Chapter 2
1312 Words
Leilani
The first thing I saw…was my own face.
I blinked once, then twice.
So, this was it. The moon goddess had finally decided to cut my thread short.
I tried to sit up, pain wracked through my body and I gasped, clutching my side. A hand grabbed me at the same time and I stiffened.
“Don’t sit up too fast, you’re injured.”
Wait, was I really dead?
Wasn't this my imagination? Why was my reflection talking back?
Or…maybe I had hit my head on a boulder and gone crazy.
In a split second, I had thought of countless reasons for what I was seeing.
Grey eyes stared back at me, filled with understanding.
“I’m not a hallucination.”
My mouth gaped open and I blinked again, “You’re real?”
The face softened, “I am.”
For a long while, we stared at each other. Same eyes, same face but after looking for a while, I spotted differences.
Her eyebrows were a little softer and there was a crinkle by the sides of her eyes. Altogether, she looked soft and graceful.
I didn’t have that.
However, I still hadn’t ridded myself of the shock of seeing a face so similar to mine. Slowly, my lips parted, “Who are you?”
The girl smiled again then said, “My name is Lyra.”
The name hit me like a punch in the gut.
“If your sister had lived, I would have named her Lyra.” Dad’s voice echoed in my head, dredging up a memory from long ago, when I had asked him why I was named Leilani.
“No.”
“That’s impossible,” I shook my head vehemently. “My sister died, she…she died at birth.”
“It can’t be true…” I whispered, unconvinced.
I mean, how was I supposed to believe my dead sister had suddenly come back to life?
“It’s true,” Lyra’s voice was certain.
“How else would you explain us looking exactly the same?”
“I…” I had no way to explain it.
The truth was glaring enough.
“You’re my twin sister.”
Our gazes locked, and something unseen snapped into place.
A pull, deep, aching and undeniable, tore through me.
Not familiarity, not coincidence, but loss.
Years we never lived clawed up my throat, thick and suffocating.
And suddenly, I knew.
“But…” I paused, swallowing. “Father buried you. He told me…”
“No, I was given away. Father must have known.”
My brows furrowed.
Known what? What the hell was she talking about?
Seeing my look of confusion, Lyra sighed softly then began to explain. “Mother always told me my real father wasn't dead.”
“Hold on a minute…” I held a hand up, interrupting her.
She was supposed to unravel my confusion but she had only deepened it.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
I had to say, she really had the patience of a Buddhist because her eyes didn't even flicker in irritation at my questions.
Instead, she rephrased her words, talking in an even calmer tone. “Father’s illness, it’s hereditary. He must have given me away because we were both at risk. He probably thought we would both die if he kept us.”
My mind trailed back to the flare, to the minute when I turned on Shawn, raging, how I’d ripped his neck without hesitation and cold fear crept into my veins.
My mind worked like a clock, piecing broken clues together. Father’s random bursts of rage, his gradual weakening…
“No…” I muttered, voice trembling.
Understanding what she had just said was the final trigger. I lost it.
“So he just chose which child to keep?” I hissed.
“I don’t think it was that simple,” Lyra responded softly, staring at my face.
“It is that simple,” I barked, now feeling indignant.
“I don’t think I was abandoned,” Lyra said quickly. She inched closer to me.
“I was just given to someone who could protect me.”
“You mean…”
“Yes,” she nodded. “My mother.”
“My adopted mother,” she added. “Her name was Elira and she was a healer who had been looking into a cure for rabid wolves.”
I paused. Now it all made sense. I’d always known there was something about Father that wasn't normal. He was always angry, always raging.
When I attacked Shawn, I feared that I had finally become like him, that I had finally become what I feared.
“My adopted mother wasn't the only healer, I am too. I have a rare wolf that can heal, that’s how I healed you,” Lyra continued, breaking into my thoughts.
I looked down, she was right.
When I jumped off that cliff, there were numerous wounds on my body but right now, they were mostly gone.
I stared at her in astonishment but all she did was smile.
Silence settled between us for a long while, and then I broke it, clearing my throat.
“So, you have just been living here, hidden?”
“Yes, I've been training…”
“Training?” I cut in. “For what?”
She hesitated for a second, then answered, “For Alpha Rurik.”
“Who?” I asked, my brows knitted.
“Alpha Rurik is the Alpha of Astral Pack.”
She stopped speaking but I couldn’t ignore the feeling that there was something she wasn’t saying.
For a short while, she didn’t speak. I watched her the entire time and when she lifted her head and saw me staring at her, she smiled.
Shawn’s face crossed my mind then and my face hardened.
Alpha Rurik or whoever this was, I didn't care. They were all the same.
“So, what does he want with you?” I asked, still curious about her relation to him.
Lyra looked me straight in the eye, then said, “We have an agreement, one that binds me to him.”
I squinted a little, “…binds you how?”
“As his healer.”
“That’s not all, isn’t it?” Something about her silence after told me there was more.
“…and his breeder.” She muttered finally.
The word didn’t register first, then they did. Like an erupting volcano, rage imploded inside of me. My wolf shifted restlessly, snarling at the very idea.
“No, it’s not what you think,” Lyra hurried to explain.
“It’s exactly what I think!” I snapped.
“You practically just said he owns you!”
“You don’t understand, Alpha Rurik protects his Pack and that includes me…”
“That’s not protection,” I shot out, nostrils flaring.
Shawn flashed in my mind again, my blood boiled even more. “You must have been secluded in these woods for a long time. You don’t know men like him, they don’t protect, they…”
“You don’t even know him!”
I wasn’t expecting her to suddenly snap at me. Her outburst shut me up and I stared at her in shock.
She went quiet, eyes also wide as though she was just as surprised as I was.
A heavy silence settled between us, suffocatingly thick.
Just then, I heard the faint sound of a twig snapping. My body went rigid immediately and I ceased my breath, listening for more.
Sure enough, I heard the sound again and every nerve in my body tensed.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered, glancing at her.
Her face creased, “hear what?”
I heard another sound. It was closer this time. My wolf tensed instantly and I shot out of bed.
“They’re here.”
- Writer
