‹ I Can’t Lose You Too
I Can’t Lose You Too
~Lyra~
I held him while he whispered the names of people he wasn’t sure were still alive. I held him while he said things I knew he would never say again.
Words like, “I should’ve known.” Words like, “They depended on me.” Words like, “I let them die.” I held him while his tears slid down his cheeks and into my hair, while his hands fisted in the back of my dress like he needed something to grip or he’d slip into nothingness.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” he said, voice low and hoarse. “I’ve fought wars. I’ve ended bloodlines. I’ve outlived betrayals. But this? This is the kind of loss that guts a man.
“I wasn’t ready. I didn’t see it coming. And the worst part is, I do not know who did it. They waited until I was distracted. And I was distracted, Lyra. I was so f*****g distracted by you.”
I wanted to shake my head. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t true. That he wasn’t distracted. That he was just human. That everyone needs rest. That love isn’t weakness.
But the words wouldn’t come out. Because part of me believed it too. We were so wrapped up in each other. So obsessed. So caught up in the filth and the heat and the forbidden thrill of touching. We made each other blind. And they knew it.
“I don’t even know who’s dead,” he said quietly, breath shaking against my temple. “I don’t know if the nursery was empty. I don’t know if they got everyone out. I don’t know if my Beta’s pups made it. And until I see those ashes with my own eyes, I won’t know how much of me died in that fire.”
I pulled back just enough to look at him, my eyes searching his. His lashes were wet. His mouth was trembling.
“You’re not alone,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His arms locked around me, crushing me to his chest like I was the last piece of his soul he hadn’t lost.
“I can’t lose you,” he said into my hair. “I can lose everything else. But I can’t lose you. If I lose you too, I swear I’ll burn the f*****g world.”
“You’re not losing me,” I whispered, even though I was trembling. “Not now. Not ever.”
He kissed the top of my head. His lips were dry. His breath was hot. And when he pulled back, he looked me. straight in the eyes.
“I need to go there,” he said. “I need to see it. I need to smell the ash. I need to feel the ground. And I need to know who betrayed me.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said, without even thinking..
“I was going to carry you if you said no,” Damon muttered, and for the briefest second, there was the smallest flicker of something close to a smile tugging at his mouth“.
“Not a real smile. Not the kind you give when you’re happy or safe or whole. This was something else but It disappeared just as quickly as it came, but it was there, and I clung to it like oxygen.
Then his eyes darkened again.
Tuan I Lose You 100
Lose You 1
“I can’t leave you here, Lyra,” he said, voice quieter now, but no less fierce. “Not after this. Not after what they
just did. I need you where I can see you. I need you close. I don’t care how dangerous it gets. I don’t care what anyone says. You’re mine, and I’m not taking the risk. We’re going together.”
I nodded before I could even think. My fingers were still wrapped around his face, I nodded, because I believed him. I trusted him. If he needed to go, I was going with him. No questions.
Except… I had a question.
“We’ll take the private plane,” he added, already moving, already grabbing his discarded shirt from the chair and yanking it over his head like his body was already preparing for battle.
I blinked and took a hesitant step forward, confused by the sudden shift in tone. “Plane?” I asked, voice rising a little. “Wait..what do you mean plane? Damon, I thought… I mean, the pack house isn’t far from here, right? Isn’t it just a few miles outside the city? We can drive there in, like, twenty minutes. Why do we need a plane?”
He stopped moving.
He didn’t look at me right away.
And when he did, his face had changed again.
“Oh no, kitten,” he said, shaking his head slowly. “Not that house.”
My heart skipped. “What do you mean?”
“The one here in this city?” he continued, walking toward me again, this time slower. “The estate you saw
with the high walls and the black gates and the silver guards? That’s not the main house. That’s just a
satellite post. A branch. It’s a decoy for appearances and meetings and occasional operations. That isn’t
where my blood lives.”
I swallowed, hard. “Then… where?”
He came to a full stop in front of me and placed both hands on my hips. His thumbs brushed over my cheeks.
“The real pack house, the heart of everything I built, is in another country,” he said. “Far from here. Sacred. It’s where my lineage begins and ends. It’s where wolves are born and where they’re buried. It’s where I took my Alpha vow. And that… that is the place they set on fire.”
I just stared at him.
I didn’t breathe.
I didn’t blink.
I didn’t even know what to say.
Another country.
Not another city. Not another state,
Another country.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I thought I knew who he was. I thought I understood the scale of his power.
I thought I had some kind of grasp on what it meant to be with a man like Damon, but clearly, I didn’t. Not
even close. I had only seen the surface. The civilized parts. The walls he wanted me to see. But underneath? Beneath the suits and cigars and velvet sheets?
Can’t Lose You Too
There was a kingdom.
And someone just torched it to the ground.
“You were never meant to go there until it was safe,” he said, watching me closely now. “I was going to take you when the pups were born. I was going to show you everything, our history, our rituals, our people. But now? I don’t have the luxury of waiting anymore. We’re going now. Tonight.”
I reached up and pressed my hands against his chest, feeling the heat of him. The storm. The grief. The war already forming in his bones.
“Take me,” I said. “Take me with you. Show me everything.”
He nodded once.
“We leave in an hour,” Damon said, and there was no hesitation in his voice, no doubt, no room for argument.
And honestly, I was still trying to process the fact that the real pack house was in a whole other country while he was already planning how to get us there tonight.
Then his hand came up to my cheek, fingers tracing the side of my face so gently it almost made me cry.
His thumb dragged slowly across my skin, and the way he looked at me, it wasn’t just love. It wasn’t just protection. It was obsession.
“You don’t need to stress yourself to carry much, okay?” he said, and his voice dropped into that deep, soothing, Alpha tone that made my knees want to buckle every single time. “Just bring what’s comfortable. Something warm. Maybe one of my shirts. I’ll get you everything you need when we get there, kitten. Everything.”
And I swear my heart actually squeezed.
I didn’t even realize I had been holding my breath until he said those words. Not because I was scared about packing. Not because I cared about clothes or shoes or what I was bringing in my bag.
But because somehow, even in the middle of this chaos, even with his entire life burning behind us, he was
thinking about me.
He was still trying to take care of me. Still trying to make sure I didn’t overexert myself, still worried about
what I’d wear, what I’d need, what would make me feel safe.
“Damon,” I whispered, because his name was all I could manage.
He leaned in and kissed my forehead.
“I’ll carry everything if I have to,” he said, and I felt his breath against my skin. “But I don’t want you lifti
single finger unless you have to. You’re carrying my pups. You’re carrying my future. That’s your only job,
kitten.”
I nodded because my throat was too tight to answer.
My hands slid up his chest, feeling the warmth of his skin.
“I’ll bring one of your shirts,” I finally managed to say, voice trembling with everything I didn’t know how to say. “And maybe…maybe the perfume bottle you like.”
His mouth curved just slightly at that, even though his eyes were still heavy with grief. “Bring whatever you want to smell like mine. I’ll make sure you never forget who you belong to.”
I swallowed hard.
“Good,” I whispered. “Because I’m not planning to forget.”
He pressed his forehead against mine and let out a breath that sounded like it was holding the weight of the whole world. And then he stepped back, just enough to grab his phone again and make the call that would change everything.
“I’m calling for the jet now,” he said, “Start packing. Ten minutes. I’ll have the car waiting out front.”
I nodded quickly because arguing with him when he sounded like that would be pointless. My head was already spinning as I thought about what I might bring, even though he had told me not to stress about carrying much.
As I was about to go with the full intention of doing exactly what he said, but before I even took three steps, the sound of the doorbell rang through the room. It was loud enough to cut through every thought in my head, and it made both of us freeze where we stood.
“Who could that be?” I asked, turning to look at Damon, my voice shaky because I already knew something about this was not right.
“We are not expecting anyone,” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion.
“I will get it,” I said softly.
When I reached the door, I curled my fingers around the handle, hesitated for one second because something
inside me said I might not like what I saw on the other side, and then I pulled it open.
And that was when I saw her.
It was Tasha.
Her hair was tangled and sticking to her damp face.
Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and there was blood smeared across her temple that trailed down to stain the front of her shirt.
Her hands were shaking so badly that I could see her fingers twitching in the air like they were reaching for something invisible, and her breathing was uneven, almost gasping, as if she had been running for a long time or had been holding in a scream.
My chest clenched so tightly it hurt, and I stepped forward before I could even think about it. “What the hell happened to you, Tasha?”
