THE LYCAN QUEEN REVENGE-Chapter 3 - THREE

’He really did that to me.’

The streets blurred beneath my feet as I stumbled forward, my vision wet and unfocused. I had no sense of where I was going, only that I had to keep moving. My tears refused to stop, no matter how many times I brushed at them.

Every corner I turned, every step I took, felt like I was leaving behind the last fragments of the life I once knew.

I passed storefronts glowing with warm light. Behind one window, a restaurant hummed with laughter. The sight twisted something inside me. I used to sit at tables finer than those, dressed in saffron, with servers waiting at my side. Once, Lucas had lifted a glass across a candlelit table and called me the luckiest woman alive. He had proposed to me. Now I stood outside, damp-faced, staring in like a beggar. No waiter rushed to greet me tonight. No hand reached across to take mine.

I tore my eyes away, hugging myself as if I could shield the hollow ache in my chest. My heels clacked against the pavement, a sound I had once loved, crisp and commanding. Tonight it was pitiful, out of rhythm, one heel wobbling where it had cracked on the garden stones. I nearly toppled twice before I stopped caring.

Not only my forehead burned now... even my knees and palms had far too many scrapes.

A boutique loomed ahead, its glass reflecting the city’s night lights. Dresses shimmered behind the window, gowns that could have belonged to me. Once, the salesgirls there would light up when I walked in, eager to drape fabric across my shoulders, eager to offer me champagne while they fetched sizes. Now, when the clerk inside caught my eye, she frowned. She must’ve thought I was some homeless person... "I guess I am."

Her hand flicked a curtain across the display, shutting me out entirely.

The rejection stung worse than the chill air. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself, rubbing my hands up and down to warm myself. It was wasted effort.

As I kept walking the day played in my mind, looping endlessly. I mouthed the words he had said silently, as if saying them would help me believe they weren’t true. But they echoed louder the more I denied them. I stumbled again, blinded by tears.

"He’s right. I am pathetic, maybe I should go back and be—"

Headlights flared ahead. I wasn’t even paying attention to the road.

A horn blared and tires screamed as the vehicle rushed towards me. I froze on the spot.

At some point I shut my eyes in fear. But the devastating crash never happened.

The car had shrieked to a stop an arm’s length from me. My breath hitched, lungs refusing to work. As I blinked. The door flung open and a man jumped out, his face half-shadowed by the streetlamp.

’Now I have to apologize for walking absentmindedly into the road.’ I cursed internally.

"Ava?" A voice cracked, much to my shock. "Ava Blackhawk?"

I blinked through tears, finally focusing on him. Tall, broad-shouldered, his hair slightly tousled. Recognition hit me through the haze.

"Brian," I stuttered.

Alpha Brian, the man I had known since childhood. His presence once meant safety, though I had ignored it for years in favor of Lucas’s charm. Now, in the dark of the street, he was the one before me, not Lucas.

He strode toward me, his voice urgent but soft. "Oh my world. Are you ok? Hope I didn’t scare you?"

My lips parted but nothing came out. My throat was raw from crying.

He didn’t press. Instead, he slid an arm around me, steadying my faltering steps. "Come with me. You can’t be out here like this."

I let him guide me, my body too weak to resist. His car door shut out the cold night and the hollow streets. He drove without asking questions.

We arrived at a quiet house tucked behind tall hedges. Warm light glowed from its windows, welcoming and calm. Brian helped me inside, his touch careful, never forceful.

"Sit," he said gently, guiding me to a chair.

▪︎▪︎▪︎

"Sorry once again. I didn’t see you there..."

"There’s food," he added, gesturing to the table. Plates of bread, cheese, roasted meat, all steaming and fragrant. My stomach growled, but the thought of swallowing anything made me sick.

"I’m good," I said hoarsely, shaking my head.

Brian studied me, his eyes dark with something that wasn’t pity, but heavier. He sank into the chair across from me, leaning forward with his forearms braced on the table.

"I’m sorry, I know I’ve said this a lot already." he said finally, his voice breaking the silence. "I should have been there. I should have done more for God’s sake. I thought I was doing the right thing by stepping aside. But I wasn’t. I failed you."

The words hit harder than I expected. Not because they hurt, but because they soothed. They were everything I had begged to hear from Lucas. An acknowledgment. An apology. A promise that someone cared about my pain.

Brian’s voice softened. "You don’t ever have to face this alone. If you need help, if you need someone to stand by you, anything at all, I’m here. Always."

My tears welled again, though gentler this time. I dragged the blanket tighter around me and managed to speak. "Thank you," I whispered.

I wiped at my eyes with the edge of the cloth, staring down at the table. "It’s lovely hearing this. Even if I couldn’t hear it from the person who broke my heart. Even if it wasn’t Lucas."

The silence that followed was heavy, but not empty. It was thick with something unsaid. When I finally lifted my head, Brian’s expression froze me in place. His face was stricken, grief flickering raw across his features.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice uncertain.

He looked at me like the ground had been ripped from under both of us.

Brian swallowed hard, his voice breaking as he answered. "I thought you knew... I wasn’t talking about Lucas. I was talking about your parents."