Defying the Lycan King

Chapter 246: If You Found A Nexus

After the meal, Derek set the empty tray aside and looked at the exhaustion lining her face.

"So," he murmured. "Now that you have eaten enough to feed a small army, tell me what you were doing before I walked in? You looked like you were trying to solve a life changing riddle on that screen."

Kira exhaled, rubbing her temples with her knuckles.

"My first hearing with the Wolf Council is tomorrow. And I’ll be meeting Rolf himself face to face for the first time since our last visit to Moonfang."

She gestured at the desk. "So I’ve been reading up on werewolf pack laws, succession rights, and territorial claims. Jessica’s been helping me through the trickier bits over the phone."

Derek rose from the sofa, crossed to the desk, and gathered up the stack of books and her laptop. He carried them back to the sofa and settled in beside her, opening the laptop and studying the screen with deep, quiet concentration.

Kira let her head fall back against the headrest. "I’m so tired," she groaned. "I just want to sleep for a hundred years."

"Then sleep," Derek said simply.

But she shook her head. "I can’t. I need to get all of this into my head first. Most of those men on the Council are as patriarchal as they come. They’ll do anything, twist any rule, to keep a pack out of a woman’s hands. I refuse to walk in there and lose on some technicality just because I didn’t know the law well enough."

She sighed, and something smaller crept into her voice. "And honestly... I’m a little scared of meeting Rolf face to face tomorrow. The man spent twenty years making me feel like garbage."

Derek turned slowly to look at her.

"Kira," he said, his deep voice carrying a sudden certainty. "Look at me."

Kira turned her head, her eyes locking onto his brilliant amber gaze.

He reached out and gently took her hands in his.

"You’re stronger than you think, Kira," he said, his thumb gently tracing the back of her hand. "Far stronger. And you are none of the things that man ever told you that you were."

His jaw tightened. "He is a criminal and a liar. I am truly sorry, that I ever used those same words against you. I had no right, and they were never true." He held her gaze. "You’re going to win this. No matter what. I believe that."

A genuine, grateful smile tugged at Kira’s lips. She looked into his eyes.

"Thank you, Derek," she said softly. "You don’t know how much those words mean to me right now."

Derek smiled back. "I’m glad they made you feel better."

He cleared his throat gently, trying to mask how much her soft smile had affected his own racing heart, and turned his eyes back to the laptop screen to continue scanning the pack laws.

Kira watched him read for a moment before she sighed, leaning over to point at a specific paragraph on the glowing screen.

"Look at that part. The clause says that if someone believes the Council gave the wrong verdict on pack ownership, they can challenge the current Alpha to a duel. Winner takes the pack." She threw her hands up in exasperation. "But how on earth am I supposed to challenge Rolf to a duel?"

Derek glanced at her. "You won’t need to. Why are you so certain you won’t simply win the case in the Council itself?"

Kira fell quiet.

Because the truth was more tangled than she could say aloud.

Kira didn’t have any documentation to prove that Rolf burned down Ironfang packhouse and renamed it Moonfang, and the Council might not rule in her favour and she would be forced to challenge Rolf.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight Rolf. With her powers, she could tear the old man apart. But Rolf was a cunning fox, and if he had somehow learned what she truly was, then he might also know her weaknesses, and he would use them without a shred of hesitation to subdue her.

She wanted no physical altercation with him, or with anyone connected to him. Not until she understood exactly how much he knew.

But she couldn’t tell Derek any of that. Not yet.

So she just shrugged. "Nothing. I’m only afraid, that’s all. I’ve never fought for a pack before. And we don’t have a single document to prove our claim. All we have is my mother. Her presence, and her word."

Derek looked at her for a long moment. "It doesn’t matter. Truth always prevails. And for this to come out now, it means the truth has been striving to surface."

Kira watched him for a while, wondering what it would be like if she surrender to him again. But Braxton had warned her about trusting anyone. She had even recalled young Maya’s warning never to trust anyone. Could she trust Derek?

"Derek? Can I ask you a question?"

He turned and looked at her, his brows creasing slightly. "Sure."

"If you ever discover a Nexus, what are you going to do with it?"

***

Once Kira had drifted off on Derek’s shoulder mid-sentence, Derek gathered her up carefully in his arms and carried her back to her room, laying her down and drawing the covers over her.

Then he returned to his study and summoned Connor, spreading the documents Kira had been reading across his desk while he waited.

"You sent for me, Your Grace?" Connor said, stepping in.

Derek didn’t look up from the laptop. "We have work to do. Kira’s about to take back her mother’s pack, and we’re going to help her win this fight."

"Of course," Connor said, lowering himself into the chair across the desk. "What do you need me to do?"

Derek lifted his gaze. "I need you working closely with Kai on this. Rolf may have erased the documents, burned the records, scrubbed the Ironfang name out of every official book he could reach. But there’s one thing he could never erase. People’s memories."

He leaned forward. "There must be elders, omegas, retired gammas, former pack members, anyone who was alive when Kira’s mother was heir. People who remember the Ironfang name from before Rolf painted over it. They’ll be scattered by now. Frightened, most likely. Keeping their heads down. But they exist. I refuse to believe that fire killed every last soul who knew the truth."

Connor nodded slowly, following.

"Find them," Derek said. "Find me those people, Connor, and find them fast. We need their testimonies just in case the hearing is pushed over to another day. A dozen frightened old wolves who remember Claire Ironfang are worth more than any document Rolf ever bothered to burn."

"Consider it done, Your Grace." Connor rose to his feet. "I’ll start on it tonight."

Derek nodded and waved him off. "Good. Go."

Connor bowed and left, and Derek turned back to the glowing screen, to the laws and the succession clauses, to her jarring question about a Nexus, and the small, stubborn hope that he could give her this one thing, after taking so much.