“You have a remarkable tolerance for poison,” Derek said casually, as if commenting on the weather.
Kira sighed deeply. This was the first time they had talked about Lorenzo’s bombshell revelation, and it made her feel exposed and vulnerable.
Derek stepped closer to the bed, his presence filling the space and looming over her. “Who did that to you?”
Kira shook her head, genuine helplessness and hurt swirling inside her. “I don’t know,” she whispered, her mind spinning. “No one has ever… I’ve never been ill like that. I thought I was just born wrong, cursed, like my father always says.”
“The poisons only managed to weaken your wolf,” Derek continued, his eyes never leaving her face. “They would have killed you eventually if you hadn’t left that place.”
“But… but…” She trailed off, struggling to piece it together. She’d tried not to dwell on it since last night; it left her too confused and sad that she hadn’t even replied to Jessica’s texts or calls. If she was being poisoned in Moonfang, someone had to have known. Her pack doctor should have seen the signs.
“If you’re really Rolf’s daughter,” Derek’s voice cut through her thoughts, “why did he have to whip you into marrying me? Why send you instead of his true heir? And how is it that everyone only knows about one daughter?”
She looked up at him before quickly averting her gaze, blinking away hot tears. She hated how pathetic this made her feel. “That’s how he wants it. He hates me.”
“Why?”
Kira swallowed hard. “That’s… that’s none of your business.”
He leaned in, voice low and dangerous. “It became my business the second he used you as a weapon against me. Tell me why a father would send his own daughter to a pack he believes would kill her.”
Kira hugged herself, that old, bitter shame rising up, the one her father had drilled into her since she was little. Somehow, she’d grown to believe it. “Because my mother died giving birth to me,” she whispered. “He blamed me. Said I killed his mate, the only woman he ever loved. Said I was cursed.”
“I’m confused,” Derek said, settling into an armchair. “From what I know, the real Chloe just turned eighteen, right?” She nodded. “So how old are you?”
“I’m twenty.”
“If you’re twenty and Chloe’s eighteen, that means he remarried within a year, maybe even months, after your mother died.”
Kira paused, letting that sink in before nodding slowly. She had never considered it that way before. For twenty years, she had carried the guilt of “killing” her mum as a helpless newborn, wishing she could turn back time, make her mother survive, or never be born at all, just to make her father happy again. She had never tried to hate her father so much because she chose to understand him, convinced he was hurting. She told herself that every slap was just him grieving, every curse was hurt. She had imagined he was haunted by memories of her mother, by guilt, by pain.
She had never questioned how quickly he had moved on, or why no one ever spoke of her mother, even when she asked.
She had never thought about why her mother’s pictures were not anywhere around the pack. Why she knew absolutely nothing about her mother except that she “died giving birth to her.”
“You truly know nothing about the poisoning,” he said finally. It was not a question.
Kira shook her head.
He stood up then, smooth and controlled. “You’d better not be lying to me.”
Kira shot him a glare. “You still think I am?”
“You don’t expect me to trust anything from a den of conniving deceivers.”
She held his gaze, refusing to let his words sting. “Was that why you locked me up?”
“Necessary. I didn’t want you tampering with investigations.”
Kira’s brows furrowed. “Tamper with… what does that even mean? You said you wouldn’t interfere with my education.”
“Not when it threatens my pack’s safety. You stay in until I get what I need. Now rest,” he said with finality, turning to leave.
Kira watched him go, then started hunting for her phone. She had been subtly looking during their whole talk.
“Where the heck is my phone?” she muttered, checking the bedside drawer.
“Are you looking for this?” Derek said from the doorway, holding it up.
Kira’s eyes widened, then narrowed into slits. “What are you doing with my phone?”
“I’m keeping it for now, until we’re sure about your mission in Dravengard.”
She frowned deeply. “What? What mission? Give it back, I need to check my messages.”
Right on cue, the phone began to ring. Derek glanced at the screen, his brows knitting. “Who’s Jessica?”
“My best friend.” She held out her hand. “Give it back, she might have something important.”
“Important, huh? I’ll answer the call then and put it on speaker.”
“Why?!” Kira nearly shouted.
“Security purposes.”
Kira bit her lip to hold back a sharper retort. She was not going to let him control her or invade her privacy like this. She folded her arms defiantly. “I’m not talking to my friend with you listening in.”
“Have a good night then, Miss Thornclaw,” Derek said in that sharp, emotionless tone. He declined the call, pocketed the phone, and walked out, leaving Kira staring at the closed door in stunned disbelief.
In that moment, Kira knew one thing for sure: someone was going to end up murdering someone in this sham of a marriage. Either she would kill him, or he would kill her, because she wasn’t putting up with any of this.
Derek pushed open the heavy library doors. “What have you got?”
Kai’s voice drifted across the room, reading from a tablet in that easy, teasing tone he always used.
“Kira Thornclaw, twenty years old, sophomore year, studying Law and Inter-Pack Governance at Aethelwulf Centralis University, straight-A student. Best friend, Jessica Ashfang…”
Derek tuned him out, crossed to the sideboard, and poured himself a generous measure of whiskey, then knocked it back in one burning swallow while he tried to get his head around the woman in his home. He was furious at Rolf and his pack for making a fool of him, yet after talking to her last night, he was not sure what he wanted to do next.
Something was definitely wrong, and it was not just about the deception.
He wanted to know who had been poisoning her, why, and how she was able to survive that amount of poison for so long. There was also the mystery of her mother to consider, because even though Derek did not know Rolf intimately, he knew the man never acted without a hidden motive, especially considering what Rolf had done to Derek’s own family in the past. He needed to know why that bastard had given him this strange girl for a wife.
“Your Grace? Derek!”
He blinked and focused on Declan, who was giving him a puzzled look. “Have you been listening?”
“Lorenzo found aconite extract and fadevine in her bloodstream,” Derek said quietly. “She has been ingesting them for years.”
“What?” Declan and Kai said together.
“How is she still alive?” Declan asked.
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