Defying the Lycan King

"Kira! Let go!"

Braxton’s voice tore across the courtyard and her eyes snapped open, the golden threads guttering out of her hands as her concentration broke.

Lydia stood a few feet away with Viktor at her shoulder, the pair of them watching her with a calm that was far more frightening than shouting would have been.

Braxton was already down on his knees, arms wrenched behind his back, silver chains biting into his wrists as two Umbra guards held him in place.

Behind them stood a wall of Umbras, already shifted, red eyes burning in the dark, waiting on a single word.

Kira had no idea how many she’d managed to turn. Not enough, probably. But there was exactly one way out of this and it wasn’t standing still and thinking about it.

She spun to the ranks behind her and gave them one word.

"Attack!"

Chaos erupted across the courtyard. The Umbras she’d compelled shifted and threw themselves forward, slamming into their own ranks, and for one glorious second Kira watched the whole disciplined formation collapse into chaos.

But her triumph was short-lived as she saw that they were nowhere near enough. Barely a fraction of what she’d hoped for.

Still. It was enough to buy her a breath and a bit of ground, and that would have to do.

She turned to run, but the floor beneath her erupted. A net sprang up out of the floor, snapping shut around her, and Kira hit the ground hard inside it.

She grabbed at the ropes and pulled, and the moment her fingers closed round them she felt a slow drag as the thing began pulling the strength straight out of her body.

The fighting raged on across the courtyard while Lydia walked over at a leisurely pace, folded her arms, and looked down at her.

"I really did underestimate you, didn’t I?"

Kira glared up at her and said nothing.

Lydia’s brow creased. She tilted her head, studying her with the sort of expression a woman gets when a sum won’t add up.

"But how in the goddess’s name are you still using your powers with that bracelet on your wrist?"

She reached down for Kira’s hand. But at that exact moment a loud explosion shook the ground beneath them.

It hit like something massive had dropped out of the sky, shaking the stone underfoot so hard that half the courtyard stumbled and the rest went straight down. Dust drifted from the walls. Somewhere behind them, glass shattered.

Lydia’s head whipped round, her eyes darting across the courtyard, searching for a source.

Then Braxton started laughing.

Her gaze snapped down to the young Alpha still kneeling in his chains, his shoulders shaking with it.

"What have you done?" she hissed, her eyes flicking between him and Kira. "What have you done? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you."

"But you did," Braxton replied.

Kira was grinning now.

"You’ve just been outshadowed, Shadow Queen."

Lydia’s face moved through three things in quick succession. Confusion first. Then the slow, dawning understanding of a woman working out what that noise had been and where it had come from.

Then pure, undiluted horror.

The shadow dome built around the fortress, which made the shadow pack impossible to find had been broken. The stronghold had been compromised.

They had broken into her stronghold. Her chest heaved as she turned in a full circle.

Braxton’s laughter rang out again, and then both Umbras holding him simply dropped, one after the other without a sound. A huge russet Lycan shimmered into being behind him and cut his chains.

"Gavin," Kira muttered, and laughed out loud.

He’d been in here the whole time. Standing invisible somewhere in this courtyard, waiting for a signal.

Another figure materialised beside him, and Kira’s heart leapt clean into her throat.

"Connor!"

"Your Highness!"

"Release the shadow warriors!" Lydia shrieked, and there was nothing composed left in her at all now. "Kill them! Kill every last one of them!"

Every gate ringing the courtyard hauled open at once, and darkness poured out of them. Umbras in wolf form, thousands of them, red eyes streaking through the dust in every direction, and the ones Kira had turned threw themselves straight into the oncoming tide.

Lydia grabbed a fistful of the net and started dragging.

Kira twisted inside it, watching the courtyard go past in lurching snatches. Braxton had shifted, his Lycan tearing into the wave beside Gavin’s.

Connor fought on two legs, a knife in each hand, cutting through bodies with a controlled fury she’d never seen in him before, working his way towards her against the current.

"Connor, fight for yourself!" she yelled. "I can take care of myself!"

"Viktor!" Lydia snapped over her shoulder. "Go and get the old woman. Now! We need to merge the powers. I can already smell the Lycan King in here!"

Kira smiled as the mate bond flared to life inside her chest. The mark on her neck glowed.

Derek was close. Close enough that his strength was already bleeding down the bond and into her, filling the hollows the net had opened up.

This, Kira thought, grinning into the dirt, is extremely satisfying.

I’ll admit it, Lux said. Your brother is a genius.

Kira’s grin widened.

***

Flashback...

"Is it me," Derek said quietly, "or does that man not look like someone whose twin sister has been missing for two days?"

Kai leaned forward to look through the windscreen at Braxton, still standing on the steps of the grand hall, and sucked his teeth.

"I think you’re being paranoid, honestly. Not everyone grieves the way you do." He shrugged. "But it’s worth a look."

Derek turned to Connor in the front seat. "Have him followed. I don’t trust him. If he could hide my wife from me for a month, he’s capable of anything."

"Yes, Your Grace." Connor climbed out and made for the black sedan parked behind the Rolls, just as Braxton started down the last of the steps towards his own car.

Kai laughed under his breath.

"This is hardly the moment," Derek said flatly.

"I know, I know." Kai shook his head. "But you do understand why he did it. Neither of you trusts the other an inch, that’s all this is. You’re both trying to protect the same woman and neither of you can stand the other’s methods."

Derek shrugged. "I was right about that bastard Viktor, wasn’t I?"

"You were," Kai admitted, his eyes back on his laptop screen. He was quiet a moment, scrolling. "You know, I’m starting to think the Shadow King’s stronghold isn’t physical. I’ve combed every inch of every map there is, and there’s nothing. Not a footprint."

"Then we keep looking." Derek turned to Declan. "Anything your end? Have the hunters picked up a trail?"

Declan shook his head. "Nothing yet."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!