Chapter Five
Lyric couldn’t stop smiling.
She pursed her lips against it and checked her face in the rearview, but her eyes gave it away. She was happy.
Eden was going to be so mad if she saw her joy.
Lyric blew out a steadying breath and closed her eyes, thought of the awful day Aro had been killed, and the melancholy washed through her once more.
Lyric got out and locked her car door, then made her way to the front of the house.
She’d lived in Pack houses on government land before, but this time was different.
She was staying in a spare bedroom in her newly mated sister’s home, and it wasn’t fun.
Now she knew there was a different way to live—as a Rogue without owing money or fealty to the Elders—and it made it harder to appreciate her homelife here.
Plus, it was all still so new to her. She wasn’t bonding with this Pack like she was supposed to.
She barely remembered half of their names.
Part of that was Eden’s fault. She’d lost her last mate in a battle with the Rogues, and while she’d barely known him and hadn’t cared for him, he was supposed to be the one building up this Pack.
Now, she was newly paired up again to a dominant asshole named Traydon, but he traveled like crazy, and building this Pack was now on Eden’s shoulders.
Unfortunately for all, she wasn’t a natural born leader.
More like a tyrant. She told people what to do, and if they disobeyed, she was extreme in her consequences, and she punished with the backing of the Elders.
Even though her father was deceased now, the Elders still revered Eden as a she-wolf of power.
She was manipulative and creative and could sink her claws into a mind with such ease, just like her father, Aro.
Lyric had never possessed those traits, and now she understood why.
Aro wasn’t her real father. That revelation had been eating her alive lately in the days since Eden had blurted it out during an argument.
She’d searched her memories of when she was a child, but there was nothing there.
It was as if her mind had been cleaned. Her first memory was of when she was ten years old, and she was at Eden’s thirteenth birthday party, sitting right beside her, singing happy birthday.
Aro had stood behind them both with his hands on each of their shoulders.
There was a picture of it. Before that moment, nothing else existed in Lyric’s memories.
It was such an unsettling sensation. Before, she’d never even noticed that she didn’t have any memories of when she was a young child. She’d had no reason to reach for memories of when she was a small child. Not until she’d found out her childhood had been a lie.
Did she have parents somewhere out there? Had they searched for her? Had she been an orphan? Where had she come from, and more importantly…who was she?
Vic made her feel more like herself than she had perhaps ever felt before.
Vic was addictive.
She pulled her keys from her purse to open the front door, but her phone vibrated in her purse. Heart stuttering, she pulled it out and checked Vic’s text. I had a lot of fun with you tonight. Home safe?
Her smile was back.
She typed quickly. Just got here. You? How is Earl? I had fun with you too. Send.
A picture of Earl in a beach themed cage, complete with blue shavings, and two little islands with plastic palm trees, a hammock, and a big plastic shark with its mouth open where Earl had apparently made a nest were involved.
She snickered. How many cages do you have for him? Send.
Eight. This one is for when he needs some mental health days at the beach.
She moved to type out a response, but the front door flew open.
Lyric jumped hard, expecting to see Eden standing there ready to yell at her, but the person who was actually standing there was much, much worse.
Cian Morgan.
Her ex.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Lyric demanded, stomach filling with dread.
“You know exactly what I’m doing here, Lyr.” Cian lifted his chin higher into the air. His bi-colored gold and blue eyes looked her up and down. She’d done that to his face. She’d made him at Aro’s command.
She’d made him, but she’d made a mistake in the process. Cian had taught her that she needed to break the Maker Bonds before they formed.
“I actually don’t know what you are doing here, since we broke up four years ago, and I told you, ‘I never want to fucking see you again.’ I feel like I made it pretty clear also when I blocked you on everything, so you can understand why I’m a little confused on why you are in my house.
” The volume of the last two words wrenched up and echoed through the clearing.
“I brought him here,” Eden said from behind him.
Cian gave an empty smile. “We are Packmates now, Lyr.”
“Stop calling me that,” she snapped, shoving past him. To Eden, she said, “You should be ashamed of yourself. You know what he did to me.”
“He did what you deserved—”
“That’s bullshit and you know it! You are supposed to be my sister. Sister’s don’t do this to each other!”
“As we are both well-aware, we are not real sisters, so now my role in your life is of your Alpha. Cian will bring you back into line. He will be your mate.”
Words failed her. Lyric arched her eyebrows and waited for the ‘Just kidding’ that would surely follow that horrid statement.
None came though.
“Lyr,” Cian said in that velvet smooth, coercive tone she remembered. His fingertips brushed her back, and Lyric flinched away.
Already her eyes were burning with tears. “I’m not pairing with him. Not again. You can’t make me—”
“I’m your Alpha!” Eden yelled.
“No you aren’t! Your new mate is Alpha here! And even if you were, that doesn’t give you the right to control people’s lives like this!” Lyric yelled back. “You called the person who hurt me and your move is to force me to be with him? Fuck you and fuck him.”
“I’m right here,” Cian said.
“Fuck you,” she corrected herself, jamming her finger toward him.
“Look, I’m different now. I’ve changed—”
“Save it. That’s what every throw-away man says.”
“Throw-away man?” he asked, looking angry. “Do you know who I am?”
“I’m leaving,” Lyric gritted out, rushing toward the hallway that led to her room.
“The hell you are,” Eden said. “You will stay here, and we will all sit down at the table and talk about this.”
“Why him?” she yelled, infuriated.
“Because he’s the only one who could manage you.”
“I don’t want to be managed.”
“It’s not about what you want anymore, Lyric. It’s about what you need.”
“Oh, and you know what I need all of the sudden?”
“I’m you sister—”
“Don’t! You do not get to use the sister card only when it suits you. I see what you’re doing, Eden.”
“Lyric,” she gritted out, her eyes glowing gold. “I’m trying to be patient with you right now because I knew you would have a reaction to this. You just need time to cool down and then you will see I’m right. If you and Cian pair up again, you will be happy and see the value in this place.”
“Happy,” Lyric whispered. “I don’t recall being happy when I was with him. I remember coming to you crying over the ways he was tearing me down. I remember feeling alone. I remember the other girls he chased, and always having to compete with other females, and feeling like not enough!”
“Like I said,” Cian gritted out. “I’ve changed.”
“Oh yeah? Where was your fucking apology the second I saw you then? You’ve told me twice now you’ve changed, but you haven’t said the words, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Lyric glared at him, waiting.
He glared back.
Oh, she knew she had him on this. Men like Cian never apologized.
His nostrils flared with a deep inhalation, and he looked at Eden. “Fix this.” He backed into the kitchen and around the corner where Lyric couldn’t see him anymore.
“Aro sure did pick a winner when he made me Turn that one,” she told Eden sarcastically.
“He did, actually. He is one of the best at policing werewolves, which is exactly why our father had you Turn him. He knew his destiny was with us.”
“You are all fucked up,” Lyric murmured. She grabbed a bag of luggage out of her closet and began stuffing it with clothes.
“No one will take you. Everyone knows who you are and what you have done. The Elders will block any Packs from accepting you. What’s the plan, Lyric? Be a Rogue?” Eden said that last word with such disgust etched into her tone.
“Being Rogue would be better than being here with you as a pretend-sister, and that fuckin’ monster as a mate.”
Eden’s slap came fast and unexpectedly.
It rocked Lyric’s head back, and a gasp escaped her.
Eden yanked her purse out of her hands and took the keys out, then threw the purse at Lyric’s face. She was still so stunned, she didn’t even move out of the way.
Eden smelled like wolf and dominance, and her glowing eyes looked hateful as she held up Lyric’s keys. “These are mine now. You will stay here and do whatever the fuck I tell you to. That’s an order.” She shoved Lyric’s face hard and Lyric fell back onto the bed and just sat there in shock.
Her hands were shaking. She looked down at them to watch them tremble. She still held her phone, and her purse was on the floor beside her feet, upended.
Her emotions were turned off. Just…boom. Numbness.
She faced her phone toward her and connected a call to Vic.
“Hey pretty girl,” he answered.
“Can you come get me?” she asked in a dead voice she didn’t even recognize.
“Yes.” There was static on the phone. “What happened?” Vic’s voice was stern and growly as she heard his truck engine turn on.
She looked up to the hallway at her sister, who had stopped at the end of it. Her eyes were glowing with rage as she looked back at Lyric.
“Bring backup,” Lyric murmured to Vic.
And then she hung up and stared unblinking at Eden.
“Who was that?” Eden snarled. “What have you done?”
“You can give me my freedom, or I will help the Rogues eat you alive.”