All Chapters of Her Four Mates: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Lyra’s POVI woke up to someone playing with my hair.For a second, I thought I was dreaming. Then I felt the mattress dip beside me and caught a familiar scent, pine and something uniquely Marcus.“What are you doing?” I whispered into the darkness, not moving from where I was curled up under my blankets.“Couldn’t sleep,” he murmured back, his fingers continuing their gentle path through my hair. “Kept thinking about you.”“So you decided to break into my room?”“Your door was unlocked. That’s basically an invitation.”I turned over to face him, able to make out his profile in the moonlight streaming through my window. He was lying on top of my covers, fully dressed, but something about having him in my bed made my heart race.“This is dangerous,” I said softly.“Why?”“Because if Alpha Magnus finds you here..”“He won’t. Everyone’s asleep.”“Marcus…”“I just wanted to be close to you,” he said quietly. “Is that okay?”Instead of answering, I shifted over to make room for him under

Lyra’s POVI lasted exactly two hours after the moon worship disaster before I completely fell apart.Not in public, obviously. I held it together through the concerned looks from pack members, through Alpha Magnus’s gentle questions about what I might have seen, through Jadis’s Oscar-worthy performance as the brave victim who “didn’t want to cause trouble.”But the moment I got back to my room, I crumbled.I was sitting on my bed, staring at nothing and trying not to think about the whispers I’d heard, when someone knocked softly on my door.“Go away,” I called, not wanting to deal with anyone right now.“It’s me,” Zane’s voice came through the door. “Can I come in?”“I said go away.”“And I’m ignoring you. I’m coming in.”The door opened, and Zane slipped inside, closing it quietly behind him. He took one look at my face and his expression softened.“Oh, sweetheart,” he said gently.That’s all it took. One soft word, one look of understanding, and the tears I’d been holding back cam

Lyra’s POV“I still can’t believe you turned down Kelvin Clarke,” Maya said for the third time as we worked on mending fishing nets down by the lake. “The man is gorgeous.”“I didn’t turn him down,” I pointed out. “Jadis did.”“Right, but if it had been me…” She fanned herself dramatically with her hand. “Those shoulders, those eyes, that smile.”“Down, girl,” laughed Elena, one of the other unmated females in our age group. “You’re practically drooling.”“Can you blame me? Good-looking, available men don’t exactly grow on trees around here.”I glanced around our little circle, Maya, Elena, Cora, and Beth, all girls I’d grown up with, all around my age. It was nice, having this normal moment of girl talk after all the drama lately.“What about you, Lyra?” Cora asked, grinning mischievously. “Anyone caught your eye lately?”I nearly choked on my water. “What?”“Come on, you’re eighteen now. Surely you’ve noticed some of the guys around here?”“I’ve noticed,” I said carefully, which was

Lyra’s POV“Someone’s been in my jewelry box.”I stood in my room, staring at the small wooden chest Marcus had made for me. The bracelet with the four charms was still there, but everything else had been moved around. Subtly, like someone had tried to put things back exactly where they found them, but I knew my own belongings.“Are you sure?” Maya asked from where she was sitting on my bed, braiding wildflowers into a crown for tonight’s summer solstice celebration.“Positive. My grandmother’s ring was in the front left compartment, and now it’s in the back right. And someone definitely handled my silver necklace, it’s tarnished from fingerprints.”“That’s… weird. Who would go through your jewelry?”Before I could answer, my door burst open and Kael bounced in, his usual cheerful energy filling the room.“Hey beautiful, hey Maya,” he said, flopping dramatically across the foot of my bed. “What are we talking about?”“Someone’s been going through Lyra’s things,” Maya said, holding up

Marcus’s POVI woke up at 5:47 AM, same as every morning.Not because of an alarm, but because my internal clock was programmed to wake me exactly thirteen minutes before Lyra typically stirred. Those thirteen minutes were mine, time to watch her sleep, to memorize the way the early morning light caught in her hair, to count her breaths and make sure she was safe and whole and exactly where she belonged.In my arms.She was curled against my side, her face peaceful in sleep, one hand resting over my heart like she was claiming it even in her dreams. Which she was, of course. Had been since the day we found her, though it had taken years for me to understand what that meant.Kael was sprawled across the foot of the bed like an overgrown puppy, one arm thrown across Lyra’s legs in a possessive grip he probably wasn’t even aware of. Zane had claimed the chair by the window, positioned so he could see both the door and Lyra at the same time. Darius was on the floor by my side of the bed,