The Lunar Queen (Lyric and Mason) novel Chapter 28

Chapter 28

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That doesn’t make sense. None of this does. Mason is my mate… so why does this feel… different?

“I will go get the doctor. She said your back needed to heal some before they flipped you,” he says before turning and walking out of the room.

Who is this man? Why is he so nice?

A few moments later, he walks in with Dr. Grant.

“Good morning, Lyric. It is good to see you awake,” she says warmly.

“Good to be awake. Glad it was after my birthday. I got out of going clubbing with Winter,” I say.

“Not a chance,” Winter says, walking into the room.

She comes and sits at my side.

“I’m so happy to hear your annoying voice. I have missed it,” she says, crying.

Her voice cracks halfway through, and that’s when it really hits me-how close this was. How close I came to not hearing her at all.

“Please don’t cry,” I say.

“So, doc, about me sitting up or lying on my back-I would rather not stay like this,” I say.

She walks to the bed and unwraps the bandages on my back.

“Your back has healed faster than I expected it to. I still want to keep them wrapped, and I have a cream for you to apply three

times a day to lessen the scarring when it heals completely. But yes, you can sit up. Your Highness, if you don’t mind?” she says to

Cole.

Your highness?

That word lands differently. Heavy. Like I should’ve recognized it sooner. Like I should know exactly who he is.

“Mind if I help you sit up, princess?” he asks gently.

He rolls me gently onto my back, then lifts me in his arms and sits me upright in the bed.

The second he touches me, my body reacts-subtle, but there. Not fear. Not pain. Something else I don’t want to look at too closely.

He smells so good, like coffee and cigar smoke.

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Chapter 28

After he puts a pillow behind me and gets me settled,

“Hey, doc, I can’t hear Nova. Is that permanent?” I ask.

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The silence in my head is louder than anything else in this room.

“Probably not. You had a massive amount of silver in your body, as well as traces of wolfsbane,” she says. She will be back soon.

“So, you know what I am going to say, right?” she asks me, her voice stern.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Precisely,” she says.

“Can we wait until everyone is here? I would rather not relive that experience more than twice,” I say, feeling the rush of emotions way too fast.

It hits like a wave-too much, too fast, like my body remembers before my mind does.

My heart starts beating rapidly; my breaths are short.

“Lyric,” Winter yells.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Cole says, grabbing my face in his hands.

“Breathe, you are safe. Tell me three things: one, what you see; two, what you smell; three, what you feel,” he says calmly.

“I see your eyes, blue like clear waters. I smell cigar smoke on you. And I feel your hands on my face,” I say my breathing evening

out.

It works. It actually works. The panic loosens its grip just enough for me to breathe again.

“GET OFF MY MATE,” Mason snarls.

The sound tears through me.

Not slow. Not gradual. Instant.

Tears spill down my face before I even understand why, and suddenly I am back at the school. Back against the wall. Back trying to make myself small enough that nobody notices me.

“No, please,” I cry. “I stayed away. I swear I will leave him alone. I am sorry. Please.”

“Lyric,” someone says.

Mason takes one step toward my bed.

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Chapter 28

I jerk away so hard pain rips through my back. “No. Please tell him to leave. I do not want him here.”

His face changes.

Not anger this time.

Something worse.

“Lyric, I would never hurt you,” he says.

But my body does not believe him.

“Everything is worse when he is here,” I sob. “I just want to be free of this pain. Please.”

I try to push myself away from him, forgetting I cannot move fast enough, forgetting my body is still broken.

Cole catches me before I can pull at my stitches.

“Get him out,” he says, his voice low and controlled.

Mason does not move.

For one second, he just stands there staring at me like he finally understands what I have been trying to say without saying it.

Then Hunter steps between us.

“Mason,” he says quietly. “Leave.”

Cole keeps one arm around me while Winter grips my hand.

“He is gone,” Cole tells me. “You are safe.”

His voice gives me something to hold onto.

The room starts to blur again, exhaustion pulling at me harder than before.

The last thing I hear before sleep takes me is the door closing behind Mason.

And the strange, crushing relief that follows.

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