All Chapters of The Alpha's Fated Desire: Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

{Dominic}“Varen.” My brows furrowed as I muttered his name.How the hell had I forgotten about him?Between Odessa being possessed and Lyra disappearing off the face of the earth, then suddenly reappearing, my head had been buried in fires I could barely contain.I gritted my teeth and exhaled. “What's the status report?”Ryker took a deep breath, almost like he was pulling himself together. “Varen was spotted near the railway depot at the south side of Crownshaven with a few rogues. No corrupted creatures yet, but I wouldn't take that as a blessing. It could be recon, or it could be bait.”“Or both,” I muttered, jaw tightening.“Exactly.” Ryker nodded grimly. “This is Varen we’re talking about. I’d bet my last beer he’s trying to lure us out. And with everything else going on—”“We can’t afford to take chances.” I exhaled hard. Dahlia stepped forward, “I’ll go with Lyra to find the witch,” she said. “You and Ryker handle Varen.”The logic was sound, but my gut twisted immediately.

{Lyra}Dahlia’s blood was warm against my thighs.It soaked into the knees of my jeans, sticky and terrifyingly red, and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking as I pressed them against the open wound in her side.“Come on, come on,” I whispered, the words spilling past my lips as if saying them faster would help. “Don’t you dare die on me.”Her lashes fluttered, and a pained moan slipped out, but she didn’t respond.I drew in a shaky breath and summoned every flicker of energy I had left. Heat surged from my chest, traveling down my arms as I pressed my glowing palms to her wound. The golden light flickered faintly, then fizzled I gritted my teeth and pushed harder, whispering the healing chant and pouring everything I had into her, “Virende lumara… alen theris.”The light shone brighter this time, but still, nothing happened. It wasn’t enough.I tried again, channeling what little energy I had left. “Please, please…”The magic sputtered out like a dying candle, and Dahlia coughed, h

{Dominic}The thing wearing Lyra’s body smiled. Her eyes gleamed with a strange darkness, and the smile sent a chill down my spine.“I must admit,” Alissa purred, stretching out her arms and flexing Lyra’s fingers like she’d just slipped into a silk robe. “I didn’t expect this. I thought I’d be bound to Odessa forever… but this?” Her eyes flicked down at her borrowed form. “This is divine.”My nails dug into my palms until I felt skin tear. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, but that was mostly because my heart was still catching up to what I’d just seen. She tilted her head at me with a grin that didn’t belong on Lyra’s lips. “And all because your precious little mate gave herself up like a gift-wrapped sacrifice. How touching.”I saw red, but I held myself back.I had just gotten her back. We hadn't even had the chance to talk about what had happened and now she was gone… for good this time.I took a step forward, my claws twitching at my sides. “Give her back.”Alissa laughed. “Oh,

{Dominic}I didn’t know whether it was the blood in my ears or the way the light kept strobing through the cracks in the ceiling, but the world felt like it was tilting.Smoke curled through the shattered rafters of the Elder’s Villa, and the taste of magic clung to my tongue, but somewhere beneath it, I caught the scent again.My claws were still dug into the marble on either side of her head, my body half-shifted and trembling, but not from exhaustion, oh no. From something so much deeper that my wolf couldn’t name it, but it was howling for it all the same.I stared down at Lyra and watched as her chest rose and fell beneath me. She looked like a goddess sculpted from fury and gold, magic simmering under her skin like a volcano beneath a silk sheet.She was my mate… the pieces snapped together almost immediately, it all made sense now. Every time I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, every time I let her get under my skin. Even when she lied, even when she ran, I still wanted her.

{Lyra}It’s strange, really, how you can be alive, but not fully living. Breathing, but not in control of your own lungs. Watching the world through your own eyes, but behind a locked door, screaming into a darkness that no one else can hear.That’s exactly where I was… trapped inside myself in a room with no walls, no floors, no ceilings. Just an endless black space where I floated, watching as Alissa wore my body like a coat.She had promised she’d leave Crownshaven, but I guess she wasn’t going to leave until she had gotten her revenge fully out of her system, and that meant marching straight toward the Elder’s villa and ending up in a fight with the man I loved. Dominic Bloodhound.I watched it all like a movie playing in my head. How she threw spell after spell at him, how she mocked him with my own voice. I hated every single second of it, but there wasn’t anything I could do.As the fight raged on and things got even more serious, all I could do was stand there, deep inside my