Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 311

Chapter 311: Dog-eat-dog

This Chapter contains disturbing content. Readers’ discretion is advised.

By the time Alicia pulled into the driveway of the house, the tears had already started. They streamed down her cheeks, and she did not bother to wipe them away. What was the point? What was the point in pretending any of this was fine?

Valerie was standing on the porch. She had cut her beach holiday short and returned immediately. She stood there with her arms folded, still in travelling clothes, watching her daughter get out of the car with her face swollen and her mascara halfway down it.

Alicia crossed the gravel on unsteady legs, and the tears fell faster with every step. She wanted her mother to hold her. She wanted someone, anyone, to tell her this wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

"Mum—"

Valerie did not open her arms or say anything soft. She simply looked at her daughter’s ruined face for a few seconds, then turned her head and gestured at the open door with her chin.

"Go inside," Valerie said, her voice calm and cool. "We’ll talk in the sitting room. You can tell me everything there."

Alicia walked past her mother into the house, and the tears kept falling.

When they were both inside, with the door closed, Alicia began to talk. The words tumbled out in fragments, disjointed and desperate, like water finding cracks in a dam.

"He went down to the restaurant without me knowing," she said, her voice thick with tears. "I didn’t find out until a staff member mentioned it in passing..."

Valerie listened in silence, her foot tapping an impatient rhythm against the floor. Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound seemed to match the pounding of Alicia’s heart.

"And then what?" Valerie asked, when Alicia paused to catch her breath.

"By the time I got there, it was too late. He’d already seen her. He pulled her into his arms, Mum. In front of everyone. He called her Jessica."

Valerie’s tapping stopped. She studied her daughter for a long moment, calculating. Then she spoke.

"What about last night?"

Alicia went still.

"Last night," Valerie repeated. "I gave you one very simple instruction. Did you get him into bed or did you not?"

Alicia wiped her face with the heel of her hand and sniffed, and did not answer.

"Alicia."

Nothing.

"I am asking you a question."

Alicia shook her head slowly, and everything about the night came back at once.

***

Flashback

Dennis straightened, breathing hard, and looked over at Alicia, who stood near the foot of the bed with her arms wrapped around herself.

"Will you be all right, Miss Westwood?"

"I’ll manage. Thank you, Dennis."

Dennis gave a short nod and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

The corridor was silent. Dennis did not turn toward his own quarters. He walked past the stairs without a glance and continued down the hall.

Tan’s room was at the far end of the corridor, positioned so that its balcony faced the forest. The door was slightly ajar when Dennis arrived. He knocked twice, pushed it open, and stepped inside.

Tan sat in his wheelchair by the open balcony doors, a tablet balanced on his lap, his back to the room. He did not look up when Dennis entered, but a slight tilt of his head told Dennis he had been noticed.

Dennis walked toward the balcony and stopped a respectful distance behind the wheelchair. "Alpha," he said, bowing even though Tan could not see the gesture.

Tan did not turn. "I’ve told you before, Dennis. I’m not your Alpha anymore." His voice was calm, but there was an edge beneath it. "That title belongs to Kai now."

Dennis straightened. "I apologise. But you were my Alpha for a very long time. It’s still difficult to call you anything else."

Tan said nothing to that. His fingers moved across the tablet screen with the same slowness that had marked his movements since the injury. The silence stretched between them, broken only by the soft rustle of the night wind outside.

Dennis took a step closer. "Alpha Kai is drunk again, sir," he said quietly.

Tan’s fingers stopped moving. He turned then, slowly, rotating the wheelchair with one hand, and the expression on his face made Dennis’s stomach tighten. It was not the calm, measured look he usually wore. It was anger. Hot and alive and barely contained.

"Is he still claiming he saw Jessica?" Tan asked, each word dropping like a stone.

Dennis nodded solemnly.

For a long moment, Tan said nothing. Then he handed Dennis the tablet, reached for the wheels of his chair with both hands, already propelling himself toward the door.

"Take me to his bedroom," Tan said. "Now."

Dennis hesitated. "Sir, he’s probably passed out by now. He might not even be awake enough to hear you."

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