“Stop it,” Jessica said, reading her expression perfectly. “I see those gears turning. This is not your fault.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said the truth. Maybe-“
“Maybe nothing.” Jessica cut her off, fierce. “Seriously, K, I don’t get the hold that man has over you. He’s your abuser. You’ve been chasing his approval your whole life, and let’s be real: if he was ever going to give it, he would’ve done it by now.”
Kira stared at her chipped nail polish. She hated her father. She really did. But some stupid, bruised part of her still ached for the day he would look at her and say, “Well done.” And now, after what he had said about her mother, she didn’t know whether to pity him, hate him more, or keep making excuses like she always had.
Jessica reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I get it. Wanting that one person to see you. But his opinion doesn’t get to define who you are anymore. Look at the bright side: billionaire lifestyle, unlimited shopping, actual safety for once. Your Commander-in-Chief has very deep pockets.”
Kira laughed despite herself. “You’re shameless.”
“Guilty as charged,” Jessica replied.
“That reminds me… I found out something disturbing. About me.”
Jessica leaned in, her “gossip mode” reactivated. “What?”
“It turns out I do have a wolf. But her senses were muted. That’s why I never shifted on my eighteenth birthday.”
Jessica’s jaw dropped. “You have a wolf? How?”
“Someone has been poisoning me for years, Jess. Aconite and fadevine. Small doses, probably in my food.”
Jessica’s hand jerked back like she had been burned. “Is this a joke? You’d be dead if that were true.”
“I should be,” Kira said darkly. “Derek thinks my father’s involved.”
Jessica let out a low whistle. “Not shocked. But how are you even breathing right now? Those poisons should’ve killed you ages ago. You feel okay?”
“Surprisingly fine.” Kira gave a small, crooked smile. “If I was meant to die, I’d be dead already. But there’s something else. About my mother.”
“What about her?”
“My father said she cheated on him, and that was why he erased all her memories. Somehow, I don’t believe that. I think there’s something more to the story.” She caught a look of guilt cross Jessica’s face and narrowed her eyes at her friend. “What’s that look?”
“Nothing.”
“Jessica Ashfang, don’t you dare.” Kira’s voice came out low and dangerous. “I know that guilty look. What do you know about my mother? Spill. Right now.”
Jessica’s breath hitched, her eyes dropping instantly to her lap. She began picking at a loose thread on her jeans, her silence shouting louder than any confession. “Please… don’t make me, K,” she whispered.
“Make you?” Kira leaned forward, her voice trembling with a mix of surprise and rising fury. “This is my life, Jess. My mother. The woman I’ve spent twenty years imagining. Tell me what you know.”
Jessica looked up and exhaled shakily.
“Promise you won’t spiral.”
Kira stared at her best friend as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head. “How do you all know things about my own mother that I don’t? Why is everyone hiding her from me? This feels like a betrayal, Jessica. You’ve known this entire time and stayed quiet?”
Jessica swallowed hard, the guilt etched into every line of her face. “I don’t know much, I swear. I just… I overheard my dad once. He said Alpha Rolf scrubbed her from every record because of… betrayal. Kira, your dad might not have been lying about the cheating.”
Silence settled over their small corner table like a heavy blanket. Kira sat perfectly still, trying to process the words. For years she had built entire daydreams around the mother she never knew, a woman who was gentle, kind, and tragically taken. To hear that she might have been the villain, the one who broke the bond, was a bitter pill that refused to go down.
“And you’ve known this for how long?” she asked quietly.
“Not long. I swear.” Jessica’s eyes were pleading now. “I didn’t want to ruin the version of her you loved. I thought… maybe that’s why he remarried so fast. Because Luna Lydia is his true mate.”
“And my mother wasn’t?”
Jessica gave a small, miserable shake of her head. “I heard he just… fell for her. I’m sorry, K. I was trying to protect you.”
Kira drew in a slow breath, her resolve hardening behind her eyes like steel slowly cooling. “I want the whole story. I want to be absolutely sure about that, and I also want to know who was responsible for poisoning me, and why they wanted my wolf silenced.” She met Jessica’s gaze squarely. “Will you help me get answers from the omegas? If anyone should know who was poisoning me, it would be them.”
Jessica looked utterly helpless. “How am I supposed to get that?”
“You’re smart, you’ll find a way,” Kira insisted. “One of them had to be the one physically putting it in my food.”
“We both know it was ‘Daddy Dearest’ or his Luna,” Jessica muttered under her breath. “But fine. I’ll poke around.”
“I need to be certain,” Kira said stubbornly. “And I need to know why those poisons didn’t finish me off. There’s something different about me, Jess. We need to find out what it is.”
Jessica studied her for a long moment. She nodded once. “I’ll sniff around. No promises, though. You know your dad hates me lurking near the kitchens. But we’ll figure it out. Especially the part where you’re apparently poison-proof. That’s some serious main-character energy right there.”
Kira managed a small smile. “Thanks, Jess.”
“Always.” Jessica nudged Kira’s foot under the table, trying to break the heavy tension. “Now, can we please go back to talking about how ridiculously hot your bodyguard is? I need something light before I start my career in espionage.”
Kira groaned, rolling her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“And you love me.”
“Yeah,” Kira admitted softly. “I really do.”
***
Derek shoved open the heavy oak door of his office and stepped inside. His tie already hung loose around his neck, shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, but the knot of tension between his shoulder blades hadn’t eased since the boardroom meeting ended. He hadn’t even reached his desk before the door swung open again behind him.
Uncle Crane walked in without the courtesy of a knock. Dressed in a pristine dark suit, his face was set in that terrifying, brittle calm that usually preceded a storm. He had followed Derek straight from the boardroom, silent the entire walk down the corridor.
Derek didn’t bother turning around. He knew exactly what this was about. He gave his tie another irritated tug and dropped into his leather chair. “If this is about the quarterly projections, Uncle, they can wait until tomorrow,” he said without looking at his uncle.
“It’s not about projections.” Crane closed the door softly. “My son didn’t show up for work today. I’m told his face looks like it’s been put through a meat grinder. Care to explain?”
Derek finally looked up, his fingers steepled in front of him. “Why are you asking me about your son’s face, Uncle? Does he not have a mirror?”
Crane stared at him for a heartbeat. “You did that to him this morning. In front of the men.”
“We just sparred. That’s all.”
Crane’s laugh was short, sharp, and entirely devoid of humour. “You and I both know that wasn’t a spar, Your Grace. That was a beating. It wasn’t random, and it wasn’t for training.”
Derek’s gaze turned cold and flat. “What do you want, Crane?”
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