#Chapter 4: The Ride

Lyra & Kael

Lyra

“I’ll find my own way.”

Kael pulled his head back and looked at me as if I’d just told him that I was going to sprout wings and fly to school. “What, do you intend to walk or something?” he scoffed.

I shrugged and grabbed my suitcase, making my way out the door and down the driveway toward the road. “I’ll hail a car.”

“Lyra, we’re in the middle of nowhere!”

Indeed we were. The Draven estate was exactly the same as it had been in my past life; beautiful and sprawling, all tall ivy-covered brick walls and manicured gardens, but it was surrounded by trees on all sides.

The only route connecting us to the rest of civilization was one main road that passed by the front of the estate, which led into the main town of Sagewood, where the estate resided and which was also the central region in the Northern Territories.

Beyond that was miles upon miles of quiet forests, various territories, and finally, the small city of Ravencrest at the edge of it all—where we would be attending university.

Needless to say, hailing a car wasn’t going to be easy out here.

But I would much rather take my chances with that than let the same thing happen to me now that had happened to me in my past life, which was being abandoned at a gas station midway to Ravencrest with no way to get there myself.

Before, Cassidy had convinced Kael to leave me there when I took too long to use the bathroom. The only thing I saw as I emerged from the restroom was a cloud of dust and Kael’s license plate fading into the distance.

I’d had to hitchhike with a random truck driver—dangerous, I know—and had wound up being late to my first day of classes, making me the first freshman of the year to be reported and punished.

Even now, I still recalled how my lungs had burned from being forced to run laps on the track until the sun went down. How my legs had finally given out and I’d thrown up all over the ground.

Everyone made fun of me after that. They called me names, said I was weak, that I didn’t belong there if I couldn’t even follow the rules on the first day. And who could blame them? I was the wolfless freak who had puked in front of everyone.

No. I would not let that happen again.

My suitcase bumped along the pebbles as I wheeled it down the driveway, where the wrought iron gates cut off the estate from the road. Kael called after me, but I ignored him and shoved the gate open, then stepped out onto the road and held my thumb out.

Someone was bound to drive by at some point.

In fact, within moments, I heard the sound of a car approaching. I grinned and stuck my thumb out further as a green sedan came around the bend, but the driver whizzed right past without even looking at me.

Dammit.

“Lyra, come on! You’re going to make us late!”

“Go without me!” I called back as I flagged down the next car.

But that car didn’t stop. And neither did the next, or the next.

“Lyra, no one is going to stop for a wolfless girl on the side of the road.” Kael’s voice was closer now, and I realized that he had pulled up beside me in his sleek black sportscar—a gift from his father on his sixteenth birthday.

Cassidy was sitting in the passenger seat, touching up her lipstick in the mirror. They both sneered at me.

I turned back to the road. “Someone will stop.”

“Trust me. They won’t. I made sure of that.”

…

Kael

Lyra slowly turned to look at me, and the cold look in her eyes was unlike anything I’d seen from her before. She’d never looked at me like that before.

“Are you mindlinking them not to pick me up?”

I shrugged one shoulder, my other hand resting idly on the steering wheel. “I’m not going to have you embarrass all of us by hitchhiking on your first day. Just get in the car, will you?”

But Lyra simply huffed and turned around, sticking her thumb out for another approaching car. The red pickup truck whizzed right past, horn blaring. I sighed and slapped my palm into my forehead as I recognized one of my classmates leaning out the window and laughing at my little… predicament.

I glanced over at Cassidy, who seemed caught somewhere between amusement and frustration that this little stunt was going to make us all late now.

Maybe it would have been easier if I had just let someone pick Lyra up, but now it was about principle—I wasn’t going to let her keep throwing a tantrum like this, and I would happily order everyone not to stop for her through mindlink until she finally gave up and got in the damn car.

“Kael,” Cassidy finally groaned, “come on. Let’s just go. If she wants to be late, then that’s on her.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing Cassidy was probably right, but I just couldn’t bring myself to put my foot on the gas pedal.

“If I leave her here, my mother will kill me,” I said.

Cassidy quirked an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. I just shrugged and laid my palm on the car horn for a moment, but Lyra didn’t turn around again.

“Lyra, you’re acting like a toddler. Get. In. The. Car.”

I waited for my Alpha authority to wash over her—the very same authority she normally folded to whenever I had to use it, which was admittedly rare when it came to her. Lyra was often so mild-mannered that she didn’t break any house rules, and on the odd occasion that my family had used our Alpha authority, she would just burst into tears and apologize right away.

But not this time. No, this time she just grabbed her suitcase and began walking down the road.

“I’ll take the bus.”

Cassidy and I exchanged another look, both equally puzzled by now. The closest bus stop was miles away; it would take her an hour just to walk, making her definitively late.

And Ravencrest didn’t mess around when it came to punishments. It was a school for werewolves, after all; I could guarantee that whatever punishment they doled out would be far too intense for a wolfless body like Lyra’s.

Sighing, I pulled out onto the road and drove slowly alongside her. She kept walking, head held high, as if I weren’t even there.

“Lyra,” I complained, “you’re being—”

“Go without me.”

Lyra turned her head toward me, and there was that cold, unfeeling look again. It struck me so much that I slammed on the breaks, tires screeching on the asphalt.

Cassidy grabbed my hand. “Let’s just go. She’ll get tired and walk back to the house soon.”

My jaw clenched as I watched Lyra continue walking down the street, chestnut braid flopping across her back, suitcase wobbling over the pavement behind her. Her plaid skirt billowed behind her in the wind and her simple blouse was definitely too thin for the autumn morning chill.

But if she wouldn’t get in the car with me, I’d have to figure something else out.

“Fine,” I sighed. I shook my head and reached into the mindlink I shared with the pack, and a moment later, I made contact with my close friend, Luca.

“Luca, I need you to do me a favor.”

“Whassup?” Luca’s voice came through strong and clear, with that hint of amusement he always seemed to have for no reason in particular.

“Make a detour on your way to Ravencrest. Lyra is walking down the road and needs a ride.”

And with that, I slammed my foot on the gas and sped away. Lyra gave me one last vulgar gesture that I returned in the rearview mirror, and then she faded into the distance.