Chapter 113 Damian's POV
I caught her in an alley three blocks away.
Grabbed her arm and spun her around, pinning her against the brick wall with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs.
"What are you doing here, Lyssa?" I growled.
She actually smiled like this was all some kind of game.
"Is that any way to greet an old friend?"
"You're not my friend you never were."
I tightened my grip on her shoulders. "I asked you a question. What are you doing in Blue Moon territory?"
"I came to see you, obviously. Xavier mentioned you were here alive working as a pack doctor."
Her eyes gleamed. "I had to see for myself if it was true. If you would really run away and start a whole new life."
"I didn't run away, I left , there's a difference."
"Is there? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you abandoned everything. Abandoning the Dark Moon Pack abandoned your responsibilities and abandoned me."
I released her and stepped back, putting distance between us. "I had no responsibilities to you, what we had was forced by our parents without either of us having a say."
"We were engaged, Damian we were supposed to be married."
"An engagement I never agreed to an arrangement made when we were children. It meant nothing."
Lyssa pushed off the wall, smoothing her clothes. "It meant something to me. I waited for you. Three years waiting for you to come back to honor the commitment."
"I never made a commitment. I told you when I left I wanted nothing to do with the Dark Moon Pack or anyone in it that included you."
"So you just abandoned me and left me to deal with the shame of being rejected. Left me to answer questions about where you had gone and why you didn't want me."
"I'm sorry you were hurt but I couldn't stay in that pack”
"And what about her?" Lyssa's voice turned sharp.
"This Elara. Xavier mentioned she said she's the Alpha's mate, said she's pregnant and said she looks remarkably similar to someone from your past."
My blood ran cold. "Xavier talks too much."
"Does she really look like her? Like the girl who died?"
"That's none of your business."
"It is if you've replaced me with some omega who reminds you of your dead girlfriend."
Lyssa moved closer. "Is that what this is about? You couldn't save her, so now you're obsessed with saving this Elara instead?"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I? I see the way you look at her, Damian. Xavier described it perfectly and said you watch her like she is the most precious thing in the world. Said you care about her more than is appropriate for a doctor and patient."
"My relationship with Elara is professional-"
"Liar, you love her just like you loved that other girl. The one whose name you won't even speak."
Lyssa's expression hardened. "But this one's alive, this one you can save, this one you can obsess over without the guilt of having failed."
I grabbed her shoulders again, fury overwhelming caution. "Shut up, you don't know anything about what happened."
"I know she died because of the Dark Moon Pack. I know you blame yourself. I know that is the real reason you left not because of moral objections to our practices, but because you couldn't face the place where she died."
"Get out of Blue Moon territory now. Before I have you arrested for trespassing."
"I'm not leaving until you come back with me."
"That's never going to happen."
"Then I will die here." Her voice was calm.
"I'll die right here in this alley and you'll have another death on your conscience."
"You are being dramatic-"
"Am I?" She looked at me with dead eyes. "I've been miserable for three years, Damian. Completely miserable waiting for someone who was never coming back.”
“Defend you to my family by making excuses for why you left. And for what? So you could build a new life with a new pack and a new woman to obsess over?"
"Lyssa, please-"
"You don't get to please me, you lost that right when you disappeared without a word."
Her hand moved to her side. "Xavier told me you've been taking care of Elara personally obsessively. Like she's the most important thing in your world."
"She's my patient and of course I take care of her."
"Does she know? Does she know how you really feel about her?"
"There's nothing to know-”
"Another lie you confessed to her, didn't you? At Red Stone Pack. Xavier said you were alone with her and that you looked devastated afterward."
Lyssa's smile was cruel. "You told her you love her and she chose the Alpha anyway. Just like before, just like the other girl chose someone else and died for it."
"That's not what happened-"
"Isn't it? You have a pattern, Damian falling for women you can't have. Women who belong to someone more powerful will always choose someone else over you."
I wanted to hit her to make her stop talking. To silence the words that cut too close to truths I didn't want to face.
"Come back to the Dark Moon Pack," Lyssa said.
"Honor the engagement by being with someone who actually wants you instead of pining after someone who never will."
"No."
"Then watch me die because I mean it. If you won't come back, if you won't choose me, then I have nothing left to live for."
"You're not going to-"
Her claws extended. Five sharp points gleaming in the dim alley light.
"Lyssa, don't-"
She dragged them across her own thigh deep. Vicious. Blood immediately poured from the wounds.
"What are you doing?!" I lunged forward, trying to stop her.
But she slashed again higher this time. Arterial blood spraying.
"Stop! You're going to bleed out!"
"That's the idea." She stumbled, leaning against the wall, blood pooling at her feet. So much blood.
I grabbed her, trying to apply pressure to the wounds but there were too many too deep.
"Why would you do this? Why?"
"Because loving you is killing me anyway. At least this way it's on my terms."
"Damian!"
Elara's voice from the entrance to the alley.
I turned and saw her standing there with Kara. Both of them were staring at the scene.
At me holding Lyssa with the blood in my hands covered in it.
"Elara, this isn't-”
"What did you do?" Elara's voice was shaking. "What did you do to her?"
"I didn't do this she did it to herself-"
"He attacked me," Lyssa said weakly, her voice carrying despite her injuries.
"He got angry when I told him I didn't want to be with him anymore and he lost control."
"That's a lie!" I looked at Elara desperately. "She's lying she cut herself I was trying to stop her-"
"There's so much blood," Kara whispered.
"Call an ambulance," I ordered. "Now she is bleeding out."
But Elara just stood there, staring at me with an expression I couldn't read.
Shock, horror, betrayal she thought I had done this thought I had attacked this woman.
"Elara, please you have to believe me I would never-"
"Save her," Elara said quietly. "Whatever happened, save her then we will talk."
She turned and walked away.
Leaving me there with Lyssa's blood on my hands and no way to prove my innocence.