로그인LYRA Ten days. The number settled over me like a shroud as I sat on the edge of the iron bed, lacing up my boots. It had been the same weight, growing heavier each morning since the third day, a leaden anchor instead of the lightness I'd expected from approaching a destination. Ten days confined to this room. Ten days staring out the same narrow window, sleeping on the same stark white linens, and rereading the same three books on the shelf until their words blurred. Ten days of waking before the light even began to creep in, lying in the pre-dawn dark and meticulously cataloging everything I knew, and more importantly, everything I didn't. The sequences played out in my head, a mental rehearsal before I ever stepped foot in the courtyard. Ten days, and I was a different person than the one who had first walked through that door. Lucius had been a genuine surprise. That was the only word for it after our first session. That night, back in my room, I'd recounted everything he'd sa
LYRADay six.The courtyard was still steeped in the pre-dawn chill, but I was already there, my body moving through sequences with a kind of frantic energy that had little to do with training and everything to do with the fact that I'd spent the better part of the night caught between two people who loved me. My body, apparently, hadn't gotten the memo that focus was the order of the day."You're grinning, Lyra," Sky's voice cut through the quiet."I'm not," I insisted, though I knew it was useless."Yes, you are. You're literally grinning while throwing a strike.""It's just my face," I mumbled."Oh, no, it is not," she countered, her voice laced with a warm, amused pause. "You had a good night.""Sky…""A ‘very’ good night, from what I could tell," she finished for me, her teasing relentless."We are not doing this right now.""We absolutely are," she shot back, her tone playful but firm. "There's nobody else here. Let me have this."I bit back a laugh and threw the sequence again,
LYRAA soft, deliberate knock echoed through the quiet just after midnight – two taps, a breath, then one more. My heart gave a wild leap, my brain lagging a beat behind as I scrambled to the door. My fingers trembled as I pulled it open, and Orion, cloaked and dark, slipped in first, Zeviar a silent shadow right behind him.The moment the door clicked shut, the cramped room seemed to exhale, filling with a palpable energy. "How did you even get past the guards?" I whispered, the question tumbling out before I could stop it.Orion sank into one of the two chairs, a weary half-smile touching his lips. "Don't ask questions you don't want real answers to, Lyra. The less you know, the less they can pull out of you if things go wrong.""That's not exactly comforting," I mumbled."It wasn't meant to be," he replied softly.Zeviar moved closer, his gaze sweeping over me, a familiar check for new injuries after our time apart. "Darius bought us a window," he explained, his voice a low rumble.
LYRADay five, and Darius was late.I was stretched out on the courtyard grass, flat on my back, the sky above a dull, steely gray. The minutes ticked by, each one stretching longer than the last. This wasn't like him at all. For four days straight, Darius had been punctual to the second, a man who seemed to have built his entire existence around precision. His absence, then, felt jarring, and a tiny, anxious corner of my brain, despite my best efforts, started conjuring up all sorts of dire possibilities."He's fine," Sky said, her voice interrupting my thoughts. "Probably just got held up.""You don't know that," I retorted."No, I don't," she conceded. "But I'd rather assume he's okay than spend the next ten minutes spiraling with you."A genuine laugh almost escaped me. There was a subtle shift in her tone, a lightness, a newfound certainty in her words that hadn't been there before. It was as if the careful distance she'd maintained since that tense council meeting had finally di
ZEVIARThe old training field hadn't changed. Twenty years had passed, yet the place remained a near-perfect replica of my memories. The crooked fence post on the eastern edge, the one Father never bothered to fix, had served as our marker for countless illicit races. The grass, still sunken in the middle, bore witness to our sparring matches, the ones that left our knuckles split and Mother furious, demanding to know who had started it.It was always Orion who took the blame, even when the idea was mine. I settled onto the low stone wall, the one we'd once pretended was a mountain, and let the quiet wash over me. I'd returned from the southern territories an hour ago, the aftermath of the pack's attack still raw, bodies being buried, council members demanding answers I couldn't give. My office, Darius's reports, Lyra's isolation – all of it waited. Yet, here I was."Figured you'd be here."I didn't turn. I knew the voice, the familiar weight of footsteps that had crossed this field c
LYRADay three.I knew it was day three because I’d started marking time by the way the light filtered through the narrow window. In the morning, it was pale and thin, almost fragile. By midday, it warmed just enough to feel like a promise. Then, late afternoon, it faded into a soft grey before vanishing completely. Three cycles of that now. Three mornings waking up on the cold iron bed, the plain white linens stiff beneath me, staring up at the ceiling until my mind caught up with where I was and why.The room had shifted from feeling like a prison cell to something more like a grim fact, something I no longer argued with. I was up before the light changed, sitting cross-legged on the bed, one of the books from the shelf open in my lap. It was the one on combat theory, the same one Mira had flagged in her bag. Her neat handwriting appeared in the margins of my copy too: “Pay attention to this. This one matters.” “Skip this, it's outdated, pre-shift era, ignore.”Having Mira’s voice s
LYRAThe room was cold.I sat on the edge of a narrow bed, my hands clasped tightly in my lap to keep them from shaking. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting everything in harsh white light. There were no windows and there was no other door except the one the guards had locked behind me.I w
LYRAThe word hung in the air like a blade.Interesting.My knees were still weak, my chest still burning from the pull that had slammed into me the moment I'd seen him. Orion. His golden eyes hadn't left mine, and even now, standing across the room, I could still feel him. A second thread wrapped
LYRA The ballroom was breathtaking. Crystal chandeliers hung from vaulted ceilings, casting warm light across polished marble floors. Tables draped in ivory linen lined the walls, laden with food and flowers. Wolves in formal attire filled the space—Alphas, Betas, council members—all glittering an
LYRA *The Night Before* I couldn't sleep. I tried. I spent hours in bed, trying to quiet my thoughts while listening to Willow breathe from across the room, but It didn't work. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them. My parents. The fire. Thorne's blood on my hands. The memories had been bac







