Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90: Possessive Much?

Derek swung the bedroom door open just as Kira stepped out of the bathroom, one towel wrapped around her body and another twisted through her damp hair. She stopped when she saw Derek, and he stopped when he saw her.

For a moment, neither of them said anything.

He had barely looked at her properly since the chaos at Alpha Lucas’ packhouse. He had come to bed beside her in the early hours, not to sleep but to anchor her, because he had not forgotten how shaken she had looked after the Umbra attack, and he did not trust that the nightmares would stay away. He had lain there stiff as a board in the dark, telling himself it was purely practical. That was the story, and he was sticking to it.

But now, in the soft morning light, with water droplets cascading onto her shoulders and her skin flushed from the shower, his beast, Leo, stirred and gave a low, rolling howl that vibrated through Derek’s ribs.

Her jasmine scent rushed up to him across the room, warm and sweet, and it hit like a fist to the chest.

Dray’s voice pushed into his head, uninvited and irritating as always.

"You can’t trust this thing you’re feeling for her. You know you can’t. Love will only destroy you."

Derek rolled his jaw and pushed the thought aside. He was not in love. He was a man with functioning senses standing in a room with an attractive woman. That was all this was. The trouble was that Kira had been skinnier when he had first brought her to Dravengard. Weeks of regular meals and actual rest had changed that. She had filled out properly now, her frame softer and rounder in all the places that made keeping a wise distance genuinely inconvenient.

Now, she looked like she wanted to rain down fire, and he knew exactly why.

He moved further into the room and cleared his throat. "You’re ignoring me."

Kira moved past him towards the wardrobe, pulling the towel from her hair and running her fingers through the damp strands. "I’m not ignoring you. I’m getting dressed."

"You haven’t looked at me once since I walked in."

"I’ve been busy."

"You’re annoyed."

She pulled open the wardrobe door with slightly more force than necessary. "I’m not annoyed, Derek. Why would I be annoyed?"

He studied the back of her head, the tight set of her shoulders, the very deliberate way she was rifling through her clothes as if the fate of the world depended on finding the right jumper. His mouth curved just slightly.

"You’ve been very protective of me since last night," he said. "Throwing water at women. Standing in front of me in the courtyard." He paused. "Are you jealous?"

Kira spun around, pointing a hanger at him. "Coming from a man who almost tore another Alpha to shreds just for speaking to me."

He had the audacity to look unbothered. "I don’t get jealous. I get corrective."

She let out a short, sharp scoff and turned back to the wardrobe.

"Sandra is my ex," he said after a moment. "Nothing more."

"An ex," Kira repeated pleasantly, "with a son, who clearly doesn’t know her place and keeps showing up at your locations." She plucked a dress from the rail and held it up. "Totally normal. Totally fine."

Derek’s expression shifted. Something between amusement and something else crossed his face. "Is that what she told you? And you believed her?"

Kira lowered the dress slowly and looked at him properly for the first time since he had walked in. "Was there another version of events available to me? Because from where I was standing, she showed up with a child who has your eyes and your jaw, and you didn’t exactly hand me a written explanation."

She picked out another dress. "I’ll tell you what—I’ll see how you like it if a boy I once dated shows up out of the blue and starts telling charming stories about our shared past right in front of your face."

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