Chapter Two.

My entire body tensed up and my heart began to beat faster than normal. “I have to leave,” I muttered, swallowing hard as I pushed the door open.

“Lyra, why are you leaving?”

Without paying attention to Kade, I got outside and began to walk away. He had woken up memories that shouldn’t be woken up. Alpha Kade was my past and I should not be anywhere near him.

“What are you doing? I thought you agreed to let me pick you up.” Kade was out of the car too and I could hear his footsteps behind me. I hastened mine but before I could get too far, his hands caught my wrist.

“I changed my mind,” I snapped, flashing him a hard glare as I turned to look at him. “Since my family can’t pick me up themselves. I’ll just go to them myself.”

I tried pulling away, but he still held on to me. “Why are you making us do this again? Your father is the Beta of this pack and your brother will take over soon. You just got back from the human world with a degree from an Ivy League College. There’s rumors of you being betrothed to me. You’re kind of a big deal here and there are so many opportunists in the streets. You can’t just go out into the streets.”

I scoffed when he mentioned that there were rumors of me being betrothed to him. “You’re an Alpha yourself. You should protect yourself first.” I slapped his hand away and continued walking. He was doing it again. Acting like he cared, but I had grown past that level. I refuse to fall for that again.

But again, maybe he did care. Or, maybe he was here because I was the daughter of his Beta and the sister of his future Beta. Seeing it this way made me a little bit annoyed. But again, why should it be annoying. Why should he, seeing me as only his Beta’s daughter bother me?

“Why are you angry at me?”

My breath hitched. Everything went still, including my muscles, so I stood, frozen and locked to the ground. He was right. Where was the anger coming from? He said what he said eight years ago and I now had a fiancé. There was nothing to be angry about.

I took a deep breath and kept on walking. My jaw tightened and my hands curled into a fist beside me. The anger I felt was a reminder that even after eight years, moving on was not very easy.

I flagged down the cab driving toward me and hurriedly got in before Alpha Kade could do anything to stop me. “Keep driving,” I ordered immediately I got in and the engine of the cab roared into life. We were moving.

“Where to?” The cab driver asked, still driving.

I quickly remembered Kade’s words. He was not wrong about how dangerous this was. “Do you know where the Beta’s mansion is? I am supposed to resume work there as a maid tomorrow.”

“So, you don’t know your way there?” The cab driver asked. Sensing the excitement in his voice, I raised an eyebrow. “Are you from another pack?”

“Not really. I have just been away for a very long time.” I looked away, hoping he would not ask anymore questions and luckily for me, he did not. Instead, he looked back at me a little too much for my convenience.

His stolen glances were however the least of my problems. I heaved a sigh of frustration and looked through the window, walking my mind through everything that had taken place the last few hours. Then, I reached into my bag, drew out my phone and called Conan.

He picked up after the third ring. “Lyra? Lyra, I’m kind of in an important meeting right now. I will call you later.”

I threw my phone beside me, my jaw clenching so tightly it ached. What meeting was more important than Conan making sure his fiancée got home safely. He could do nothing much from where he was, but at least he should know that hearing his voice would put me in a better mood.

The cab driver stole another glance at me and this time around, I was not ready to ignore it.

“Is something wrong with my face?” I blurted and I saw his lip curl up through the rearview mirror. Immediately I asked the question, it dawned on me that he might have recognized me as the Beta’s daughter.

“No. You’re just so beautiful that I can’t take my eyes off you. I would like it if we could…” he paused, turned to look at me and his eyes lingered from my lips down. “you know get to know each other on a higher level.”

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. So this was what that was. “I will act like you said nothing. Just get me to my destination.”

He said nothing in reply and continued driving, but there was an issue. I no longer knew where he was heading to. In the past eight years, the pack had changed greatly, but I still knew my way back home and he was definitely not going through the path I knew.

“Where are you taking me to? Are you sure you know the way?”

“You sound like you know your way and your aura? That aura does not belong to a maid. I should take you home but your beauty is too tempting, so I will kidnap you, have you for myself and when I figure out what powerful family you come from, I’ll get as much money I can out of your family. You can try to make a call though. Sadly, it won’t go through.”

I could not help but laugh.

The audacity. I had flagged down a random cab despite how dangerous it was because I knew that I was no helpless damsel. “And how will you do that?” The mockery in my voice was palpable.

The cab came to a halt. This time, he did not just turn his face but his body too. An annoying grin was on his face and I sat calmly, waiting for him to get too close.

Like expected, he got too close and at that moment, Selka, my wolf, woke up. My nails grew longer and I brought them to his right eye and took it out. Then, I kicked the car door open and got out.

He screamed out in terror and slowly began to transform to his wolf. As he did, he got out of the car.

I watched him calmly, rolling his eyeball between my fingers and awaiting his display before I displayed mine. His biggest mistake was underrating me. To begin with, his shift was too slow compared to mine.

He had almost fully shifted, and at the snap of a finger I shifted fully to Selka, a wolf two times bigger than what his was going to be.

Sensing the danger he had gotten into, he began to take steps backwards but before he could run away, his head fell to the ground.

I paused and looked around. I blinked, trying to make sense of what just happened and then came a quick. sharp metallic clink as a sword from nowhere touched the ground.

That was not my doing. So, that meant one thing. Someone else was here with us.