Her Three Cursed Soulmates

chapter 18

Lyra POV

That absolute son of a b***h.

I can’t believe he would lie to me like that. I mean, it shouldn’t come as a surprise—he told me himself that he was the kind of guy to put his own judgment above the rest of his pack. He told me he wasn’t a team player. And all he really wanted was to get out of the cage he was locked in. Of course he made up a story.

What really pisses me off is that I let myself fall for it enough that I was willing to sleep with him! I definitely shouldn’t have done that.

I don’t exactly regret it. It was good for me. And to be honest, I probably would have done it if I had known the truth because he’s really hot and I’m attracted to him. I just wish he hadn’t lied to me. It makes me feel like an i***t.

He’s probably off laughing at me right now.

I don’t know why he didn’t just come clean as soon as he was out of the cage. That’s the weird part. Why did he hang around all this time, acting as if he really was going to take me to find a Moon Caster coven when he knew all along that he wouldn’t be able to do that?

I really don’t understand men at all.

At first, I think it’s just the memory of s*x with him that’s making me feel aroused. But the feeling is building, not diminishing. It’s almost as if I’m being pulled toward something magnetically.

Oh, no.

I recognize this. It’s the same feeling I had in the department store when Bruce was looking for me. When Kaely was close, waiting to kill me, and yet my body ached to go to him.

Is it possible he’s near me now? I sniff the air.

There’s definitely something. A hint of wolf. I don’t know if it’s a threat to me, or if it’s something completely unrelated, but I do know it’s not Cassian. For better or worse, his smell is completely familiar to me now. I would know it anywhere. He’s woodsmoke and the scent of the sun baked into skin. This isn’t him.

This is something much less pleasant.

I hurry down an alley between two buildings. The pressure inside me is building up now. If I hadn’t been with Cassian, I don’t know if I would recognize the urge to f**k as what it is, but I have.

That urge shouldn’t feel so dangerous.

Then a shadow appears at the end of the alley.

For a moment, I’m positive it’s him. That Kaely has found me. Then the figure steps forward, and it’s not Kaely at all.

It’s Harley. Jess’s mate.

I stare at him for a long moment, and he stares right back.

Is he going to kill me? My best friend’s mate?

But she’s not my best friend anymore, is she? She probably hates me now that the whole pack knows I’m part Moon Caster. She’s probably horrified by the fact that she used to be friends with me, that she used to spend time alone with me. She’s probably dying for Harley to come home and tell her that she doesn’t have to worry, that I’m not going to be a problem anymore.

I find my voice.

“Harley,” I say.

“Lyra.”

He sounds like a stranger. Not like the guy I grew up with, the one I used to tussle with when we were children, the one who used to save me bits of his river trout because he didn’t really like it. We used to be as close as brother and sister. Now it couldn’t be more obvious that he just doesn’t give a damn about me.

“So this is how it is?” I say.

“I have to take you back,” he says. “You know I do.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yeah, I do,” he says. “Bruce gave the order.”

“Let me guess. He’s going to kill me?”

“He’s going to let Kaely do it,” Harley says. “Kaely wants to reject you publicly.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he does. But I have places to be.”

Harley sighs.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” he says. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You want me to come quietly to my death?”

“It can be easy for you or it can be hard.”

“Or it can be hard for you,” I say, dancing back a few steps, out of his grasp. “It’s not happening, Harley. Tell Jess you gave it your best shot but that you were no match for me.”

He lunges, grabbing for me, but I’m already whirling away, shifting as I go. I feel my clothes shred around me and curse inwardly, but my backpack stays snug around my chest. I’ve lost an outfit, but I can replace it. I have more.

Behind me, I hear a yell—

“She’s over here! She’s going this way!”

Damn it! He’s not alone, and now they’re going to be chasing me.

And I know—because my body’s been screaming the signs at me—that Kaely himself is somewhere close by. If he’s the one who finds me next, there won’t be any stopping to talk about ways and means. He won’t try to capture me and bring me back to the pack for someone else’s benefit. He’ll rip my throat out where I stand.

Suddenly I’m really, really wishing that I hadn’t left Cassian behind. He’s a bastard, but at the moment, I could really use a bastard on my side.

I hear the sounds of running wolves behind me. I hear the panting, the snarling and snapping.

They’ll kill me if they catch me.

I’m fast. But I can’t outrun them forever. And I can’t hope to hide, not while they’re this close.

What I need is somewhere I can go that they can’t—or won’t—follow.

The idea comes to me, and in a heartbeat, I wheel about and leap down the stairs that lead to the city’s old public transit tunnel.