Chapter 31 31

Chapter 31 31
“He’s the reason I’m out here,” she continued, her voice hardening. “The reason I had to learn to survive without a pack. I was an Omega, supposedly weak. But look at me now. I have a home. I have my boys. And I don’t neeed a King or a mate to tell me what my worth is.”

She looked back at me, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

“But sometimes... sometimes I just want to be someone’s priority. Not just a mother or a rogue. Just... a woman. Does that make sense, wolf?”

I nudged her knee with my muzzle, a silent promise. You are my only priority. You are my world.

She smiled then, a real, fragile smile that broke my heart.

“I bet you’d be a handsome man,” she teased, though her eyes were sad. “Probably too arrogant for your own good, just like all the others.”

She fell silent for a moment, the only sound the rustle of the leaves in the night breeze.

“Even though my wolf is useless... I’m basically just a puppy,” she repeated, returning to her earlier thought. “That's what they said when they threw me out. 'A pup with no bite.' They didn't even give me a chance to grow.”

That her strength wasn't in her wolf's teeth, but in the way she had carved a life out of nothing.

Seeing my sudden, intense reaction, she blinked and b egan waving her hands in a frantic, defensive gesture.

“Oh, my God. It’s not what you think!” Lyra said quickly, her face flushing a deep, embarrassed crimson in the moonlight. 

She waved her hands as if trying to push away the heavy atmosphere. “It’s just... I don’t have the same rank or power as the other wolves. In the eyes of the high-born, I’m a defect. That’s why they kicked me out of my pack. They threw me away because I wasn't 'Alpha' enough for their standards.”

I felt a surge of white-hot, jagged rage on her behalf. My wolf, usually a creature of calculated strikes, let out a low, vibrating growl that made the very bench she was sitting on tremble. The sound was primal, a warnning to a world that had dared to break her.

I wanted to find every person who had looked down on her and show them exactly what a real Alpha looked like. I wanted to burn down the memory of that day, to erase the smug faces of the Council and my father.

“Hey, hey... easy,” she whispered, her voice soft as velvet as she reached out. To my surprise, she didn't flinch at the growl. Most humans—and even most wolves—would have backed away from the sheer pressure of my aura, but she stepped toward me. 

Her hand was trembling slightly, but she didn't hesitate as she rested it on my wet nose. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I’ve built a life here. A quiet one.”

I closed my eyes, leaning heavily into her palm, my breath hitching in my massive chest. 

The contact was electric, a searing spark of the mate bond that made my skin itch. I felt like I might shift back into a man right there on the grass just to wrap my arms around her and never let go. I let out a soft, broken whine, nuzzling my head into the curve of her stomach, feeling the radiating warmth of her body through her thin shirt.

For a long moment, we stayed like that—a broken Alpha hiding in a beast’s skin and a woman who had been told her entire life that she was nothing.

“You’re so warm,” she whispered, her fingers burying themselves deep in the thick black fur of my neck, scratching that one spot behind my ear that made my thoughts go hazy. 

“Sometimes I forget what it feels like to have someone close. To have someone who doesn't want to take something from me. Everyone wants a piece of you, don't they? But you... you just want my meat and a place to rest.”

She pulled back slightly, her eyes searching my golden ones. A frown marred her beautiful forehead. “You look at me so intensely,” she murmured, her voice laced with a strange confusion. “It’s almost like you understand every word. Like you’re judging me for being so weak back then.”

I let out a soft huff, shaking my head. Never, I thought. I’m judging myself.

“There was a man once,” she continued, her voice turning brittle, like dry leaves. “He was supposed to be my everything. He was the one I looked to when the world went dark. But when the fire started, he didn't grab my hand. He let the flames take me.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. She was talking about me. She was talking about the day I stood silent while Silas—the man I used to be—let her be exiled.

“Do you think wolves have souls?” she asked suddenly, her laugh sounding hollow. “Because I think mine stayed in that forest five years ago. I’m just a ghost living in a cabin now.”

I stepped forward, licking the salt from a stray tear that escaped her eye. The taste of her sadness was more bitter than any poison. I nudged her hand, trying to tell her she was alive, that she was the most vibrant thing in my universe.

“You’re a good boy,” she smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. “Much better than the ‘Alpha’ who was supposed to protect me. His name was Silas. Don’t ever be like him, wolf. Don’t ever be a coward who hidees behind a title.”

Lyra sighed, the sound heavy with years of suffocating exhaustion. She moved back to the bench, and I followed, resting my massive head on her lap.