Chapter Twelve
Why are you in Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack territory?
Lyric muttered a curse and responded to Destiny’s text. Just tying up a loose end. I’m totally fine. Send.
Destiny called immediately, and Lyric denied the call and shoved the phone into her back pocket, then kept hiking up the gravel road.
She’d hired an Uber driver to drop her at the mouth of the territory so she could walk in and not put some unwitting human driver in danger.
She would explain everything when she got home.
She puffed a breath out of her lungs and opened her door.
It was eerily quiet here, and there was this strange sensation of distance. It was as if she hadn’t been here for years, instead of just four weeks. So much had happened. So much had changed inside of her.
As she walked up to the house she used to live in, Eden opened the door, and movement on the edge of the yard dragged Lyric’s attention to two unfamiliar men standing there, glowing eyes on her, shifting their weight slowly from side to side.
“I’m not here for trouble. I’m here to talk to my sister. It’s family stuff. That’s all.”
The men looked to Eden, and she nodded. Slowly, they drifted off into the shadows.
“I’m not your sister anymore,” Eden gritted out from the open door frame, returning her angry glare to Lyric. “I never really was, remember?”
“Yeah,” she uttered, nodding. “Well, I didn’t know any better though, so I grew up looking up to you. I still have good memories.”
“You killed Traydon,” Eden gritted out.
“Traydon got himself killed,” Lyric corrected her.
“You just keep messing with the Rogue Pack and not learning your lesson. How many have to die until you learn to mind your own business and run your own Pack? Here is what to expect from war with them. You do not get to do whatever you want, and hurt their people however you want, and then expect them to roll over and die easily, or to not defend their own. They are a Pack—”
“They are Rogues! Our laws do not apply to them.”
“Fuck your laws, Eden.”
“My laws? So, what? You’re one of them now?”
“Did you bond to Traydon?”
Eden narrowed her eyes and strode to the edge of the porch. “You stupid cunt. You don’t bond to males. You pick one with the most power, and you use that to elevate yourself. Men are pawns.”
“I bonded to Vic.”
She huffed a breath and shook her head, paced away and back. “You’re so stupid, Lyric.”
Eden’s insults didn’t hurt like they used to though. Lyric cared less about her vitriol now. “I think you’re going to lead a lonely life, Eden.”
“Yeah? How’s your mate?” she asked smugly.
Lyric swallowed hard. “Still alive. Parts of him at least.”
Eden’s eyebrow twitched, and for a moment, she looked surprised before she replaced the hatred on her face. “That’s not what I heard.”
“From the War Wolf Liam allowed to live? We saved Vic.”
“Lie. I can hear the shake in your tone.”
Lyric pursed her lips. “We saved parts of Vic. You shouldn’t have gone after him like that. You should be ashamed of yourself, but you gloat instead.”
“You killed my mate!” she yelled.
“He took…one of their people,” she gritted out, stepping closer. “He did your stupid bidding and he died for it. Traydon’s blood is on your hands.”
“The fuck it is—”
“You won’t agree right now because you’re obsessed with being right.
Where did being right ever get you?” Lyric looked around pointedly.
“How many Pack members have you already gone through since you became high ranking here? How settled are you? Your job as a high rank wolf is to bring a Pack closer, and bond them, and make them care about each other, and grow together. All you’ve done is point your Pack of strangers to wars they weren’t invested in.
There are some people who are born to be leaders.
You are not one of them. You won’t believe me now that you are the reason your mate was killed, but there will be a night where you are lying in bed, and you’ll question it, and you’ll see things for how they really are, and who knows?
You might even put yourself in Vic’s shoes, or Liam’s, or mine, and realize how destructive you have been. You retrieved your dead, right?”
Eden had gone surprisingly quiet. She held the awkward silence between them for a few seconds more before she nodded once. “Yes.”
“You are filling up your cemetery here, Eden. Not your territory. You’re doing this wrong.”
“Oh and you could do better?”
“With my eyes closed. I want my car back.”
Eden huffed a laugh. “You have some nerve.”
“Aro co-signed on it years ago, but it is also in my name too, and I made every payment on that car. I paid it off myself. I’ve taken care of it, I’ve kept it for years, it is mine.”
“My father owes you nothing.”
“Your father didn’t pay for the car, and he absolutely owes me. Was he the one who stole me from my parents?” she asked.
Eden’s lips thinned and she didn’t answer.
“Was he?”
“How would I know?” Eden snapped. “You were seven and I was ten. That was a long time ago. Get over it.”
Lyric huffed a sad laugh and hung her head. “I’m so happy you don’t have to question your identity, or your life, or question if everything you know is a lie, Eden. I can assure you though, it isn’t a simple thing to just get over it. I wish it was. Please give me my keys.”
“Or what?”
“Or I will Challenge you for this Pack.”
Eden froze, and the cockiness on her face faded in an instant. “You wouldn’t. You don’t know how to lead.”
“You’re right. But from you, I’ve learned how not to lead. I’ll just think to myself, ‘what would Eden do?’ And then do the opposite.” Lyric shrugged. “Honestly, I can’t do any worse than you. You know it too.”
Eden canted her head, and Lyric could see it in her eyes. She was thinking about it. “If you Challenge me for this territory, it will be to the death.”
“That works for me,” Lyric said in a cold tone.
“You’re different now,” Eden said.
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
Lyric plastered on an empty smile and waited.
Eden clenched her teeth, and Lyric could see it in her eyes. She didn’t want this fight with her. For the first time ever, Eden was showing her fear. She knew she could lose to Lyric.
Eden disappeared inside and returned, tossed Lyric the keys to her Outback. “Take the stupid car and never come back here,” Eden growled.
Lyric ran her thumb over the little black bottle opener key chain beside her car key. “You took parts of Vic away from me.”
“Good.”
“So, there’s your vengeance. The rest of my life is affected, the rest of his is ruined. You did it, Eden. You did just enough bad that I never want to speak to you again. If you see me in town, cross the street and I’ll do the same for you.” She offered a sad smile and then turned to leave.
“Wait,” Eden said softly.
Lyric turned.
Eden canted her head, and for a moment, her eyes were full of some emotion Lyric didn’t understand. “I have good memories too.”
Lyric nodded. “Let’s hold onto those when we think of each other.”
“I don’t have anyone left,” Eden said.
Aro, her father, had been killed. Her first mate had been killed right after they’d been paired. Traydon had been killed. Part of her Pack had been killed in her wars. And now Lyric would leave. Never again would she lift a finger to help Eden.
Lyric pursed her lips. “I think that is the consequence of your own actions.”
Eden’s eyebrows twitched, and she looked at the ground.
“To keep people, you have to take care of them,” Lyric said.
She lingered for a moment more, and then she got into her car, and she left, knowing she would never return to her old life again.
Lyric drove home with an aching heart. All she wanted to do was Change and be with Vic and get rid of these awful feelings.
She knew this was the right move. She knew she had to let go of her old life completely, and Eden couldn’t co-exist with the woman Lyric was becoming.
She would stunt her growth and hurt her.
She would find a way to regain control of her and then kill her if she stepped out of line, and that wasn’t acceptable to Lyric anymore.
She wanted freedom. She deserved it after everything she had been through.
But change was hard, and leaving the past behind could break a heart in surprising ways.
She drove to Rogue Pack territory, the music turned off, window rolled down, eyes blurry with tears as she rested her elbow on the open window frame and chewed on her thumbnail, trying to convince herself to lock away all the memories of her and Eden as children.
By the time she pulled up to Vic’s home, she was beside herself. She was raw and vulnerable, and her body ached so bad just from thinking of what she needed to do.
She wanted to be with Vic. She wanted him to take all the pain away from her and make her happy. She wanted him to save her.
A sob escaped her as she pushed the door open.
“Lyric?” Destiny asked from where she sat on Vic’s porch stairs.
“I just want to be with him,” she sputtered out, and stumbled toward the woods. “Vic,” she called. Another sob escaped her as memories flooded her, going backward from last year, to her twenties, to her teens. Her and Eden’s faces grew younger with each memory.
Them at a pool party, Lyric sitting by herself on the edge of the pool while the others played Marco Polo.
Eden brushing her hair when they were getting ready for school.
Lyric braiding hers.
“Vic!” she called louder, stumbling through the dark.
Warm tears streamed down her cheeks.
Eden throwing a tantrum over a doll she didn’t want to share with Lyric. They were kids in her memories now.
Eden throwing a plate of food because someone had put more on Lyric’s plate than hers. They were so young now.
Her mind went blank and her vision went black and she pitched forward onto her knees in her Changing place. The next memory stole her breath away.
It was a woman smiling at her from a couch. She was holding her hands and listening to a story Lyric was telling her about a caterpillar she’d found outside.
She’d never seen the woman before…right? Then why was she so familiar?
Mom.
A sob wrenched from Lyric, and she hugged her arms around her middle, trying to keep all of her shattering pieces together.
She could smell him now—Vic. He was here but she couldn’t see. Her body was on fire. Just Change! Please. Wolf, take it away from me.
Lyric laid on the ground, curling in on herself. “Vic,” she whispered, her tears making splat sounds on the dried leaves under her cheek.
Her mom pulled her into her lap and held her so close, cradling her like a little baby. She loved her. Her mother had loved her. She wasn’t what Eden had said. She was a good mom who really loved her.
Lyric had been taken from her. Stolen from a normal, human life with a caring parent.
The next memory was of someone taking her away from her house. She was screaming and reaching for the home. She knew that place. She knew it. She fought like a little wild animal, but the man who took her was so strong, and he smelled so familiar. Aro.
“Mom!” she screamed in a voice she didn’t even recognize.
“Shhhh.” Her Mom’s soft voice filled the woods, and Lyric opened her eyes to see her crouched there, with her hand on Lyric’s cheek. “You’ll be okay now.”
And then she disappeared.
“No, come back,” Lyric pleaded hoarsely. “Come back. Please come back.”
Her body hurt so badly, she couldn’t get up. Couldn’t move.
She heard rustling in the leaves, and then two strong arms picked her up, and cradled her.
Vic.
Lyric looked up into his glowing gold eyes with tears blurring her vision. He had a deep scar on the right side of his face now. He would’ve looked scary except for the softness in his eyes.
She didn’t know why these words tumbled from her lips. They just did. “I need you.”
He nodded and pulled her tighter against his chest. He helped her wrap her stiff arms around his neck and then he stood and walked them out of those woods.
He didn’t say anything, he just walked her straight to his house.
He grunted at Destiny, who stared in shock, and then he opened the front door and took Lyric inside.
With a look around, Vic frowned and then made his way to the bathroom. He turned on the shower and stood her up. He’d lost weight during his time as a wolf, and every muscle flexed with his movements. He still smelled like fur. His body had new scars on it.
Vic was here. He was Changed back. He was with her.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Couldn’t believe he was really here with her, in this house.
“I remembered my mom,” she whispered shakily.
“Ma—” he said in a guttural sound. He tried again, but nothing came out. He frowned and shook his head hard, then tested the water temperature with his fingertips.
He knelt in front of her and peeled her jeans and panties off and eased her into the shower. He followed her in and sat down, pulled her into his lap, and cradled her against his chest again.
He stared at the wall with a faraway look and hugged her even tighter.
And God, this was everything. He was here. He was holding her. He was doing the thing she never thought she would have again—hugging her.
The tension in her muscles was easing with each passing minute the warm water beat against her skin.
Lyric blew out a relieved sigh and then touched the side of his face. Vic dragged his gold eyes to hers.
“Say something,” she pleaded, hoping all of him had come back.
He cleared his throat, and tried, but nothing came out.
Vic swallowed hard and pulled her hand from his cheek to his lips, kissed her there, squeezed his eyes closed and replaced her hand on his cheek.
He pressed his hand against hers, holding it in place.
He winced and parted his lips. “I love you too.”
Oh, he remembered. He’d heard her say that when he’d been so close to death those weeks ago.
He’d held it inside this whole time. Lyric’s shoulders shook with her relieved crying.
She scrambled closer to him and hugged his neck so tightly.
If she could crawl into his skin and be one with him right now, she would. She’d missed him so badly.
The bond between them pulsed with power, and she knew she never wanted this moment to end.
Oh, they had worked for this. They had worked to get here.
“You saved me,” she forced out past her tightening vocal cords. “Do you remember in that clearing during the war? You saved me.”
Vic gripped her jaw gently and eased her back just enough to press his lips to hers. She was crying all the way through that kiss, but it was okay. He didn’t seem to mind.
When he finally eased out of it, he rested his forehead against hers. Vic’s voice was still hoarse from being unused for so long, and there was still a touch of the wolf in it. There was truth to every word he uttered to her though. “You saved me back.”