Chapter 72: Chapter 72
Kyra’s POV
Amanda’s poisonous words kept bothering me. I didn’t want to believe her, but the truth was that I didn’t really know Kieran. The man I’d fallen for was a carefully crafted illusion. Now I needed answers, but the thought of facing my mate—no, the Alpha who chained me with lies—made my wolf whimper in distress.
He made me believe in those lies, and it shattered my heart just when it was starting to heal.
Sylvia growled low in my mind. "We should be ripping her throat out for those lies about our pup."
My attention snapped back when I saw my father’s trembling fingers reaching beneath his pillow.
"Dad, what’s that?" I helped him retrieve a faded photograph—my mother’s smiling face looking back at us.
My heart clenched. After all these years, he’d still kept this.
I noticed there was not a single picture of my mom in the whole mansion. I bet that was Amanda’s doing.
Smiling, I caressed my mom’s photo before slowly handing it to my dad.
"You... kept this?"
He nodded slowly, his hands—once so strong, now so frail—caressing the image.
I just smiled, then pulled myself up and went to stand beside the window. With my enhanced wolf vision, I could make out Kieran’s warriors patrolling the grounds. His "protection" was nothing more than a gilded cage. He’d threatened my father’s life if I tried to leave, but staying meant endangering my pup.
Sylvia paced anxiously. "We need to run. Tonight."
That night, as I prepared to sneak back to my room, a guttural snarl from the lanai froze my blood. It was Kieran, talking to someone over the phone.
"She can’t escape! I won’t allow it!" Kieran’s voice was raw with Alpha command, his phone crushed in his hand. His blue eyes glowed golden-bright in the darkness. This wasn’t the charming Alpha I’d known. He looked like a beast who could kill anyone who got in his way. He was so different from the man he had shown me before.
"No! Damn it! If she tries to escape again, I will slaughter every important person to her." His roar made the windows rattle. "She will suffer all her life until she begs me to just kill her and end her misery. Trust me. I won’t let anyone get in my way or ruin my plans."
I cupped my mouth and hid behind a large indoor plant. Who would he kill? Me? If I tried to escape again, would he really kill me?
I clutched my swelling belly as my pup kicked violently, sensing its mother’s terror. Kieran wasn’t just threatening me—he’d kill my father. My pup.
Tears rolled down my cheeks in fear as I ran back to my father’s room. I saw him sitting in his wheelchair, looking out the window. I rushed to him and knelt in front of him.
"Dad, we have to leave. Now."
He stared at me, worry in his eyes.
I pulled myself up and looked around, desperate for a way to take Dad with me.
His gnarled hand—still bearing the scars of a thousand battles—closed over mine. "R...un... Le...ave me..."
"No!" I whispered fiercely. "I won’t abandon you to him!"
He shook his head, his fading Alpha aura brushing against mine in comfort. "B...urden. I...can’t..."
Sylvia howled in protest. "We don’t leave family behind!"
"Dad!" I cried harder, though silently from the pain of his words. "They will hurt you!"
"W...on’t. Th...ey won’t."
He stared into my eyes and I understood what he was saying. Kieran wouldn’t hurt him, because he needed my dad alive to lure me back. I’d seen Kieran’s desperation when he demanded I return. He was obsessed with me. If he hurt my dad, he knew I wouldn’t come back, so he wouldn’t risk it. In this situation, given my dad’s condition, our escape was impossible unless I left him behind. But abandoning him would only weigh more on my heart.
To save my pup, I would have to leave my father behind.
A slow, proud smile spread across my father’s weathered face—the smile of an Alpha who knew his child would survive. His calloused fingers, marked by endless pack battles, brushed away my tears as I knelt before him.
"I promise I’ll come back for you," I whispered, my voice heavy with the strength of our pack bond. Sylvia whined in my mind, as if she could keep us physically connected.
He nodded slowly, his fading Alpha aura wrapping around me like a final blessing. "I...wait..."
My wolf senses caught the subtle shift in his scent—the determination behind the illness. I knew what he was planning. My father might have been broken in body, but his Alpha spirit would never give up.
I pressed my forehead to his knee, breathing in his familiar pine-and-snow scent one last time. His touch. It felt like a hundred years had passed since he’d last held me. The first man I ever loved. My father. My savior.
Sylvia growled softly. "He’s sacrificing himself. We can’t let this be goodbye."
I stood up and kissed him on the forehead. This wouldn’t be our last moment—I’d come back for him.
The mansion erupted into chaos the moment my father’s agonized roar shattered the night.
Even weakened, his Alpha howl commanded attention. I heard pack warriors’ heavy boots pounding upstairs, their wolf instincts overriding logic. From my hiding place beneath the stairs, I saw Kieran sprint by—his blue eyes blazing with realization a second too late.
"Now, Sylvia!" I commanded internally, and my wolf leapt forward, boosting my speed as I bolted for the door.
Cold night air slapped my face as I raced across the grounds, my pup’s frantic kicks matching my pounding heart. As I ran, I prayed for my father’s safety and my own. When I made it past the gate without alerting the guard, I finally started to calm down.
A single tear chilled my cheek as I swore that I would return and make Kieran and Amanda regret what they’d done to my family.
I would run. I would keep running, even if the road seemed endless. I’d only stop and return once I could confidently say I was strong enough to bring them down.
I slowed and glanced back at the mansion—but flinched in shock when I heard a familiar voice screaming my name, full of desperation and anger.
"KYRA!"
Kieran’s roar shook the trees, his Alpha power sweeping through the woods. He must have realized that my dad had lured them so I could escape.
But I didn’t look back.
Sylvia snapped her jaws in triumph. "Run, sister. The hunt begins."
And so I ran—not as a frightened girl, but as a strong she-wolf reclaiming her destiny.
