Stay out of line.She liked that.
The promise he was making was so beautiful, but it would never work for someone like her. People used her. It was her destiny. The Elders would never let her go. Maybe for a time, but they would come back for her. She did appreciate Vic for those hopeful words though. Much more than he could ever understand.
She was going to have to run. She was going to have to put distance between herself and Eden, and leave Cian behind again, and avoid the Elders. She would have to find a Pack. She couldn’t drag all of this shit onto Vic’s life. He’d been nothing but kind, but he didn’t understand. If he tried to be her hero, the Elders would eat him up and spit him out. His people too.
Lyric cared about them already.
She couldn’t live with herself if that happened.
They didn’t need to talk about goodbyes now though. Tonight, she was safe. Tonight, she would have space to process her life and what had happened. She could think over what Eden had said about her family. Her origin.
Eden had really known about her parents all this time and had only exposed the information tonight? Now? After all this time and all her questions? And in a way just to hurt her?
Lyric was seeing things so clearly since Vic had come into her life such a short time ago.
Eden wasn’t who Lyric thought she was. Neither was Aro, or Cian, or the Elders, or any of the new Pack that was forming in these mountains. She’d always had this sense that she didn’t belong, but now it felt undeniable. Like the breaking of the bond with Cian, she could feel the pull of her old life burning up inside of her too.
Lyric was ready for more. She was ready for change. She was ready to say goodbye to her old life for good.
Stay out of line.
Hell yeah.
That’s exactly what she wanted to do.
“I was serious,” she murmured, too scared to look over at him to gauge his reaction.
“Serious about what?”
“About pulling over onto the side of the road. I know you dominant wolves need to fuck after a fight.”
His grip on her hand strengthened. “You gonna show me the tattoo that freed you?”
Lyric pursed her lips to hide her smile. “If you want to see it. Sure.”
“Is it hidden under that red bra you’re wearing tonight?” he asked. “I would’ve noticed a tattoo.”
“Yes.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth and then leveled her with a look and pulled over on the side of the road. He didn’t stop on the shoulder. He drove right through the woods, deep into the trees, parked and turned off the headlights.
His phone vibrated with an,Are you okay?text from someone named Dodger.
Go without me. I need a few minutes with Lyric, he typed out before he sent it.
Copy that.
Vic tossed his phone in the back seat and wore a big grin. “Strip it down, girl.”
And what a beautiful way to distract herself from the overwhelming tidal wave of emotions threatening to drown her. With a wicked smile, she lifted the hem of her shirt over her head and lifted the edge of her bra on her left side to show him the script font tattoo.I belong to me.
“It’s hard to see,” he teased, testing.
She unsnapped her bra in the back and let it fall from her arms then angled her left elbow away so he could see it clearer.
Vic’s smile faded slowly, and his face morphed to a hungry look. The air smelled like fur again.
He traced the script and then shocked her when he leaned forward and pressed his lips onto the tattoo. And then he bit it. Not hard enough to break the skin, but firm enough that she could feel his teeth dig in. Chills rippled up her spine, and a soft, helpless sound escaped her throat.
