Alpha, Your Lock Betrayed Me Chapter 03
A burst of muffled laughter followed.
I stood on the other side of the door, just as I had stood outside Lysander’s estate the night before.
All at once, it struck me how absurd this was.
The people inside belonged there.
I would always be the one left on the other side of the door.
When dinner ended, everyone spilled out of the restaurant, traded goodbyes, and gathered in small groups along the curb to wait for rides.
I headed for Lysander’s car as if it were the most natural thing in the world and reached for the passenger door.
Morrigan hurried around the hood and slipped in front of me.
She smiled. “Let me ride up front. I get carsick, and the back seat makes it worse.”
Before she had even finished, she was climbing in and buckling her seat belt.
The movement was practiced. Effortless.
She looked over at Lysander. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Lysander glanced at me, his tone matter-of-fact. “Morrigan really does get carsick. You can sit in back.”
I pressed my lips together and opened the rear door.
The car pulled away.
Morrigan opened the glove compartment without asking and pulled out a bag of nuts.
She popped a few into her mouth, then held one up to Lysander’s lips. “Open up.”
Lysander leaned over and ate it from her fingers, his lips brushing her fingertips.
“Lysander, Miles’s pack is hosting a moonlit run. You going?” Morrigan asked.
“Yeah. It’s been too long since I had a real run,” Lysander said.
“Then I’m coming too. I haven’t seen Silas in forever. Clara misses him. After all…”
“I was there for your first shift,” Lysander said, his voice softening with the memory. “The first wolf Clara ever saw was Silas…”
Morrigan laughed. “Don’t remind me. I was a disaster that day.”
She reached over and poked his arm.
From the back seat, I listened to them trade memories while my nails bit into my palm.
Lysander’s wolf, Silas, was a massive gray wolf. On countless nights, he had curled around Iris, my wolf, as though the two of them were each other’s whole world.
The thought that Silas had once curled around another she-wolf and groomed her fur made bile rise in my throat. Deep inside me, Iris howled with rage and grief.
Lysander didn’t seem to notice.
At a red light, Morrigan pulled out her phone and held the screen toward him.
“The council’s pushing that proposal again. Look at what they’re demanding. It’s insane. I can’t believe how much work I’ll have if I really take over as Beta.”
Lysander glanced at the screen. “The pack can’t function without a Beta. I need you.”
Morrigan tucked away her phone and sighed. “Then I guess I’ll keep helping you out.”
As we neared Lysander’s estate, Morrigan started coughing.
At first, it was only a light cough, as if something had caught in her throat. Then it grew faster and harsher.
She clutched her chest and sagged against the seat, her voice weak.
“Lysander… I can’t breathe…”
Lysander immediately slowed and pulled onto the shoulder. His voice sharpened with alarm.
“Where’s your inhaler? Do you have it?”
Morrigan shook her head, her breaths coming faster. “I… I forgot it…”
Lysander rubbed her back with practiced ease, one hand on the wheel and the other moving steadily up and down her spine.
After a few ragged breaths, Morrigan turned toward me in the back seat and frowned.
“Are you wearing perfume? My wolf can’t tolerate that scent…”
“I’m not wearing perfume,” I said.
Morrigan ignored me. Her coughing worsened until she folded in on herself in the passenger seat.
Lysander shot me an impatient look.
He didn’t say it, but I could hear the accusation anyway: You should know better.
“Willa, are you sure you didn’t put on anything scented?”
“I didn’t.”
He let the question drop.
He stared out the windshield for a few seconds. “We’re close to my place. Willa, you can walk from here.”