Chapter 43 Her Desperation
Chapter 43 Her Desperation
Lyria’s POV
My heels clicked sharply against the marble floor, the sound too loud for the quiet hallway — too loud for how I felt inside. Panic made the edges of my thoughts fray. I kept seeing Kyle’s face from that disastrous dinner… the way he looked at her.
Arya. The orphan. The nobody. The girl who was supposed to sweep floors and fade into the background.
Instead? She had captured his attention completely, and I was disappearing.
My father’s threat echoed fresh in my head:
“If you cannot secure the future Alpha’s bond by the next council meeting, you will return home in disgrace. Our family will not invest in a failure.”
He didn’t say it with anger. He didn’t need to. His disappointment was enough to crush me.
I pressed a shaky hand to the wall and breathed in. My wolf clawed beneath my skin — restless, anxious. We were supposed to be celebrated allies here. I was supposed to be the future Luna.
Instead, I was becoming a danger to our pack’s standing. All because of her.
I pushed away from the wall and marched faster toward the garden courtyard, the place where I had been told to meet him.
Ezra, the King's adviser. The loyal shadow at his side. Or so I had thought.
He waited beneath a dark archway, moonlight catching on his sharp cheekbones. He looked perfectly composed, but when his eyes slid to me, a smirk tugged at his lips.
“You came,” he said simply.
“I didn’t have much of a choice,” I snapped, folding my arms tightly over my chest. “You said it was urgent.”
“And for once, I wasn’t exaggerating.” He stepped closer, voice lowering. “You’re losing him.”
I flinched. No need to sugarcoat it, apparently.
“I’m not losing anyone,” I breathed, though I could hear the thin lie in my own voice. “Kyle and I…”
“Kyle and Arya,” he cut in, “are circling each other like fate itself tied a rope around their necks.”
I froze. Hearing someone else say it aloud made it real. And it hurts.Ezra tilted his head, studying me like a puzzle piece he was deciding whether to keep or toss away.
“You don’t want her winning,” he said quietly. “Neither do I.”
That caught my attention.“Why?” I asked.
He hesitated for half a heartbeat, then spoke:
“Because she is a threat.”
“To Kyle?”
“To all of us.”
He reached into his coat and pulled out a folded letter, sealed with a symbol I recognized, Crescent Fang’s royal crest. My blood ran cold.
“No one from Crescent Fang would reach me here,” I said slowly. “Not without permission from my father.”
Ezra smiled darkly.
“Your father sent me.”
I stared — stunned.
“Impossible. He would never trust a yoy with—”
“With news that could change the world?” Ezra leaned in, voice dripping with amusement. “He trusts whoever gets the job done.”
My heart was hammered.
“And what… what job is that?”
Ezra handed me the letter. My fingers trembled as I broke the seal. Inside, my father’s handwriting cut like a blade:
Ensure the removal of the girl connected to Whitestone. She cannot remain with the White Wolves. If you succeed, you secure your future as Queen.
Remove her. The words seemed to pulse. Ezra watched my reaction with satisfaction.
“We win if Arya disappears,” he murmured. “If she becomes… inconvenient. If she makes a mistake that turns the pack against her. There are a thousand ways a servant girl can fall from grace.”
My pulse thundered in my ears.
“You’re asking me to sabotage her,” I whispered.
“No,” he corrected gently, “I’m asking you to save yourself. To save Kyle from being destroyed by whatever she truly is.”
His voice carried weight, fear, even. As if he knew something I didn’t.
“What do you know about her?” I demanded.
Ezra’s jaw tightened, the first real crack in his composure.
“She isn’t what she seems. Crescent Fang believes she belongs to them. And they don’t cross the ocean for just anyone.”
Belongs to them. The implication sent a shiver through me.
“Why?” I breathed.
“That,” Ezra said, lips curving into a grim smile, “is what we’re going to find out.”
I stepped back, suddenly aware of how dangerous this conversation had become.
“If Kyle finds out I’m working with you…”
“He won’t,” Ezra interrupted smoothly. “Unless you give me a reason to betray you.”
His confidence was chilling.
“We’re both running out of time,” he continued. “I’m offering you an alliance. Use your influence. Feed the right rumors. Keep them apart. Make sure the council sees Arya for the threat she is. And when Crescent Fang makes their move…” His eyes gleamed. “You will be the one still standing next to Kyle.”
Something sharp twisted inside me, desperation tangled with hope. This was what I wanted. What I deserved.
So why did guilt coil in my chest like a snake? Ezra seemed to sense my hesitation.
“She is not innocent,” he murmured. “She’s hiding something that could bring Whitestone to its knees. Don’t let her take what’s yours.”
What’s yours. That was what I cared about, wasn’t it? I thought of Kyle’s smile. His warmth. The future we were supposed to have. A future slipping away every time Arya breathed near him.
I closed my fists around the letter and forced myself to stand taller.
“What do you need me to do?”
Ezra’s smirk returned, satisfied.
“Spread a little doubt,” he said. “A whisper here. A suggestion there. And most importantly…”
He leaned close enough that his breath brushed my ear.
“Show Kyle you are the safer choice.”
Safer. As if love had anything to do with safety. But I nodded anyway. Because survival did.
As I turned to leave, Ezra called after me:
“Oh, and Lyria?”
I glanced back.
“Don’t underestimate Arya,” he warned. “Wolves are most dangerous when they don’t know who they are.”
I swallowed, throat tight.
“I won’t,” I said.
But as I walked away, clutching the letter like a lifeline and a death sentence combined. I knew I already had.