The ride back to Nightfang Pack territory felt like a funeral parade.
Kade drove in deadly silence, his fingers white on the steering wheel. Alina sat beside him in the passenger seat, perfect and untouchable as a marble figure. Lyra was shoved in the back like useless baggage.
Every bump in the road sent pain shooting through the mate link. Kade's feelings hit her in waves guilt, anger, confusion, and underneath it all, a longing so deep it made her chest ache.
But not longing for her.
"Are you going to say anything?" Lyra finally asked.
"What would you like me to say?" His voice was ice-cold.
"That this changes things. That knowing I'm the Moonbane matters."
"Does it?"
"I could save the world!"
"Or destroy it." The words cut like glass.
"You don't believe in me."
"I don't know you."
"I'm your mate!"
"So you keep reminding me." Alina turned in her seat, those silver eyes studying Lyra with curious distance.
"You're upset."
"Wouldn't you be?"
"I suppose. But feelings are... limiting. They cloud judgment."
"You used to feel everything," Lyra whispered.
"You cried when bugs died. You laughed until your stomach hurt. You loved so hard it scared people."
"That girl died in the river ten years ago."
"No, she didn't. She's still in there somewhere."
"Is she?" Alina's smile was sharp as winter.
"Or is that just what you need to believe?"
The truth hit Lyra like a slap. Maybe her real sister was gone forever. Maybe this divine thing wearing Alina's face was all that remained. They pulled through massive iron gates into Nightfang land.
The pack house loomed ahead three floors of stone and steel that screamed power and wealth. Nothing like the warm, friendly home where Lyra had grown up. This place was a fortress.
"Welcome to your new prison," Kade said simply.
"Prison?"
"You're under my care now. That means you don't leave without permission. You don't make choices without approval. You do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you."
"I'm not your prisoner!"
"You're a weapon of mass destruction who doesn't know how to handle her power. What would you call that?"
Before Lyra could answer, pack members began rising from the house. Dozens of them, all watching her with mixtures of interest and suspicion. Word had spread fast. A tall man with sandy hair stepped forward, his moves careful and controlled.
He looked like Kade but younger, less harsh around the edges.
"Brother," he said.
"You've caused quite a stir."
"Aric." Kade's voice warmed slightly.
"Meet my mate, Lyra.
Lyra, this is my brother and Beta, Aric." Aric's eyes widened as he looked between Lyra and Alina.
"Your mate? But I thought"
"Complicated situation," Kade cut him off. "She'll be staying in the west wing. Make sure she has everything she needs."
"Of course."
Aric's gaze lingered on Lyra with something that might have been pity. "Welcome to Nightfang."
"Thanks," Lyra mumbled.
"I'll show her to her room," Alina said sweetly.
"We have so much catching up to do."
The west wing turned out to be as far from Kade's rooms as possible. The room was beautiful huge bed with silk sheets, massive windows facing the forest, a fireplace big enough to roast a deer. It was also clearly a cage.
"Lovely, isn't it?" Alina sat on the windowsill like an exotic bird. "Kade had it prepared especially for you."
"How thoughtful." "He's trying to be kind. In his way."
"Kind?" Lyra laughed bitterly. "He acts like I'm diseased."
"Can you blame him? His whole life, he's dreamed of finding his perfect mate. Someone who would complete him, challenge him, love him without reservation." Alina's silver eyes flashed.
"Instead, he gets a broken rogue with blood on her hands." "I didn't kill you!"
"Didn't you? You led me to that water. You let me fall. You chose to save yourself instead of me."
"I was eight!"
"Old enough to make choices. Old enough to live with consequences."
Lyra wanted to scream, to rage, to use her new power to shake the building apart. Instead, she pushed herself to stay calm.
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing. You're the one who wants something from me."
"Which is?"
"My life. My love. My destiny." Alina stood elegantly. "But you can't have them. They were never yours to take."
"The mate bond says otherwise."
"Bonds can be broken. With enough pain." The threat hung in the air like poison. Alina glided toward the door, stopping at the threshold.
"Sweet dreams, sister. Try not to destroy anything while you sleep." Alone at last, Lyra fell on the massive bed and let the tears come.
Ten years of hoping, dreaming, believing that someday she'd find where she belonged. Instead, she'd found a mate who wished she didn't exist and a sister who blamed her for everything. A soft knock stopped her pity party.
"Come in," she called, expecting a helper. Instead, Aric stepped through the door bringing a tray of food.
"Thought you might be hungry."
"Thanks." She wiped her eyes, ashamed to be caught crying.
"Mind if I sit?" She pointed to a chair, and he settled down with easy grace. Up close, the family likeness was stronger. Same strong jaw, same keen eyes. But where Kade was winter, Aric was spring.
"This must be overwhelming," he said softly.
"That's one word for it." "My brother isn't handling this well."
"No kidding."
"He's not a bad man. Just... complicated."
"Complicated enough to ignore his mate for a dead girl?" Aric's expression grew serious.
"She's not dead anymore." "She's not living either. Not really."
"What do you mean?" Lyra found herself telling him everything. About the Moon Goddess, the divine plan, the coming war. About being the Moonbane, whatever that meant. About feeling like a stranger in her own skin.
Aric listened without judgment, asking quiet questions that helped her sort through the chaos in her thoughts.
"So you're supposed to save the world," he said finally.
"Or destroy it. Apparently the jury's still out."
"What do you want to do?"
"I want my mate to look at me like I matter. I want my sister to remember she loves me. I want to go home." Her voice broke.
"I want to stop being the mistake everyone wishes had never happened."
"You're not a mistake."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because mistakes don't have the power to change reality. Mistakes don't get picked by goddesses or prophesied about in ancient texts. Mistakes don't spark the kind of fear and hope I see in people's eyes when they look at you."
"Fear and hope?"
"Fear of what you might become. Hope that you'll choose to save us instead of killing us."
"What if I make the wrong choice?"
"Then at least you'll have made it yourself. That's more than most people get."
His words settled something restless in her chest. For the first time since the mate bond snapped into place, she felt like someone saw her as more than a problem to be solved.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"For what?"
"For treating me like a person instead of a weapon." Aric smiled, and it changed his entire face.
"You are a person. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." After he left, Lyra felt slightly more human. She ate the food he'd brought, showered in the huge bathroom, and tried to settle into her beautiful prison.
But sleep wouldn't come. Instead, she found herself drawn to the window, looking out at the forest beyond.
Somewhere out there, her old life waited like a ghost. Her father, her pack, the memories that shaped her. A flash of movement caught her eye. Someone was walking through the trees below.
Someone tall and broad-shouldered, moving with predatory ease.
Kade.
He wasn't alone. Alina walked beside him, her white dress flowing like liquid moonlight. They moved together with perfect synchronization, like dancers who'd practiced for years.
They stopped beneath Lyra's window, and she pressed herself against the glass to hear their talk. "can't keep pretending," Kade was saying. "The bond is real."
"Bonds are just biology," Alina responded.
"Love is choice."
"And you've made yours." "As have you.
Your dreams, your desires, your very soul knows me as your true mate. The link with her is an accident. A mistake that can be fixed."
"How?" "Pain. Enough pain can break any link." "I won't hurt her."
"Then I will." The words froze Lyra's blood. She watched as Alina put her hand on Kade's chest, right over his heart.
"Choose," she whispered.
"The broken rogue who brings chaos and destruction, or the woman who was made to love you perfectly."
Kade closed his eyes, his face a mask of pain. When he opened them again, something had changed. Something had hardened. "I choose you," he said softly.
"I've always chosen you." Alina smiled and rose on her toes to kiss him. Their lips met beneath the moonlight, and Lyra felt the mate bond convulse with pain. But it was what she heard next that truly destroyed her world.
"Tomorrow," Alina whispered against his lips,
"we announce our engagement. Let your mate know exactly where she stands."
"And if she tries to stop us?"
"Then we'll show her what happens to weapons that refuse to serve their purpose."
Alina's silver eyes flicked upward, meeting Lyra's through the window. Her smile was pure killer. She'd known Lyra was watching.
Had wanted her to see.
As they walked away hand in hand, Lyra sank to her knees on the cold floor.
The mate bond writhed in her chest like a dying animal, flooding her with Kade's feelings relief, joy, rightness. He was happy. Her mate was happy to choose someone else.
But beneath the pain, something else stirred.
Something hot and fierce and dangerous. Power. Raw, untamed power that reacted to her rage and heartbreak. The window glass began to crack under her eyes. The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. And somewhere in the distance, she swore she could hear the Moon Goddess laughing.
Good, a voice whispered in her mind.
Let it hurt. Let it burn. Let it shape you into the weapon we need.
I don't want to be a weapon, Lyra thought desperately.
Then what do you want to be? The answer came without delay.
Free.
Then break the bonds that bind you. Starting with that bond.
"Can I really break it?"
You can break anything, my dear. The question is: are you brave enough to try?
Outside, storm clouds gathered despite the clear night sky. And in her room, surrounded by luxury that felt like a trap, Lyra made a choice that would change everything.
She would break the mate tie. Even if it killed her.