Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 144

Chapter 144: Hello, Sasha

Derek stopped pacing the narrow corridor outside the holding cells and pinched the bridge of his nose.

What do you mean the Queen ordered Sasha’s release?

His mental voice came through the mind-link sharp enough that Connor felt the edge of it.

She intervened in the corridor, Your Grace. Sasha’s son is in critical condition and was asking for her. The doctor said the boy would not survive if she could not calm him down. The Queen ordered her release until the boy is stable.

Did you tell her what Sasha did?

Yes, Your Grace. Word for word. She listened. Then she still gave the order.

Derek sighed and rubbed his fingers against his temple, the kind of pressure that did absolutely nothing for the headache he had been carrying since yesterday.

He stood outside Ruby’s small cell watching as the gammas chained Ruby.

What kind of woman was his wife.

He had been turning this question over for weeks now and had still not arrived at a satisfying answer.

She extended grace to people who had given her every possible reason not to. Everyone who has ever hurt her gets a second chance. She hands out mercy like it costs her nothing, even when the knife is still warm in her back.

Even now, recovering from a fall that nearly killed her, with her left leg in a cast and her face still bruised, she had looked at Sasha being dragged away in handcuffs and decided that the child in the next room mattered more than her own justice.

He did not know what to do with a woman like that.

He turned slowly toward the corner of the cell where Ruby sat cowered against the wall, knees drawn up, red hair tangled and sticking to her tear-streaked cheeks. She peeked up at him through wet lashes, the picture of broken innocence.

It didn’t move him.

Derek stalked closer, boots ringing against the stone.

"You should thank her," he said, when he was standing over her. His voice was quiet and cold.

"Luck was on your side today. My Queen gave the order to release Sasha until her child is stable, so your story is still standing for the moment. Consider it a temporary reprieve."

Ruby’s shoulders sagged with relief, a tiny sob escaping her. But Derek was not finished. He crouched in front of her, close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes.

"Your torture, however, cannot wait any longer. You will start telling the truth, all of it, or I will make sure the next few hours feel like years."

He had promised himself he would torture both of them after Ruby’s frantic confessions about Sasha — the herbs slipped to Ishita, the deliberate attempts to end Kira’s pregnancy, the twisted plan to get back at him for killing her soul-bond.

He did not believe every word Ruby had spat out in her panic, but there were atoms of truth buried in the poison, and he intended to dig them out.

He still remembered the werewolf he had caught sneaking across the borders years ago, back when his rage burned white-hot. The man had not lasted long. Derek could be creative when he wanted to be.

He still remembered the sounds. He had not been a man worth knowing in that period of his life.

He looked at Ruby now and felt his hands itch with the urge to wrap his hands around Ruby’s throat and squeeze until life left her.

He hated betrayers. Being betrayed brought back memories to him, and those memories always brought out this other side of him that even him hated.

He could end it right now. But death would be too easy, too quick. She needed to suffer first, the same way she had made evryone suffer.

Ruby was crying again, properly, her shoulders shaking. She had never seen Derek like this with her.

Not in twenty something years. Not once. His ruthlessness had always been directed at other people, never her. She had been the exception. She had been the soft spot.

That was gone now. She could see it in his face.

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