Sing, Canary - Ashley Amy Page 0,21

not caring that my clothes were getting soaked.

"Why what?" she hissed as I pulled.

"Why did you do that for me?"

Lyra locked up. I could tell her twisted way to get out of the truth was about to make an appearance.

"As an angel, I cannot let someone suffer in my place. It was the right thing to do."

I knew she spoke the truth, but there was something else she wasn't telling me. After I spent a good thirty minutes in here with Caine, I thought long and hard about it during that quiet moment.

"Why else? You cannot lie to me, Lyra. Do not try and deflect with a question. Answer me. Why else?" My stomach pressed into her back, feeling the softness of her feminine body.

Caine and I sought female companionship outside of our odd relationship, but I knew Lyra was a boundary neither of us were willing to cross.

"Tell me, Lyra." Tugging her head back and swiveling it, I made her look me in the eye as the truth came out. The water's mist made her blink a few times, but she held my stare. The stream ran down my own face, but I never wavered with the intensity showing in my eyes.

"You're my family." She tried to use that as her weak response.

I growled. It reverberated within my chest, settling where I could feel my lion being caged. He needed to run, but I knew our feral side would only worsen by being in here. The wards prevented me from letting him be one with me.

“Let's try for answer number three, shall we?” I knew my stare darkened as I took her in. Keeping my eyes focused on hers would help me to not study the beautiful woman she became.

"I have many answers, Axel. We'll be here all night if you're fishing for the one you seek." Her rosy lips stayed parted for me to linger on thoughts of nipping the bottom. I hated how drawn to her I still was.

"Then skip the fluff, Lyra. I want the real reason. The reason that fueled you the most when you saw that forged knife at my throat."

"Axel, please..." She closed her eyes, trying to escape me in her personal space.

"I need to know, Lyra," I paused, releasing my tight grip. Putting space between us, she kept herself facing the wall. I saw the nasty scars that her towel hinted at before. My eyes burned, finally seeing the truth behind what happened to my best friend. With tears for our past, I tried the only thing I could. I begged her with my quiet voice. "Please."

I could feel her trying to hold herself together, but she couldn’t. "I've never stopped caring about you. I never will. I might be ruined, but I couldn't bear for you to no longer see me how you once did."

And there it was. The admission I had waited five years to hear.

"Then why?" I knew my voice cracked. Hell, I knew the biggest reason I fell apart earlier was because of the look of panic I saw in her eyes.

After years of no emotion, I saw the loving friend I once had. Apparently, she had never stopped.

"I am no longer her, Axel. I couldn't be who you adored any more. I lost my mind that day, but I never lost sight of you."

I could handle her words. After all, this was her first admission as to why she ignored me all those years ago. She just didn't expect to see me strung up by Barcel's men. The surprise revealed her hidden emotions for me to finally see her secret.

Unable to cope with this knowledge, I fled. I ran out of the showers to find a moment alone. I needed to take in everything from my day.

Confusion over what I needed to do began to make my mind swim. I left her in the shower stall just as exposed as I was.

I forced her to show me her weakness. Part of me needed to know to put my mind at ease for the first time in five years. The other part didn't know what to do now that we got the answer.

Hiding within my cell, I found Augustine on the top bunk. I stood back for a second because that had been where he put me when we first got assigned together. Why was he being nice now?

"Don't read too much into it. You look like a piece of steak that went through the meat grinder." The