Lyra's POV
My head felt like someone had split it open with an axe.
I blinked against the harsh morning light coming through my tiny window, trying to remember how I'd gotten back to my room.
The last thing I remembered was Erik's voice saying that word—mate—and then everything went black. Mate.
The word still made my chest tight and my wolf pace restlessly inside me.
A sharp knock rocked my door, making me wince. "Lyra! Get up. Now."
Aunt Mava's words cut through the fog in my brain like a blade. She sounded angrier than normal, which was saying something. I stumbled to my feet, my legs shaky. Something was wrong.
The air in my room smelled different—metallic and bitter, like fear and rage mixed together. The door slammed open before I could reach it. Aunt Mava stood there with three pack fighters behind her, their faces hard as stone.
"What's going on?" I whispered, my voice rough. Mava's eyes blazed with anger.
"Don't you dare play innocent with me, you little monster." Monster? My wolf whimpered inside me, confused and hurt.
"I don't understand—" "Search her room," Mava told the warriors. "Find the evidence." "Evidence of what?" I backed against the wall as the men started tearing through my few things. "Aunt Mava, please tell me what's happening."
She stepped closer, her face twisted with disgust. "I should have known. I should have seen the signs. You're just like him, aren't you?" "Like who?" "Your father!" she spat.
"The killer. The killer who destroyed innocent lives with his bare hands." The words hit me like physical blows.
"My father is dead." "Your father is rotting in Silver Moon Prison where he belongs!" Mava's voice rose to a shriek. "And now you're following in his bloody footsteps." My legs gave out. I slid down the wall to the floor, the room spinning around me. "That's not true.
You said he died in an accident." "I lied to protect you. Fat lot of good it did." Mava's lip curled. "Found them!" One of the fighters held up a bundle of kitchen knives.
My cooking knives—the ones I used for prep work. "Those are mine," I said softly. "I use them for cooking." "Hidden under your mattress?" The warrior's voice was cold.
"What kind of cooking were you planning, omega?" I stared at the knives in horror. "I didn't put those there. I keep them in the kitchen. Someone else—" "And this." Another warrior held up a notebook I'd never seen before.
The pages were covered in angry scrawling about pack command and revenge. "That's not mine!" I scrambled to my feet. "I never wrote any of that!" "Lying won't save you now," Mava sneered.
"The whole pack knows what you are. What you've always been." The door burst open again. Jade pushed past the fighters, her dark hair wild and her green eyes blazing.
"Get away from her!" She threw herself between me and the others. "Can't you see she's sick? Look at her!" I caught my image in the small mirror on my wall.
My face was pale as death, my eyes sunken and haunted. Dark circles ringed my eyes like bruises. "Jade, don't," I whispered. "They think I'm dangerous." "You're not scary. You're the gentlest person I know." Jade's voice broke.
"Tell them, Lyra. Tell them you didn't do anything wrong." "I didn't." The words came out as a sob. "I swear I didn't hide those things. I don't even know what that notebook says." "Enough!" Mava shoved Jade aside.
"The proof speaks for itself. Just like fifteen years ago when her father snapped and killed three innocent pack members. Including a pregnant woman." The words broke something inside me. A pregnant woman. My father had killed a pregnant woman.
"No," I breathed. "He wouldn't. He couldn't." "He did. And you will too, if we don't stop you first." Mava grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in like claws. "You're coming with us. Alpha Theron wants to see you." "Wait." Jade caught my other arm. "She needs medical care. Can't you see something's wrong with her?" It was true.
My skin felt like it was crawling with ants, and my wolf was going crazy inside me. She kept trying to break free, pacing and growling at something I couldn't see. And my scent—it was changing. The soft vanilla smell I'd always had was getting darker, muskier. More dangerous.
"The only thing wrong with her is bad blood," Mava growled. "Move aside, Jade, or you'll be charged as an accomplice." "An accomplice to what?" Jade wanted. "She hasn't done anything!" "Yet." One of the warriors spoke up. "But her father didn't show signs either. Not until he killed three people in one night." My stomach lurched.
"How did he kill them?" The warrior's eyes went cold. "Tore them apart with his bare hands. Started with the pregnant woman's unborn child." I bent over and threw up all over my bare feet. "Lyra!" Jade rubbed my back as I heaved. "Don't listen to them. You're nothing like that." But I was.
I could feel it now—the darkness creeping through my blood like poison. The same darkness that had driven my father to kill. "Take her to the holding cells," Mava ordered. "She'll wait there until Alpha Theron decides what to do with her." "No!" Jade threw her arms around me.
"I won't let you take her!" "You don't have a choice." The biggest warrior stepped forward. "Move, or we'll move you." "Jade, it's okay." I pulled away from her, my heart breaking at the tears in her eyes. "I'll go.
I won't fight them." "Lyra, no. This is wrong. You're not your father." "Maybe I am." The words tasted like ash in my mouth.
"Maybe this is who I've always been." As the warriors grabbed my arms, I caught a familiar smell in the hallway. Pine and leather and something wild. Erik.
He was coming. I could feel him through the bond that joined us, getting closer with every heartbeat. "Hurry," Mava hissed to the soldiers. "Get her out of here before—"
"Before what?" Erik's voice cut through the chaos like a blade. He stood in the doorway, his blue eyes blazing with anger and something else. Something that made my wolf whine with longing. "Alpha Erik."
Mava's voice turned sickeningly sweet. "We were just collecting the proof. As you can see, she's definitely inherited her father's violent tendencies." Erik's gaze swept over the knives, the notebook, my frightened face. "Release her. Now."
"Sir, with respect—" one of the warriors began. "I said release her." Erik's voice held the power of his Alpha blood.
The fighters' hands fell away from my arms instantly. He stepped into the room, and my wolf nearly howled with relief.
The link between us hummed with energy, making my skin tingle. "Erik," I whispered. "I didn't do anything. I swear I didn't." His eyes softened when they met mine.
"I know."
"You know?" Mava's voice rose to a shriek. "She's scary! Just like her father!" "Her father was driven mad by a curse," Erik said softly. "A curse placed on him by someone who wanted to destroy his family." My heart stopped.
"A curse?" "The same curse that's been placed on you." Erik's eyes hardened as he looked at Mava. "The question is: who would benefit from making you appear unstable?" Mava's face went white.
"I don't know what you're talking about." "Don't you?" Erik stepped closer to her. "Because I have a very good idea."
A howl echoed across the area. Then another. And another. "What's happening?" Jade whispered. Erik's face turned grim. "The pack is being called to emergency gathering. Someone wants to force a public rejection of the mate bond." "Who?" I asked, though part of me already knew.
"Someone who has everything to lose if I choose my true mate over duty." Erik's jaw clenched.
"Someone who's been planning this for a very long time." The howls grew louder, more desperate. In the distance, I could hear pack members meeting in the main hall.
"They're going to demand you reject me," I said, the words cutting through me like glass. "Yes." Erik's voice was calm, but I could see the pain in his eyes.
"And if I refuse..." "They'll exile me. Or worse." "Over my dead body." Erik's hand found mine, sending sparks through my skin. "But first, we need to find out who's really behind this."
Mava backed toward the door. "I need to go. The Alpha will be expecting me." "I'm sure he will." Erik's smile was cold as winter. "Tell Clara I'll be seeing her very soon." Clara. The name hit me like a punch to the gut. "She's behind this?" I whispered.
"She and her mother. They've been planning this since the moment they realized you were my mate." Erik's grip on my hand tightened.
"But they made one mistake." "What mistake?" "They underestimated you. And they underestimated me." Erik's eyes burned with determination.
"I won't let them destroy us, Lyra. I promise you that." Another howl rose above the others, this one filled with rage and demand. The pack was getting restless. "We have to go," Jade said quickly.
"They'll come looking if you don't show up." Erik nodded. "Stay close to me. Both of you. And whatever happens in that hall, don't let them see you break."
As we walked toward the door, my wolf suddenly went crazy.
She was clawing at my insides, trying to get out, her fear making my skin crawl. "Erik," I gasped. "Something's wrong. My wolf—" "I know." His voice was tight with worry.
"Your smell is changing too. Becoming stronger." "What does that mean?" Erik stopped walking. His face went pale as he looked at me.
"It means the curse isn't just making you look unstable. It's actually waking something inside you. Something that's been dormant since birth." "What kind of something?"
"I don't know." Erik's voice was barely a whisper. "But we're about to find out." Because as we stepped into the hallway, I felt it—a power I'd never known I possessed, dark and old and hungry for blood.
And in the distance, I could hear Clara's voice calling for my death.