"What?" Kira spun around, her eyes darting toward the windows, the doors, the dark beyond them. "How did they get in here?"
Derek turned sharply and grabbed Kira’s hand. "Co with ." His voice was calm but urgent.
He crossed to a cabinet against the far wall, pulled it open, and produced a knife in a leather sheath. He drew the blade free and pressed the handle into her palm, closing her fingers around it.
He looked straight into her eyes. "Can you handle this?"
Kira’s throat was dry. She looked down at the weapon in her hand, then back up at him. "I’ll try."
"Aim for the heart," Derek said. "Or the spine. Nowhere else will stop them fast enough. Heart or spine. Say it back to ."
"Heart or spine," Kira repeated.
The door burst open.
Declan ca through it with two gammas, ushering Nana ahead of him along with a cluster of won and frightened children, herding them all toward the centre of the room.
Nana’s face was pale but composed as she ushered the little ones inside.
Derek turned to Declan imdiately. "What’s the situation?"
Declan was breathing hard. "Connor and the others are holding the Umbras off by the Eastern gate. It’s bad, Derek. They ca in numbers."
Derek’s jaw tightened. "Stay with the won. You don’t leave this room. Protect them with your life."
Declan gave a sharp nod.
Derek turned back to Kira, and saw the fear sitting plainly in her eyes no matter how hard she was working to hide it. He stepped in close, placed his hands on her shoulders, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Stay near Declan," he said quietly. "Don’t be brave. Be alive."
Declan’s eyes flicked toward the two of them, but he said nothing.
He signalled Derek to move aside with him for a mont. When they were apart from the rest of the room, he dropped his voice low.
"It’s not only the Umbras tonight," Declan murmured. "There are Lycans out there. Northern Lycans. Derek, if the North has moved on us, then Lawrence has begun. This is the start of a war."
Derek’s eyes flicked briefly to Kira, who was watching them curiously, clearly trying to catch what they were whispering. She couldn’t hear, but the tension on their faces told her enough.
Derek turned back to Declan. "Don’t draw that conclusion yet. Not until we know it for certain. Northern Lycans can be bought. That doesn’t an Lawrence holds the leash."
He held Declan’s gaze. "Right now, I need your eyes on the people in this room. Nothing else."
Declan nodded once and stepped back.
Derek turned back and across the room his eyes found Kira’s again, and for a mont the two of them simply looked at each other through all the noise and the fear and the dark pressing in at the windows.
Kira, he thought, I hope you never betray .
Then his body broke and reshaped, fur and muscle and bone, and Leo surged forward, and within seconds the King of Dravengard was gone — replaced by a massive black Lycan with glowing amber eyes.
He let out a deep, rumbling growl that shook the air, then turned and bolted out the door into the night.
The fight was already raging at the entrance of the palace.
Derek threw himself into the chaos without hesitation. Umbras, those shadow creatures that could twist into any form, were everywhere.
The first Umbra that ca at him learned its mistake too late. Derek caught it as it lunged at him, and tore through it. It ca apart like smoke pulled by wind.
The creatures were no match for him. He tore through them like they were made of paper, his claws ripping through their throats and breaking their spines.
Among them fought Lycans, real ones, huge and snarling, their coats marked with the scent of the North.
Kai’s beast was on his left, snarling and snapping at anything that ca close. Connor was a blur of movent on the right, taking down two Umbras at once. Even Brian was in the thick of it, fighting with ruthless savagery.
The northern Lycans were a different problem.
They were strong, well-trained, fast, and brutal. They fought like soldiers rather than raiders.
One of them lunged at Derek, catching him across the shoulder with sharp claws.
Derek roared, twisted, and sank his teeth into the Lycan’s throat, shaking him violently until the body went limp.
Another ca at him from the side. Derek t him head-on, slamming the wolf into the ground and finishing him with one powerful bite to the spine.
He was winning. The Umbras were falling fast, and even the northern Lycans were struggling against him.
But then, the tide turned with just one move from a northern lycan.
Kai let out a sharp, pained yelp.
Derek’s head snapped around just in ti to see one of the northern Lycans slam into Kai’s side, claws sinking deep into his ribs.
Kai staggered, blood pouring from the wound, and collapsed to the ground. In seconds, he shifted back into his human form, whimpering and writhing on the floor.
Derek removed his claws from his victim on the floor.
He started to shift mid-stride, fur receding, bone cracking back into the shape of a man, and he was sprinting across the ground on two legs, running towards his cousin.
"Kai!" he shouted, dropping to his knees beside him. "Kai, stay with !"
Kai had shifted back too. He lay on his back in the dirt, human again, and there was too much blood. It was coming from his chest in a steady, terrible pulse, dark and fast, soaking into the ground beneath him.
"Kai." Derek pressed both hands flat against the wound, hard, trying to hold the blood inside his cousin’s body through sheer force. "Kai. Look at . You hear ? Stay with , Kai!"
Kai’s eyes were already glassy. He coughed, blood spilling from his mouth. His eyes fluttered.
"Leave ," Kai rasped. His voice was very thin. "Get back in the fight, you idiot. They still need—"
"I’m not leaving you." Derek’s voice cracked straight down the middle. His hands were slick and red and nothing he did slowed the bleeding. "I’m getting you out of here. Do you hear ? You are not dying tonight."
"The kingdom." Kai’s hand had found Derek’s arm and gripped it, though there was almost no strength left in the hold. "The kingdom cos first. It always... it always cos first. You taught that."
"Kai—"
"It’s alright."
Kai’s eyes slowly slipped closed.
His hand, curled around Derek’s forearm, went loose, and then slid away, and fell to the bloodied ground between them.
"Kai." Derek tapped his cheek. "Kai. No. Open your eyes. Open your eyes, look at , that’s an order, look at —"
He gathered Kai up, lifting his head and shoulders off the ground and pulled him against his chest and held him there.
"Kai, please..."
But there was no response.
Derek threw his head back and scread his na into the night.
"KAI!"
The sound echoed across the entire kingdom, raw and broken, carrying on the wind like a warning to every soul who could hear it.
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