Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 164

Chapter 164: Notoriously Difficult to Please

Jessica could barely wait for the car to roll to a stop before she had the door open.

She was out and running before the wheels had fully stopped turning, up the path toward the main house, her bag forgotten on the back seat. Kira was waiting for her on the terrace, but Jessica blew straight past her.

"Where is he? Where’s Kai?"

"His bedroom, but Jessica—"

Jessica was already taking the terrace steps two at a time, past Kira, through the front doors, into the house.

"Jessica, wait—" Kira took off after her. "There’s something you need to know first, his mother is here and his brother—"

Jessica wasn’t hearing a single word. She hit the stairs at a run and made straight for Kai’s room and barged through the door without knocking.

In the corner of the room, Tan had been sitting with a stack of reports balanced on his knee, a pen in his hand. The instant the door flew open, his reflexes took over before his mind had caught up, and he hurled the pen across the room.

It missed Jessica by inches. She ducked on pure instinct, the pen clattering off the wall behind her.

But Tan was already on his feet. His claws had slid free, his eyes had gone hard and flat, and he moved to put himself between the intruder and his brother.

"Who the hell are you?" His voice was cold as gravel.

Jessica didn’t answer. Her eyes had already found Kai on the bed, pale and still beneath the oxygen mask, and everything else in the room ceased to exist for her. She didn’t even seem to register the man with claws standing three feet away.

Kira arrived in the doorway breathless.

"Tan, stop." She stepped into the room with both hands raised. "Stop, it’s alright. She means no harm. I swear it."

Tan’s eyes flicked to her, and some of the hardness eased, but his stance did not. He stayed exactly where he was, his gaze moving between Kira and the strange woman who could not stop staring at his brother.

"This is Jessica," Kira said quickly. "My best friend. She’s also Kai’s friend. She’s safe, Tan."

Tan did not look convinced in the slightest. "I’m sorry, Your Highness. But not everyone walks into my brother’s room, friend or not. I don’t know her. Until I do, she doesn’t come near him."

"I understand," Kira said. And she did. She glanced at Jessica, who had given up any pretence of composure and was crying quietly now, one hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes fixed on Kai.

Kira turned back to Tan and made the decision.

"Jessica is... Kai’s soulbond."

Tan went still. His eyes snapped to Kira. "What did you just say?"

Jessica nodded, wiping at her face with the back of her hand. "I hadn’t even told him yet," she said, her voice wrecked. "I kept putting it off. I was scared, and I was angry, and I just kept not saying it, and now he’s lying there, and I never told him, and I feel like the most horrible person alive."

Tan’s gaze swung slowly back to her.

He was visibly torn now, the hard edge of him warring with something else. He looked at Jessica, then turned and looked at his brother on the bed, pale and barely holding on.

He knew what a soulbond’s presence could do. He knew bonds accelerated healing, that having her close might genuinely help Kai.

But everything in him rebelled at the idea of letting an unknown werewolf within arm’s reach of his brother at his most vulnerable.

He narrowed his eyes. "And why should I believe you? Anyone can claim a bond. You walk in here, a werewolf I’ve never seen, just after this palace was attacked, and announce you’re my brother’s fated." His jaw tightened. "Give me one reason to trust it."

"I can’t give you a reason," Jessica said. "I don’t even understand it myself."

She took a shaking breath. "Let me see his face. Properly. Just let me close enough to see him, and watch me the whole time. Don’t take your eyes off me for a second. I don’t care. I just need to be near him."

Tan said nothing for a long moment, studying her, weighing it.

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