Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Intercourse Meeting

Kira left the kitchen with her spine ramrod straight and her chin lifted high. Only once the heavy doors of her bedroom clicked shut behind her did she allow herself to slump back against the wood, exhaling a long, shaky breath. She stood frozen there for a moment, the chilled bottle of water still clutched in her fingers, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

She tipped the bottle to her lips and drank half of it in three desperate gulps, but the cold liquid did nothing to soothe the hot, twisting ache in her chest. Ruby’s bright laugh still rang in her ears. The casual way her hands had rested on Derek’s broad shoulders. The cosy, intimate little scene she had walked in on. It shouldn’t have stung. It really, truly shouldn’t have.

Their marriage was an open one, nothing more than a contract on paper. He could have a dozen women laughing at his jokes, touching him, for all she cared. So why did it feel as if someone had pressed a thumb hard against a sore bruise?

She scoffed under her breath and crossed to the bed, dropping her backpack onto the duvet, before setting the water bottle carefully on the nightstand. She sank onto the edge of the mattress, pulled out her small black diary from the side pocket, and cradled it in her lap. This little book was her sanctuary, the one place she could spill the messy, jagged pieces of her life without anyone judging or pitying her. Right now, she needed to focus on things that actually mattered instead of playing the part of the jealous wife in a pretend marriage.

She flipped it open to the page headed in her neat handwriting: KNOWING ABOUT MY MOTHER

Below the scattered details she had collected over time about the woman she had never known, she added the new entry:

Mother might have cheated on Father and the entire pack knew about it. Alpha Rolf scrubbed the records because of her betrayal.

She stared at the words until they blurred, wondering if the gentle, tragic figure she had built up in her mind could really have been the villain of the story. Could her father’s cruelty, his cold distance, his open favouritism, actually stem from a broken heart rather than simple hatred? She closed the diary with a snap and pressed her palm flat against the leather cover, as if she could trap the painful truth inside and keep it from spreading any further. Then, she let out a long and shaky exhale.

Her phone buzzed on the bed beside her. She reached for it, unlocked the screen, and saw the message app still open to the text Derek had sent earlier that day.

’Our first intercourse meeting is tonight. Be ready.’

Kira stared at the detached words for several long seconds before a short, disbelieving laugh burst out of her.

"Intercourse meeting," she muttered to the empty room. "Who even talks like that? What is he, scheduling a board meeting or a baby-making appointment?"

The laugh faded quickly, chased away by the memory of Ruby’s hands on his shoulders, the easy way they had been talking, and the way he hadn’t even looked at her when she entered the kitchen.

Is he going to come straight from her laughter to my bed? she wondered, as a hot spark of resentment flared in her gut. Does he think he can just check me off a list after flirting with his ’loyal’ Lycan assistant?

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