Page 52 of Same Way

“She’s not,” Vic said. “Eden lied.”

The woman approached slowly, clutching her purse to her stomach. She studied Lyric, and her eyes were so open andvulnerable, and filled with the same hope that was blooming inside of Lyric.

Lyric was overwhelmed, and tears streamed down her cheeks as the woman came to a stop in front of her. She had so many questions she wanted to ask. What had this woman named her on the day she was born? Was her name really Lyric? What had her childhood been like? What had happened the day Lyric had been taken? What had this woman’s life been like from then until now?

None of those questions mattered in this moment right now though.

“I have been looking for you,” Lyric’s mother said in a breaking voice. “For so long.”

Lyric’s shoulders shook with her crying, and she leaned in and melted into her mom’s embrace, and it. Was.Everythingshe remembered.Everything.

“Mom?” she whispered brokenly.

“I’m here now, baby,” she whispered back.

Lyric hugged her tighter but stayed gentle enough that she wouldn’t hurt her human mother. She had so much to tell her. So much to catch up on. So much to say, but words were failing her right now.

She looked up at Vic, and he had his head cocked, and a sweet smile on his masculine lips. His heart was in his eyes.

Thank you, she mouthed.

He nodded.

She had no idea how he’d done it…how he’d tracked her mom down, but now a dozen little moments clicked into place. Him taking quiet calls outside. Him having little meetings with Liam. Him spending more time on his laptop this week.

He’d tracked her down and planned this. From the happy, emotional looks on her Packs’ faces, they were all involved in this moment. Destiny was straight-up sobbing.

God, did they understand how much this meant to her?

“Come here,” Lyric said in a hitching voice, gesturing to them.

Vic reached them first and wrapped them up in a hug, and the others came and joined.

Oh, they stood like that for minutes, in the middle of this beautiful stone room, and for the rest of her life, Lyric would never forget just swaying and hugging her mom, Vic holding her hand so tightly as the others silently hugged them.

It was the most healing moment of her entire existence.

“Can you stay?” Lyric asked her mom.

“Vic got me a place in town. I can stay as long as you want. He did this for you,” Mom murmured. “And for me.”

Lyric squeezed Vic’s hand tighter. The Mating Bond was already strong between them, but Vic was bonding them even more. She used to think she’d been born unlucky. Some were born to suffer their whole lives, and somewhere along the way, Lyric had grown to accept that of herself. Her destiny had been to hurt for always…

But Vic had come along and changed that.

He’d changed everything.

He was giving her back the pieces of herself she’d yearned for.

The pieces of her that had been pushed to the side and forgotten.

For the rest of her life, Lyric would never forget this moment right here, surrounded by her people, holding her mother, enveloped completely in Vic’s love.

She’d finally found a home worth protecting.