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Chapter Five
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2026-01-15 22:22:47CHAPTER FIVE
Lyra's knees went weak.
The room spun.
She grabbed the wall to keep from falling.
"However," Theron continued, and something like pain flickered across his weathered face.
Just for a moment.
Then it was gone as fast as it came.
"Because of your years of service to this pack, and because I hold some responsibility for your corruption, for encouraging your pride instead of teaching you a woman's proper place, I have convinced the council to show mercy. You will be exiled to the rogue territories for five years. Perhaps isolation will teach you what I could not. That ambition destroys women. That pride leads only to fall. That a woman's place is in service, not in seeking power."
"You're doing this because you love me?" Lyra whispered.
Her voice was broken.
Hollow.
"Yes." Theron's voice was firm.
Certain.
He believed what he was saying. "This is the last lesson I can teach you, child. Learn it well. If you survive, perhaps you'll return humble. Perhaps you'll return ready to accept your proper place."
Lyra looked around the room desperately. At the pack she'd served for five years.
At the mother who wouldn't meet her eyes now. At the sister whose tears had dried up the moment the accusation was made.
At the mate who stood with his arm around her replacement, looking relieved that she'd be gone.
Not one of them spoke up for her.
Not one of them questioned the convenient timing.
Not one of them asked how she could have poisoned children she'd never even met but just saw.
Not one of them believed her.
Not one of them loved her.
"Take her," Marcus said quietly.
"Get her out of my sight."
Guards stepped forward. Big men, warriors, with rough hands.
Lyra didn't fight. What was the point?
Where would she even run?
Why would she fight, when her fate had been decided?.
They grabbed her arms and dragged her outside.
The party had spilled into the yard now. Pack members lined up to watch.
This was how banishments happened, publicly, ceremonially, so everyone would witness and remember.
So everyone would know what happened to wolves who stepped out of line.
They dragged Lyra to the ceremonial circle in the center of the pack lands.
The place where important rituals happened.
Matings. Deaths. Banishments.
The pack gathered around in a circle.
Silent now. Watching.
Waiting for what would happen next.
Elder Theron stood at the center.
He raised his hands. The formal stance of judgment.
"Lyra Ashwood," he intoned.
His voice carried across the silent crowd. "You are hereby stripped of your pack bond and exiled to the rogue territories for a period of five years. May the Moon Goddess have mercy on your soul and teach you what we could not."
As the ritual began.
Lyra felt the pack bond start to sever. The invisible connection that tied her to everyone here.
The connection that made her belong.
That made her pack.
That made her family.
It felt like someone was reaching inside her chest and ripping out her heart.
The pain was physical.
Real.
Burning.
And as it tore away from her, as the bond ripped free like tearing flesh, Lyra's wolf surged violently.
It happened so fast.
One moment she was powerless, the bond being stripped away piece by piece.
The next, her wolf rose up inside her like a tidal wave.
Like a dam breaking.
Stronger than ever before.
Wild. Ancient.
For three heartbeats, Lyra felt power she'd never experienced.
Power she'd never even imagined.
Power that made the air around her shimmer and ripple.
Power that made shadows dance at her feet like living things.
Power that made the pack members step back in fear.
Helena's face went white. Snow white.
Her green eyes widened in recognition and something else.
It was something deeper than surprise.
Terror.
Then the bond snapped completely.
The power vanished like it had never been there.
And Lyra collapsed to the ground, truly powerless for the first time in her life.
Truly alone.
The last thing she heard before darkness took her was her mother's whispered words.
Shocked words. Terrified words.
"She survived. Oh gods, she survived the suppression break. How is that possible? She shouldn't have…"
But Lyra didn't understand.
She didn't understa
nd anything anymore except pain.
Pain and betrayal and the cold, dark emptiness where her pack bond had been.
Then even that faded away into nothing.
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