Chapter 57 Learning about her family
Lira POV
"Tomorrow at dawn." He pulled out a map. "There's a clearing three miles east. Neutral territory where we can train without Kael's interference."
"Kael's going to lose his mind." But I felt something like satisfaction at the thought.
"Will he?" Dmitri's expression turned knowing. "Or will he be too busy with Mira to notice you're gone?"
The words hit harder than they should have. I closed the journal with a snap.
"How do you know about Mira?"
"I told you. Spies." He rolled up the map. "I know she tried to kill you tonight. I know Kael chose to believe her over you. I know you're questioning everything about this bond."
"Stop." I held up a hand. "Just stop."
"I'm not trying to hurt you." His voice gentled. "I'm trying to prepare you. Because the coalition won't wait for you to be ready. Elias especially—he's been consolidating power, building alliances. The moment he confirms you're alive and training, he'll move against you."
"Let him try." I met his eyes with more confidence than I felt. "I'm done being everyone's victim."
"Good." He smiled, and I saw my father in that expression. "Because your mother didn't raise a victim. She raised a warrior."
"My mother died before she could raise me at all." Bitterness leaked through. "All I have are stories and a cellar full of scars."
"Then let me give you more." He moved toward the door. "Three miles east. Dawn, bring your wolf and your rage. We'll forge them both into weapons."
"And if I don't come?" I challenged.
"Then Elias wins." He paused in the doorway. "Then your mother's death meant nothing. Then twenty years of suffering was for nothing." His eyes met mine one last time. "But I don't think that's who you are."
He left before I could respond.
I sat in the empty cabin, holding my mother's journal. Dmitri's words echoing through my head. Outside, I heard guards changing shifts.
The smart thing would be to return to the packhouse. Rest. Heal. Let the council sort out Mira's accusations.
But I'd spent twenty years being smart. Being careful. Being small enough not to be noticed.
I opened the journal again, reading my mother's words.
The greatest weakness of Moonblood wolves is isolation. We draw power from pack bonds, from connection, from love. The elders who destroyed us knew this. So they severed our connections, scattered our people, made us believe we were cursed.
But we're not cursed. We're powerful. And power terrifies those who abuse it.
I traced the words with my finger, feeling something settle in my chest. When I finally left the cabin, the moon was high. Guards asked if I needed escort back, but I waved them off. The walk gave me time to think, to plan.
The packhouse was quiet when I slipped inside. Most wolves were sleeping. I headed for my room, exhausted but restless.
Kael stood outside my door.
"Where were you?" His voice was low, dangerous.
"Out." I tried to push past him.
He blocked my path. "I can smell rogue on you, make rogue."
"And I can smell Mira on you." I met his eyes steadily. "Guess we both have secrets."
His jaw tightened. "This isn't a game, Lira."
"You're right." I moved closer, getting in his face. "It's my life. My choices. My fucking birthright that I'm tired of everyone else controlling."
"Your birthright?" Confusion flickered across his features.
"Ask Garrick about Silvermoon." I finally pushed past him, opening my door. "Ask him what really happened twenty years ago. Who really ordered the attack."
"Lira, wait"
"I'm done waiting." I looked back at him, memorizing his face. "For you to choose me. For you to believe me. For you to see me as anything other than a burden your wolf forced on you."
"That's not" He stepped forward.
"Save it." I closed the door between us. "Tomorrow I start making my own path. With or without you."
His fist hit the door, hard. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Too late." I leaned against the wood, feeling him on the other side through the bond. "I already fell for you."
Silence. Then footsteps walking away.
I slid down the door, exhaustion and pain finally overwhelming rage. My mother's journal pressed against my chest. Dmitri's map burned in my pocket.
Dawn, Selwyn whispered. We train at dawn.
"I know." I closed my eyes, letting tears finally fall. "I know."
Outside my window, the moon watched. I had until sunrise to decide.
And somewhere in the darkness, I knew Elias was watching too. The alpha who stole my mother's crown, whose father killed my father, who'd been feeding my location to hunters for years.
Tomorrow I'd start learning to fight back.
Tonight I'd let myself break one last time.
The bond pulsed with Kael's confusion, his anger, his fear. But underneath it all—buried so deep he probably didn't recognize it—was something else.
Grief.
He was grieving what we could have been. What the bond promised but his trauma wouldn't allow.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the empty room. "But I can't wait for you to be ready, not anymore."