Chapter 303: The Right Thing

"Kai has lost his mind!"

Angelica did not even wait for the car doors to close properly. She was on them the moment Derek and Kira stepped out onto the gravel.

"He’s conjuring Jessica out of thin air now, and this evening he asked me to postpone the engagement. Postpone it! With the invitations already out!"

Derek and Kira exchanged a look over the roof of the car.

Behind them, the rear doors flew open and the twins tumbled out, Tristan and Trisha, both giggling like something funny had happened on the drive over. They spotted Angelica and took off across the gravel towards her like two very small, very happy bullets.

Whatever fury Angelica had been carrying went out of her instantly. She dropped down to their level with her arms open and gathered them both in, kissing one cheek and then the other.

"And how are my two little pumpkins?"

The twins cackled and informed her, over the top of each other and at considerable volume, that they were fine.

Angelica laughed properly for the first time that day. She straightened up, took a small hand in each of hers, and led everyone inside the pack house.

The nannies collected the children. The moment the door shut behind them, Angelica turned round.

"I’ve asked you both here as King and Queen," she said. "I want you to persuade Kai to go through with the engagement tomorrow."

"Aunty." Kira glanced at Derek, who gave her the smallest nod. "We understand. Truly, we do. But I don’t think we’ve got anything like the power you’re imagining here. Kai isn’t a child. We can’t force him into something he doesn’t want."

Derek nodded. "He should have more time. It was a soul bond he lost, Aunty. That takes a toll on a man that nobody outside it can really measure."

Angelica stared at the two of them as though they had begun speaking a language she had never heard. Then her eyes filled. "His father was my soul bond too," she said, and her voice shook. "I didn’t fall apart or stopped living. I buried him and I carried on."

Derek and Kira shifted uncomfortably.

"Aunty, you had the best years of your life with him," Derek said gently. "You had all of it. A marriage, children, decades. Kai got left dangling. There was no body, no funeral, nothing to close the door with. His mind hasn’t refused to move on out of stubbornness. It’s never been given anywhere to move on to."

"So what exactly are you telling me?" Angelica shot to her feet. "We’ve sent invitations to alphas, to kings, to every high-ranking and noble family across the packs."

"Then call and tell them there’s no engagement. Simple."

Every head in the room snapped up. Kai stood at the top of the stairs, one hand loose on the banister, and started down without hurrying.

"Hello, young cuz," Derek said, moving to meet him at the bottom.

A small smile touched Kai’s mouth. "My favourite man."

He walked straight into Derek’s arms and they held on to each other for a long moment, Derek’s hand coming up to pat his back twice, hard, the way men do when they can’t say anything useful.

Kai pulled away and turned to Kira. Her eyes were already streaming, and he gave her the old mischievous smirk, the one that used to get him out of trouble in about four seconds flat, and spread his arms wide.

"Are you going to hug me, or what, Your Grace?"

Kira made a small broken sound and went into him, pressing her face against his chest as his arms folded around her.

"I’ve missed you so much, Kai," she whispered.

"And I’ve missed you." He pulled back and looked her dead in the eye, then brushed a tear off her cheek with his thumb. "Hang on. Shouldn’t I be the one crying here? I lost an entire soul bond before I even got to mark her."

"She was my best friend in the whole world." Kira’s words came out in pieces. "I miss her so much it hurts."

Derek came up behind and wrapped an arm around Kira’s shoulders.

He had known this would happen. That was exactly why he had been reluctant to bring her to Crescent Moon in the first place. Kira had been holding herself together for three years with a great deal of will and very little help, and the moment she laid eyes on Kai, the whole thing was always going to come apart.

He had caught her looking at Jessica’s photographs more often. Not less. She talked about her in the present tense without ever noticing she was doing it, and neither of the twins would need to be told who Jessica was if they ever saw her, because their mother had made sure of that.

Kira had never believed Jessica was dead either. She had kept that hope alive quietly for three whole years. Hers had simply never been as loud as Kai’s.

"I’ll leave you all to catch up," Angelica said, moving towards the stairs. She stopped with one hand on the rail and slipped into Derek’s mind-link.

Make sure you talk sense into him about this engagement, Derek. I would rather like grandchildren of my own before I die.

Derek gave no answer to that at all. He simply squeezed Kira’s shoulder and watched his aunt climb the stairs.

The moment she was out of sight, Kai turned to him.

"You have to believe me." He was already heading for the bar, reaching for a bottle. "I’m not going mad. I promise you I’m not. I saw Jessica with my own eyes. She was standing in that shopping centre, Derek."

He poured, then glanced back when nobody answered him.

Derek drew a long breath.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You don’t believe me."

"I believe you," Kira said at once.

Derek sighed. "Kira thinks you saw her. She’s said as much to me twice already. But Kai, what if this is—"

"It isn’t anything." Kai cut across him. "It’s a sign. I prayed for one, and I got one."

Derek scratched at his stubble. "I never had you down as the superstitious sort."

"Fuck off." Kai crossed the room and handed them both a glass. "There’s not going to be any engagement. Not tomorrow, not next month, not until I know for certain that what I saw wasn’t in my head."

He threw back his drink in one, his jaw set hard. "I am certain it was her, and I’m never letting go."

***

"What nonsense!"

Valerie was pacing the length of the sitting room. Alicia sat on the sofa with her elbows on her knees and her head propped in both hands, watching her mother wear a path into the carpet.

"He cannot call off an engagement because he imagined somebody. Do you understand what that makes us look like? Do you have any idea how many people have already accepted?"

"But Mum." Alicia lifted her head. "What if it really was her? Nobody ever proved she died in that crash. Nobody found anything. What happens to me if she comes back?"

Valerie stopped mid-step and turned round.

"Nothing is going to happen," she said. "Because before that girl ruins this for me, I’ll make certain she dies properly this time."

Alicia sat up straighter. "What are you going to do?"

"You don’t need to know." Valerie waved a hand as though brushing away smoke. "You play your part and I’ll play mine."

"I’m scared," Alicia whispered. "Jessica can’t be alive."

Valerie crossed the room and sat down beside her daughter, smoothing her skirt over her knees. "Now. Listen to me carefully, because there is one way to close this off completely and leave him no room to wriggle out of it."

Alicia raised an eyebrow. "What way?"

"Angelica is desperate for a grandchild. And Kai is grieving, which makes him careless, and lonely, which makes him useful." Valerie’s mouth curved. "If you play this properly, you fall pregnant. Then they’ll have no choice at all. Kai is a decent man, and decent men always do the right thing when they’ve been given no other option. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mum."