Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 82

Chapter 82: The Umbras

Back in the main hall, the lights went out all at once. The beautiful chandeliers died, plunging the entire banquet into complete darkness.

Derek stiffened in his seat. The sudden darkness swallowed the room whole. Soft gasps and worried murmurs rose around him as people began to whisper to one another. Glasses clinked nervously. Chairs scraped against the floor.

Voices grew louder around him. "What happened to the lights?" "Is it a power cut?" "Stay calm, everyone."

His beast howled inside his head, an urgent warning that something was very wrong. This was no ordinary power failure.

Kira.

She had gone to that bathroom alone. The timing was too perfect—too convenient. His enemies had waited until his wife was vulnerable, away from the protection of his side, to strike.

He shoved to his feet so fast that the chair behind him toppled over with a loud crash. The sound startled the people around the table. Heads turned toward him in the dark.

With his sharp Lycan vision cutting through the blackness, Derek moved through the crowd, shoving people out of his way without a word of apology. Some stumbled, others cried out in surprise, but he didn’t stop. Some gammas were already running in every direction, trying to restore the lights.

When he reached the restroom corridor, he called out her name. "Kira!"

Silence answered him. Only darkness and the faint sound of his own breathing.

The bathroom hallway felt too quiet. Derek’s heart pounded harder. He began to kick open the doors of the toilets one after the other, the wood splintered under his boots, the loud bangs echoing off the tiled walls.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

He bellowed her name again, louder this time. "Kira! Answer me!"

Nothing.

He stormed back out into the main hall, his chest tight with fury and rising fear. This wasn’t happening right now. He didn’t look for the cause of the blackout; he looked for the man responsible for the house. He spotted Alpha Lucas near the head of the table and launched himself at the man. He grabbed the man by the collar, almost lifting him clean off the floor.

"WHERE IS MY WIFE?!" he roared.

Startled gasps swept out through the room and the hall broke into nervous whispers.

"The queen?

"Is she missing?"

"Oh, goddess. How is that even possible?"

Derek’s pheromones began to push out in heavy waves, thick and powerful. Even the strongest alphas in the room whimpered and lowered their heads, their inner beasts bowing to the sheer power of the Lycan King’s dominance. The air grew heavy with the scent of submission and fear.

Alpha Lucas’ hands came up in surrender. "Your Grace... please! "I do not know! I swear... I do not know what is happen—"

A sudden blood-curdling shriek ripped through the air. At that exact moment, the lights came back to life, flickering into a bright, blinding glare.

Derek’s eyes adjusted instantly, and what he saw made his blood turn to ice. Several of the gammas standing at the edges of the room were beginning to shift. But they weren’t shifting into the tall, muscular forms of Lycans he expected. Instead, they grew into large, dark wolves with glowing red eyes.

The temperature in the room dropped.

Silver blades flashed. Screams filled the air. Blood soaked the floor. His father’s head on the floor. His mother’s body being assulted by those men. Lycans being killed.

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