An ex

Lyra's POVListen, I've had some shit mornings in my life. The time I woke up with a hangover so bad I thought I was dying. The morning after my wolf got bound and I couldn't shift. That god-awful day I found Killian in bed with someone else.But walking into the lobby of Damien's corporate building and seeing my ex-boyfriend standing there like he owned the place? That might actually top the list."Lyra." Killian's voice cut through the marble-and-glass lobby like a knife. "We need to talk."Oh, fuck no. Not today. Not ever, actually.I kept walking toward the elevators, my heels clicking against the polished floor with what I hoped was confident dismissal. "Pretty sure we said everything that needed saying when I caught you with your dick in someone else.""Lyra, please." He moved to block my path, and I caught the scent of his cologne—the expensive one I used to love that now just made my stomach turn. "Just give me five minutes.""I don't have five seconds for you, Killian." I tri

Last Updated : 2025-10-21

Buried secret.

Lyra's PovI turned to Damien, trying to find something to say. "So... that was awkward.""Are you alright?" He was studying my face with an intensity that made me want to squirm."Fine. I'm totally fine." I rubbed my wrist where Killian had grabbed it. "Just another Tuesday morning, you know? Ex-boyfriends showing up to cause scenes, the usual.""Lyra." He narrowed his eyes at me."What? I'm handling it with grace and sarcasm, as is my way." I could feel my hands shaking and shoved them in my pockets. "Really building that fan club you mentioned. Should probably start charging admission.""He hurt you." It wasn't a question."He grabbed my arm. It's fine. I've had worse." Way to sound defensive, Lyra. Real smooth.Damien's jaw tightened. "That's not an answer to my question.""Well, it's the only one you're getting." I started toward the elevators again, suddenly desperate to escape the curious stares of everyone in the lobby. "Can we please just... not do this here?"He caught up to

Last Updated : 2025-10-22

Visiting grandma Elena.

Lyra's Pov Three days since Killian's surprise visit, and my phone was basically a horror movie in my pocket. Unknown numbers. Anonymous threats. Someone who knew way too much about my life and seemed determined to make me paranoid as hell.Mission accomplished, asshole."Nice dress today. Blue really is your color.""How's the bound wolf treating you? Still feeling incomplete?""Does your husband know what you did? What you really are?Each message was worse than the last. Each one made my hands shake and my stomach twist. I couldn't eat not could I sleep. Spent every moment looking over my shoulder, wondering who was watching me, waiting for the other shoe to drop.And now I was sitting in the most important client meeting of the quarter, barely holding my shit together."—which brings the projected ROI to approximately thirty-seven percent over the fiscal year," I said, pulling up the wrong slide on the presentation. Shit. "I mean, forty-seven percent. Sorry, wrong slide."Mr. Has

Last Updated : 2025-10-23

Chinese takeouts.

Lyra's POVElena listened without interrupting, sipping her tea with perfect composure. When I finally ran out of words, she was quiet for a long moment."When I married Damien's grandfather," she said finally, "I was twenty years old and absolutely terrified. He was cold, demanding, impossible to please. Our first year of marriage, I cried myself to sleep most nights.""That's... not exactly comforting.""I'm not finished." She smiled. "It took me years to understand that his coldness wasn't cruelty. It was fear. He'd lost his first wife in childbirth, you see. Lost the woman he loved and their baby in one terrible night.""It must have hurt him badly. I know what it feels like to lose someone so dear." I shook off the image of seeing het in that pool of her blood."Yes, So he built walls and made himself untouchable. Told himself that if he didn't love me, he couldn't lose me."My chest tightened. "What changed?""I stopped trying to tear down his walls and started finding doors ins

Last Updated : 2025-10-27

The dark entity.

Damien's POVAfter she retired to our bedroom, I retreated to my study because paperwork never stopped and I preferred working at night when the house was quiet.That's when everything went to hell.The first sign was the headache, sharp and sudden, like someone driving railroad spikes into my skull. I gripped the edge of my desk and breathed through it, waiting for it to pass.It didn't pass like it always did. Instead, I felt like i was being wacked in the head repeatedly.Then came the voice, dark and ancient and completely wrong.Kill her.I froze, every muscle in my body going rigid. The voice was inside my head but it wasn't mine, it wasn't me, it was something else entirely.She doesn't belong, she's making you weak, kill her before she destroys you."No," I said out loud, my voice hoarse. "That's not, she's not—" I let out a guttural noise as pain exploded through my body like I was being torn apart from the inside. My bones felt like they were breaking and reforming, my wol

Last Updated : 2025-11-04

I'd never hurt you .

Lyra's POVI woke up with a headache that felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull.For a moment, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to piece together why everything hurt. Then I shifted and caught my reflection in the vanity mirror across the room.Hand marks, dark purple bruises in the shape of fingers wrapped around my throat snd suddenly, I remembered.Damien's hands on my throat. His eyes—cold and empty and nothing like him. The pressure building until I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but claw at his hands and pray he'd stop before—I touched my neck gingerly, wincing at the tenderness. What the hell had happened to him? Damien had his moments of coldness, of distance, but violence? That wasn't him. He'd looked possessed, like something else was controlling his body while the real Damien was locked away inside.I needed to talk to him because the least he could do was explain to me why he'd decided to kill me unprovoked last nig

Last Updated : 2025-12-18