An hour later…
“It’s so dark. Where am I?” Lyra slowly opened her eyes. She had woken after fainting and realized she was somewhere she had never been before.
Lyra looked to her right and left. Suddenly, her gaze stopped at one point. A man was sitting nearby, staring at a campfire he had built to warm the cold surroundings.
“You’re awake?” the man asked without turning toward Lyra, who was behind him.
“Yes, but who are you?” Lyra asked in return. *Is he going to eat me?* she wondered.
The man turned around and looked at Lyra. Reflexively, Lyra lowered her gaze and pulled the rough blanket covering her body closer.
“Aah.” Lyra groaned in pain. She realized there were wounds on her arms and legs that had just been treated.
“Don’t move!” the man warned. “Your wounds haven’t dried yet.”
Lyra blinked repeatedly as the man approached her and examined her wounds.
Without meaning to, Lyra studied the man’s face. She only wanted to make sure whether the man she had just met intended to hurt her or, on the contrary, had helped her.
“What’s your name, and where is this?” Lyra gathered the courage to ask him directly.
“Draven Vale. You’re in Ravencall right now,” Draven said.
“What?” Lyra’s eyes widened in shock.
Ravencall was the territory of Nightfall’s enemy pack. And that man was Alpha Draven Vale, Lyra concluded on her own. Her blood seemed to freeze instantly. Yes, it was true. This was Nightfall’s enemy pack—the pack accused of leaking the information her father had supposedly betrayed them over. Yet this man had saved her.
“Earlier, you were cursing Kael. Did he throw you away?” Draven asked.
“That…” Lyra turned her face away, as though she didn’t want to tell anyone about her disgrace, including Draven.
“I thought so. So you’re a rogue exiled from Nightfall,” Draven guessed. Lyra remained silent, not daring to confirm it.
Tears slipped down Lyra’s cheeks. Draven instinctively wiped them away.
“Don’t cry! I already know how much you hate Kael.”
“Did I say anything to you while I was unconscious?” Lyra’s eyes widened.
“What do you think?” Draven asked with a mocking smile as he watched Lyra suddenly panic.
“Oh no!” Lyra slapped her own forehead.
Draven turned away with a small smile at Lyra’s adorable, ridiculous behavior.
“Get some rest! We’ll talk again tomorrow morning,” Draven said. He returned to the campfire.
Lyra found it strange that Alpha Draven didn’t interrogate her at all or force her to explain why she had been cast out and become a rogue. Or perhaps Draven didn’t suspect that Lyra was secretly a spy for Nightfall. Not at all.
“Why did you save me?” Lyra asked curiously. “You should have let those rogues kill me.”
“I didn’t save you. I just saw you nearly dead, and you were blocking my path. So I brought you to the border guard’s house in Ravencall,” Draven said defensively.
“Oh, so that’s how it is. I understand.”
Lyra lowered her gaze again, awkwardly fidgeting with her fingers. She didn’t realize that Draven had been watching her expression all this time, observing her intently. Draven knew there was something more behind the girl’s arrival in Ravencall.
“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?” Lyra asked when their gazes met.
“You’re injured. And those wounds weren’t made by claws,” Draven replied.
“Do I look like a rogue who’s about to die for nothing?”
“You can stay here for a while. You don’t have anywhere to live, do you?” Draven confirmed.
“No, thank you. I have to leave,” Lyra refused. She felt like an outsider and inferior there.
“Where will you go? They might kill you again.”
“I don’t care.” Lyra stubbornly rejected Draven’s help and tried to leave Ravencall. Unfortunately, her injuries held her back, and she couldn’t move.
“I told you, don’t move! Your wounds haven’t dried yet,” Draven scolded. He warned Lyra in a voice sharp enough to make her fall silent and stop arguing.
“Why did you save someone like me?” Lyra was still curious about Draven’s attitude toward her.
“What kind of person are you, anyway?”
“I’m a traitor’s daughter.”
“So?”
For the first time, someone didn’t regard Lyra as a “traitor’s daughter.” Even so, it left her confused and defensive.
“Your wounds are very deep. I saw them earlier—the rejection by your own Alpha, followed by your exile from the pack. You were cast out, yet you’re still alive. Isn’t that very interesting?” Draven said at length.
There was emotional tension between Draven and Lyra, like two wounded souls silently reading each other.
“Go to sleep! Good night.” Draven took his leave. He left Lyra in the room.
When night fell, Lyra dreamed about her father again.
“No! Father,” Lyra mumbled until she awoke from her nightmare.
In the early hours of the morning, Lyra couldn’t sleep soundly after the nightmare. She left her room and heard something outside the cabin. Draven and a Beta were having a serious conversation.
“Are you sure that rogue isn’t a spy sent by Alpha Kael into our territory?” the Beta asked Draven.
“I don’t believe she’s a spy sent by Kael,” Draven replied in a calm, firm voice.
“Isn’t she Alpha Kael’s fated mate and Luna? Then why has she become a rogue?” The Beta was bewildered.
“She isn’t an ordinary rogue. She’s the daughter of the Beta who was murdered because of Nightfall’s corrupt politics,” Draven explained.
“If the Moon Goddess sent her into our territory, then she isn’t a problem but a test. We can use her for the benefit of our pack,” the Beta suggested.
Lyra held her breath behind the door.
*He knows who I am, and he still saved me? Is it because I’m useful to their pack?* Lyra wondered.
*What are they planning to do with me?* Lyra grew suspicious. Without thinking any further, she decided to leave Ravencall immediately.
As Lyra tried to sneak away, she accidentally stepped on something and made a noise loud enough to startle Draven and the man beside him.
“Who’s there?” Draven asked. He hurried to find out.
Lyra immediately ran as fast as she could, hoping Draven wouldn’t find her. When she reached a dead end, she hid in an unlit passageway. Her breath was still coming in ragged gasps. She tried not to make a sound.
When she felt the situation had become safe, Lyra emerged from her hiding place. Panicking, she didn’t watch where she was going and kept looking back.
Just as she was about to run, Lyra suddenly collided with someone, and they both fell to the floor with Lyra on top of the man. Not only that, their lips accidentally met, making Lyra’s eyes widen in shock.
“What are you doing?” the man protested, blinking repeatedly in surprise at seeing Lyra on top of him.