The Delta's Daughter Chapter 342

LYRIC

FLASHBACK 3 YEARS AGO

I slipped out the window, propelling myself down the six-story building. My feet hit the ground silently. I look left and right, up and down the alley, thankful there was no one to witness me descending down the brick wall. The bag crossed over my shoulder sat heavy. Not because of the gold chalice I stole, but because of the weight of our crime that sat heavily on my chest.

One would think after doing this for the past two years, I would have grown accustomed to it. But I don't think I ever would. My wolf, Note, hated it. Thought it was below an Alpha female to steal. However, it's what put a roof over mine and Lizzy's head. Plus it kept us away from Miko's wrath and his henchmen Bram.

Quickly I walked down the alley, staying hidden in the shadows until I came to the main street, where I had parked the rust bucket of a car I stole.

I hopped in and started the car, the engine rumbling to life and a sigh of relief came out of me when the piece of crap car started right away.

I begin to pull out when I feel my phone vibrate. I scowl when I see the message from Miko: 'Come back here immediately Swift. Pull off the job.'

I frown with confusion, what could be so urgent that he would have me pull off the job? I type a quick reply 'All good in the hood boss. Item secured on my way back now.'

It was an hour's drive back to Miko's bar, his base of operations. The whole way my wolf paced and howled. 'What is your issue Note?" I cursed at her when it became excessive and demanding that we hurry.

'Family.' She said. I didn't understand.

'Is Lizzy ok? Do we need to go to her before Miko?' Notes behavior was concerning. She didn't seem to know the answer any more than I did but she insisted we needed to go see Miko first.

The closer I got to Miko's bar the more Note paced and the more I began to share her feeling of the idea that family was close. A building connection formed inside me, growing and maturing, a connection I hadn't felt in two years.

'It's not possible.' I tell my wolf, 'We felt our bond sever only days after they took her.' I reason with myself even though I say it to Note.

I pull up outside the bar, grab the bag with the item I stole for Miko and rush inside. The connection and awareness of family, are greater. My breathing quickens, and my heart beats so fast I think it's going to break right out of my chest.

Bram tries to stop me as I push past him, the pull toward the other half of me too strong to ignore. I race through the bar and down the back hallway until I'm standing outside Miko's office door. I forget all about knocking and burst in. My eyes scan the room as I take quick breaths, landing on Miko who hovers over the nasty leather couch that sits in a corner of his disgusting office.

I see her bare feet first, bloodied and sliced up. My gaze travels up the length of her legs which are littered with cuts and bruises, to a swollen belly, which doesn't register at first until I finally land on her face. "Melody?" I whisper as if she would disappear by just saying her name out loud.

Miko stands to his full height and my eyes widen with disbelief. My feet are stuck solid to the floor but my body trembles with fear, hope, relief, and everything else one could experience when looking at the identical copy of yourself that you thought had died almost two years ago.

My eyes wander back to the large and swollen belly of my sister, who lay on the leather couch shivering. "Your pregnant!" I stupidly say.

"Lyric," She cries out with a sob, her face tilting towards me. "Lyric," She says again softer, and reaches a hand out in my direction.

I finally find the strength to move and am by her side holding her hand, crouching next to her.

"I thought she was you at first, I found her a few miles away and brought her here immediately," Miko tells me but I'm only half listening, my attention on my sister and only now registering what bad shape she is in.

"Oh my goddess, Melody. What happened to you? Where have you been? I thought you had died!" So many questions needed to be answered. Where had she been, why did she only find me now? As these questions go through my head, Note internally howls.

'Her wolf is gone.' She says with a whine. I sniff my sister and indeed I find no scent of her wolf.

"Lyric, I don't have much time," Melody says, her head weakly moving from side to side.

"Swift," Miko calls my name and I hesitantly look at him, he gestures for me and reluctantly I let go of my sister's hand and stand, walking to Miko's side. "She's in really bad shape, and without a wolf, she won't make it through the night." I gulp as reality settles over me.

"No," I say, "She can't die, we just found each other again." Refusing to believe this was it. "I lost her once, I won't lose her again," I tell Miko and turn to go back to my sister's side.

Miko's large hand lands on my shoulder, halting me. He turns me to face him. "I don't know your back story, Swift, I don't make it a habit of asking but…" He looks at my sister, "She's dying." There's pity in his eyes, something I have never seen from him before. Miko was a piece of shit Alpha gangster, his one rule was to never hurt children, so when his eyes cast over my sister once more and lingered on her stomach, I understood his look of sympathy, his compassion.

I take up the spot next to my sister once more, grasping her hand in mine. "What can I do Melody?" I try not to let the sadness show on my face or in my voice, but it's hard. So fucking hard.

"I don't have much time left," She croaks out. "The girl let me loose, helped me to escape. She told me to run, to go to the New Moon kingdom. I did Lyri, I ran so far, so hard. His hounds chased me and his men hunted me. I hid, and ran until I couldn't." My sister sobbed, the tears tracked down her face and through the dirt that smudged her body and the white nightgown she was wearing.

We were nowhere close to the New Moon kingdom, we were days by cars, weeks by foot even in wolf form.

"Who helped you escape, where did you come from? What happened after the Rogue King took you? Are there any other survivors?" The questions poured out of me, yet my sister shook them off. Her breathing became more labored by the minute.

"When we were taken, the rogue king gave us to a man called Senko, the shadow witch. He did things to us. Impregnated us." I gasped and tears filled my eyes at the thought of my sister enduring what our mother went through. "He implanted the child," she explained. "He tested us, our blood. Some of us were used to grow his children. Some of us were created into something else, into creatures. The males were turned into something not quite human. He stole our wolves, read our minds."

"Shit, Mel," I stammered as her story unfolded and I tried to wrap my mind around what she was telling me. Miko hovered close by, listening as well.

"He's crazy, he could read our minds by tasting our blood." She began to cough, dark blood stained her lips. "When the females ovulated, he harvested our eggs, then fertilized them." She coughed again, more blood coming up. I reached for the towel Miko held out for me and wiped her lips. "He put the embryo back inside us. He turned the females into monsters if they couldn't carry the child."

I help her sit up slightly, scared she would start to choke on her blood.

"Lyric," She said in a serious tone. "He told me I was carrying Zane's baby. That the child I carried would be stronger and bigger than any other shifter, he said the child was cloned and I should be proud to carry the prince. That the child would be special. I don't know what he meant, but the girl showed me the way out, I followed the rising sun and the baby guided me. I felt you Lyric, I felt you strongly but I don't know how."

She began coughing again, her body trembling and her skin paling.

"Lyric," Miko's voice pulled me away from my sister and when I looked at him, he gestured towards her lower body with the tilt of his head.

"Shit," I couldn't help the curse as I looked down and saw the growing pool of blood seeping from between her legs.

"Save him Lyri, please save him. The shadow witch can't find him. Promise me you will keep him hidden?" I could only agree by nodding. It was too painful to try and speak.

I understood, this was Zane's child, the Alpha wolf that was meant to be her mate. She had grown this pup inside her, it was as much hers as if Zane and she were mated. I had no words of comfort for my sister, I was lost in my own renewed grief that I would be losing her again. Powerless to save her. Again.

"I promise." I mustered up the ability to speak and meant that promise. I would protect this child if it was the last thing I ever did. With my dying breath I would I would take care of him.

"Help me, Miko," I said after a few moments of watching the life drain away from my twin sister. "I need hot water and towels. We have to deliver this baby."

I heard Miko groan behind me, "How are you going to deliver a baby when she is dying?"

"We're going to cut it out of her," I said with resolve. My sister wasn't going to make it but I would be damned if I would lose her child too. "Have one of you men pick up Lizzy." I gave him an order using an Alpha tone, I wasn't surprised when he didn't question me, rather sent a low-level minion to go fetch Lizzy.

Mine and Lizzy's place wasn't far, and she was standing in the room with tears in her eyes looking over my sister, twenty minutes later.

"Name him after his father." Those were her last words before she slipped away into the void, her breathing slowed and labored. Blood filled her mouth and drizzled off the couch from where it gushed from between her legs.

I let out a long harrowing howl, driven by sorrow and my wolf's pain.

**END FLASHBACK**

"My sister died before we made the first cut. She never got to hold her son." Tears streamed down my face that I kept hidden by my arms as I related that night to my mate. "Shadow runs the underground market. As well as no man's land. Every borough fears him. He has humans under his control as well as rogues and other creatures. My sister said his hounds, I can only assume they are his pets. I have tried to stay off his radar for as long as possible… until this job. I have no idea why he wanted the crown, or what purpose it serves. All I know is he wanted it and hired Miko's gang to get it. I'm the best at what I do, and Miko bribed me to do one last job, this job. If I hadn't done it, he was going to out my pup to Shadow. So, you see… I had no choice."

Silence engulfed the room, an uncomfortable one. The air was thick with tension as the Beta made no move to speak. I could feel and hear the beat of his pulse, as I'm sure he could mine. From the silence of the holding cell as we both sat quietly, a pulling sensation began to grow inside me.

'Need mate' Note whispered in hope.

'Mate doesn't want us. We don't need him.' I replied to her. If our mate wanted us, he would have let us know by now. As it was, he was disgusted with me. I could sense it, feel his disdain toward me.

Part of me was okay with that. I didn't want a mate. Having a mate meant having to mate, to have intercourse with someone. I couldn't do that, the very idea of letting someone touch me like that made my stomach lurch.

Then there was the part of me, the side that agreed with my wolf. The side that wanted a mate to hold them and protect them. Someone to share the burden with once in a while. The side whose wolf craved the gift the Moon Goddess gave her.

I dared to look up and was met with dark eyes and a face that looked impassive but couldn't hide the rage of his wolf. The Beta turns to look at the mirror, "Did you get all that?" His tone was tight and deep like he was holding back his outrage. He stood from the chair he sat in and left the room without a word to me.

I wasn't expecting him to comfort me. I didn't need his pity or his comfort. But I expected something other than nothing. My heart clenched and I swiped at the tears that had fallen angrily. A few minutes later, two guards came in and escorted me out of the room and back down the stairs to my cell.

I laid down on the cot, exhausted. Physically and mentally. I wanted to sleep but I knew as soon as I closed my eyes the nightmares would claim me. Especially after reopening the mental wounds of my past, that would scar me for the rest of my life.

He brought my son here. In return, I gave him the truth just like I promised. I just hope it was enough for them to take me seriously and protect my son. After all, the council was still to decide my fate.

This time they left the silver cuffs on and I scratched my wrists where it burned the skin. I reached under the cot, pulled out the slither of metal, and undid them. I rubbed my wrists, relieved for them to be off once again, and threw them under the cot with the other pair.

It took a little time, but my skin began to heal and gradually, I felt Note's presence once again.

I didn't want to die. Or stay locked away for the rest of my life. I did the crime though, and I was caught, so I had to do the time. Just because I understood, didn't mean I liked it.

I only told my mate half the story about little Zane. They didn't know exactly how special he was. They would soon find out if they spent enough time around him.

My sister had confessed something that Shadow told her. She said he liked to talk to his breeders, as he called them. He said the child that grew inside her was not hers, that he had belonged to another she-wolf. But she should be honored to be able to carry the clone.

I didn't think it was relevant, but now I wonder just how close they were to Zane Noir. My mate's reaction was unexpected - fierce. His wolf was able to hurt me, attack me when I told him my pup's name.

Which makes me wonder what they know. Something that they wouldn't tell me. I wasn't trusted by my mate; I had no reason to be trusted. I hadn't given him any.