LYRIC POV
The poison was clever.
Lyric examined the twelfth infected wolf and confirmed what she had suspected from the beginning. This was not accidental contamination. This was deliberate sabotage by someone who understood werewolf physiology better than most healers ever would.
The compound was designed to move slowly through a wolf's system. It did not attack suddenly. It weakened them gradually. Made them sluggish. Made them vulnerable. Made them desperate enough to call for outside help. But it did not kill. Not directly. Not until the host was too weak to fight back anymore.
Someone in Shadowpine Pack wanted to cripple this pack without destroying it completely.
Lyric took samples from each wolf and labeled them carefully. She made detailed notes about symptoms and progression rates. She documented everything with the precision of someone who had spent three years learning to be thorough.
"You will recover," she told the last wolf, a young female who looked terrified. "I am creating an antidote. You will be fine."
The wolf's eyes were grateful but also confused. She wanted to ask questions. Lyric could see it. But Lyric was already moving on to the next task.
This was what she was here for. Not for Kade. Not for memories. Not for anything except her job.
She had just set up her workspace in the lab when the door opened.
Kade stood in the doorway like he belonged there. He was still in his Alpha clothes. Still looking powerful and beautiful and completely off limits. He had clearly been waiting for his moment to corner her.
"Lyric, I need to talk to you," he said.
She did not even look up from organizing her equipment.
"The Beta has your questions answered. The poison analysis will take three days. You will have your antidote then."
"That is not what I want to talk about," Kade said.
Lyric finally looked at him. Her expression was completely neutral. She had learned how to do this with other Alphas over three years. Learned how to look through them instead of at them. Learned how to make it clear that their presence was merely tolerated.
"Then I have nothing to say to you, Alpha Blackwood."
She turned back to her work.
She heard him take a step closer but did not acknowledge it. She just continued sorting through her samples and equipment with methodical focus. Eventually he left. But not before she felt the waves of frustration rolling off him.
Good.
An hour later, he appeared in the hallway outside the lab. She saw him through the window, pacing like a caged animal. He looked desperate. He looked confused. He looked like he could not understand why she was not falling at his feet the moment he wanted her to.
That was new for him probably. An Alpha who had never had to work for anything suddenly faced with a woman who would not even give him the time of day.
Lyric pretended not to notice him. She went back to analyzing the poison samples under the microscope. The compound was intricate. Whoever created it had knowledge of herbs, chemistry, and pack biology. It was the kind of thing only a trained healer could create.
Which meant someone in Shadowpine had deliberately poisoned their own pack.
The thought was disturbing, but it gave her something to focus on besides the fact that Kade was standing in her hallway looking like his world was ending.
By evening, he had appeared in three different locations trying to get her attention. The medical wing. The supply room. Outside the kitchen where she had gone to get water.
Each time she had either ignored him or given him a cold professional response.
Each time his desperation had become more obvious.
Lyric found it almost satisfying. The powerful Alpha who had rejected her now could not bear being rejected by her. The roles had completely reversed and he was just beginning to understand what it felt like to be dismissed by someone you needed.
She worked through the night.
The packhouse grew quiet around midnight. Most of the wolves had gone to sleep. The only sounds were her footsteps and the occasional creak of old floorboards. She was alone in the healer's workroom with her microscopes and her samples and her thoughts.
She had not let herself think about Kade since she arrived. She had stayed focused. Professional. Distant. She had built a wall between them that was so solid that even the bond pushing against it could not break through.
But being alone made it harder.
Being alone meant she could feel the bond pulsing beneath her skin. Could feel it demanding recognition. Could feel it insisting that he was here in this packhouse and she should acknowledge him and claim him and stop pretending they meant nothing to each other.
Lyric buried the feeling deep and refocused on her work.
The poison samples were spread across the table. She had isolated the main components. Now she was working on how to neutralize them without harming the wolves who had ingested them. It was delicate work. One mistake and she could kill them instead of saving them.
The weight of it felt familiar. Three years with Elara had taught her to carry impossible responsibilities. To trust her instincts even when the stakes were life and death.
She could do this.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
Lyric's entire body tensed. She knew who it was without turning around. The bond was screaming at her, making her so painfully aware of his presence that it was hard to breathe.
But she did not turn around. She did not acknowledge him. She just kept working on the compounds in front of her.
Maybe if she ignored him long enough, he would go away.
"We need to talk about what happened three years ago," Kade said. His voice was rough. Desperate. Breaking slightly at the edges.
Lyric's hands stilled over the microscope.
For one second, just one second, she wanted to turn around. She wanted to let him explain himself. She wanted to fall into his arms and pretend that three years had not happened. That the bond had never broken. That he had not chosen someone else.
But that was the girl she used to be.
And that girl was dead.
Lyric did not turn around.
"There is nothing to talk about," she said quietly.
The words hung in the dark workroom like a final verdict. Like a closing of a door. Like the end of a story that had started three years ago when she had felt the bond lock into place and believed in something impossible.
Behind her, she could feel Kade struggling with the need to argue. Could feel him trying to find words that would make her turn around. Could feel his Alpha power pushing against her defenses, demanding she acknowledge him.
But she had built herself too strong for that.
She had spent three years learning to be untouchable.
And she was not going to break now.
Not for anyone.
Not even for him.