Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 

CRASH THE PARTY. 

A sound escaped Lyra's throat, something between a sob and a scream. 

Her hand pressed against the window as her knees gave out. She sank to the ground, unable to stand, unable to bear the weight of this betrayal.

Inside, the celebration continued. 

Her mate with her best friend. Her children with the woman who'd stolen them. Her mother smiled at the family she'd helped create from Lyra's destruction.

And Lyra was outside in the dark, watching through glass, realizing that everything she'd believed about her life had been a lie.

Lyra didn't remember standing up. Didn't remember walking to the door. Didn't remember anything except rage, hot and burning in her chest where her heart used to be.

She pushed the door open. The heavy wood swung inward with a loud creak.

The music died instantly. 

Conversations cut off mid-sentence. Every head in the room turned toward her.

Silence fell like a physical weight.

They all stared at her like she was a ghost. Like she was something that shouldn't exist. Something that should have stayed buried.

Maybe that's exactly what she was supposed to be.

"Lyra?" Sera's voice broke the silence, high and shocked. She stood next to Marcus with one hand on his arm, her face suddenly pale. 

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here." Lyra's voice came out steady despite the screaming in her head.

 "Or I used to. Before you stole my life."

Her eyes found the twins. Aiden and Luna stood close to Sera's legs, looking at Lyra with confusion and wariness. 

They had Marcus's blonde hair but Lyra's amber eyes. Her eyes looking at her like she was a stranger.

"Those are my children," Lyra said. The words felt like they were being ripped from her chest. "I'm their mother."

The twins pressed closer to Sera. Luna's lip trembled. Aiden's small hand clutched at Sera's dress.

"Mama?" Luna whispered, looking up at Sera with fear. 

"Who is she?"

The word "mama" directed at someone else shattered something fundamental inside Lyra. She took a step forward, hands reaching out instinctively toward her babies.

"I'm your mother," Lyra said, her voice breaking. "I gave birth to you. I held you when you were born. I loved you every single day I was gone"

"You're scaring them," Marcus cut in sharply. He moved between Lyra and the children, his body a wall. 

"Step back, Lyra."

"They're my children!"

"They don't know you." Marcus's voice was cold and final. "You left when they were three days old. You chose your mission over them. Sera raised them. Sera is their mother in every way that matters."

The accusation hit like a physical blow. Lyra's breath caught in her throat.

"I left because Helena said they'd be safe with you," Lyra said desperately. "She said it was what a good mother would do. She said"

"That's not true!"

Lyra shook her head violently. Tears were streaming down her face now, hot and unstoppable. 

"I left because you said the peace talks would fail without me. You said hundreds would die. You said my children needed a world without war more than they needed me there than here…."

"And you believed it because you wanted to." Helena's voice was gentle now, which somehow made it worse. 

It felt more like pitying. 

"Because deep down, you didn't want to be here changing diapers and nursing babies. You wanted to be out there being important. Being special."

"No." 

The word came out as a broken whisper.

"Sera wanted to be a mother," Helena continued. 

"She held those babies when they cried at night. She taught them to walk and talk. She was there for every moment while you were off chasing glory. She's been the mother they needed. The mother they deserve. You should be ashamed that your best friend is a better mother than you could ever be."

Lyra looked at Sera. Her best friend's eyes were filled with tears, but there was something else underneath. 

Something that looked almost like triumph.

"I'm sorry, Lyra," Sera said softly. "I never meant to take your place. But the babies needed someone and you weren't here. Marcus and I... we fell in love. We built a family. We can't change that now."

The twins were crying now, overwhelmed and frightened. 

They clung to Sera, burying their faces in her dress.

"Make her go away, Mama," Aiden sobbed.

 "Make the scary lady go away!"

The words drove through Lyra's heart like a knife. Her own son calling her the scary lady. 

Her own daughter was crying and hiding from her.

They didn't know her. They didn't want her. They wanted Sera.

Lyra fell to her knees, her legs unable to hold her weight anymore. 

Everything she'd survived for, everything she'd endured, had been for this moment. For coming home to her children. 

For being their mother finally, completely.

But her children didn't want her.

"Please," Lyra whispered, looking at the twins through her tears. 

"Please, I'm your mother. I never wanted to leave you. I thought about you every single day. I survived because I knew I'd come home to you"

"You're upsetting them," Marcus said coldly. 

"Someone escort her out."

Hands grabbed Lyra's arms. Pack guards hauling her to her feet. She struggled weakly, reaching toward her children who were now crying harder, clinging to the woman who'd stolen Lyra's place.

"No, please, just let me talk to them"

"Get her out of here," Helena ordered. 

"This is a celebration. She's ruining it."

They dragged Lyra toward a side room. She fought and screamed and begged, but it didn't matter. 

The door slammed shut behind her, cutting off the sound of the twins' sobs. Cutting off everything.

Lyra collapsed against the wall, sobbing so hard she couldn't breathe. 

Her whole body shook with the force of her grief.

They'd stolen her children. They'd turned her babies against her. 

They'd made her sacrifice into abandonment. 

They'd made her love into a crime.

And her children, her beautiful babies who she'd loved every moment of every day, thought she was a scary stranger who made them cry.

The pain was unbearable. Worse than anything she'd endured in five years. 

Worse than loneliness or danger or exhaustion. This was her heart being ripped out while she was still alive to feel it.