Chapter 6
601 Words
Lyra.
The former Luna, the one everyone assumed had long lost her mind, was standing there now in a beautifully tailored coat, looking down at me in the mud.
I had only seen her three times in my life. The first time was when she broke into my villa, out of her mind. The second time was when she signed the termination contract and was thrown out of the territory like a dog. She was humiliated then. Desperate.
And now, our positions completely flipped.
I expected her to mock me to my face, but she didn't. She looked at the torn hem of my dress, and there was no satisfaction in her eyes, none of the "I told you so" a person got when their enemy finally fell. There was something else. Something completely calm. Pity.
Pity? How dare she pity me! She was nothing but a loser I had taken down!
I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood, forced myself up out of the mud pit, and pulled the Luna posture back on through sheer will.
"Long time no see, Lyra." I forced an arrogant smile, ready to drive the most vicious knife I could find straight into her chest. "Seven years already. Darian and Elowen are sixteen now. You've been gone for so long. Do you even remember what your own pups look like?"
Lyra's hand on the umbrella paused. Just for a moment.
I caught that detail, and a surge of vindictive pleasure rose up in me. I pushed my voice higher. "The little pups grew up so fast. Top of the class in the academy combat exams. First shift, first awakening, I stayed up every single night with them. They gave a speech in the Council of Elders. They told everyone, loud and clear, that the only mother they ever had was Elara."
I rattled all of this off and stared right at her face. When she was stripped of her rights, those twins spent seven years not even bothering to ask if she was still alive, all to please Kael. There was no way she could hear this and not feel anything.
But after all of that, after every word I had aimed straight at her heart, Lyra didn't so much as flinch. She looked at me, screaming myself raw, trying to prove my worth with somebody else's children, and she let out a soft sigh.
And then she spoke. Just three words.
"You regret it."
Those weightless little words landed like a hard slap, and my nerves screamed under the impact.
"What do I have to regret?" I snarled back at her like an animal whose tail had just been stepped on. "Lyra, you and I are not the same. As long as I don't sign anything, I'm going to be the highest, most noble Luna there is. Forever. And you're going to be the abandoned failure. Forever."
Lyra listened to my hollow howling and finally let a smile touch her face.
She leaned down slightly and spoke in a voice only the two of us could hear. "The man who would wipe out the mother of his own pups for you. Take a guess. What do you think he's going to do to you, now that he has a pregnant Omega to think about?"
Lyra straightened up. The pity in her eyes only deepened. "Elara, your karma has just begun. I hope you enjoy that throne of yours."
With that, she turned and got into the car.
The window rolled slowly back up and sealed me away in the freezing downpour.
- Writer
