Lyrean's pov
I walked away from Raze and Talon to put Eryx to bed before walking back out of the room to face Raze.
"Lyrean," He called, holding his hands out to hold mine.
"Don't," I hissed, moving away from him.
"Lyrean..."
"You betrayed me Raze," I said, staring right into his eyes.
"I didn't mean to, I didn't want, it was just the only and reasonable way to save you," He cut in, apologetically, the pride and arrogance in his eyes as he talked to Talon all gone.
"Really? By Lying to me!"
"I'm not lying to you! I'm not! Stop." He barked, barely able to keep his voice from rising.
"I had to weaken the mate bond between us because I knew you only loved Talon, I was the bastard stepbrother and you would never want me, what else was I supposed to have done!" Raze's voice cracked at the end, and it startled me. I had heard his growls, his taunts, his threats—the Alpha in him never bent. But this… this was different. His voice carried a fracture. A plea.
I stared at him, the weight of his confession pressing against my chest like a stone. "You think lying to me—stealing my choice—was the right thing to do?" My words were sharp, but my voice trembled with something I hated to admit: hurt.
He stepped forward, cautiously, like he was afraid I'd shatter if he moved too fast. "Lyrean, I was dying inside. Every day I watched you look at him with that softness in your eyes, that devotion. And me? I was nothing but his shadow. His bastard brother. I didn't matter, not to anyone—except the night I took that risk." His jaw clenched, and his fists tightened at his side. "And that risk gave me you. Gave me Eryx. Tell me how that could ever be wrong."
I felt the tears sting my eyes before I even realized they were there. "Because you stole from me, Raze!" I spat, my voice breaking. "You let me believe I was with Talon. You let me live in a lie—and now you want me to look at you and… and thank you for it?"
He flinched. I saw it, that tiny flicker across his face. "I didn't want your thanks," he whispered. "I only wanted a chance. A chance to be more than what everyone decided I was. A chance to prove I could love you the way he never did."
My heart pounded painfully. His words clawed at the walls I had built over years of bitterness and betrayal. I hated that part of me—deep down, hidden—ached at his sincerity. That same part that remembered the way he had shielded me from dangers Talon didn't see, the way his gaze softened when he thought I wasn't looking.
I turned away from him, hugging myself. "You don't understand, Raze. I spent years hating Talon for what he did, for letting me go. And all this time… all this time, you were the one holding the knife in my back."
Silence. Thick, suffocating silence. I thought he wouldn't answer, but then his voice came, low and rough. "If I hadn't done it, you'd be dead. Do you understand that?" He swallowed hard, dragging his hand through his hair. "Your poison trial wasn't just his mother's doing. She wanted you gone, Lyrean. I heard the whispers, I knew the plot. If Talon hadn't rejected you, she would have finished you. And when you ran… when you were broken… I kept you alive."
I froze, my breath catching. My mind fought to push against his words, but something about the rawness in his tone made it impossible to dismiss completely. "You're lying," I whispered, though my voice lacked conviction.
"Look at me." His command wasn't sharp, but it carried the weight of truth. Slowly, I turned. His eyes—those stormy, restless eyes—were wet. "I may have been wrong to deceive you, Lyrean, but I swear to you, I never lied about this: I love you. And I would burn down the world before letting her or Talon take you from me again."
The air between us trembled with unspoken words, with history that refused to stay buried. I wanted to scream at him, to shove him away, to deny the heat rising in my chest at his confession. But instead, I stood there, frozen—caught between the ghost of a bond with Talon and the undeniable pull of the man in front of me.
And for the first time, I wondered if the bond I'd once sworn to had been nothing compared to the storm that was Raze.
My chest heaved with the weight of his words, but the anger didn't loosen its grip. If anything, it burned hotter, rising past the ache, past the confusion, until all I could see was that night. The night that changed everything.
"You think love excuses everything you did?" My voice was ice, but my hands trembled. "You let me believe Talon came to me that night. You let me believe I was safe in his arms, that my pain had finally been answered. But it wasn't him, was it?" My throat tightened. "It was you. And I was drunk, Raze. Drunk and broken and too far gone to tell the difference."
His face darkened, jaw flexing, but he didn't interrupt. That almost enraged me more.
"You stole that from me!" I screamed, the words tearing out of me like claws. "You stole my choice. My body. My future. And now you want me to see you as some kind of savior?"
Raze's nostrils flared. He dragged a hand through his hair, pacing a step like a caged animal. "Don't twist it like that, Lyrean. Don't make it sound like I—" He cut himself off, a growl vibrating in his chest. "You kissed me back. You clung to me like I was the only thing holding you together. Do you think I could forget that? Do you think I could ever forget the way you whispered don't leave me?"