Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Surprise, Darling?

Some of the pack members were already scrambling away from the entrance, pushing over benches in their hurry. Others stayed rooted to their benches, eyes wide as dinner plates, whispering furiously behind their hands. "Is that...?" "No, she’s dead, isn’t she?"

The braver ones stayed where they were, ready to fight. But no one made to leave the hall, even those that hid themselves were all peeking out from behind their hiding places, necks craning, because apparently a ghost showing up to her own murderer’s trial was the best entertainment Dravengard had seen in years.

Every eyes in the hall watched the figure walking slowly down the centre aisle.

Lara Vaughn.

Alive. Walking. Looking back at the staring faces with the calm of a woman who had nothing left to be afraid of.

Connor and three gammas were already moving to intercept her when Kira strolled in right behind her.

"Hold your peace!" Kira said.

Connor and the three gammas halted and fell back, watching.

She came in with her guards trailing behind her, moving carefully on her cast but moving with purpose, and there was a small, satisfied smile on her face as her eyes found Ruby across the hall.

It was the kind of look that said, Surprise, darling. I’ve been waiting for this.

Derek shot up from his throne so fast the heavy wooden seat rocked behind him. His gaze remained fixed on Kira.

The entire hall went dead quiet for half a second, then erupted into astonished murmurs, as Lara and Kira walked together to the front of the room and stopped a few feet from the trial box where Ruby stood between her two gammas.

Kira glanced toward Nana. The old woman gave her a small, knowing smile and a quiet nod that clearly said, Go on, child. Finish this.

Ruby stared at Lara like she was looking at something that should not exist. She gripped the edge of the box, knuckles white.

"Lara is supposed to be dead," she blurted, looking around the room as if she expected anyone to confirm that this entire thing is not a sick nightmare.

Lara chuckled softly. "Yes. I am. Officially." She tilted her head. "But my ghost would never rest in peace if it let you walk away from yet another crime."

The presiding elder wolf cleared his throat loudly, trying to pull the room back into some kind of order. "Someone will explain this to me immediately. Is this woman truly alive? And does she carry evidence against the accused?"

Before Lara could answer, Ruby burst out laughing.

It was loud and high and entirely unhinged, and it bounced off the walls of the silent hall while pack members exchanged uneasy glances and shifted in their seats, some murmuring, "Has she finally lost it?"

Ruby laughed until she had to wipe her eyes, and when she finally settled, she spread her cuffed hands as wide as the chain allowed.

"Can none of you see what this is?" she asked the room. "This is a joke. A performance. Lara Vaughn died weeks ago. This is some clone, some trick, some lookalike they’ve dressed up to—"

"No, it’s not!"

Another voice rang out from the entrance, bright and smug.

Every head in the hall snapped toward it, and the room rippled again, not with the panic of before but with something closer to disbelief, as Sasha walked through the doors.

Alive. Upright. Healthy. A smug little smile was sitting on her face.

The whispers started immediately and spread fast. Wasn’t Sasha found dead this morning? Didn’t they wheel her body out of the medical centre?

Then more gammas came through the doors behind her, and between them they were dragging the young gamma. The one from Ruby’s confinement room. The one she had used and then instructed to silence Sasha.

Ruby’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head. Her whole life flashed before her in that single moment, every careful plan, every whispered lie, every backstab unravelling like cheap thread. She whipped her head toward Kira, hate burning in her gaze.

"How," she hissed. "How the fuck did a wolfless runt like you pull this off?"

Kira crossed her arms over her chest and let the smirk settle fully onto her face.

"You really did think you were the cleverest person in every room, didn’t you?" she said.

"That was always your problem, Ruby." She tilted her head, smile widening. "It’s your audacity that amuses me most. Sitting in confinement, stripped of your titles, and still absolutely certain you could pull the strings from inside a locked room."

Ruby spun toward the elder wolf, voice rising. "This doesn’t mean anything! They have no evidence against me! None!"

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