No Cage In This Silent Night Chapter 07

No Cage In This Silent Night Chapter 07

Lyra Vex POV:

One year.

Paris winters came earlier than Greythorn’s.

My work at IWA Paris had found its rhythm.

I’d deleted everyone tied to Greythorn. Kael Draven. Elyse Blackthorn. Margaret Draven. All of

them.

I didn’t think I’d see Kael again.

At least, I didn’t want to.

But that evening after work, I spotted a familiar figure standing outside my apartment building.

Kael saw me. Something dark and heavy moved in his eyes.

I stopped. Started to walk around him.

He surged forward and pulled me into a shaking embrace.

“I’m sorry…”

I blinked.

I’d expected accusations. Expected him to throw his Alpha weight around, demanding to know why

I’d broken the bond.

But he said he was sorry.

I pushed him away gently.

“I heard you.”

I turned and walked.

He caught my wrist.

“Lyra.” His voice was cracked. “I looked for you. For a whole year.”

A bitter laugh escaped him.

“I went to the IWA Greythorn office. They kept it confidential. I went to your parents-your father literally threw me out the door. Your mother wouldn’t even open the door again.”

“I camped out in the stairwell. But they wouldn’t tell me anything.”

His eyes bore into mine.

“You left, and I didn’t even know why. I really didn’t.”

Then he said, “I know now. Because the way I treated Elyse-it went way past normal. The nightly mind-links. The passenger seat. All the things I thought were nothing.”

“But Lyra, I’m asking you to believe me.”

“I never wanted Elyse. Not like that. My Luna was always you. Only you.”

I listened. Honestly, I didn’t know how to react. I just felt tired.

“Done?”

He went rigid.

I pulled my wrist free.

“Then leave. And don’t come back to Paris.”

Kael stood frozen.

He wanted to follow. To reach out. But my expression-cold, repulsed, like I was looking at a

complete stranger-pinned him to the snow.

Paris’s snowfall thickened.

Kael didn’t move. His Alpha frame trembled-couldn’t tell if it was the cold or something else.

Some deep part of him knew.

She would never forgive him.

Back in my apartment, I watched him through the window. Still there, in the snow.

Here’s the thing. I believed him.

I believed he and Elyse had never done anything physical.

But the mind-links were real. Twelve hours. Every night. Five years.

The passenger seat was real.

“You’re the exception” was real.

The seat at the family dinner that was never mine-that was real.

Was it unforgivable?

Maybe not to the point of never seeing him again.

But was it fixable?

No.

It was all those “small” things. They’d pricked me like needles, one by one: Left me with no good reason to lash out. Made me feel foolish for crying.

That was how my heart broke. To the last drop, without ever being allowed to scream in pain.

So I’d never forgive him. Not in this lifetime.

I drew the curtains.

Let the Alpha stand out there in the snow. If he froze to death, so be it.

Late night. My phone blared.

“Hello?”

A chaotic voice on the other end-French mixing with the beep of medical equipment.

“Are you Lyra Vex? Are you Kael Draven’s mate? He collapsed-mate bond backlash-please come to Saint-Louis Werewolf Hospital.”