CHAPTER <b>48 </b>
<b>Elias </b><b>POV </b>
It was pretty clear to me at this point that Lyra’s wolf was helping her unlock more of her powers–and honestly, I thought that was amazing. Well, amazing until it nearly took my head off.
Yeah, okay, maybe sneaking up on her wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made. But I was curious about what she was doing, and when I spotted that glowing energy forming in her hands, I couldn’t help but get closer. I should’ve been more cautious and definitely avoided scaring her the way I did.
“I’m really sorry,” Lyra said, her voice shaky and her eyes wide with worry.
Damn. She thought I was mad. She thought she was in trouble.
“It’s okay. Seriously. Don’t be sorry. I was the one who crept up on you. And honestly, what <i>you </i>were <i>doing </i>looked incredible,” I told her, stepping toward her, though I noticed her flinch slightly at my approach. <fn10bd> This text is hosted at find?novel</fn10bd>
“I was just experimenting, seeing what I can actually do. Noir’s been showing me all the things I’m capable of. She says this is only beginner stuff. That kind of freaks me out–thinking about what the more advanced things might be,” she exined.
“I can’t wait to see what else you’ll be able to do,” I said.
“I doubt I’ll still be around for that,” she replied softly, lowering her gaze. I moved in closer, cing a hand gently on her cheek to lift her face so she would look at me.
“What are you talking about–not being here?” I asked her.
“If the test results show something we don’t want, then we can’t be mates. You already know that,” she said, pulling away slightly.
“I don’t care what those results say,” I said firmly.
“Do you really want your entire pack to find out that you’re bonded to your half–sister?” she asked, watching me carefully.
“I don’t give a damn what the pack thinks. If they’ve got a problem, they can deal with it. But if you’d rather keep it quiet, then we’ll keep it between us. Unless… are <i>you </i>ufortable with it?” I asked her directly.
“I’m <i>not </i>sure. I never pictured myself ending up with a mate at all. So finding out my mate might be my brother? That’s a lot. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m supposed to feel, she admitted.
“Maybe we’re overthinking it. Let’s wait for Dr. Eris toe back with the results. When she does, we’ll handle whateveres–together. But until then, let’s distract ourselves a bit. We should do some regr training. And by regr, I mean the kind where I don’t nearly get electrocuted,” I said. She cracked a smile at that, and agreed.
We both went to change and then headed out to another clearing, just the two of us, and got started on
< CHAPTER 48
some basic training againbat drills. And pretty much right away, I regretted the decision.
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I should’ve been better prepared after witnessing her knock that guy out cold at her dad’s packhouse.
She didn’t even break a sweat when she knocked him unconscious through a window. That was something else entirely. I don’t know what kind of power the moon goddess gave her that day, but it turned her into something unreal.
She was definitely flexing that strength today too. Inded a couple of hits, sure, but she was handing me my ass without much effort.
I figured that from here on out, her focus should really be on honing her magic, because her physical fighting skills were already ahead of the curve. Especially considering she’d never had proper training and the moon goddess had basically handed those skills to her.
Not that I was envious or anything.
She’d be a major strength to the pack, no question about it.
Still, it didn’t seem entirely fair that the rest of us had to bust our asses to gain the same ground.
After we wrapped up training, we went inside. Lyra took her shower first, and then I headed in for mine
once she was done.
I was honestly taken aback by how far along our house hade–it was nearly finished now, with just the final touches being added. It looked like we’d be able to move back in within a couple of days.
Going away to Lyra’s former pack must’ve made time pass quicker than I realized. We’d been gone for several days, and when we returned, the progress was shocking.
That trip had been a useful distraction from everything, but the second Lyra stepped out of the shower, she went straight back to theptop and logged into the dark web again.
She was relentless in her search for answers, and I couldn’t fault her for that. After all, her father had spent her entire life abusing and torturing her. If anyone had a right to want revenge–or closure–it was her.
While she was working, I went in to take a shower, and my mind was racing with thoughts of my own.
Something didn’t sit right with me–why had we been summoned to that pack in the first ce, especially considering her father already had dark witches and other dangerous allies under hismand? What did
he need <i>us </i>for? Why pretend he needed help strengthening his warriors when clearly they were already
being enhanced some other way?
Yeah, back then, the warriors were a disaster. But looking at everything now, <b>I </b>couldn’t shake the suspicion
that we’d been set up. And if Lyra hadn’t been my mate, I had this gut feeling he would’ve tried to drag us into whatever twisted scheme he was plotting.
Most likely, he’d intended to use us as tools in some n to conquer other wolf packs or even attempt somerger power grab.
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But I’d thrown a wrench in that n when I ran off with his daughter–the most powerful weapon he had.
That must’ve ruined everything he had in motion.
When I got out of the shower, Lyra was still on theputer, clearly still trying to dig something up. But I could see the frustration written all over her face. She lookedpletely drained.
I quickly made something simple for us to eat, and we ended up sitting in silence while we ate again.
Then, all of a sudden, she blurted out, “Holy shit.”
“What is it?” I asked, startled.
“I just stumbled across a hidden site my father used to talk with someone else<i>,” </i>she replied, eyes wide.
“Who was he talking to?” I asked.
“Neil’s dad–the one I was supposed to marry so he could take over our pack,” she exined.
“Okay… and why does that matter?” I asked, not following yet.
“You know how people say once something is online, it never truly disappears?” she said, raising an
eyebrow.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. You can always dig stuff up again if you look hard enough,” I replied.
“Well, I just found a string of messages–really old ones. They’re from years before that arranged marriage
ever happened. ording to the timestamps, I would’ve been about five years old,” she said. “And in those messages, it talks about Rowan spying on my dad after she found out he was trying to make
contact with a ck witch. She must’ve figured out that something was seriously wrong and wanted to
gather as much dirt on him as she could. And guess whose name came up again–Finn. That’s your father’s alias.”
“Yeah… I still don’t get what you’re saying,” I said, trying to connect the dots.
“I think your dad used the name ‘Finn‘ specifically to deal with mine. He was secretly helping my mom try
to bring my father down,” she said carefully.
“There’s no way he would’ve done something like that out of the goodness of his heart,” I scoffed.
“What if he was in love with her?” Lyra asked quietly.
“In that case, yeah, he absolutely would’ve. He always went overboard for women. He was pathetic like
that,” I admitted without hesitation.
“It still doesn’t exin everything–especially not our situation–but it <i>does </i>exin how they would’ve
known each other,” she said.
“Yeah, that part makes sense now,” I said, standing up and starting to clear the table.
“Elias, can I ask you something?” she said, her voice suddenly serious.
“Of course. Anything,” I answered.
“How long are you nning to keep pretending that Hailey’s baby isn’t yours?” she asked calmly.
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The dishes slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor, shattering everywhere, as I spun around to
face herpletely stunned by how casually she was looking at me from across the table.