Derek was still speaking when he looked down and realised Kira had fallen asleep against his chest.

Her breathing had gone slow and even, her hand still loosely curled in the front of his shirt. A small, tired smile tugged at his lips. He slowly laid her down on the sofa, careful not to wake her.

For a long moment he just watched her, tracing a gentle finger over her eyebrows, smoothing the faint worry line that had formed there.

"You’re far too beautiful for my peace of mind," he murmured.

She didn’t stir.

His security had been breached tonight for the first time since he took Dravengard. By rights, he should be sitting her down and asking her hard questions. Where she had been. Who she had spoken to. Whether she knew anything. That was what the King in him demanded.

Instead he was choosing to trust her.

"Goddess help me, I am choosing to trust you, Kira."

He slid his arms under her again, lifted her easily, and carried her upstairs, cradling her close to his chest like she was something precious he was afraid to drop.

She stirred once, murmuring something sleepy, but settled back against him without waking. Derek’s heart picked up race.

After tucking her carefully into their bed and pulling the blanket up to her chin, he stood there for another minute, just looking at her peaceful face. Then he turned and went in search of Declan.

He found his beta on the roof, standing at the edge and staring out into the night like the darkness owed him answers.

Derek walked over and stood beside him in silence. The cool breeze tugged at their clothes, but neither man spoke for a long while.

Declan finally glanced sideways. "Is everything alright?"

Derek gave a short nod. "Did you contact Aunt Angelica and Tan?"

"Yes," Declan said. "They’re on their way."

They stood in silence for a while, the night air cool around them, the kingdom quiet below after all the noise of the evening.

Declan exhaled. "You good?"

"What did you say to my wife?"

Declan kept looking straight ahead into the dark. "What did your wife tell you I said?"

"Don’t play games with me, Declan," Derek hissed.

Declan let out a long sigh and finally faced him. "I didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know."

Derek’s jaw tightened. "Watch yourself, Declan. Don’t make me forget our friendship."

Declan let out a low, mocking chuckle.

Derek’s lip curled, his beast stirring under his skin, and it took effort to hold Leo back.

"Of course," Declan said. "Push away everyone who’s ever genuinely cared about you. That’s the plan, isn’t it? As long as you can keep dancing to whatever tune your bloody wife is playing."

Derek moved fast. He grabbed Declan by the collar and yanked him close, teeth bared. "Watch your fucking tongue."

Declan didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink. "Go on, then," he said calmly. "Do your worst. You can force me to stop saying it out loud, but you can’t stop me from feeling how I want to feel, Derek."

Derek held him there, breathing hard.

"Ruby is gone. Now you want to cut me off too? So who’s next? How many more of the people who actually love you are you willing to throw away for her?"

"I didn’t kill Ruby." The words came out through his teeth. "She died of her own sins. Her own choices. Not mine."

"I never said you killed her." Declan’s eyes didn’t move from his. "But you should think carefully, Derek. First Ruby. Now Kai is lying downstairs with a hole near his heart. Doesn’t it strike you as strange? Your inner circle coming apart, one by one, right when a stranger walks into your life."

Derek shoved him away hard enough that Declan stumbled back a step.

"Stay away from her," he growled. "Kira is not what you’ve decided she is. And the next time you find some hateful thing to spit at her, remember that she is your queen now. She has every right to punish you for it. And I won’t lift a finger to stop her."

Declan straightened his shirt slowly and chuckled again, the sound dry and bitter.

"Hateful?" He shook his head. "You don’t even know what hate is. Hate is wanting to slit her throat just for breathing the same air as me. That’s hate, Derek. I’m not there. But I won’t stop feeling what I feel, and there isn’t a thing you can do about that either."

"You insecure prick." Derek’s voice dropped low and cold. "That’s all this is. You’re projecting your own ghosts onto her. Kira is not Sarah. She is not the woman who broke your heart and walked away."

Something flickered across Declan’s face, and was gone almost immediately. Then, his smile turned sharp

"No," he said. "She’s not Sarah. She’s the one who’s going to break yours. The exact same way."

Derek’s beast surged hard against his control. He turned away before he did something he couldn’t take back, and started toward the stairs.

"You think I haven’t noticed?" Declan called after him.

Derek didn’t stop.

"You’ve been fixated on her from the moment you saw her at that riverside that morning?"

Derek finally stopped, but he didn’t turn.

"I know you better than anyone alive," Declan continued. "If you’d genuinely wanted Rolf’s real heir, you’d have dragged Chloe here in chains and thrown her in the deepest cell we have and not lost a wink of sleep over it.

"But you didn’t. You found out you’d been tricked, that the girl who came was the wrong daughter, and you kept her anyway. Gladly."

Derek’s hands curled into fists at his sides, but he stayed silent.

"And Rolf." Declan’s voice sharpened. "You’ve been holding back from unleashing your wrath on the bastard. The man who slaughtered your family. We had a plan, Derek. We were ready."

"Instead you’ve spent all this time investigating, digging, looking for something else. Why?" He paused.

"Because he’s her father. Because you don’t want her to look at you one day and see the man who killed her father staring back. You want a reason. Something to hold onto when you finally take him down, so your conscience stays clean."

Derek didn’t move.

"I know you too well," Declan said, and the anger had drained out of his voice now, leaving something heavier underneath.

"You can hide from everyone else in this kingdom. You have never once been able to hide from me." He chuckled.

"I just pray to the goddess you’re not doing all of this for the wrong person. That’s my fear, Derek. That’s the only thing I’m afraid of."

The roof went quiet.

Derek stood with his back to him, and he said nothing, because there was nothing to say. Every word of it had landed exactly where Declan had aimed it. Of course it had. Declan knew him better than anyone left alive.

"Bastard," Derek finally said under his breath.

And walked away without another word.