Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 213

Chapter 213: A Neat Little Chain

"This is my Beta, Oliver," Braxton said, gesturing to the man on his right. "And this is my head, Gamma, Gavin."

Kira acknowledged each of them with a warm smile and a small nod. The two men bowed their heads in return.

"Welcome, Your Highness," they said together.

"Thank you," Kira replied. Then, gently, "Although, if it’s all the same to you, I’d be grateful if you’d drop the ’Your Highness’ for now. Please."

The two men glanced at one another, then at Braxton, uncertain. Braxton gave them a small, easy signal with his eyes, and they relaxed, dipping their heads in acceptance.

Kira didn’t explain why. She couldn’t, not without unravelling all over again. But the truth was that every single time someone called her Your Highness, it dragged her straight back. To Derek. To Dravengard. To the cold fury in his eyes and the words that had broken her open. The title felt like a wound now, and she could not bear to keep pressing on it.

Braxton walked her over to the dining table, where the servants had laid out a truly sumptuous spread. Kira’s stomach gave a loud, undignified grumble at the sight and smell of it all.

She was starving, properly starving, after days of barely touching the food Brian had set in front of her. She settled into her seat and had to fight the very real urge to simply fall on the food and gobble it down like an animal.

Oliver, Gavin, and Milo took their seats around the table, and they all began to eat.

For a few moments, there was only the comfortable clink of cutlery and the warmth of a shared meal. Then, once Kira had taken the edge off her hunger, Braxton set down his fork and launched into the story she had been waiting to hear. How he had found her. How all of this had come to be.

"It started with Claudia," he said. "She came back from a mall in Aethelwulf Centralis one day, all shaken. She swore she’d seen a girl who was the very image of our mother."

He shook his head at the memory. "I didn’t quite believe her at first. But she was so certain that I started going back to that mall myself every day, watching and waiting." He looked at Kira. "And then one day, I saw you."

Kira listened intently.

"You were surrounded by guards," Braxton went on. "And when I got a proper look at the sigil on their suits, I knew exactly where they were from. Dravengard."

He gave a wry little smile. "Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that the girl who looked just like our mother was the new queen of Dravengard. The one everyone in the West had been whispering about."

He spread his hands.

"As you probably know by now, we keep to ourselves. We don’t involve ourselves with the other Western packs. Not because we’re unfriendly, but because of what I am. My hybrid nature. The secret of our mother. It’s safer for everyone if Crystal Moon stays in the shadows."

Kira nodded slowly, taking it in.

He gave a small, respectful nod. "Connor’s a good one, you know. He always had your back. Genuinely."

Kira’s chest tightened, and a small, sad smile touched her lips. "I know," she said quietly. "I know he did."

Braxton went on. "When Brent told me that you’d released a prisoner from the dungeon one day, a gamma named Milo, I knew at once that he was the man I needed. So I sent Oliver and Gavin to slip into Dravengard and trail him. They found him and brought him here to me."

He glanced at Milo. "And Milo had far more reason to help me than Brent ever did. Brent did it for gambling money. Milo did it out of gratitude. And having worked on Dravengard’s own security team, he knew exactly how to slip past the cameras, where the blind spots were, and all of it."

Milo gave a small nod from across the table.

"He refused, at first," Braxton said. "Wanted nothing to do with any of it. Until you helped his wife, Lara, again. During Lady’s Ruby’s trial."

His voice gentled. "You reunited him with his family. With Lara, with his child. And after that, everything changed for him. He came on board willingly. And Lara came in on it too, which made it all so much easier. She reports back to Milo, Milo reports back to me. A neat little chain, all the way from the heart of Dravengard, straight to this table."

Kira set down her fork and let out a slow breath, looking around at all of them.

"Wow," she said softly. "So everyone around me knew things I never did. The whole time. There was an entire world moving just behind my back, and I never saw a single piece of it."