But the demon had gotten away and they would have to regroup and find a new strategy to go about things. Lyra wasn’t sure what Orson was going to propose, but given how upset he was Lyra was certain it wasn’t going to be good. They got back to the house and stopped just outside, hurrying into the shed to change into proper clothes, as everyone’s clothes were ripped from shifting and fighting.
“Hey Lyra,” Jackson began, “when did you start working as peacekeeper between dragons and werewolves, huh? Just ‘cause he’s your boyfriend, he put the pack in danger! You follow Orson’s orders to the letter, you don’t get in his way.”
Lyra stayed silent, not bothering to respond. She knew she hadn’t done the right thing, but she had done it anyway. Maybe it had been the part of her that knew there would be no clear winner if both sides fought—there would only be death. But deep down, Lyra knew it was her love for Levi. She didn’t want him to get hurt.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Jackson asked, getting closer to her, his voice louder than before.
“Hey, back off,” Emma called out
“No, fuck off! Don’t help her! Am I the only one who cares about pack dynamics right now?” Jackson shoved Emma to the side and got closer to Lyra, grabbing her by the shoulder and spinning her around. “Answer me, I’m talking to you, Lyra, and you better say something that makes se—”
Lyra growled at him, shoving him backward. “Jackson, you better watch that tongue of yours, or I’ll cut it clean off for you! Don’t forget who your Beta is! You will give me the respect I deserve, or we’re going to have trouble.”
Jackson shrugged her off. “You’re not our Beta anymore. In case you didn’t notice, the pack has moved on without one for so long. That’s why you’re not as strong, that’s why you’re not even half the leader your father is.”
“Jackson,” Orson began.
“No. Orson, someone has to tell her, otherwise she’s going to get someone killed when she’s trying to be kind to fucking dragons, and I hope it’s not one of us who has to pick up the ball when she drops it, because we have demons literally trying to kill us, like that’s not fucking enough to deal with.”
Lyra felt her heart break as she realized it was true. She wasn’t the Beta of the pack anymore. Being away for so long had destabilized the pack, and things were different now. Thinking she could just come back in and pick up where she had left off was wrong.
She waited in the garage with Orson as everyone walked out of the room, changing into proper clothes and heading upstairs to get cleaned up. Orson rubbed a hand over his face, smudging some blood across his cheek by accident.
“Look, Lyra, I understand what you’re trying to do, but you need to understand that Jackson, as much as I don’t like him, has a point. You can’t keep stopping or questioning my decisions. We need to act as one, that’s the only way the pack is going to function properly. Divided, we all fall apart, you know this.” Orson cleared his throat. “You want to protect the dragons, you want to protect Levi, that’s fine. I’ll give you that, but for that to happen here, we’re going to do something that hasn’t been done for thousands of years.”
“What’s that?” Lyra asked.
“We’re going to propose a truce.”
Chapter 10 - Lyra
Lyra made her way over to Levi’s place, knowing how badly he was wounded. As much as he would pretend that he was fine, she knew he wasn’t. Dragons took longer to heal, and from what she had seen, he’d been pretty badly injured.
When she arrived at his home, she found him on the front porch, axing down a huge piece of wood.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. What in the world do you think you’re doing when you should be saving your strength? For God’s sake, you’re so badly wounded.”
He grinned, but she could see he was in pain. “I’ll survive. Somehow, I always do. I needed the splinters.”
She took the axe from his hand and threw it on the grass. Then she took him by his hands and pulled him inside the house, just as easy as she would pull a child away.
They sat on the couch and she pulled off his shirt. The wound still looked very fresh and very untended. “I can’t believe you,” she muttered. “That’s going to take forever to heal if you treat it like that. At least tell me you have a first aid kit.”
“Uh, well…I’ve never needed one.”
She stared at him blankly for minutes till she realized he was serious. “You are unbelievable, Levi. And why on earth are you smiling?”
He chuckled, leaning back on the couch. “It’s just…seeing you so flustered over me is really cute.”
She sighed. The wound stretched across his chest and cut deep into his flesh—deep enough that if she peered into the cut she was sure she could see his bone.
“When I left, I did everything I could to take my mind off you,” he said as she touched his body. And now, she was softly dabbing his wound with a cotton ball. “I became reckless and stupid. I was always hunting. In my own way, it was how I dealt with walking away from you. Almost every day I had a new wound. It was crazy, but I couldn’t stop. Somehow, I wanted to punish myself for abandoning you.”
She paused, staring at all the cuts on his body. “Well, you did a fine job of that.”
Levi grabbed her hand and kissed her. Neither of them had seen it coming, he just followed the rush of the moment. He thought that if Lyra was looking to make him feel better, then this was what he really needed.
“You’re tending to the wrong wound,” he said softly. She had never seen such vulnerability in him before. It was almost like he was a different man.