Chapter 232: Protecting Her From You
Connor walked into Derek’s home study to find the King pacing the length of the room like a caged animal.
Declan stood off to one side, saying something low and urgent, trying to talk him down. But the moment Derek’s eyes landed on Connor in the doorway, whatever Declan was saying no longer mattered.
Derek moved fast, crossing the room in three long strides, seized Connor by the collar, and slammed him back against the nearest wall hard enough to rattle the framed maps hanging on it.
"Explain," Derek growled, his face inches from Connor’s.
"Explain to me how, for an entire month, my wife was sitting in Crystal Moon Pack, and you stood in front of me, day after day, and told me you couldn’t find her."
Connor said nothing.
"You were in charge of the scouts I sent out to the packs," Derek went on, his grip tightening, his voice climbing.
"You visited those packs yourself. Unannounced. You had every resource I could give you. So why didn’t you find her, Connor? Or did you know? Did you know exactly where she’d been this whole time?"
Connor remained silent, but he didn’t look away. And the look in his eyes, steady, unflinching, and quietly resigned, told Derek everything the man’s mouth refused to.
Derek’s brows drew together. He stared at his most trusted gamma in dawning, bewildered disbelief.
For a second, his brain refused to process that his most loyal gamma had deceived him. Then, a hot wave of raw fury crashed over him.
"Betrayer!"
He shoved Connor away from him with brutal force.
Connor stumbled backward, crashed into a chair, and went down hard, tumbling to the floor amid the wreckage of it.
"You betrayed me?!" Derek barked, stalking toward him. "You. Of all people. You."
"Derek," Declan yelled, finally finding his voice and jumping between them with his arms raised. "Let’s just breathe for a second!"
But it was too late. Leo was already at the surface, shoving up behind Derek’s eyes, amber bleeding into them, the beast wild and snarling at the man who had hidden his soulbond from him for a month.
His soul bond had been out there, alone, grieving, carrying goddess-knew-what, and this man had known, and said nothing.
Derek easily sidestepped Declan, shoving the Beta out of his path.
He lunged and came down on top of Connor, pinning him to the floor, and drew back his fist to drive it into the gamma’s face.
"Your Grace, I only did it because you made me promise to protect her with my life!" Connor blurted out.
Derek’s fist hung frozen in the air, a mere two inches away from smashing Connor’s nose.
Connor stared up at his descending fist,
, breathing hard.
"Even from you," he said. "You told me to protect her... even if it meant protecting her from you."
Derek’s fist never landed. He stayed frozen over Connor’s body, his chest heaving up and down as his mind flashed back to that quiet night in the corridor. He recalled the exact instruction he had given his Head Gamma.
He had told Connor to guard her with his life, to ensure her safety above all else—even if the danger was Derek himself.
He had meant it as the highest trust he could place in a man. And Connor had honoured it, all the way to the end, even when it meant standing against his own King.
The rage drained out of Derek like water through a cracked cup.
He let out a long, shuddering breath, lowered his fist, and slowly pushed himself up off Connor. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the study, his shoulders bowed under the weight of it all.
Declan exhaled heavily, and crossed to Connor and offered him a hand. Connor took it, and Declan hauled him back onto his feet.
Neither of them spoke. There was nothing left to say.
***
After leaving Connor, Derek walked blindly through the long hallways of the estate until he reached Nana’s wing.
He found Dr Adah leaving Nana’s room, and the look on the doctor’s face made his stomach sink before she’d said a word.
"How is she?" Derek asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Dr Adah let out a heavy sigh. "I am not going to sugarcoat it. Her condition is worsening, Your Grace," Dr Adah said gently. "Her vitals are weak today."
Derek felt a physical weight press down onto his chest. "Why? Is the medication not working?"
""She hasn’t been able to properly recover from that horrific news," Dr Adah said softly, adjusting her medical chart. "Her heart cannot take the strain."
Derek sighed slowly and looked down at his own hands, feeling very downcast. Ever since Nana had learned the truth of what Crane had done, the massacre, the framing, all those years of poison, her health had gone into a steady decline.
He felt his whole life spiralling out from under him. Everything he touched turned to grief. And Nana, the woman who had raised them, who had fought for them, was now lying broken-hearted in her old age because the boys she thought she knew had shattered every hope she’d held for them.
"Will she recover?" he asked quietly. "Soon?"
Dr Adah gave a small, honest shrug. "At her advanced age, Your Grace, we can only hope and pray. Her will to fight is very low right now."
She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and rubbed it gently, a small kindness, before excusing herself and slipping away down the corridor.
Derek stood there a moment. Then he slowly pushed open the door.
Nana lay in her bed, and the sight of her stopped him cold.
She looked frail, pale and impossibly small. This woman who had been the solid rock of their entire pack, the legendary warrior princess of the old tales, the one person who had never once bent, now looked as though a strong breeze might carry her away.
And something in Derek’s chest broke quietly at the sight of her.
***
Jessica pushed open the car door and stepped out into the courtyard.
There, on the front porch of the Crystal Moon packhouse, Kira stood waiting, calm and composed, watching her friend with a small, patient smile.
The instant Jessica’s eyes found her, and saw her best friend alive, well, and completely unharmed, all of her emotional walls completely collapsed. She burst into loud and dramatic tears, her whole body shaking.
Kira laughed softly, shaking her head, and moved toward her friend with open arms.
The two of them collided in a fierce hug, and Jessica cried into Kira’s shoulder, clutching at her like she might float away.
"I thought," Jessica hiccupped between sobs, "I thought I’d never see you again. I thought you were gone forever, Kira, I thought—"
"I’m here," Kira murmured, holding her tight. "I’m right here. I’ve got you."
Behind them, Kai climbed out of the car with a wide grin spreading across his face.
When Kira caught sight of him, her whole face lit up, her excitement bubbling over.
"Kai!" she shrieked. She pulled away from Jessica and went running straight to him.
Kai smirked at her, opening his arms as she barrelled toward him.
"Hello, white beast," he said.
