Chapter 5
Lyra's POV
I didn't lose my temper—I simply set the motorcycle back in its place with careful precision, then walked back to the apartment under their mocking and contemptuous stares, keeping my head low until the door closed behind me. The moment I was alone, I contacted the black-market dealer I'd met during one of my late-night rides, and within hours, the pinhole cameras arrived. I installed them secretly in the rooms where Kael spent most of his time.
That evening, when Kael returned to the apartment, he looked at me with his jaw tight, the way one might look at a disobedient child.
"We need to talk about what happened today," he said, his voice carrying that particular tone of disappointment designed to make me feel ashamed of myself.
I lowered my eyes, displaying the remorse and submission he expected to see.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"Didn't mean to show everyone that you have no respect for me? That a barren she-wolf can do whatever she pleases in this pack?" He pressed forward, step by step.
"Do you have any idea what they'll think of me behind my back after your little stunt today? That I, as Alpha of this pack, can't even control my own mate!"
The words stung, and once they might have made me grateful for his tolerance. Three days ago, perhaps they would have worked—but not after I'd caught him with Mira.
Still, I nodded and apologized in a low voice.
"I'm going to take a shower," he finally said, a flash of disgust crossing his face. "Pull yourself together. You look terrible."
As he headed toward the bathroom, he left his phone on the couch. Moments later, I heard the water running.
When his screen lit up with a new message, I found myself already standing in front of it.
The preview showed a photo—Mira, completely naked except for that silver cross, sprawled across burgundy sheets with her limbs spread wide.
The message read: Already missing you. Come back to bed?
I had just picked up his phone when the bathroom door suddenly opened.
"Lyra? What are you doing?" Kael emerged with moisture still clinging to his skin.
"Mira sent you a photo." I held the phone screen up to him.
"She probably sent it by mistake," he said quickly, moving toward me. "You know how Mira is—always mixing up her contacts. I'm sure she meant to send it to someone else."
I looked up at him. "Are you sure about that?"
"Of course I'm sure. Why would Mira deliberately send me something like that? You shouldn't think that way about your friend, Lyra."
His arm circled my waist, pulling me close until I could feel the heat of his skin. His lips found my neck. "Let me prove it to you," he murmured, his fingers sliding beneath my shirt. "Let me show you that you're the only one I want."
I didn't push him away, though every nerve in my body was screaming.
His lips traveled to my collarbone, teeth grazing my skin as he guided me backward toward the bedroom, his arousal pressing against my hip until my legs hit the mattress.
"See?" he whispered, lowering me onto the bed, his hands working at the button of my jeans. "This is what's real. Everything else is just noise."
His phone rang again in the living room. I felt his entire body tense for an instant before he forced a smile.
"Ignore it," he said. "Nothing is more important than this moment."
The phone kept ringing. Finally, he cursed and pushed himself up.
I lay there in the sudden chill, watching him answer the call.
"Yeah, I understand. I'll be there in twenty minutes." He hung up. "It's Darian—some situation at the border."
But I knew it was Mira who had called, impatient and summoning him back to her bed—a path he'd traveled so many times he could walk it blind.
I pulled my shirt back down with steady hands.
"Go. Your pack needs you."
He dressed quickly and left without barely glancing at me.
After the door closed, I lay there for exactly three minutes.
Then I walked to the bathroom and scrubbed away every filthy trace he'd left on my skin, scrubbing until every place he'd touched turned red, and only then did I stop.
Emerging wrapped in a towel, I didn't return to the master bedroom—I couldn't bear to lie on that bed still carrying Kael's scent.
Instead, I turned into the guest room and lay down on the unfamiliar, cool sheets. Outside, light filtered through half-drawn curtains, casting a vague patch of gray-white on the ceiling. I stared at that blurred brightness, my mind wandering.
Perhaps I should move up my meeting with Orion...
The next day, I went to the shopping mall I'd rarely visited in the past five years, where the luxury district gleamed with high-end boutiques.
I spent twenty minutes comparing styles before finally settling on a Patek Philippe—midnight blue dial, mahogany leather strap.
The clerk was just sliding the watch into its gift box when I heard a familiar voice.
"Lyra? What are you doing here?"
Kael stood at the entrance with two men in expensive suits. His gaze fell on the watch box, then returned to my face, and I saw calculation flicker across his features, followed by smugness and satisfaction.
"I didn't know you were planning something like this," he said with a smile, glancing at his companions. "My mate, always trying to surprise me. Give me just a moment, gentlemen."
He grabbed my elbow and pulled me aside, lowering his voice.
"You don't have to do this, sweetheart. I know things have been rough lately, but buying me an expensive watch isn't going to fix—"
"You've misunderstood," I said quietly, watching his smile freeze.
"What?"
I pulled my arm from his grip. "I was just browsing."
A shadow passed through his eyes, replacing the earlier smugness.
"Just browsing? Lyra, who else would you be buying a watch for?"
"No one. I haven't decided whether to buy anything yet."
He stared at me for a long moment, trying to reconcile the woman before him with the compliant mate he thought he knew.
His clients were peering in from the entrance.
"We'll discuss this at home," he said, threat edging into his tone. "Don't do anything stupid."
Only after he'd walked away did I let the clerk finish wrapping the watch.
That evening, Kael came home unusually early—he'd probably been thinking about the afternoon's events all day.
I hid the watch behind old shoes and winter clothes, alongside my leather jacket and helmet.
I was in the kitchen when I heard his keys in the lock.
"So..." He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. "That watch. When were you planning to bring it out?"
"I didn't buy it." I continued chopping vegetables on the cutting board, my tone revealing nothing unusual. "I was just looking."
"Interesting." He walked over slowly, his dress shoes clicking against the floor in the quiet kitchen.
"I went back and asked the clerk specifically. He said not only did you buy it, but you were quite generous with your purchase." He stopped behind me. "Lyra, would you like to try that answer again?"
After three seconds of silence, I set down the knife and turned to meet his gaze.
"I returned it later," I said. "After thinking it over, the money had better uses."
"Don't lie to me, Lyra." He moved closer. "Ever since your hearing came back, you've been acting strange. First the motorcycle, now this. What's going on with you?"
I forced myself to look into his eyes, my expression open and confused.
"Nothing. You're overthinking it."
"Am I?" He tucked my hair behind my ear, the gesture appearing tender but feeling like a warning. "Because it seems like you're planning something behind my back."
"What could I possibly be planning, Kael? You know I have nowhere to go without you."
I grasped his hand before he could withdraw it, lowering my eyes with precisely calibrated self-deprecation.
He studied me for a long while, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Lyra, you belong here," he finally said. "I don't want you to forget that."
With that, he pulled his hand away and walked out.
His footsteps faded down the hallway as he left to handle his "pack business"—that well-worn path to Mira's bed that he could now navigate in his sleep.
I took out the watch and held it up to the light, admiring how the blue dial caught the illumination.
Soon, I would meet Orion Blackwood...
And when that time came, I would personally bury every lie and conspiracy in this place.