CHAPTER 5: AFTERMATHS
1371 Words
The packhouse is quiet now. Too quiet.
Like the calm after a storm when you’re not sure if it’s really over.
I’m sitting on the edge of a bed in the guest wing. My hands are still shaking. Blood under my nails. Not all of it mine.
Rylan’s outside the door. I can hear him. Talking to the guards. Giving orders. His voice is steady. Alpha voice. Like nothing happened.
Like I didn’t just blow up his engagement in front of the whole pack.
The door opens.
He doesn’t knock.
Rylan walks in, closes the door behind him, and leans against it like he’s afraid I’ll run.
“You’re hurt,” he says.
I look down. There’s a cut on my arm. Shallow. I didn’t even feel it during the fight.
“It’s nothing,” I say.
Rylan crosses the room in three steps and grabs my arm. Gently.
“Let me see.”
I pull away.
“I said it’s nothing.”
He stops. His jaw ticks.
“Lyra—”
“Don’t,” I say. “Don’t say my name like that. Like you get to.”
Rylan flinches.
“Okay,” he says. “Fine. Then what do I call you?”
“Sel works,” I say. “It worked for two days.”
“That’s not your name.”
“No,” I say. “It’s not.”
Silence.
Outside, I can hear Lena shouting at someone in the hall. Her voice is sharp. Angry.
Rylan doesn’t even turn.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were alive?” he asks.
I laugh. It’s bitter.
“Right. Because I had a phone in prison. Because I could just send you a letter and say ‘Hey, I’m not dead, sorry about that.’”
“You could’ve come sooner,” he says.
“Could I?” I stand up. My legs are shaky. “The second I stepped foot in Moonridge, your guards would’ve killed me on sight. Kill on sight, remember? Your orders.”
Rylan looks away.
“I didn’t know.”
“You should’ve known,” I say. “You were my mate, Rylan. You were supposed to know.”
The bond between us pulses. Hot and heavy.
It hurts.
Rylan takes a step forward.
“I was wrong,” he says. “I know that now. Elias lied. He had proof, but it was fake. I found out last month. That’s why I started looking for you.”
“You looked for me?” I ask.
“I looked for a body,” he says quietly. “I never found one. So I kept looking.”
I don’t know what to say to that.
So I say nothing.
Rylan sighs. He runs a hand through his hair. He looks tired. Older than 27.
“Lena’s gone,” he says.
“What?”
“She left an hour ago,” he says. “Took her people and went back to Silver Fang. Said the alliance is off.”
I blink.
“Oh.”
“I didn’t stop her,” he says.
“Why would you?” I ask. “You chose me. Or at least, you chose the truth.”
Rylan shakes his head.
“I don’t know what I chose, Lyra. I know I couldn’t let you die again. Not without knowing why.”
“Why does it matter now?” I ask. “What changes?”
“Everything,” he says.
He steps closer. Too close.
“I felt you the second you walked into that kitchen,” he says. “The bond woke up. I thought I was losing my mind.”
“You were,” I say.
“Maybe,” he says. “But I’d rather lose my mind with you than live without it.”
I swallow hard.
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” he asks. “It’s true.”
“Because I don’t trust you,” I say. “Because you let me rot for five years.”
“I know,” he says. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right if you let me.”
I look at him. Really look.
He means it.
That’s the worst part.
“I don’t know if I can,” I say honestly.
Rylan nods.
“I know.”
He steps back. Gives me space.
“Elias is in the dungeons,” he says. “He’s not talking. But he will.”
“Good,” I say. “I want to be there when he does.”
Rylan nods.
“Tomorrow. I’ll send it to you.”
I nod.
He hesitates at the door.
“Lyra,” he says.
“What?”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “For everything.”
I don’t answer.
He leaves.
The door clicks shut behind him.
I sit back down on the bed and put my head in my hands.
I thought coming back would feel good.
It doesn’t.
It feels worse.
Because now I have to decide.
Do I let him in?
Do I let myself feel that bond again?
Or do I walk away before it breaks me a second time?
---
A knock at the door.
“Sel?” Kell’s voice. Soft.
“Can I come in?”
I wipe my face fast.
“Yeah,” I say.
Kell opens the door and steps inside. He’s holding a bowl of soup. And a clean shirt.
“I thought you might be hungry,” he says.
I stare at him.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
Kell shrugs.
“Because you looked scared in there,” he says. “And no one deserves that. Not even if you’re the old Luna.”
I take the soup. My hands are still shaking.
“Thanks,” I say.
Kell sits on the edge of the bed. Not too close.
“You’re safe here,” he says. “As long as I’m around.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re just a guard, Kell.”
“Yeah,” he says. “But I’m a guard who saw the way the Alpha looked at you. And I know what that means.”
I freeze.
“What does it mean?”
Kell looks me straight in the eye.
“It means he’d burn the pack down for you,” he says. “And I’m not sure if that’s good or bad yet.”
Before I can answer, the door bursts open.
Rylan.
His face is pale.
“Lyra,” he says. “Elias escaped.”
My blood turns to ice.
“What?”
“He’s gone,” Rylan says. “And he took the rogue blood with him.”
Kell stands up fast.
“Where?”
“We don’t know yet,” Rylan says. “But he left a message.”
He looks at me.
“For you.”
I stand up.
“What did it say?”
Rylan’s jaw tightens.
“Meet me at the Old Temple,” he says. “Or I kill the next pack.”
My hands shake harder.
The Old Temple.
Where we marked our bond five years ago.
Elias knows.
He knows everything.
Rylan steps forward.
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
I shake my head.
“You can’t come.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you do,” I say, “he wins. This is between me and him, Rylan.”
Rylan’s eyes flash gold.
“No. This is between him and both of us.”
I look at Kell.
He’s watching us. Quiet. Waiting.
I don’t know who to trust anymore.
But I know one thing.
If I don’t go to the temple, Elias will kill more people.
And I won’t let that happen.
“Fine,” I say. “But I go first.”
Rylan nods.
“Fine.”
Kell speaks up.
“I’m coming too.”
Rylan frowns.
“You’re not a fighter, Kell.”
“I’m coming anyway,” Kell says. “Someone needs to make sure you two don’t kill each other before you kill him.”
I almost smile.
Almost.
Outside, the moon is rising.
And the Old Temple is waiting.
- Writer
