Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 267

Chapter 267: Justice with Mercy

Long after Derek had settled Kira into a deep sleep, he slipped away to his study. He sat hunched over his tablet, scrolling through files, his brows drawn tight in thought. A soft knock broke his concentration.

He glanced up to find Nana already stepping inside, a weary smile tugging at her lips. Derek straightened in his seat, watching her with a furrowed brow.

"Nana," he said. "Still up at this hour?"

She let out a sigh and crossed the room, lowering herself into the chair across from him. "Couldn’t sleep," she admitted quietly.

Derek leaned back, one eyebrow lifting. "What’s troubling you?"

Nana held his gaze for a long moment before she spoke. "It’s about your cousin. Brian."

"What about him?" Derek asked, though he already sensed where this was going.

"I’ve been wondering what you mean to do with him."

Derek’s eyes dropped back to his tablet. "Nothing’s decided yet. And it isn’t something you need to worry over."

"I know, dear." Nana folded her hands in her lap. "But... look, I’ve been thinking a lot after visiting Brian today, and I realised that we might have all failed him in one way or the other, Derek."

Derek said nothing, only watched her.

Taking his silence as room to continue, Nana pressed on. "He may have turned into someone hard to recognise, but he wasn’t always like this. You know that better than anyone, Derek."

His expression gave nothing away, though his thoughts had already slipped backwards, to years before any of them understood the difference between right and wrong.

"I know you want Crane to pay for what he did to this family, and Brian played his part in it. But has it crossed your mind that he might simply have been afraid of his own father? Crane raised that boy alone, and from what we now know of him, Brian likely had the worst of it."

Derek exhaled and dragged a hand down his face. Nana wasn’t wrong, but the possessive, jagged part of him still wanted Brian to suffer for every moment he’d touched Kira’s life. Letting him walk free wasn’t something he could stomach, not yet.

When the silence stretched too long, Nana reached across the desk and covered his hand with hers. Derek lifted his eyes to hers, found them soft and imploring, and after a beat, shook his head.

"I’m not letting him off, Nana."

She sighed, resigned. She’d raised him well enough to know how stubborn he could be, how easily his temper clouded his judgement. But she also knew better than to push a man like Derek. He’d sit with it. That would have to be enough for tonight.

She slowly released his hand and rose to her feet. "I’ll leave you to think about it."

With that, she turned and left him alone in the study, his gaze fixed on nothing at all.

***

Kira stirred in her sleep, feeling a thin chill nagging at her skin. She turned and tried to snuggle up to the warmth of Derek’s body, but she found the other side of the bed empty.

She blinked awake and pressed her palm to his side of the bed. It was cold, as if he had not been lying there for a long time.

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