Night

Twenty-Two

The beautiful Jesse Williams as Elijah

A/N: So this is my longest chapter yet!:) As always, thank you for all of the support.

[Unedited]

Lily had only to move her head back slightly in order to break the warm kiss. Her heart was beating erratically from shock, and all of the tears that had been falling from her eyes seemed to be frozen in place.

"I-I can't," she whispered shakily, staring into his blue eyes with her wet ones. Her mind was spinning so fast that she couldn't even be sure what she was thinking. "I'm sorry," she whispered even lower, moving her face further back.

Cyrus nodded, continuing to hold eye contact. He was angry, but managed to mask it well. The anger wasn't directed toward her resistance, or even the fact that she had been so upset in the first place. It was the force he, his wretched King, had instilled upon her—the feelings he made her feel, or made her think she felt, that weren't real. He had forged a distorted and violent connection with her; like a coarse string entwined with shrubs and thistles. He was destroying her by taking away everything that was her own and fabricating his own twisted and entirely makeshift bond with her. Cyrus could feel it.

It was, in fact, because of this anger that Cyrus did not even consider the fact that his scent would linger on the Alpha King's mate.

"Of course, darling. Forgive me," was all he said.

But what she noticed was the fact that, with only the smallest and most inconsequential movement of her neck, she had made a choice for herself. She had granted herself the freedom of resistance and she had followed the natural motions of her own mind, as jumbled and confusing as her thoughts may have been. And he had let her.

Irrationally ecstatic and overly emotional, she wrapped her arms around him that had fallen during the surprising kiss. She leaned her head back against his chest in a moment of gratitude. It was a gilded moment, but Lily couldn't have been happier. "Thank you," she whispered so softy into his chest, that she may not have even said it out loud.

Cyrus just held her for the next couple of moments; neither of them aware of the dark shadow that was Elijah, watching from the corner, as he had returned at the King's instruction to see why Cyrus Kane hadn't shown up at the meeting.

He knew that time was of the essence. If the King suspected any foul play, he would be here himself in seconds, even though there was no time for distractions. Elijah sneered in disgust at the scene before him and then turned around to head back the way he came.

He wouldn't tell his King and, dare he say it, friend what he had seen. No—he would make sure he found out himself. In due time, he would make sure Alaricus found out everything about this puppet that went by the name of Lily Delane.

~*~

After Cyrus left for the pack meeting, Lily did what she usually did. After running on the treadmill for about 20 minutes, she watched the news. After that, she attempted to read a book. When she wasn't able to make any sense of it, she slid in an old DVD that she had found in the cupboards. Anything to keep her mind off of where she longed more than anything to be.

When that failed to keep her mind occupied, she went back to watching the news, only to shut it off when the stories grew too depressing. Just as she was reaching for a notepad to write or doodle in, she heard a loud knock at the door.

Confused at who would bother to knock on the door, she approached carefully. Since there was no peephole, and since she couldn't be sure she was safe, she opened the door only enough so that she could see who was outside. The door almost hit her right in the face when it was pushed open forcefully the rest of the way. She was greeted with Ronnie's smirking face.