Chapter 235: In Her Brother’s Garden
Braxton sat in his study, buried under a small mountain of pack logistics and financial files. He was rubbing his temples, wondering if he had made a very bad decision, when the door opened.
His Beta, Oliver, walked into the room, holding an envelope.
"This just arrived, Alpha," his Beta said, crossing the room. "It comes from the King."
Braxton’s heart gave a small skip, but he kept his face even as he took the letter. "Do you know what’s in it?"
Oliver shook his head. "No, Alpha. It looked like a personal letter, between you and the King. So I thought it best not to read it."
"Thank you, Oliver." Braxton turned the envelope over in his hands, then broke the seal and unfolded the page.
Braxton,
I know I am likely the last person on this earth you wish to hear from, and I cannot blame you for hiding my wife away from me after the horrific way I treated her. You acted as any true brother and Alpha should, and for that, you have my respect.
But I saw Kira at the Wolf Council, and I understand now what she is to me, what she has always been. I said things to her that I would give anything to take back. I hurt her in ways I am not sure she will ever forgive, and I would not blame her if she never did.
I am not writing to demand her return. She is a grown woman, and after everything, the choice is hers alone. I only ask for one thing, a chance to speak with her.
To apologise properly, to her face, and to say the things I should have said long before I said the cruel ones. If she refuses, I will respect it. But I could not live with myself if I did not at least ask.
I know she is safe with you, and for that, in spite of everything, you have my gratitude. Please, grant me this.
Derek Wolfe
Braxton let out a very deep, slow sigh, leaning his head back against the leather cushion of his chair.
After the very first line, he felt his heart settle slowly back into his chest. He had braced himself for threats, for demands, for the arrogance of a Lycan king used to getting his way. This was not that.
He stared up at the ceiling, feeling a mess of conflicting emotions.
"What does it say, Alpha?" Oliver asked.
"The King wants to meet with Kira," Braxton said.
Oliver exhaled, visibly relieved. "Well. I’m glad it isn’t a declaration of war, at least. That’s something." He shifted. "What do you want to do about it?"
Braxton stayed quiet for a while, turning the letter over in his mind, weighing the man behind the words. Then he said, "I’ll send a reply to the King." He tapped his desk. "We will handle this carefully."
Oliver nodded, then his expression grew more serious.
"Speaking of careful, Alpha... I have some rather troubling news from our border patrols. We have just detected Umbra activity along the borders. It’s my belief they’ve located the Queen. They know she’s here."
Braxton’s jaw tightened. "Then we upgrade security at the borders. Immediately. I want our strongest warriors on patrol, day and night. Nothing gets through."
"I’ll see to it, Alpha." Oliver hesitated, then pressed on carefully. "Although... I have to say it might be better for her to go back to Dravengard. They have more warriors than we do. Stronger defences. If the Umbras are massing for her, she’d be safer there than she is here with us."
Braxton didn’t answer for a long moment. The truth of it sat uncomfortably in his chest, because he knew Oliver was right, and he hated that he knew it.
"Kira isn’t to know about the Umbra activity at the borders," he said at last. "Any of it. I don’t want her worrying about it, not now, not with everything else she’s carrying."
"She won’t hear it from me, Alpha."
"Good." Braxton picked his pen back up. "That’ll be all, Oliver."
***
Later that evening, Kira wandered through the gardens of Crystal Moon Pack, breathing in the cool air and trying, with all her might, not to think about Derek and their encounter at the Wolf Council.
She was doing a terrible job of it. Every time she closed her eyes, those intense amber eyes from the Wolf Council hallway kept flashing vividly in her mind.
She stopped by a patch of white roses, looked down at her right hand, and reached inward, the way her mother had been teaching her, willing her power to come.
Slowly, a beautiful, gentle golden glow bloomed in the centre of her palm, stretching out like a fine thread of light that curled and coiled around her fingers and hand.
She stared at the golden glow for a short while, marvelling at how much her control had improved over the past month.
A month ago she had been a wolfless runt everyone looked down on. Now light answered when she called it.
She watched the glow shimmer for a while, then gently let the power go. The light faded, dimming down to nothing, and she lowered her hand to her side.
Letting out a slow breath, she rested that same hand, without quite meaning to, against her stomach.
She had been circling the same question for days now. Whether to tell Derek about the pregnancy.
Every instinct in her wanted to bury it, to keep this one precious thing safely away from the man who had broken her.
But somewhere underneath the hurt, she knew the truth. It was his child too. And whatever Derek was, whatever he had done, keeping a father from ever knowing his own blood existed was not the kind of woman she wanted to be.
Braxton had been very livid the previous afternoon when he realised she had bumped into Derek at the council building. Her brother had paced around the living room for an hour, ranting like a madman about wars and protection.
And Kira understood why. She truly did. But understanding him didn’t make him right.
She knew what the right thing was. It just happened to also be the hardest thing.
As she stood there, tangled up in her own thoughts, her beast, Lux, stirred.
Lux, who had been quiet all evening, suddenly began to whine and pace restlessly at the back of Kira’s mind, agitated, insistent, pushing at her like a dog scratching to be let out.
Kira frowned. What on earth is going on with you? she thought, trying to calm her inner animal. Why are you suddenly so restless?
Sensing a heavy shift in the air pressure behind her, Kira slowly turned around.
Her entire body froze. Her breath caught in her throat, and her jaw almost dropped to the grass.
Standing a mere few feet away from her, without a single warrior sounding the alarm, was Derek. He was dressed in his dark clothes, his towering frame casting a shadow across the garden path.
Kira blinked, staring at him as though she’d conjured him out of her own thoughts.
He shouldn’t have been here. Braxton would tear the borders apart when he found out. And yet here he stood, in her brother’s garden, in the last light of the day, watching her.
Her traitorous heart kicked into an uneven, stumbling rhythm as those amber eyes found hers and held them, saying a hundred things his mouth had not yet dared to.
Comments