Chapter 238: Your Wish is My Command
Kira had just finished her clinic visit and was heading back to the packhouse, Gavin ambling along beside her, when a car pulled into the driveway.
She stopped, blinking against the bright glare on the windscreen. When the driver’s side door swung open and Connor stepped out, a warm smile began to spread across her face at the sight of him.
Then the door on the other side opened, and Declan stepped out, and the smile died on her lips.
"Connor," she said slowly, her eyes flicking between the two men. "What’s going on? Did you get lost on the way to a military parade?"
Connor chuckled softly. But Declan came closer, dipped into a small bow, and greeted her respectfully.
"Your Highness."
Kira regarded him coolly and returned the greeting, giving him nothing more than politeness demanded. "Good morning to you too."
"I’d like to speak with you," Declan said. "If you don’t mind. Only for a few minutes."
Kira looked at Connor. And Connor gave her a small, pleading look, the kind that said, just hear him out, please.
She sighed heavily.
A short while later, Kira was seated in the living room, across from Declan, her legs crossed.
"So," she said. "What brings you all this way? I’m quite surprised, honestly. That you’d ever want to sit across from a traitor and make conversation."
Declan bowed his head slightly. "I judged you wrongly," he said. "I let my paranoia and my old biases cloud my vision. I am truly sorry for the things I said, and the way I treated you, Your Highness."
Kira’s face stayed indifferent. "Is that what you came all this way to say? Because if so, you needn’t have bothered. I forgave you long ago."
She shrugged. "You’re an asshole, Declan, but everything you did, you did to protect your friend. I don’t hold it against you. I mean that."
Declan was quiet for a beat, clearly not having expected that. Then he pressed on. "I actually came to ask you, officially, not to go ahead with the divorce. Or the rejection."
Kira raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? And why on earth wouldn’t I go ahead with it? Our marriage was a contract from the very start. A fake one. And now it’s over; he ended it himself. So tell me, what’s stopping me from walking my own path now?"
"Because you’re his soulbond," Declan said quietly. "And you know, deep down in your heart, that Derek loves you so much. More than he’s ever loved anything."
Kira stared at him for a long moment.
"Too bad, love isn’t enough," she said at last. "The only reason I haven’t rejected this bond is because of the pup growing inside me. Rejection isn’t good for the baby. That’s it."
She slowly rose to her feet. "So if that’s all you came to say, then you can go. My mind’s already made up. I have my path, and Derek has his. Sending you here won’t change a single thing about how I feel."
She turned to leave.
"Nana is ill."
Kira stopped in her tracks. But she didn’t turn around.
Declan saw the effect the words had, the way her shoulders went rigid, and he pushed on quickly. "Her health’s gone down and down since the day you left. And she’s refused to fight it. She won’t even see Derek. She said she doesn’t want to lay eyes on him unless you come back to Dravengard."
Kira slowly turned to look at him. "Do you think," she said, her voice low, "that you can use a sweet old woman like Nana to manipulate my emotions, Declan? Is that the new strategy?"
Declan shook his head and got to his feet. "No. I’m telling you the truth, Your Highness. I swear it. I’ve no intention of manipulating you."
He held her gaze. "Even if you never plan to set foot in Dravengard again, at least come and visit her. Just once. If not for anything else, then for old times’ sake. Nana was one of the very first people to accept you, wholeheartedly in Dravengard."
Kira stared at him for a long while with a blank expression. Then she turned and walked away without a single word.
***
Two days later...
Derek drove his fist into the punching bag, again and again, ignoring the deep ache blooming in his chest, pushing his body far past where it wanted to stop.
He was shirtless, in nothing but a pair of sports trousers, sweat glistening across his back and shoulders as he hammered blow after blow into the bag, as though he could beat the guilt and grief out of himself if he only hit hard enough.
He threw a final right hook, but suddenly, his lungs betrayed him. A violent cough tore out of his throat. It seized him mid-swing, rough and violent, doubling him over until he sank down and hit the floor on his backside, coughing so hard his whole body shook.
When it finally eased, he reached out for the water bottle beside him and gulped it down.
"Why have you refused to see a doctor about that cough?"
Derek’s amber eyes dragged upward, full of irritation. Kai was leaning against the doorframe, looking entirely too relaxed for someone who had just disobeyed his orders.
"I told you," he rasped, "I didn’t want to be disturbed, Kai."
Kai stepped inside anyway. "Yes, well, normally I would happily leave you to wallow in your own self-pity, but you happen to have a visitor."
Derek grunted, pushing himself up off the floor, snatched his shirt from where it hung over a piece of gym equipment, and slung it over his shoulder. "I don’t want to see any visitor," he said. "Declan can handle whatever official pack matter it is. I have—"
The words died in his throat, because someone had stepped in behind Kai. Kira stood there in the doorway.
Derek stopped moving entirely. His heart skipped a beat, then hammered violently against his ribs. He blinked twice, just to be certain he wasn’t hallucinating her, the way he had a hundred times these past weeks, conjuring her out of longing only to have her dissolve.
But she didn’t dissolve. She walked into the room, her eyes travelling over him, over his sweat-slicked chest and shoulders, before she caught herself and lifted her gaze to his face.
"Hi," she said.
Derek’s voice came out rough. "Hi."
Kira drew in a breath, looking around the metal-and-leather gym before fixing her hazel eyes back on his face. "So, I heard," she said, a wry note creeping into her tone, "that Nana asked you to bring me back. Or else she was going to die on you out of pure spite."
Derek let out a startled chuckle at her choice of words.
And, to his surprise, Kira chuckled too.
Kai looked between the two of them, a grin spreading across his face. He took a step back and performed a dramatic little bow. "Right then! And that’s my cue to leave."
With a quick wink at Derek, he backed out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
Kira turned to Derek, the smile still lingering on her lips. "So," she said. "I suppose we’re going to have to keep playing our little sham marriage after all."
Derek laughed, a low, disbelieving sound. He stared at her, completely captivated, and unsure of what to say or how to process the fact that she was actually standing in front of him, teasing him, chuckling, and willing to stay with him again.
Kira drew in another breath, and something steadier settled into her eyes. "But this time," she said, "we play by my rules. On my terms. Not yours."
Derek looked at her, and for the first time in weeks, something that wasn’t quite hope but was very close to it moved across his face.
"Whatever you want, Kira," he said. "Your wish is my fucking command."
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