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I mean, seriously?Alek knew better. Alek knew better and he chose to treat me that way anyway. He knew my mother was strict. He knew I feared her. He knew I ran from her. He knew I had never really lived.
He had admitted to giving me a chance. A chance at living. And now this?
My chest tightened. I wouldn’t be a prisoner. Not again. I wasn’t going back.
“Lyra,” his voice came up behind me. “You’re not my prisoner.”
“Aren’t I?” I turned to him. “I do what you want, when you want it. I go where you want me to go. I wear what you want me to wear. How different are you than her? What’s stopping you from locking me up, just like she did?”
“Don’t say that,” he whispered. “Don’t compare me to her.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” I took a sip of my water.
“Look, if you want out of this deal, fine. Leave. Run. Hide. Go back to your strict, locked-down life. But,”—he glanced to the door of the bar, where a group of Night Ravens staggered in—“I know you, Lyra.I see you. You don’t want to hide anymore. What I said earlier was wrong, I didn’t… The truth is…” His hand slid up my back to the nape of my sweaty neck. “I wanted to rip out the eyes off every man who watched you dance. Because I don’t care how fake this is to you, Lyra. You’re mine.”
My stomach twisted and melted, responding to his words involuntarily. His words affected me in ways they shouldn’t have, because I wasn’t supposed to be this attracted to him. I wasn’t supposed to want him, to want to kiss him. But I did. God, I did.
His fingers tightened on my neck. “You can hate me. You can ignore me forever, if that’s what you want. But please, don’t blow this in front of them.” I followed his eyes, only to find Blade and Kyler across the bar, already staring at us.
“You’re not as tough as you think you are, Alek,” I whispered back to him.
Every instinct in my body told me to back down, but the music began playing again, and the new version of myself came back with it.
I stepped out of Alek’s grasp, leaving him at the bar and heading to find Nat and Salem.
“Lyra!” Nat screamed over the music when she saw me again. “What took you so long?”
“Line at the bar,” I lied. “But I’m back now.”
Salem and Natalie each grabbed one of my hands. We continued dancing like I never left, moving to the music like this was what we were born to do. Only this time, I felt the eyes on me. That one pair of blazing, predatory eyes that made the hair on my neck stand up.
I tried to ignore it. I tried to go back to how things were, but my body refused to relax. Refused to let go.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked. She could always sense when something was wrong. “Are you okay?”
I grabbed her arms and pulled her close, pretending to dance with her more as I whispered, “Alek’s here. And he’s not happy.”
“I knew it!” she yelled. “He’s jealous.”
“He’s an asshole is what he is.”
“Forget about him,” Salem chimed in. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the middle of the dance floor. “This is your life, Lyra. Remember that!”
Damn right.
I closed my eyes and focused on the music. I focused on the feeling of freedom I had just moments ago. I focused on my friends who danced beside me.
Only this time, while I danced under the spell of the band, I grew aware of the man who couldn’t take his eyes off me.
We danced through the night, stopping only when I thought my feet were going to bleed.
“See, Lyra? We should do this more often!” Nat yelled. The music finally wrapped up, and we found ourselves sliding back into the same booth.
I glanced around the bar. Alek was still here, only now, he sat at a table with Blade, Kyler, and Zac. And they didn’t look happy.
I reminded myself I didn’t care.
“Thank you so much for this, Salem,” I breathed. “I needed this.”
