Chapter 164: Notoriously Difficult to Please
Jessica could barely wait for the car to roll to a stop before she had the door open.
She was out and running before the wheels had fully stopped turning, up the path toward the main house, her bag forgotten on the back seat. Kira was waiting for her on the terrace, but Jessica blew straight past her.
"Where is he? Where’s Kai?"
"His bedroom, but Jessica—"
Jessica was already taking the terrace steps two at a time, past Kira, through the front doors, into the house.
"Jessica, wait—" Kira took off after her. "There’s something you need to know first, his mother is here and his brother—"
Jessica wasn’t hearing a single word. She hit the stairs at a run and made straight for Kai’s room and barged through the door without knocking.
In the corner of the room, Tan had been sitting with a stack of reports balanced on his knee, a pen in his hand. The instant the door flew open, his reflexes took over before his mind had caught up, and he hurled the pen across the room.
It missed Jessica by inches. She ducked on pure instinct, the pen clattering off the wall behind her.
But Tan was already on his feet. His claws had slid free, his eyes had gone hard and flat, and he moved to put himself between the intruder and his brother.
"Who the hell are you?" His voice was cold as gravel.
Jessica didn’t answer. Her eyes had already found Kai on the bed, pale and still beneath the oxygen mask, and everything else in the room ceased to exist for her. She didn’t even seem to register the man with claws standing three feet away.
Kira arrived in the doorway breathless.
"Tan, stop." She stepped into the room with both hands raised. "Stop, it’s alright. She means no harm. I swear it."
Tan’s eyes flicked to her, and some of the hardness eased, but his stance did not. He stayed exactly where he was, his gaze moving between Kira and the strange woman who could not stop staring at his brother.
"This is Jessica," Kira said quickly. "My best friend. She’s also Kai’s friend. She’s safe, Tan."
Tan did not look convinced in the slightest. "I’m sorry, Your Highness. But not everyone walks into my brother’s room, friend or not. I don’t know her. Until I do, she doesn’t come near him."
"I understand," Kira said. And she did. She glanced at Jessica, who had given up any pretence of composure and was crying quietly now, one hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes fixed on Kai.
Kira turned back to Tan and made the decision.
"Jessica is... Kai’s soulbond."
Tan went still. His eyes snapped to Kira. "What did you just say?"
Jessica nodded, wiping at her face with the back of her hand. "I hadn’t even told him yet," she said, her voice wrecked. "I kept putting it off. I was scared, and I was angry, and I just kept not saying it, and now he’s lying there, and I never told him, and I feel like the most horrible person alive."
Tan’s gaze swung slowly back to her.
He was visibly torn now, the hard edge of him warring with something else. He looked at Jessica, then turned and looked at his brother on the bed, pale and barely holding on.
He knew what a soulbond’s presence could do. He knew bonds accelerated healing, that having her close might genuinely help Kai.
But everything in him rebelled at the idea of letting an unknown werewolf within arm’s reach of his brother at his most vulnerable.
He narrowed his eyes. "And why should I believe you? Anyone can claim a bond. You walk in here, a werewolf I’ve never seen, just after this palace was attacked, and announce you’re my brother’s fated." His jaw tightened. "Give me one reason to trust it."
"I can’t give you a reason," Jessica said. "I don’t even understand it myself."
She took a shaking breath. "Let me see his face. Properly. Just let me close enough to see him, and watch me the whole time. Don’t take your eyes off me for a second. I don’t care. I just need to be near him."
Tan said nothing for a long moment, studying her, weighing it.
Then he exhaled and stepped to the side.
"You can come in," he said. "But I’m watching every move you make. And I can’t promise you anything about our mother when she comes back. She won’t take this the way I am."
Jessica was already moving. "I can understand that. Thank you. Thank you."
She crossed to the bed as Tan stepped aside, dropped into the chair beside Kai, and took his limp hand in both of hers, and finally let herself look at his face up close.
***
Later that night, Kira went looking for Derek and found him on the kitchen patio, soaking in the hot tub under the dark sky.
A drink sat on a low stool beside the water. His back was to her, and he didn’t turn as she came out, but she could see the tension sitting heavy across his shoulders, the weight of the last two days written into every line of him.
"Derek."
He turned at the sound of her voice, lifting the glass and draining what was left in it.
Kira immediately struck a ridiculous pose.
Derek’s brows pulled together.
She held the pose, then launched into a deeply undignified little dance, all flailing arms and questionable rhythm, while he watched her with an expression caught somewhere between confusion and concern.
"Hurry up and smile," she informed him, still dancing. "Because I am not going to stop until you do. I have endless energy and absolutely no shame!"
A reluctant chuckle broke out of him before he could stop it.
Kira grinned and pointed at him in triumph. "Yes. There it is. That’s the one."
Derek’s smile spread wider, real and warm now, the tension easing out of his face. He stretched a hand toward her over the edge of the tub.
"Come here," he said.
Kira’s grin softened. She nodded, slipped the thin robe from her shoulders and let it fall, and crossed to the tub as he watched her every step.
She stepped down into the warm water, and the moment she was within reach, his arm came around her and drew her in, pulling her flush against his chest, wrapping her up completely.
***
From inside the kitchen, two pairs of eyes had been watching the entire thing through the window.
Nana stood at the glass with her hands clasped together, beaming so hard her face ached.
"Our Drek," she said softly. "He’s finally in love. After all this time. Would you look at him?"
Beside her, Angelica snorted. "I’d rather not." She folded her arms. "I still cannot fathom what got into that boy, choosing a werewolf for a wife of all things. A werewolf. In Dravengard. As queen."
Nana reached over and clapped her on the shoulder, none too gently. "Stop that. Stop it right now. If a werewolf is the one who brings that boy back to himself after everything that had happened, then a werewolf she shall be, and we’ll thank the goddess for her."
Angelica rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
"And besides," Nana went on, looking back out the window with a fond smile, "she’s a sweet girl. A genuinely beautiful soul, that one."
"And how exactly do you know that?" Angelica’s voice was sharp with suspicion. "You’ve known her for what? Months. What if it’s all an act? What if she’s playing every one of you?"
Nana shook her head with complete certainty. "She isn’t. I know people, and I know that girl. It costs nothing to be fond of her. You’d see it too, if you let yourself."
Angelica huffed and lifted her chin.
"Well," she said. "I am notoriously difficult to please. So I suppose your sweet little werewolf queen is in for a very hard time indeed."
