Chapter 184: Lyra Becomes Cool
The estate quieted strangely in the late afternoons.
Mornings belonged to movement.
Training.
Strategy meetings.
Weapons checks.
Blood Guards rotating through patrol shifts while the older wolves argued over maps and territory reports in voices low enough to sound like distant thunder.
But late afternoon
Late afternoon belonged to silence.
The Siberian wilderness swallowed sound beneath endless snow while pale winter sunlight stretched long across frozen forests outside the estate walls.
It felt lonely in a beautiful way.
I wandered the halls aimlessly after leaving the kitchen, still smelling faintly like smoke and burned vegetables despite Elena’s deeply judgmental attempts to save dinner from my existence.
The estate felt warmer now.
Not because the people inside it had changed.
Because I had stopped waiting for rejection in every room.
Mostly.
Progress.
I found the balcony accidentally.
Or maybe instinctively.
One of the upper western corridors opened into a narrow stone terrace overlooking the frozen forest stretching endlessly beyond the estate cliffs.
Snow drifted softly through the open arches while cold wind curled through the balcony hard enough to sting exposed skin.
And there
Curled into one corner beneath heavy blankets and oversized headphones
Sat Anya.
She occupied the wide stone bench near the railing with one knee pulled against her chest while a sketchbook rested across her lap. Pencil moved steadily beneath gloved fingers, quick confident strokes barely slowing even when the wind flipped strands of dark hair across her face.
She looked peaceful.
Or as peaceful as wary teenage girls ever looked.
I stopped near the doorway immediately.
Didn’t want to interrupt.
The kid clearly came here to escape her family.
Honestly?
Reasonable.
I started backing away quietly.
Without looking up from the sketchbook, Anya spoke.
“You’re loud when you walk.”
Attitude.
Interesting.
I paused.
“I wasn’t trying to be quiet.”
“I know.”
Still not looking at me.
I stared at the back of her head for one long second.
Then slowly crossed onto the balcony anyway.
Cold immediately bit through my clothes while snowflakes drifted lazily between us.
Anya shifted slightly to make room on the bench.
Not enough to be welcoming.
Enough to acknowledge my existence.
Teenager diplomacy.
I sat carefully beside her.
Silence settled.
Not uncomfortable.
Measured.
The kind of silence observant people used to evaluate one another.
I glanced sideways toward the sketchbook.
Mostly wolves.
Beautifully drawn too.
Sharp dark pencil lines shaped massive predators moving through forests and snowstorms while shadows stretched long beneath them.
But woven between the wolves
Monsters.
Things with elongated limbs and blackened veins.
Hybrid shapes.
The V-Canis.
My chest tightened slightly.
Anya kept sketching calmly.
“You’re staring.”
“You’re really good.”
She shrugged one shoulder.
“It’s easier than talking.”
God.
That one landed harder than expected.
The wind screamed softly through the frozen trees below us while snow gathered along the balcony railing.
Anya finally glanced sideways toward me.
Her dark eyes looked too observant for fifteen.
“Does it hurt?”
The question came out suddenly enough to catch me off guard.
“What?”
“Being both.”
Straight to the throat.
Apparently this family did not believe in gradual conversations.
I leaned back slightly against the cold stone wall behind us.
The honest answer rose immediately.
“Yes.”
Anya studied my face carefully.
“How?”
I exhaled slowly.
“Sometimes it feels like there are too many instincts inside one body.” My fingers curled loosely against my coat sleeves. “Too much hearing. Smelling. Hunger. Anger.” I glanced toward the forest. “Everything is louder.”
Anya listened intently.
Not disturbed.
Interested.
That unsettled me slightly.
Most people asked questions about hybrids because they feared us.
Anya asked like she genuinely wanted to understand.
“Do you lose control?”
The wind shifted harder across the balcony.
I could’ve lied.
Softened it.
Given the careful reassuring answer adults usually gave children.
Instead
“I did once.”
Her expression didn’t change.
I continued quietly.
“It used to happen a lot more.”
Anya tilted her head slightly.
“What changed?”
I thought about Darius.
About training.
About Siberia.
About learning how to stop fighting myself long enough to control what I was.
“People stopped treating me like a weapon long enough for me to become a person.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Anya looked down at the sketchbook again briefly.
Then:
“Haveyou ever killed anyone?”
There it was.
The ugly question.
The real one.
I stared out across the frozen forest for several long seconds.
Snow drifted endlessly through the trees below.
“Yeah.”
No hesitation.
No lie.
Anya slowly looked up at me again.
Waiting.
I swallowed once.
“Some deserved it.” My voice lowered slightly. “Some probably didn’t.”
The honesty sat between us like exposed bone.
And for the first time since the conversation started
Anya leaned closer instead of farther away.
Interested.
Not frightened.
“You didn’t lie.”
I blinked.
“Why would I?”
A humorless little smile touched her mouth.
Anya flipped slowly through several pages of the sketchbook.
Wolves.
Mountains.
The estate.
Darius standing beside one of the motorcycles with impossible accuracy somehow captured in graphite.
Then
My breath caught slightly.
A drawing of me.
Or something close enough.
A female figure standing in snow with claws extended and pale eyes glowing against storm-dark shadows.
Not monstrous.
Not human either.
Powerful.
Lonely.
Beautiful in a dangerous way.
I stared at it quietly.” i’ve never looked cooler,”
She shrugged tightly.
I looked back at the drawing.
“You really made me look cooler than I am.”
Anya rolled her eyes immediately.
“You fought a V-Canis in the snow.”
“Details.”
“And You broke through ice with your hands.”
“I was stressed.”
That finally earned the smallest real smile from her.
Tiny.
Quick.
But there.
The kind of smile teenagers gave when they accidentally enjoyed someone.
Progress.
We sat quietly after that while snow fell thicker around the balcony.
The estate below us looked distant from up here.
Warm lights glowing against endless wilderness.
Safe for now.
The thought settled heavily in my chest.