LOGINShare
The price of a lie
publish date:
2026-09-13 06:27:38LYRA'S POV
"What are you and Kael really up to?" Mara asks, quiet and even. "I know when someone's lying to me."
I could deflect. I've had a lifetime of practice turning questions like this into nothing. But something about the way she asks it, steady, not cruel, like she actually wants the truth instead of a reason to hate me, makes me want to give her one honest thing. "I don't know if it's real," I say. "The bond. I don't know if any of this is real, and I'm too scared to ask him again in case the answer changes."That's not the truth. I already believe the bond is a lie Kael made up to protect me. I only said "I don't know" because Mara can sense an outright lie, and something built on uncertainty was the only version she might actually believe. I don't want Kael to sound like a liar to a woman who's already looking for a reason to think so of him. Better she doubts me than doubts him.
Mara doesn't move for a second. Whatever she expected me to say, it wasn't that.
She steps back and lets the door swing open, waving me inside without a word. Her room is smaller than Kael's, plainer, but there's a fire already going, like she knew she'd be bringing someone back there. "You're not what I thought you'd be," she says, closing the door behind us. "What did you think I'd be?" "Someone who'd lie to my face about it. " She sits on the edge of a wooden chest, arms crossed, watching me the way you'd watch a fire you're not sure is out yet. "At least you're honest about not knowing." I sit across from her, close enough to the flames that my skin starts to thaw for the first time all day. Neither of us says anything for a while. The fire fills the silence instead, cracking and settling into itself. I wait for her to bring up something to taunt me. She doesn't."Why not leave? You still have a chance now, before this goes any further."
Her voice is careful, almost gentle. "You'd be putting yourself in real danger. And if it goes wrong, it's not just you who pays for it. Kael is the Alpha."
She says it like she's talking me out of something for my own good. But there's a flicker underneath it too, quick.Like the thought of me staying costs her something that has nothing to do with pack law.
I don't ask what she means by that. Some doors close faster if you knock too hard.
"Can I ask you something?" I say.
She doesn't answer, which I take as permission. "What happens if it isn't real? If the rite says there's no bond?" Something shifts in her face. Not triumph. I expected triumph. I've been braced for it since the moment she opened the door. "You really don't know," she says, more to herself than to me. "Know what?" She's quiet for a long moment, staring into the fire like she's deciding how much of this is hers to tell. "A false mate claim isn't just embarrassing, Lyra. It's not something Kael apologizes for and moves past." Her voice drops lower. "There's a reason no Alpha's made one in North Ridge." "What reason?" Mara looks at me, and for the first time since the ravine, there's no hostility in her eyes at all. Just something that looks almost like pity."Because the last one who tried to prove a fake bond with the Alpha," she says, "didn't survive what came after."
My stomach drops. It's Kael I think of first. His voice this afternoon, steady and stupid with hope. I'll handle it. Just trust me. He knew this the entire time and let me believe the only thing at risk was pride. The fire cracks in the silence that follows. I wait for her to say more. She doesn't.
Latest chapter
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED Not Safety
LYRA'S POV I mean to bathe. I even get as far as the bathtub before I stop, water untouched, listening to the sound of Kael's footsteps fade down the hall.Whatever Lorenzo wants, it isn't nothing.I pace instead of washing. Three steps to the window, three steps back, the bandage on my palm itching under its wrap. I keep expecting to hear him coming back sooner than this. Every set of footsteps in the hall makes my chest jump, and every time it isn't him, the waiting gets a little heavier.I've barely caught my breath before someone knocks. I hurriedly open the door quickly without thinking.Mara stands in the hallway, and something about the way she looks at me makes the room feel colder than it did a minute ago."Kael's with Lorenzo," I say, because I don't know what else to offer her."I know." She doesn't move to leave. "I came to see you."She steps past me into the room before I decide whether to invite her in. I close the door out of habit more than choice."Lyra." She says m
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED Something else in the light
KAEL'S POVI don't let go of her hand the entire walk to my room.Lyra doesn't pull away either, which feels like its own kind of victory after everything tonight cost us to get here. The house is quiet, the fire in the front room burning low, and for once nothing outside these walls is trying to kill either of us.I close the door behind us anyway.Her palm is still bleeding faintly. I nod toward the edge of the bed."Sit. Let me look at that properly before it gets infected and gives me one more thing to worry about tonight."She doesn't argue, which tells me more about how tired she is than anything she's said out loud. I clean the cut with what's in the room and wrap it slowly, the same careful way I did her ankle the night before. My thumb lingers over her palm a beat longer than it needs to once I've tied it off."There," I say. "Better.""Thank you."I get up to pour her a glass of water from the tap by the window, my back to her for a moment while I do. My eyes never leave her
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED The Fire Answered
LYRA'S POV Lorenzo waves us forward, and I feel my legs move before I fully decide to let them."Bind your blood," he says.He turns to me with the blade already in his hand. I don't want to flinch, so I make myself hold my hand out anyway, and it shakes before I can stop it, betraying every bit of the fear I've been trying to keep off my face all night. The cut is fast. It still steals my breath, a bright, sudden sting that runs up my whole arm before I can brace for it. I press my lips together so no sound escapes.Then Lorenzo takes Kael's cut hand and presses it to mine, blood meeting blood, and the sting fades into something else entirely, warmth, or maybe just the feeling of not being alone in this anymore."Speak your names," he says.Kael goes first. "Kael Varga. Alpha of North Ridge." He sounds calm, too calm, like a man who's already made peace with whatever's waiting at the end of this.Then it's my turn. My mouth has gone dry. "Lyra Cole."Nothing happens.I wait, my hear
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED The Verdict
KAEL'S POV Lorenzo waves us forward.For a moment, neither of us moves. Then I feel Lyra's fingers brush against mine, uncertain, and we walk into the center of the circle together. Every torch seems brighter here, every face closer than it should be. I can hear her breathing beside me, quick and shallow, and I want to tell her it's going to be fine even though I don't fully believe it myself."Bind your blood," Lorenzo says.He steps forward with the ritual blade, the same one I've watched him use at the edge of circles like this since I was a boy, never once close enough to feel it. He turns to me first. I hold out my hand without hesitating, and the cut is quick, more formality than pain at this point in my life.Then he turns to Lyra.Her hand trembles as she stretches it forward, and I see the small shake she can't quite hide. Something in my chest clenches uselessly, because there's nothing I can do from here but watch. The blade catches her palm. She winces, sharp and fast, an
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED Waiting
KAEL'S POVThe walk from my house to the circle takes longer than it should.My feet know the way. Past the pack hall. Past the training grounds, quiet now that night has come. Out to the clearing at the edge of the woods, where every rite has happened since before I was born. I've walked this path a hundred times. Never like this.The moon clears the ridge just as I reach the circle.Torches line the clearing, their flames bending in a cold wind. The whole pack is already here, more than I expected, standing close together in a silence that isn't quite fear and isn't quite respect. Something in between. I know that feeling well tonight.Darin steps up beside me at the edge of the crowd, close enough that no one else can hear."Last chance to change your mind," he says."You already asked me that.""I know. Asking again."I don’t answer. The words sit in my throat, heavier than they should. He doesn’t push.Mara stands near the front, the way she always does for pack rites. Her back i
SHE RAN, HE HUNTED Run
LYRA'S POV Mara sets a bag by the door without a word.I stare at it longer than I mean to. Inside, I can guess what's there before I even look — food, a change of clothes, maybe money. Everything a person needs to disappear."There's a path behind the house," she says, not looking at me. "It skips the border patrol entirely. You'd have hours before anyone even noticed you were gone."I don't move."I'm not helping you," she adds quickly, like she needs me to understand that first. "I'm just telling you the path exists. What you do with that is yours."She glances toward the window, where the light outside has gone from gold to grey. "It's almost time. I have to go."She doesn't wait for me to answer. The door closes behind her, and then I'm alone with the bag, the silence, and every reason I've ever had to run.I pick it up before I decide to.My hands know exactly how to do this. Sling it over one shoulder. Check the weight. Move fast and don't look back. I've done it a hundred tim
You May Also Like
My Hockey Alpha
Eve Above Story2.2M viewsHE'S MY ALPHA
Cassandra M948.0K viewsTaking Alpha's Twins Away After Divorce
AlisTae886.2K viewsThe Lycan King
Blair Cahill608.3K viewsThe Alpha's Human Whore
Vela Raven 68 viewsCursed To Be Rejected
Estefania Vasquez132 viewsThe Prisoner Who Stole The Lycan King’s Heart
EmpressAnn 93 viewsTwins For My Bully's Alpha Dad
Thatty Madov106 views
