#Chapter 9: Males Only
Lyra & Kael
Lyra
I stared up at Kael in shock. His chest was bare, a towel slung over his shoulder, dark hair tousled. Behind him, his locker stood open with his sparring uniform folded neatly on the shelf.
“Lyra?” His eyes looked caught somewhere between shock and rage. “What the hell are you doing in the males‘ locker room?”
My mouth opened to explain, but no sound came out. Not that it mattered, anyway, because by now, other males were
gathering around us.
“Woah, Kael,” one male cooed, whistling low with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Tknew your little foster sister had the
hots for you, but following you into the locker room? She must really want you.”
My face flamed, and I shoved away from Kael, needing to get out. But as I turned to leave, I found that another male had blocked the door. He grinned impishly and grabbed my shoulders, turning me and shoving me back toward Kael
“Wrong way!” he laughed. “Your boyfriend is right there. Go on, kiss him!”
I thought I was going to be sick. Goddess, this couldn’t have gone any worse. I stumbled into Kael’s chest again, and he
caught me once more, dark eyes flashing with frustration.
“Kiss!” another male shouted. “Come on, girl, finally take what you want?”
“We know you want it! All you ever do is follow your big brother around like a lost pup-
“Enough”
Kael’s voice was low, but the cold authority in it was undeniable. The other males went quiet, tilting their heads. Even the
other Alphas in the room stopped their teasing as Kael’s voice washed over them
For a long moment, the room was silent.
Once, perhaps I would have blushed at the proximity to Kael. Once, I would have splayed my hands across the hard planes of his golden chest and tilted my head, hoping for a kiss. But now, all I felt was complete and utter humiliation
Tears burned in my eyes from the shame, and all I wanted to do was get out. But try as I might to shove away from Kael again, he held firmly onto me, eyes still locked onto mine with a cold fury that sent a shiver scuttling down my spine.
Lyra, this attention–seeking behavior has got to stop-
“I’m not seeking attention.” I blinked away my tears, refusing to let them fall, and lifted my chin. “Cassidy and her cronies
shoved me in here against my will”
Kael’s dark eyebrows shot upward. “They what?” he hissed.
I nodded. “It’s true. They cornered me after the ceremony and shoved me in here.”
I half expected Kael to call me a liar, but to my surprise, his eyes narrowed with rage. He released me and grabbed his nearby
sparring uniform, slipping the khaki–colored t–shirt over his head, then took me by the arm. The other males parted like the sea as he quickly pulled me out of the locker room and into the corridor, his long strides so quick that I had to jog to keep up.
Cassidy and her little gaggle of friends were still nearby. She was leaning haughtily against a row of lockers, checking her
nails and smirking at something one of them had said.
“Cassidy
When she heard the cold fury in Kael’s voice, she snapped to attention and turned to face us. Her face immediately twisted
into a mask of shock.
1/3
+25 BONUS
“Knel You found her.”
“Yes. I did.” He released my arm. “She told me you shoved her into the locker room. Is that true?”
Of course, Cassidy immediately shook her head so hard that her blonde ponytail whipped her in the face “What? I would never do that! She pointed at me. “She was trying to steal from my bag, so I pushed her away. It’s not my fault that she fell into the males” locker room.”
My jaw clenched as Keel turned to me. “Lyra, is this true?”
“Of course not. What purpose do I have for anything that’s in Cassidy’s bag? There’s probably nothing but daddy’s credit card and a lip gloss in that tiny thing.” I gestured to the small designer purse she kept hooked over her shoulder. It was hardly big enough for her cell phone, let alone anything worth stealing.
“Besides,” I said, turning fully to face Kael now, “you know me I’ve never broken a rule in my entire life. What makes you
think I’d start stealing now?”
gears
Kael stared at me for a moment as if not sure what to make of my sudden confidence. I could practically hear the ge turning in his head, but I held my ground, refusing to be cowed
Finally, he turned to Cassidy and said in a low voice, “She’s right. Lyra doesn’t steal.”
Cassidy’s eyes widened. She probably wanted to argue, but the thunderous look on Kael’s face seemed to make her thing
better of it. “W–Well… Then I must have been mistaken.”
“Yes. You must have. Now leave us. I need to talk to her.”
Cassidy looked between the two of us, expression warring between outrage and disbelief. When Kael didn’t budge, she huffed and turned on her heel. With a snap of her fingers, her gaggle of friends followed her as she stormed away
Once she was gone, Kael turned back to me. “Lyra, you have to be careful, You’re wolfless, and Ravencrest can be brutal. You
should lay low so I don’t have to worry about you all of the time.”
I pulled my shoulders back, gripping the strap of my satchel so hard that my knuckles turned white. Tm fine. I can handle
myself”
Kael’s eyes flicked to my hand, then back to my face, clearly not buying it. “Sure you can,” he replied coldly. “And I definitely won’t need to trail behind you and clean up your messes.”
my adoptive brother and if my
Typical Kael–cold and indifferent as always. He was only pretending to care because he was n
reputation was bad, then so was his by proxy.
He didn’t actually care about me.
Кае
“Don’t interfere anymore,” Lyra said quietly, “I don’t need you.”
Before I could answer, Lyra turned on her heel and briskly walked away. Just before she turned, I saw the tears streaming down her face, one after the other, even though she was clearly trying to hide them.
The sight made my shoulders dip. Lyra often tried to hold back her tears, but sometimes it was impossible–a remnant of her PTSD. No doubt that whatever had happened to her when she was younger had truly impacted her, and being shoved by Cassidy and her friends had triggered it.
“Interesting,” a familiar voice suddenly said from beside me. I glanced over to see that Luca had come to stand next to me, hands shoved into the pockets of his varsity jacket. “That’s the second time since yesterday that she’s implied not wanting to cling to you anymore.”
+25 BONUS
I arched a brow. “When was the first time?”
“In my car yesterday.”
Well, that was troubling. Lyra really did seem different all of a sudden, something bad really must have happened. I wanted to
ask what was wrong, but I knew she wouldn’t talk to me.
As if reading my mind, Luca patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her ”
