Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 87: Lyre: Embraced (?)

LYRE

There’s a special joy that comes from watching someone who once stood tall crumble into terrified submission. Owen—all six-foot-something of Order-aligned angelic muscle—keeps flinching whenever I so much as breathe in his direction. It’s adorable, really.

He’s young. Strangely young. Maybe mid-twenties at best. Seems odd, considering his bloodline, but I’m not about to ask. Knowing means involving, and involving means work.

No, thank you.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I fish it out while maintaining eye contact with Owen, just to watch him swallow nervously. Poor thing. I’d only turned him into a toad for a few seconds. Just enough to make sure he didn’t run away.

Didn’t think it would bother him this much, but it is a delightful bonus.

The text on my screen makes me roll my eyes.

[CAINE: Why aren’t you answering your phone? This is just an empty building. Where are you??]

The digital equivalent of a wolf’s howl.

Sighing, I turn to Owen. "Do they need a key?"

He nods stiffly. "Yes."

"Better go let them in before His Royal Broodiness tears this place apart with his bare hands."

"This isn’t—" He stops himself and blows out a heavy breath. "Okay."

Jack-Eye straightens. "I’ll go with you."

Of course he will. Any excuse to get away from the big bad witch who turned his new friend into an amphibian. Wolves are so predictable. So boring. Take away their agency once and they lose their ability to function.

Owen hesitates, looking from me to Grace and back again.

"Don’t worry," I tell him with my sweetest smile. "We’re best friends. Right, Grace?"

The angel-descendant looks at Grace, his silver eyes troubled. "Will you be—"

flushing pink as she

mock-offended. "Just a friend? After everything we’ve been through?

crumples with genuine concern, her green eyes widening as she reaches toward me. "Oh no, I didn’t mean—I

I wave my hand dismissively. "You’re wound too

mumbles, but there’s no heat

wrapped in a world determined to grow her into

can see the threads of her fate, and

by so

are. The Divinity

Owen toward the exit, and I can’t help but twirl my finger in the beta’s direction. "Ribbit,

some spice to his

onto one of the cushions scattered across the floor, her

?"

wanted to talk to him, and it’s the easiest way to get a point

is afraid of you

who bulldozes through life

endearing pink thing again. "He’s

sitting beside her, "we’re well past that particular denial,

her mouth, then closes it, hands fidgeting in her lap. Her nervous energy fills the space between us—anticipation and

really upset?"

the city apart looking for you." I pat her knee. "In his own

of her mouth, and I marvel at how someone so genuinely good could end up bound to a creature like Caine.

you," I add, "he might be a bit... intense when he sees

smile falters. "Intense

’I’m going to smother you with my overprotective wolf-king energy until you can’t breathe’ kind of intense. After what happened last time—" I pause, watching

"Oh."

have to explain to the hospital staff why you’re back in a coma." Though, I’m sure Caine will

to be

footsteps and

Caine.

hair. It’s so painfully obvious how she feels, and I can’t help but sigh. All that beauty, tied to an emotional brick

bond’s peculiar sense of matchmaking. Though, Grace has

footsteps grow louder, and then he’s there—the Lycan King himself, filling the doorway with his massive frame, eyes