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—"

pink

hand to my chest, mock-offended. "Just a

genuine concern, her green eyes widening as she reaches toward me. "Oh no,

you." I wave my

she mumbles, but there’s no heat behind her words. A small

sweet little bundle of innocence, wrapped in a world determined to grow her into a fate too large for her dainty

the threads of

surrounded by so

best fates usually are. The Divinity call

can’t help but twirl my finger in the

he has some spice to his fear. Doesn’t like being poked at,

onto one of the cushions scattered across the floor, her eyes wide. "You turned him

?"

I tell her with an easy smile. "I wanted to talk to him, and it’s the easiest way to get a point

is afraid

who bulldozes through life with all the subtlety

endearing pink thing again. "He’s

interrupt, sitting beside her, "we’re well

her mouth, then closes it, hands fidgeting in her lap. Her nervous energy fills the space

Caine really upset?"

looking for you." I pat her knee. "In

corners of her mouth, and I marvel at how someone so genuinely good could end up bound to a creature like Caine. The universe has a twisted sense of

"he might be a bit...

smile falters. "Intense

you with my overprotective wolf-king energy until you can’t breathe’ kind of intense. After what happened last

"Oh."

recovered. I’d hate to have to explain to the hospital staff why you’re back in

going to be a

a commotion echoes from the hallway—heavy footsteps

Caine.

how she feels, and I can’t help but sigh. All that

Though, Grace has her own ability to emulate an emotional rock,

there—the Lycan King himself, filling the doorway with his massive frame, eyes locked on Grace like she’s the only thing in