something required eve
Lyra's POVNobody panicked.That was the thing about the people around me, the thing I had noticed in the early days at Moonveil and had never stopped being quietly grateful for. When difficult news arrived they did not scatter or spiral or fill the air with noise. They went quiet in a particular way, the quiet of people shifting from one mode into another, from ease into readiness, and then they started working.Thorian had the senior guards assembled within twenty minutes.Soren had gone back to his documents, cross referencing everything he knew about council procedure with the specific details of our situation, his quiet efficient mind already three steps ahead of where the rest of us were.Vaelin had disappeared in the direction of the training ground which was his version of processing, and I understood it because I had similar instincts.Eliana sat with me at the dining table while the pack house reorganized itself around us and looked at her hands on the surface in front of he
Lyra's POV I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, I couldn't help but notice the transformation. My muscles were toned, my posture confident, and my eyes shone with a newfound determination. "This feels different. It's almost like I'm in another person's body," I whispered to myself in disbelie
Lyra's POVI paced back and forth in my room, my mind racing with anticipation and nerves. I checked my gear for what felt like the hundredth time, ensuring everything was in order and ready for the day's training. My hands trembled slightly as I tightened the straps on my armor, my heart beating
Lyra's POVHis gaze was locked on my lips, and I subconsciously revealed my lips as his fingers caressed my ear. "Are you feeling better now?" He asked with that calming tone that felt like a touch of feather in my ear. The door to the room was pushed open after a while and someone stepped into t
Lyra's POVI didn't react as I expected, and he remained oddly quiet even after the revelation of my plans. Was he doubting me? I wanted to know what he was thinking? My eyes locked on his face with a determined glint in her gaze.Perhaps I should explain further. "I've been thinking a lot about my







