She said it in front of him.
She said it while I was in his f*****g shirt and still couldn’t look her in the eye.
I don’t know what she was thinking. Maybe she thought she was invincible. Maybe she thought saying something outrageous would hurt him the way he was hurting her. But oh my God, I swear on everything I love..she had no idea who she was dealing with.
Because Damon wasn’t just a dad.
He was a loaded weapon disguised as one.
And right then?
He didn’t look angry.
He looked disappointed.
The worst kind. The kind that turns into destruction.
“You’re not my daughter tonight,” he said.
I gasped.
Out loud.
I couldn’t help it.
Because that wasn’t just punishment.
That was exile.
I watched Tasha’s face crumple like paper in a fire. Her lips parted, her whole body stilled, and for the first time since I met her, she looked like a child. Like a girl who had just realized her words had consequences she couldn’t take back.
“What?” she whispered.
That’s all she managed to whisper. One word. One syllable. But it sounded so small coming out of her. So weak. Like she was a little girl again, and he’d just ripped the floor out from under her.
But Damon didn’t blink.
His jaw was locked. His eyes were lit from within. And then he said the words that made my stomach twist into a full-blown panic knot:
“Get out of my sight, Tasha. Before I do something I’ll regret.”
S**t.
His voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t have to be.
It was the kind of voice that made your knees buckle and your heart slam against your chest because you knew the man in front of you wasn’t entirely human anymore.
And oh God. His eyes.
They were glowing.
Not like metaphorical glow, not like poetic glow.
Glowing.
Amber. Wild. Alpha.
The wolf was right there, just beneath the surface, breathing heavy through his chest and looking for a reason to snap.
And Tasha must’ve seen it too, because her face twisted in pure fear. Real fear. The kind you can’t fake. The kind you feel in your spine when instinct tells you you’re about to be devoured.
She staggered back.
Her lips parted like she wanted to speak.
But nothing came out.
Just a sharp inhale. Then a whimper.
And then she turned and ran..barefoot down the hallway, choked sobs spilling out of her as she vanished into her room and slammed the door behind her.
Gone.
Silence.
Oh God. It was just me now.
Just me and him.
I was still standing by the wall like a statue that had witnessed a murder.
My fingers were trembling. My shirt-his shirt-was sticking to my back from how hard I was sweating. My legs were soaked, still soaked, and didn’t know if it was from him, from me, or from the sheer panic pooling down my thighs.
He turned.
Slowly.
And looked right at me.
Not at my thighs.
Not at the mark on my neck.
Not at the shirt clinging to my hips.
Right at my eyes.
“Did you know about this?” he asked.
His voice was quieter now. Too quiet. That dangerous quiet.
Lfroze.
Like actually froze.
Not the cute movie kind where the girl gasps and puts hand over her mouth in dramatic shock. No. I froze like my nervous system short-circuited. Like my brain just threw its hands up and said, “Welp, this is it. This is how we die. Hope the coffin’s pink.”
Because Damon was looking at me.
Staring. Into. Me.
Like he could hear my thoughts. Like he could see every single dirty secret crawling out of my pores and spilling down my thighs. His face was calm, but it wasn’t calm. It was Alpha calm-that terrifying, cold, eerie stillness that only comes right before a storm swallows your whole world and spits out the bones.
And he asked me again.
“Did you know about this?”
Just like that.
Seven words.
But I swear it felt like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Because how the f**k do you answer that when your best friend just confessed to her father that she participated in a six-man gangbang and you’re standing there in his shirt, still dripping his c*m, with his bite mark glowing red on your neck like a neon sign that says TRAITOR?
My mouth opened. Nothing came out. My thoughts were tripping over each other like kids in a fire drill.
Say no, Lyra.
Lie. Lie through your teeth.
You’re already halfway to hell, just sprint.
I mean, what’s one more sin?
I knew everything.
I should’ve lied.
I really, really should’ve lied..
But my lips had a death wish.
“Yes,”
I said. Like a goddamn,***t.
“Dammit. I..yes.” f**k I’m dead.
The Price Of Secrets
**Lyra**
Oh my God.
I said it.
I f*****g said it.
And the second the word left my lips, I wanted to stuff it back in with both hands and maybe a sock.
His face didn’t move.
But everything else did.
The room. The air. The hallway. Me.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.