Seven years ago Selene killed a man drunk behind the wheel, and Lyra's Alpha father used Command to crush her will and deliver her to Silvermoon Penitentiary in Selene's place, because an Omega is too fragile for prison. Her fated mate Kaelen told her to endure it and they'd complete the bond when she got out. She comes out with a leg ruined by silver shackles, burn scars up her throat, one kidney, and nothing left inside for any of them. The butler tells her to stay in her room so her scent doesn't upset Selene. Then Selene, in front of the whole family, asks for Kaelen as an Awakening Day present. Nobody in that room objects.
Lyra doesn't fight for any of it. She has ten days, an encrypted contract with an institute that will erase her pack identity permanently, and a diner job downtown to fill the time. She lets them mock her in French, which she's fluent in and they don't know. She lets Kaelen choose Selene one more time and leave her on a freezing street. She lets them build the ceremony. Then she leaves behind a journal and a medical file, and the family that spent seven years believing the prison had been comfortable finds out what actually happened in there — who arranged it, whose kidney is really in Kaelen's body, and which of their daughters has been lying since the day they took her in. By the time Kaelen understands, the plane is five minutes from Dominica.
Seven years ago Selene killed a man drunk behind the wheel, and Lyra's Alpha father used Command to crush her will and deliver her to Silvermoon Penitentiary in Selene's place, because an Omega is too fragile for prison. Her fated mate Kaelen told her to endure it and they'd complete the bond when she got out. She comes out with a leg ruined by silver shackles, burn scars up her throat, one kidney, and nothing left inside for any of them. The butler tells her to stay in her room so her scent doesn't upset Selene. Then Selene, in front of the whole family, asks for Kaelen as an Awakening Day present. Nobody in that room objects.
Lyra doesn't fight for any of it. She has ten days, an encrypted contract with an institute that will erase her pack identity permanently, and a diner job downtown to fill the time. She lets them mock her in French, which she's fluent in and they don't know. She lets Kaelen choose Selene one more time and leave her on a freezing street. She lets them build the ceremony. Then she leaves behind a journal and a medical file, and the family that spent seven years believing the prison had been comfortable finds out what actually happened in there — who arranged it, whose kidney is really in Kaelen's body, and which of their daughters has been lying since the day they took her in. By the time Kaelen understands, the plane is five minutes from Dominica.
