Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 297

Chapter 297: The Accident

Derek stood in front of the columbarium with Kira beside him. The stone wall held the ashes of his parents, quiet and still under the afternoon light. He rested one hand on the cool surface and remained silent for a moment.

"Right," he said at last. "Mother. Father."

He cleared his throat, and looked sideways at Kira and she dazzled him with a bright smile.

"This is Kira," he said. "My wife. You’d have liked her, which is unfortunate, because she’d have taken your side in everything and I’d never have won an argument in this house again."

Kira laughed under her breath.

"She’s carrying my pups. Yes, two of them." He reached over and took her hand. "So you’re both grandparents, and you might as well know now that they’ll be trouble. Their mother walked into the Shadow King’s fortress on purpose."

"Derek."

"They should know what they’re dealing with."

Then his voice changed, and the joke went out of it.

"I remember how you two were," he said quietly. "I didn’t understand it as a boy. I thought all couples were like that." His thumb moved over Kira’s knuckles. "They’re not. I’ve seen enough of them now to know how rare it was."

Kira’s swallowed hard.

"I love her the way you loved each other," Derek said. "I want you to know that. It’s the same thing, and I never thought I’d have it." He looked at the urns. "I’ll look after her. I’ll look after all three of them. That’s my promise, and you know my word is my bond."

Kira leaned into his side and rested her head against his arm.

"They’d have loved you," he said.

"You don’t know that."

"I do, actually. Mum had terrible taste in people. She’d have adored you."

Kira shot him a mock glare, and elbowed him in the ribs. Derek laughed and pulled her into his arms.

"Don’t mind me. They would have adored you. You’re too cute not to be adored."

They left the columbarium and started the drive toward Moonfang, where Claire had already moved in, and had assumed her Alpha position.

The trip to Moonfang took four hours, and they spent most of it talking about sweet nothings.

Names, mostly. Derek suggested three kids names, and Kira rejected all of them on the grounds that they sounded like ancient generals. Kira suggested two and Derek said one of them belonged to a horse he’d owned as a boy.

"You named a horse that?"

"He was a very dignified horse."

"We’re not naming our daughter after a horse, Derek."

"He won things though," he said with a shrug and a lopsided grin.

She laughed at that, and he watched her do it out of the corner of his eye and thought, not for the first time that week, that he had very nearly lost this.

Then the conversation turned, and Kira’s voice grew more serious.

"I don’t know what to do about Scott and Chloe," Kira said.

Derek’s expression shifted. "What’s there to decide?"

"They’re still in the Ironfang pack house." She looked out of the window. "I was going to ask Mum to keep them. Let them stay, give them rooms and food, but watch them properly."

"No."

"Why?" she asked glancing at him.

"Because it’s simple." Derek changed gear. "Kira, those two have nothing left. Everything they thought they were, everything they were promised, went up in a council hall."

"That’s exactly why I feel sorry for them."

"I know. That’s the problem."

Kira turned fulling to look at him.

"They’re not going to try anything this month," he said. "Or this year, probably. But they’re young, and they’ve got nothing else to do with the rest of their lives except think about how they lost it. And who they lost it to." He glanced across. "You. You’re the face of it. However fair it was, however true, it was you standing there when it happened."

Kira said nothing.

"If you’re going to be merciful, be merciful and exile them." Derek’s voice was steady. "Let them go away from the pack and find other things to do with their lives."

"That feels cruel."

"It’s the opposite of cruel. It’s self preservation." He shrugged. "If they do come back for revenge one day, they’ll have to fight their way in from the outside, and we’ll see them coming a mile off. Keep them in that house and one morning they’ll pull the rug from under you."

Kira turned back to the window.

She hated that it made sense. That was the trouble with Derek. He was just working out where the danger was and saying it out loud, and she was the one who kept wanting the world to be softer than it was.

"Let me think about it," she said.

Derek nodded and left it alone.

***

At Crescent Moon, Jessica was in Tan’s room, where Angelica was seated, attending to her son.

"I’ll only be gone a few hours." She had her bag over one shoulder and her car keys already in her hand. "I’m heading to Aethewulf Centralis to finish a few things, I won’t be long. I’ll be home before dark."

"I know. I know." She dropped her hands. "I’ve been beside that man since we were children. Nobody was there longer than me. And then she turns up out of nowhere and it’s done, just like that, and everyone acts like I should be pleased for them."

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