Chapter 67

Chapter 67
CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN: THE CONFESSION

RYKER

I descended the final step into the damp, stone corridor. The air grew thick with the copper tang of blood and the acrid stench of fear-sweat. Three of them hung from the walls, their wrists bound in silver-laced chains that bit into their fur and flesh. The bears I’d captured from the ambush. My own kin. Or so they’d once been.

Rage licked through my blood like a windswept flame, but I forced my expression into stone. My bear paced beneath my skin, snarling, demanding blood. I gave him a leash, but just barely.

Ruby followed a step behind me, her boots echoing off the stone. “Still nothing, Alpha. They’re stubborn.”

I stopped in front of the middle prisoner—a grizzly with a scar splitting his snout. Recognition flickered in his beady eyes. He knew me. He knew his Alpha.

“Look at me,” I growled.

He lifted his head, his breath ragged. A low, defiant chuff escaped his throat.

I backhanded him across the muzzle. The crack of bone meeting bone echoed through the cell. His head snapped to the side, and a glob of blood and spittle hit the floor.

“I’ll ask once,” I said, my voice dangerously quiet. “Who gave the order?”

He laughed. A wet, broken sound. “You... you’re the Alpha. You gave the order.”

My vision went red. I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground, the silver chains groaning under the strain. “I gave no such order. Who is your Alpha?”

His eyes bulged, but a twisted grin spread across his bloodied lips. “Gold... lots of gold. And a promise.”

I slammed him back against the wall. “A promise from whom?”

He coughed, struggling for air. The other two prisoners hung silent, watching. But I knew the scarred one was breaking. I could smell the surrender seeping from his pores.

“A wolf,” he rasped.

My blood went cold. I loosened my grip, just enough for him to speak. “Spit it out.”

“Liam... Liam Thornfield.” The name dropped like a stone into still water. “Your bitch’s Beta. He paid us. Paid us to raid the camp. Paid us to make it look like you sent us. He promised us territory when the truce shattered.”

I released him. He slumped against the chains, gasping for breath. My hands trembled at my sides. Liam. Her own Beta. The man who stood at her right hand, who greeted her every morning, who likely fed her lies about me while she nursed her wounds.

Ruby stepped forward, her jaw tight. “Alpha, if this is true—”

“It’s true,” I snapped. My bear roared inside me, demanding retribution. “Why would he lie? He just signed his own death warrant.”

I turned and strode toward the iron door. Ruby’s footsteps followed.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

I didn’t stop walking. “I’m going to drag that traitorous wolf to Lyra’s feet and make her watch him bleed for what he’s done.”

\---

LYRA

I couldn’t breathe.

The walls of my cabin felt like they were closing in, the familiar wood grain pressing against my skull. I staggered to the window and threw it open, gulping the night air like a drowning woman.

But the scent of cedar and fire refused to leave my nostrils.

He’s gone. I sent him away. It’s over.

Then why did my chest feel like a gaping wound?

I pressed my palm to my stomach. A wave of nausea rolled through me, sudden and violent. I barely made it to the washbasin before my supper came up in a burning rush. I heaved until there was nothing left, my body shaking, my eyes streaming.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my trembling hand and stared at my reflection in the dark water. Gaunt. Hollow. A stranger stared back.

“Lyra?”

I spun. My mother stood in the doorway, her eyes wide with concern. She rushed forward and pressed a cool cloth to my forehead.

“You’re burning up,” she murmured. “And vomiting? When did this start?”

I shook my head, too weak to answer.

She guided me to the bed, her hands firm and gentle. I sank onto the mattress, and she sat beside me, her face unreadable. Her fingers found my wrist, and she closed her eyes, her brows furrowing.

A long silence stretched between us.

Then her eyes snapped open.

“Lyra...” Her voice was barely a whisper. “When was your last heat?”

My blood ran cold. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My mind raced backward, counting days, weeks. The night in Ryker’s cabin. The warmth of his body. The way he’d held me after I woke from the nightmares.

The way I’d let him take me completely.

“No,” I breathed. “No, it can’t be...”

My mother’s gaze softened, her hand tightening on mine. “I can smell it, Lyra. The change in your scent. You’re carrying his child.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. I jerked my hand away and scrambled off the bed, backing into the corner. My hands flew to my stomach, pressing flat against the still-flat plane.

His cub. Ryker’s cub. My pup.

The traitorous muscle in my chest lurched with something I refused to name. Disgust. Horror. Longing. They all tangled together until I couldn’t tell them apart.

“I rejected him,” I said, my voice cracking. “I shot him. I told him I’d never mate with a monster.”

My mother rose slowly, her expression pained. “The bond doesn’t break just because you speak harsh words, Lyra. It runs deeper than that.”

I sank to the floor, my back against the wall. Tears welled in my eyes, hot and unstoppable. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, but the taste of copper only reminded me of Ryker—of the bullet wound in his shoulder, of the way his eyes had dimmed when I told him to leave.

The light faded in Ryker’s eyes.

I choked on a sob.

A sudden commotion outside tore through my grief. Raised voices. Growling. The clash of claws against claws. My head snapped up, my wolf surging forward with fangs bared.

I shoved myself to my feet and threw open the cabin door. The night air hit me, cold and sharp. Across the common yard, a swarm of bears had gathered at the treeline—grizzlies, black bears, their hulking forms silhouetted against the moonlight.

And at their head, one bear stood apart. Massive. Silver-tipped. Familiar.

Ryker.

His eyes found mine across the distance, blazing with fury and something else. Something broken.

Then he lowered his head, and I watched him drag a figure forward by the scruff of the neck. The figure stumbled, yelped, and collapsed at the border of our camp.

I squinted into the darkness.

My heart stopped.

Liam.

My Beta, his face a mess of blood and bruises, writhed on the ground at Ryker’s paws.

I stepped forward, my legs trembling. “What... what is this?”

Ryker shifted. His form condensed, bones cracking and reforming, until the man I’d banished stood in the bear’s place. Naked. Scarred. Bleeding from a fresh wound across his chest.

He grabbed Liam by the hair and yanked him upright.

“Ask him,” Ryker growled, his voice a thunderous command. “Ask your loyal Beta who ordered the attack on your pack.”