< Beyond Scent
Beyond Scent
~Lyra~
Camilla’s head snapped up so fast her earrings swung sideways. Her face was blotched with red and black from all the crying.
“Your house?” she repeated, and her voice cracked with disbelief. “Are you f*****g kidding me, Lyra?”
She laughed. It wasn’t real laughter. It was the kind that comes from losing everything in a single sentence and not knowing where to scream first.
“You’re a guest in a house I decorated, in a life I built from the ground up. You’re a stupid girl with a pulse and a heat cycle, and now you think a few orgasms make you the f*****g owner of this home?”
Her voice was shaking. Her fingers were curled into her blouse like she was seconds away from lunging at
- me. But I didn’t flinch. I didn’t move.
“You think this is your house?” she demanded again, louder now. “You think taking a few knots makes you
queen of the f*****g kingdom?”
“I think taking his last name will,” I said, and I said it slow. So slow her knees almost gave out. “I think
carrying his child will. I think being the only woman in this house he touches, kisses, breeds–that makes it
mine.”
“You’re not his wife,” she spat.
“No,” I snapped. “I’m something worse. I’m his mate. And that means no matter how loud you cry or how hard
you scream, I’ll always belong here more than you.”
Tasha suddenly stepped forward, her face twisted like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to slap me or throw
- up.
“Are you f*****g sick, Lyra?!” she screamed, her voice breaking in the middle like she didn’t even have enough
air to handle how furious she was. “I brought you here! I brought you here to spend the summer! To relax! To
get away from stress–now you are chasing me out of my house!”
I tilted my head.
And I smiled.
The kind of smile that wasn’t soft or nice or sweet. The kind of smile that hurt to look at.
“You didn’t bring me here,” I said, and I felt the words burn in my throat. “You were just the invitation. The
bond brought me here. Fate brought me here. The Moon Goddess brought me to him because I was meant to
belong here, not you,”
Tasha’s jaw dropped open.
And still–I didn’t stop.
“I am his,” I said again, louder now, panting, trembling, so f*****g wet I could feel it dripping. “I is Luna. The second I walked into this house, I felt it. The bond. The pull. The hunger. And you know wha… tried to resist it. I tried to be quiet. I tried to behave. But now? I don’t give a f**k who’s hurt anymore.”
Beyond Scent
Tasha’s eyes were glassy with rage.
Camilla looked like she’d forgotten how to breathe.
“I’m done apologizing for being what I am,” I said. “If you can’t accept that I’m the one he wants now–the one he f***s raw, the one he marks, the one he’ll breed over and over until I can’t walk–then get out. Both of you. Right now. Because this is my house. My life. My bond. My Alpha”
“You’re not even sorry,” Tasha whispered.
“No,” I said. “I’m proud.”
Those words came out of my mouth like I had been waiting my whole darn life to say them, and the second! did, something shifted in me. Something snapped in the room.
My body was literally shaking–my hands, my legs, my voice. I felt like my skin was made of sparks and my blood was boiling and there was so much pressure building up inside me I thought I might actually explode.
And honestly? I wanted to. I wanted to f*****g erupt. Because I had never felt so alive and angry and high on power in my whole eighteen–year life.
They both just stood there staring at me like I had grown horns, and maybe I had.
“f*****g get out now!” I screamed, and my voice broke from how loud it came out. I didn’t care.
“Get the f**k out of my house before I throw both of you out myself! I’m done! I am f*****g done! With the fake tears, the dramatic gasps, the whining, the guilt–tripping–all of it!”
Tasha’s eyes went wide. Camilla’s mouth fell open like I had just taken off my skin and revealed a monster
underneath.
And then Tasha lost it.
“DAD!!” she screamed, voice shrieking and raw. “Aren’t you gonna say anything?! You’re just gonna stand there like a f*****g statue while she throws us out?! What the f**k is wrong with you?! Is it because of her tight little p***y that you’ve suddenly gone silent?!”
She didn’t even get to finish the word p***y before it happened.
Damon moved so fast I barely saw it, and then smack. His hand came down so hard across her cheek I flinched even though I wasn’t the one who got hit. But it wasn’t just a slap.
It wasn’t some little warning pat. It was an Alpha’s slap. A dominant, claws–exposed, half–shifted blow that dragged across her skin and left a bright red scratch from the top of her cheekbone to her jaw.
She stumbled back with this broken, shocked gasp like the floor had just dropped under her feet. Her hand flew to her face, her mouth fell open, and she looked up at him like she couldn’t believe he had just done that.
And Damon–he didn’t look sorry.
Not even a little bit,
“You do not speak to me like that,” he growled, and his voice wasn’t normal anymore. It was layered. Deep. Drenched in dominance and something wild. Something feral. “I have had enough of your mouth Enough of your spoiled brat temper. Enough of your tantrums and your disrespect and your f*****g entitl
Tasha whimpered. Her fingers were trembling where they cupped her cheek.
it.”
Beyond Scent
“I am not just your father,” he said, stepping toward her now like the room belonged to him and the air was bending around his heat.
“I am your Alpha. You seem to forget who the f**k I am when you raise your voice. When you test me. When you speak my name like I owe you something.”
Camilla was still frozen. Her hand covered her mouth like she wanted to scream but didn’t have the strength.
“My human self may still care about you,” Damon continued, and his claws were still out–sharp, dark, glinting in the light.
“My human self may try to protect you, may love you, may remember changing your diapers and walking you to school. But the wolf inside me?” He took another step. His eyes were glowing.
“The wolf does not recognize your face. The wolf sees a threat to his mate. The wolf would rip you apart for what you just said, and it wouldn’t even blink.”
Tasha was shaking. Her whole body was curled inward like she was trying to fold herself up and disappear.
“You heard what my Luna said,” Damon growled, his voice vibrating through the walls like thunder shaking the bones of the house. “She doesn’t want you here. She doesn’t want Camilla here. And what she says in this house is final. She is the Luna of this pack. Her word is law.”
I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until he said that. Luna. Final. Law. The words slid over my skin like lightning and lust and power, and I swear I almost came standing right there.
“I have several mansions,” Damon continued coldly. “You can pick one. I’ll have it ready before nightfall. But
this one? It’s hers now.”
Tasha let out a low, animal sound–somewhere between a sob and a scream–and then she looked at me.
Straight at me.
And in her eyes, I saw it. Not sadness. Not shock.
Hatred.
“You ruined my family,” she whispered, and her voice sounded broken now. Not from crying. From fury. “I swear to the f*****g Moon Goddess, Lyra–you are going to pay. You hear me? You are going to f*****g pay. Mark my words. Read my f*****g lips.”
I didn’t speak. I just stared.
She stepped forward again.
“We go to the same school, remember?” she hissed. “And you think this ends tonight? You think I’m done? You don’t know what’s coming. I’ll make sure everyone hates you. I’ll ruin you. You’ll choke on everything you stole from me. You’ll bleed for what you’ve done.”
And that’s when Damon snapped again.
This time, he didn’t slap her.
He grabbed her by the throat.
One–handed. His claws retracted just enough not to cut, but the grip–oh God, the grip–lifted her straight off the floor until her feet weren’t touching the ground. Her hands clawed at his wrist, her mouth open in a choked gasp, eyes wide and panicked.
Beyond Scent
“Don’t you ever threaten her again,” he snarled, and his voice was so deep it didn’t even sound like a man anymore–it sounded like a beast trying to hold back slaughter. “Not in my house. Not in front of me. Not with that tongue you used to call me father.”
Camilla screamed his name. Useless. Powerless.
“And if you lay a single finger on her,” Damon growled, still holding her in the air like she was weightless, “if
you touch a single strand of her hair, if I even smell your hate near her skin–I will forget you are my daughter. I will forget you were ever mine. And I will destroy you.”
Tasha was gasping. Her face turning red. Her legs kicking. Her mouth making these tiny strangled sounds
like she couldn’t breathe.
And me?
I was soaked.
Like dripping. Like my thighs were wet. Like I couldn’t tell the difference between heat and fear and arousal
anymore because watching him protect me like that made my body ache.
And I wasn’t scared. I was proud.
Tasha was still gasping, still cradling her scratched–up face, still shaking in Camilla’s arms like her bones
had cracked from the inside out.
And when Damon finally let go of her neck and stepped back, letting her drop to the floor with one last
choking breath, she didn’t scream again. She didn’t fight. She just looked at me.
Her eyes locked on mine.
And there was nothing left in them but pure, vengeful, silent rage.
She stared at me like she could peel me open with a thought. Like she wanted to skin me alive and wear my
heart as a trophy. Like every tear in her body had burned off and all that was left was hate.
And then she muttered something under her breath.
Too quiet for me to catch it completely.
She stood up slow, her body shaking, her hair falling into her face, and then she turned to Camilla, her voice
hoarse and hard and laced with acid.
“Let’s go, Mum.”
Camilla looked stunned for a bit. But she reached out, grabbed Tasha’s arm, and without saying another word
to either of us, they turned around.
And walked out. f**k finally.
I was still smirking, then–he spoke
Low.
Husky.
Hot enough to melt the floor beneath me.
“Come here, kitten.”
