Lyanna's POV
She gave a smug little shrug.
“Still more than you.”
That was the final blow.
Before I could think, I struck the memory crystal from her hand. It crashed against the stone floor with a sharp crack.
Natalie barely had time to react before I lunged at her.
My hand closed around her throat.
We stumbled backward together, crashing hard into the bedside table. Something toppled and rolled across the floor.
Then the scent hit me.
Oil.
Sharp and unmistakable.
My stomach dropped.
“Natalie…” I gasped, my grip loosening. “What did you do?”
The dark bottle tipped over completely, spilling its contents across the carpet.
She smiled.
Then—
A spark.
I did not even see where it came from.
Only a sudden flash.
Then flames.
They burst upward in an instant, racing along the floor, climbing the curtains, swallowing the walls as though the room had been waiting to burn.
“Stop!” I coughed, stumbling backward as smoke rushed into the air.
Natalie grabbed my arm.
She shoved me.
I shoved back.
We both struggled blindly as the flames rose between us like a living beast.
The heat was unbearable.
The smoke scorched my lungs with the first breath.
Then, somewhere in the chaos—
Natalie screamed.
And I fell.
---
“Lyanna!”
The voice tore through the roar of the flames.
My eyes forced themselves open against the smoke.
At the doorway stood Alpha Draven Blackmark, shouting as the pack warriors tried to hold him back.
“My Alpha, you cannot go in!”
“Move!”
My heart twisted so hard it hurt.
For one foolish second, I thought—
He came for me.
“Draven!” I cried, trying to lift myself from the floor. “I am here!”
Then Natalie called out weakly from the smoke behind me.
“Draven… please… help me…”
And everything in his expression changed.
That was all it took.
He rushed past me.
Straight to her.
He did not even glance back.
---
I do not know how long I lay there after that.
The smoke grew thicker.
The heat grew heavier.
My vision blurred until the world became nothing but fire and pain.
And then—
Something inside me broke.
Or perhaps awakened.
One moment I was choking on the floor.
The next—
Pain.
Agony unlike anything I had ever known.
My bones twisted.
My skin burned.
My body tore itself apart and rebuilt again beneath the force of instinct.
I shifted.
My wolf burst free.
The world sharpened instantly.
The crackle of flames.
The smell of burning wood.
The smallest movement in the smoke.
The fire was no longer chaos.
It became something I could understand.
A wall.
A pattern.
A path.
I seized my bag in my jaws and ran.
With every ounce of strength I had left, I hurled myself through the glass window.
The shards tore into my side, but I did not stop.
I hit the ground hard outside, rolling into the wet grass, coughing violently.
Alive.
Barely alive.
I did not look back at the burning pack house.
I ran.
Through the side paths.
Through the darkness.
Through the pain ripping through my body.
I ran until I found one of the old service gates hanging open.
And I kept running.
Even when my legs trembled.
Even when my lungs burned.
Even when blood dripped from my wounds into the earth.
I did not stop until the pack lands were far behind me.
---
The moonport terminal was silent.
Too silent.
I sat alone in the far corner, wrapped in a borrowed cloak, my hands trembling.
My communication crystal glowed.
A message from Draven.
Do not play games, Lyanna. I do not have time to chase you.
I stared at the words.
No rage.
No grief.
No pain.
Only emptiness.
Slowly, I closed my hand around the crystal.
Then I crushed the light within it and turned away.
