“This is new to me,” Rolf said after going through the reports, his brow furrowing as he looked up. “Why would I want to suppress my daughter’s wolf? She is… she is my heir.”
“I am not your heir,” Kira cut in. “I’m barely even your daughter.”
That was when Derek finally caught the spike in Alpha Rolf’s heartbeat.
Rolf shot Kira a furious glare, and his fingers tightened slightly around the papers. “I don’t know what she’s told you, Your Majesty, but-“
“But what?” Kira shot back before he could finish.
“Shut. Up,” Rolf growled at her, then turned back to Derek and forced a strained smile. “Your Majesty-“
“Do you admit that this woman is your only daughter, then?” Derek asked, sounding bored as he examined his fingernails.
Rolf nodded stiffly. “Of course, Your Majesty. She is brash, uncouth, and sometimes stupid, but she is my daughter, and I’ve learned to accept her that way.”
Derek let out a low, cold chuckle. “Interesting.”
At that moment, the door burst open, and one of Derek’s gammas dragged the real Chloe inside with a knife pressed to her throat, while another followed behind, holding Luna Lydia hostage. Both women were sobbing uncontrollably as they were shoved into the room, and Alpha Rolf’s jaw dropped in pure shock. He had sent Chloe out of the pack and wiped every trace of her existence from the databases the moment Derek announced his intention to take his heir as a bride.
He had known Derek would eventually discover the truth, especially after seeing the whip marks on Kira’s body, and while he didn’t regret flogging that stubborn girl, he did regret the way it had damaged his carefully crafted plan. Lydia had nearly torn his head off for it, and Alpha Rolf had decided to cling to the lie that he had only one daughter if Derek ever came back. He knew the King respected the law despite his brutality, and without proof, Derek couldn’t touch him, because rumours and accusations alone wouldn’t be enough.
Rolf shot up from his seat, his mouth opening and closing without a sound.
Derek casually toyed with the Newton’s Cradle on Rolf’s desk, and something close to a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “If you were a smart man, you wouldn’t have erased Chloe Thornclaw from all databases,” he said calmly. “You would have erased Kira instead.”
Rolf had panicked when Derek sent word of his arrival, so he didn’t think much about erasing Kira’s identity. “Your Majesty, I can-“
Derek raised one hand, and the room fell into instant silence. “As of ten minutes ago, all Moonfang exports through Lycan-controlled ports have been subjected to a seventy-five per cent tariff,” he said evenly. “Your mining operations in the northern territories that rely on Lycan infrastructure have been terminated, and the energy grid agreements that supply sixty per cent of your pack’s power will be renegotiated at triple the current rate.”
Rolf’s face drained of colour, but Derek wasn’t done.
“You will remit an annual tribute equivalent to twenty per cent of Moonfang’s gross revenue, payable in resources or currency, whichever I find more convenient in a given year,” Derek continued. “Failure to comply will result in escalating measures until your pack is economically isolated.”
“This is too much, Your Majesty!” Alpha Rolf cried.
“The price of a lie is high,” Derek replied coolly. “You’re lucky I’m only asking for gold.”
Derek’s gaze flicked briefly to Kira before returning to Rolf. “You’ll find the full terms in the revised contract.”
Rolf looked like he had been struck as Connor stepped forward to hand him the revised document. His hands shook as he reached for the pen.
“I want to know about my mother,” Kira suddenly blurted.
Rolf froze, and his eyes snapped up to her, but Kira held his gaze and refused to shrink under it.
“I would like to speak to him privately, Your Grace,” she said firmly.
Derek studied her for a moment, his expression unreadable, before giving a single nod. “Five minutes,” he said. “The guards stay outside with those two,” he added, pointing to Chloe and Luna Lydia. He rose and motioned for Declan, Kai, and Connor to follow, then paused at the door and looked back at Kira. “Do not waste my time.”
Once the room emptied and the door closed, Rolf turned on her with eyes blazing with hatred. “You traitorous little bitch,” he snarled. “What have you done? Did you drag the King here to destroy me? You betrayed your pack, your father, and your Alpha at the first chance you got.”
“You’re not my Alpha,” Kira said, lifting her chin and refusing to cower the way she always had before, because she knew he wouldn’t dare lay a hand on her under the King’s protection. “And you’re not my father either. You lost that right the day you whipped me within an inch of my life. You would still have had my loyalty if you’d loved me even a little.”
“Love you?” Alpha Rolf scoffed. “I would rather love a rabid stray dog than waste a breath on the cursed whelp who stole my true love from me.”
The words sliced deep, and Kira bit down on her lip until she nearly tasted blood, but she forced back her tears and inhaled sharply. “Then you shouldn’t have planted me in her womb!”
“What I should have done was kill you before you even formed.”
“Just so you know, Alpha Rolf,” Kira said, her voice shaking but fierce, “you’re a coward who couldn’t face his own mistakes and chose to punish an innocent child instead. My mother would hate you. A man who replaced her within months of her death. A man who despised the only life she brought into this world. She would turn in her grave, she would detest you, and you never deserved her-“
Rolf’s fist shot out with a furious growl.
“The King is my husband now,” Kira said, her heart hammering as she stood her ground. “Touch me and find out what he’ll do.”
Rolf’s hand froze mid-air, and they stared each other down, neither willing to back away.
“Your whore of a mother was the one who didn’t deserve me,” he said at last. “And I’m not surprised. You’re truly her daughter. Betrayal runs in your blood.”
Kira froze, staring at him in stunned disbelief.
“What did you just say?” Kira asked, her voice trembling as the air in the room grew heavy.
“You want to know why I erased everything about her? Fine.” Rolf sank into his chair, suddenly looking worn down. ‘If you think your mother was a saint, think again, because she cheated, and the entire pack knew about it. She betrayed me.”
Kira stared at him. This was the man who had given her nothing but hatred all her life, yet now he looked painfully broken. The sorrow in his eyes, the slump of his shoulders, the way his voice trembled. Whatever memory he was reliving clearly weighed heavily on him.
She wondered, in that moment, what it must feel like to love someone that deeply.
“I gave her everything. My love, my time, my devotion. And what did she do? She cheated on me. She disgraced me in front of my court. She knew how much I loved her,” he went on, his voice bitter and raw. “She broke me. I forgave her. I did. We started again, tried to heal from all of it, and then you came and took her away from me.” His eyes hardened. “So you don’t get to stand there and talk about Lydia like that. She’s the one who put my broken pieces back together.”
Tears welled up in Kira’s eyes, and this time, she didn’t bother blinking them away. “Was that why you poisoned me?”
Rolf looked up sharply. “Why would I do that? You really think I care enough about your existence?” He scoffed. “If not for Lydia, you wouldn’t even be anywhere near me. You don’t know how good that woman has been to you.”
Kira couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he talking about the same Lydia who hated her guts and the very air she breathed? “Maybe Lydia isn’t as good as you think she is, because someone was poisoning me from this pack, and I’m sure they had a reason.”
“The only reason anyone should poison you would be to get rid of you,” he spat, the venom flooding back into his voice. “You’re a psycho who would poison herself just to prove a point.”
“I didn’t poison myself,” Kira said firmly.
“You crave attention so much that you poisoned yourself so he would notice you, didn’t you?”
Kira shook her head. “No, I would never do that.”
“Of course you would,” Rolf sneered. “You once hung yourself and ran in front of an oncoming car to get my attention.”
Her cheeks burned with shame. “I was ten. I wouldn’t do that now.”
She remembered those days too well, the desperate things she had done as a child just to be seen. But they had only made everything worse. He had cut her off from the main house completely and stripped away her birthright, declaring her unfit to be his heir. She had grown past that now, learning to build her own happiness in other ways.
“Wouldn’t you?” he mocked. “Little wildcat didn’t get any attention from the Lycan king and decided to play tricks to hide her weakness.”
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