Elara lowered her eyes.Ryder clearly knew the Beta’s Mate well.Given his Alpha insight,he surely knew whether the man carried the lingering scent of an old love.Yet,without hesitation,he immediately condemned the man.
Ryder was not as calm as he pretended to be.
“How much longer is Lyra’s severance cooling-off period,Alpha?”Elara asked suddenly,throwing the focus back on him.
“Fifteen more days,”Ryder answered without thought.It was clear he had been counting down every single cycle.
Elara looked outside at the sharp sunlight cutting through the trees and whispered,“Then it will be nearly simultaneous.”
“What will be?”Ryder was puzzled,failing to follow the subtle shift in her meaning.
“Nothing,”Elara replied.
She smiled faintly—a ghost of her former self—and said no more.
Just then,Ryder’s personal comm-link vibrated.The same Alpha who had ignored Elara’s seventeen missed calls immediately answered,his voice dropping to a velvet whisper of deep concern.
“Hello,Lyra?”
On the other end,Lyra’s voice was strained and wet with tears.“Ryder…I feel so exposed being alone in this territory den…”