As they sat inside the tub, the warm water lapping gently around them, Derek reached for the bottle and poured wine into another glass.

Kira watched him do it and lifted an eyebrow. "You already have two glasses available. Were you expecting me?"

He handed her the glass with a small shrug. "Maybe."

She smiled as they clinked their glasses together and sipped at the same time. For a moment the only sound was the soft clink of glass and the faint splash of water. Kira felt the wine warm her from the inside, but her mind was already racing with questions. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Derek set his glass down and wrapped his arms around her again. "How was your day?"

Kira sighed and took another sip, her thoughts flashing back over the hours.

Kai’s mum chasing her out of the room like she was contagious. Maya clinging to her and crying about an invisible storm that terrified her.

Then those nurses gossiping right in front of her, calling her a traitor and saying Derek was blinded by love. The memory made her stomach twist.

Everyone thinks he was in love with her, but she knew what all of this was. An act that they got too well playing.

"It was good," she said.

Derek’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Why do I feel like you’re lying to me?"

Kira chuckled and took another quick sip, trying to play it off. "I’m not. It was fine, really."

He didn’t push, but he didn’t quite believe her either. His finger traced a slow line up the wet skin of her arm, and a silence settled over them, heavy and full.

There was so much sitting between them, so much neither of them had said, and neither seemed to know where to put the first word down.

Derek finally broke the silence. "Have you met Aunt Angelica? Kai’s mum?"

"Oh, I met her." Kira swirled the wine in her glass. "This morning. She’s a very unique woman. She made it abundantly clear she did not want me within an inch of her son’s bedroom."

Derek chuckled. "Don’t take it to heart. Aunt Angelica is one of the warmest people you’ll ever meet. She’s just playing hard to get."

"I don’t blame her, honestly. Every mother gets protective when her child is hurt."

"That’s not it." He shook his head. "Aunt Angelica doesn’t follow the crowd, that’s all. I’d put money on Nana or Kai singing your praises so loudly that she’s decided she has to be the one to make up her own mind about you.

"There isn’t a single bone of malice in that woman." He looked at her. "You’ll like her. And she’ll like you. Give it time."

Kira sighed, leaning back against him. "I hope so."

She tilted her head to look at him properly. "You look all tense. Want to share?"

Derek sighed and threw his head back against the edge of the tub, closing his eyes. "It’s nothing."

"I’m going to be your queen tomorrow." She nudged him lightly. "And you still don’t want to discuss kingdom matters with me? That’s not very king-queen relationship."

He smiled, eyes still shut.

"I don’t want you to worry your pretty little head. And besides, after tomorrow you’ll be buried under more responsibility than you know what to do with. There’ll be plenty of time to discuss the kingdom properly."

Kira snorted. "Okay, fine. Keep your secrets, Your Grace."

They lapsed back into silence, the water lapping gently around them.

And then Kira, who had been turning something over since they sat down, finally let it out.

"So... after the coronation, what next?"

Derek’s finger paused on her arm. "What do you mean?"

Kira shifted slightly so she could see his face better.

"Well." She kept her voice light, casual, like it cost her nothing. "The coronation was one of the reasons we got married in the first place. After tomorrow, it’s done."

"I bet we will stop all the lovey-dovey couple performance. The whole thing was only ever to convince Nana we were really in love."

She gave a small shrug against him. "And it worked, clearly. So."

Derek said nothing for a long moment.

Something sharp twisted in his chest. So that was what she saw when she looked back on all of it. A performance. A charade put on for an old woman’s benefit.

"Can’t even wait to be rid of me?" he asked.

He meant it to sound like a tease, but it came out closer to the bone than he intended.

Kira blinked, surprised by the edge in his tone.

"Well," she said. "You’re the one who told me I’m not your type of woman."

He should have left it there. But he felt a petty sting of hurt and latched onto it.

"You’re right," he said, biting out the words. "You’re not my type of woman."

Kira smiled. It was a good smile. It did not reach anywhere near the ache that opened up behind her ribs. She had wanted some sort of reassurance. Turned out she had been getting ahead of herself.

This is a contract, she reminded herself. You always knew it would end exactly like this. You signed for this.

"Good," she replied, keeping her voice light. "Because you aren’t my type of man either."

"I’d always choose a man who smiles a lot, who makes me feel safe. A man who doesn’t make me question myself every time. Someone who’s real with me."

Derek’s jaw tightened. "Good for you," he muttered, the words coming out sharper than he intended.

A beat passed.

"I suppose that means your loyalty doesn’t lie with me either," he added.

Kira pushed back from his chest and turned in the water to face him fully, water sloshing around them.

"You don’t think my loyalty lies with this pack?"

Derek didn’t look at her. He stared out at the dark beyond the patio. "It doesn’t have to. This marriage is nothing more than an act. You said so yourself."

Kira let out a bitter little laugh, and blinked fast against the sting building behind her eyes and refused to let it fall.

"So even you don’t trust me," she said quietly. "You think my loyalty sits with that monster. With Rolf."

Derek’s voice was flat. "I’ve been given every reason my entire life that trusting a Moonfang is the last mistake a man ever makes."

He finally turned his head and looked at her. "Tell me why I’m wrong."

Kira opened her mouth, wanting to tell him everything she had learned about Rolf — how he had killed her mother and blamed her for years.

That her loyalty could never, in a thousand lifetimes, belong to a man like that. She wanted to throw all of it at him, to make him understand exactly how wrong he was.

But she swallowed it down.

She had always claimed she knew nothing about her past, nothing of her mother, nothing of any of it.

And the only reason she knew the truth now was that she had drugged his men and slipped away to learn it in secret.

This wasn’t the time to bring such thing up with him. Not in the heat of all the controversy surrounding her. The man himself doesn’t even trust her.

"You’re not wrong," she said instead. Her voice was steady.

"And I don’t even blame you. How could I? This was all pretence from the very beginning. You can’t build trust on top of something fake. It was never going to hold."

Derek finally looked at her, his expression remaining inscrutable.

"My loyalty lies with myself," Kira went on. "Because I won’t hand it over to something this fragile.

"Things have improved between us, yes. I’m not going to pretend they haven’t. But what happens the moment this contract ends? What then?"

She shook her head. "It would be dangerous for you to trust me, Derek. Genuinely dangerous. So don’t."

She gathered herself and rose from the water.

"I need to sleep," she said. "I have a great many obligations to fulfil tomorrow. I’d like to be able to stand upright through all of them."

Derek said nothing.

He watched her climb out of the tub, watched her bend to scoop her robe up off the patio floor and pull it around her shoulders.

He watched her walk away across the cold stone, her shape disappearing into the dark of the house.

He poured a good measure of wine into his glass and swallowed it all in one gulp.