Chapter 6

Lyric

We travel like rogues - avoiding wolf territory, and sticking to the human lands. Any wolves we do cross don’t register what I am, but they do cast curious glances in Elijah’s direction.

I can see how many of them process it, and how they reach the conclusion that we are a wolf-human couple. It’s common, and many wolves leave their packs if their Alpha’s don’t approve of such a union.

The rune the priestess burned into the back of my neck does its job too well. I can feel Star inside me, but she is muffled now. Pressed down and folded away, as if someone has wrapped her in thick cloth and told her to stay quiet.

It also means I can’t rely on my senses the way I used to. Every scent is thin and ordinary. Every shadow feels unfamiliar. Every creak of a branch sounds like teeth gnawing on a bone.

It’s terrifying.

Elijah doesn’t speak much. He watches. He listens. He keeps his body positioned between me and everything else - like a shield that never tires. He sleeps light, eats fast, and never lets me out of his sight.

He doesn’t call me Luna anymore. He calls me miss, like I’m a human who belongs in the world where we’ll be hiding.

Two weeks pass in pieces - roads and trains, cheap inns where the beds smell like strangers, meals swallowed without taste, exhaustion that settles into my bones until it feels permanent.

Every day I expect to feel Bryce through the bond and every day I don’t, not properly. It is there and it isn’t. The chain is gone, but a sliver remains. Enough to remind me I once belonged to someone who never deserved me, and to make my skin prickle at random times.

But when I look in the mirror, where his mark used to be, it’s gone. What I feel is merely a remnant - like a tan line left behind by a wedding ring.

By the time we reach the ocean, I feel scraped hollow.

It’s winter, but it’s hot here. Almost tropical. The sun is setting, but the day is still warm and humid. When I inhale, it’s like I’m trying to breathe under water.

I’m not entirely sure I like it.

The town is not grand. It’s salt and wind and weathered wood, a long promenade lined with shuttered shops and tired buildings that have seen better days. The rides are rickety, and the random little booths selling games and trinkets are in desperate need of paint.

Everything feels neglected. And it’s empty. This place is dying.

It’s perfect for a she-wolf like me.

Elijah stops in front of a narrow shop with a wide front window. Dust clings to the glass. A faded sign hangs crooked above the door, blank as if it has been waiting for someone to decide what it will become.

“This is it,” he says and points to the dirty store.

My heart stutters. “This is… mine?”

“Yes.” His mouth tightens in the way it does when he doesn’t like what he’s about to say but says it anyway. “Your flat is above the shop.”

“I’m supposed to live here?” I ask.

Elijah shrugs then nods. “It’s not that bad. I hear Roarke Industries are planning to renovate the whole place. No one-” he loudly clears his voice -“it’s a place wolves will avoid.”

I bubble laughter, for the first time since we left the Three Towers, I truly laugh. Of course no wolf in their right mind will come here.

A figure comes strolling out of the shadows. My muscles coil tight, getting ready to strike, but then I recognise him. Dane. My father’s Beta. He walks right up to us and nods at me. “Luna.”

“Don’t call me that,” I say softly.

Dane smirks, and turns to the Omega, “Elijah,” he says, voice low. “Thank you for bringing her here safely. Alpha Victor wants you to know that your family, your mate and children, will never want for anything. Your name and your blood will forever hold a place of honour in the pack.”

Elijah’s shoulders drop a fraction, and he nods, white teeth biting into pink lips. “Beta Dane. I can just disappear. No one needs to know.”

He sounds almost desperate.

Dane doesn’t blink. “No. You know you cannot. It would be cruel to your mate. You are of the towers, you can never just disappear-” he makes air quotes -”this way, everyone can move on. Even you.”

I am of the towers. What will my life be now that I’m gone from that place? Will I suffer? Will I always yearn to hear the hum of the triad - the Three Towers. Will I always feel Bryce’s presence in my heart?

Dane’s gaze meets mine, and there is something in it I don’t like. Something final. “By now, Bryce will know that Leila is not of the divine line. He is already searching for you.

“He will start with the people who make sense. He will search the places that hurt. Look for the trusted servants.”

“Elijah,” I whisper, because suddenly I understand what will happen next, and I know there is no other way.

The Omega turns to me. His face is calm, the smile playing around his lips serene. “It’s all right,” he says softly. “This is what I’m... I knew this is how it would end. The people of the tower know what waits on the other side, don’t we?”

“No,” I say, the word cracking out of me “No, you don’t have to d-”

Dane moves.

It happens fast and quiet, efficient in a way that makes my blood turn to ice. Something cracks loudly. Elijah stiffens and then collapses as if someone cut all his strings.

There is no fight. There is no drawn-out cruelty. Just the abrupt end of a man who spent weeks making sure I’d live.

I don’t have time to scream, the only sound that escapes my lips is a quiet little squeak.

Elijah’s eyes are open, and he’s staring up at the darkening sky. The smile is still on his face.

Dane crouches across from me, unhurried, and reaches into the Omega’s pockets.

I look at the Beta and something ugly and helpless rises in me. “You killed him.”

“I buried a lead,” he replies. He doesn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. “If Bryce’s spies follow it, they will find a body and a story that ends two hundred miles away. What they will not find is you.”

“What does it matter if they find me?” I hiss out the question. “The true heir is on his way. I’m no longer needed.”

My hands clench into fists. My nails bite into my palms. I cannot breathe right. I cannot even think straight

Dane pulls a set of keys out of Elijah’s pocket and hands it to me. Metal against skin. Cold. Undeniable.

Then he pulls a folded packet from inside his coat and gets to his feet, holding the thick envelope out to me. “These are your papers. Your new name. Your work permits. Business license. I.D. Everything the human world demands.”

I slowly get to my feet and stare at the packet like it’s poison. “I don’t know how to be human.”

“Eh.” Dane just shrugs, and it is not unkind, but it is not gentle either. “They’re a pretty weird bunch. Wide variety, most are pretty damn accepting and accommodating of those who are different. You’ll fit right in, you’ll see.”

My jaw trembles. I swallow it down with salt air and fury. “And if Bryce comes?”

Dane’s eyes sharpen. “Kill him. You can do that now. There is silver in the flat. A lot of it. I made sure.”

There is nothing more to be done.

With a shaking hand, I take the packet from him, and we both freeze because we both hear it at the same time. The sound of footsteps on the splintering wood of the promenade.

The Beta and I look up at the same time straight at a man we both know but have never met.

Noah Roarke.

Lycan Prince and CEO of… everything at this point.

He stops a few paces away and his gaze flicks to Dane first, like he is confirming something, then back to the corpse, and it finally lands on me.

He’s tall. Broad in the shoulders. Dressed in a tailored three-piece suit that must be suffocating in this heat. His expensive shoes are neatly shined, and even in this heat, he’s not perspiring, his longish hair is dry, every strand in place.

There’s a quiet calm about him that makes me trust him and fear him all at the same time.

Even with the rune smothering my wolf, I feel the shift in the air the same way I feel it before a storm breaks. My stomach drops. My hands go cold.

Prince Noah Roarke, crown prince of the Lycans, stares at Dane. His eyes are hard, big hands curled into tight fists. “Take care of that mess,” he barks. “Right now.”

“Respectfully, Prince,” Dane says, “but the Luna-”

“Is under my protection now. This is not your territory, it is mine. Take the corpse and go.”

I count my heartbeats. Five of them, and my past is gone.

I frown and look up at the prince. The Lycans are known for their magnetism, their pure charisma and pure allure. Prince Noah is no different, with his black hair, perfectly carved face, and steel grey eyes.

He steps up to me, and gently touches my stomach, his gaze softening into something that looks like sympathy. His voice is low and kind. “I am sorry for all you have suffered. You are so young. I’m surprised you survived it.”

My mind starts reeling. He knows? How could he possibly know?

Noah reaches up, and without asking lifts my hair away. He traces the outline of the rune with one finger.

Sparks. New. Exciting. Filled with life and promise ignite inside me. I come alive for what feels like the first time in my life.

“Mate,” he whispers, then lets me go again, and a blanket of utter despair settles over me.