Chapter 1 - Shadows of the past

Lyra

As I run back home with tears streaming down my eyes, the image I just saw won’t leave my mind. I knew this was happening. That’s the worst part. Deep down, I knew that Eli was cheating on me. I just ignored all the damn signs.

It’s hope. Hope that made me believe that Eli loved me. Hope that we will have a beautiful future. Hope that my life will be filled with joy. Hope is what blinded me to the reality of what was really happening.

I’m humiliated. If I could see it, then surely the entire pack knows! My mind goes through the list of my friends and I wonder how many of them knew as I storm into our home. How many people knew that my mate has been sleeping with my best friend?

“Lyra! Stop!” Eli shouts, but I don’t want to listen to a word he has to say. I’m done being told that I am imagining things. I’m done thinking that I’m going crazy. I felt that something was wrong and went to talk to the person I thought was my friend, only to find my husband between her legs!

“LYRA!” Eli growls and I whip around. Any hold he had over me up to that point has completely disappeared. I see fear in his eyes as I stare him down for a moment.

“There is no way in hell you are going to convince me that it was not what it looked like!” I shout before whipping right back around and storming up the stairs. I lock the bedroom door and pace back and forth trying to figure out what I’m going to do.

I’m nauseous. I’m physically ill as I think about all the years that I actually shared my husband with someone else! I think about those first days when I first met him and how head over heels in love I was. It doesn’t stop the nausea! He was seeing her way back then, and they never stopped!

I’ve spent the past four years living a lie. I’ve done everything possible to fit into a world that I was never really a part of. It is shocking to realize that I convinced myself that Eli loved me. It’s earth-shattering to realize that he introduced me to the woman I believed was my best friend.

The very same woman who is his mistress! I stop pacing and sit down on the edge of our bed. I don’t have anywhere else to go. Where do I go? If I leave Eli … How do I even begin to start over? How do I live a normal human life now that I know that werewolves are real?

I see the little black number almost winking at me from my closet. I bought it almost a year ago and never had the guts to wear it. As I pull it from my cupboard, I decide the time has finally come. I miss the girl I was just four short years ago.

I know I will never be able to capture my youth or whatever, but I’m definitely going to capture something tonight. I need to get away from our home. I need to get away from this world, and I need to just let loose for the first time in a long time.

Most importantly, I want to just drown out everything that now made such horrific sense! I put on the dress after a quick shower and make sure my make-up and hair are perfect before I make my way down the stairs. Eli looks shocked the moment he sees me and I have to fight the smile that threatens to form.

“Where the hell are you going dressed like that?” Eli growls, and I see the jealousy burn in his eyes. Where the hell was that jealousy while he was f@cking another woman?!

“Out!” I glare at him. I turned into a prude the moment we got married because he was so damn jealous. I freely admit that, but it is because he used to just growl for no reason when we were first going out. I changed into a prude for him. I did that because I was young and stupid and thought that I was making his life easier.

“Lyra, we have to talk.” He grips my arm just as I slide into the back of the black SUV and I glare at him for a moment before he removes his hand. Eli has never harmed me physically. He might have broken my heart, but he has never hurt me physically.

“There is nothing left to talk about. You can’t tell me that it’s not what I think it is because she already said that you two have been seeing each other right from the start.” I spit the words at him and am a little surprised when he cringes away.

He moves back far enough for just long enough that I can close the door right in his face and I tell the driver to leave. I can see he is uncomfortable with the order, but he drives off while I dab away the tears that are threatening to fall.

After we drive around the human town for a while, I ask him to pull over, and I get out in front of one of the many stores on the main street. The human town isn’t a big city. Honestly, I’m not even sure why I got all dressed up for the club when there is no club around.

As I walk down the sidewalk, I notice Eli’s guards just a few steps behind me, and I know people are going to notice. The human town is the only neutral territory in our region. It is the only place where werewolves have to behave.

Under the circumstances … Where else am I going to go? I notice the pub at the end of the block and decide that I need a drink. As soon as I walk in, all eyes turn on me, and I’m slightly glad that I have my guards.

I haven’t been in the human town on my own for a while and I don’t feel like I’m really one of them anymore. I find a seat and a young waitress appears to take my order. After my fourth drink, one of the guards appears beside me to tell me that it’s time to go home, but my look forces him to step back.