Kira stirred and slowly opened her eyes. The first sight that greeted her was Derek. His figure was emerging from the closet, his muscles defined beneath the snug fit of workout shorts and a t-shirt.

He looked ready to take on the world, or at least beat it into submission on the training ground.

She pushed herself up against the pillows and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Good morning."

Derek glanced over, and the hard edge in his face softened. "Morning. How did you sleep?"

"Well enough." She stretched. "You?"

"Well enough," he echoed.

Kira slid out of bed and padded over to the closet. She rummaged through it, pulled out a set of workout gear of her own, and started laying it across the chair.

Derek’s eyebrow lifted. "What’s that for?"

"I’m training with you."

Derek frowned. "You’re training with me?" he asked, suspicion clear in his tone.

Kira shrugged as she pulled the top over her head. "Yes. Why not?"

He crossed his arms, watching her with that intense stare of his. "Why the sudden interest in training?"

Kira shrugged, keeping her tone light. "The coronation is tomorrow. If I’m going to be the queen these people need, even for a short time, I should be strong. Physically and mentally. I don’t want to be a weak queen."

Derek said nothing for a moment, and she felt him studying her.

He could see it. Whatever Declan had said to her last night had got under her skin and stayed there. She had been quieter since, smaller somehow, folded in on herself in a way he did not like at all. The fire she usually carried had dimmed, and he hated that someone had managed to dim it.

He crossed the room, took her hands in his, and led her gently back to the bed, sitting her down on the edge of it. Then he crouched in front of her, her hands still held in his, and looked up into her face.

"You don’t have to do all this," he said quietly.

"I do, though."

"You don’t."

"Derek." She met his eyes. "A weak queen reflects badly on you. On your reign. I need to be able to stand on my own. To defend myself and my people, if it ever comes to that." Her jaw set. "I won’t be a liability."

He looked at her for a long moment and didn’t say anything.

Then he sighed. "If you’re going to train, then train for yourself, because you want to. Not because somebody said something to you that they had no business saying."

Kira let out a soft laugh, and some of the tightness left her shoulders.

"You know me," she said. "I spent twenty years living with a father who couldn’t stand the sight of me and a pack that made a sport out of tormenting me. Do you really think one nasty little speech is going to break me?"

She shook her head. "It takes a great deal more than words, Derek. I’ve heard worse from people who mattered more."

Derek nodded slowly, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips. He stood, and offered her his hand.

She took it with a smile, and he pulled her up off the bed.

"I want to see Kai first," she said. "Before I come down."

"I checked on him already. First thing this morning." Derek tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I’ll head down to the training ground and wait for you there." He paused, searching her face. "You’re alright?"

"I’m alright." And this time it was closer to true.

He makes her feel alright.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and the two of them walked out of the room together.

At the top of the stairs, they split. Derek went down toward the training ground, and Kira turned and made her way along the hall toward Kai’s room.

She pushed the door open quietly.

Kai lay in the bed, and the sight of him stopped her cold in the doorway.

An oxygen mask covered the lower half of his face. Machines stood clustered around the bed, beeping in their steady rhythm, and an IV line ran into the back of his hand.

He was pale. Far too pale. The colour washed completely out of skin that was usually warm and golden and full of mischief.

Tears pricked at the corners of Kira’s eyes.

She had never seen Kai like this. Kai, who was always grinning, always halfway through some terrible joke or some bit of nonsense designed to wind someone up. To see him so still, so silent, and so reduced, made something ache deep in her chest.

"Oh, goddess. Kai," she whispered.

She crossed the room and lowered herself into the chair beside the bed. She reached out and took one of his hands in both of hers. It was cool. She held it tighter, as if she could push some warmth back into it through sheer will.

"You have to wake up," she said softly. "Do you hear me? You’re not allowed to do this. You’re meant to wake up and crack some awful joke. So wake up. Please."

Behind her, the bathroom door opened.

Kira turned.

A woman stepped out. She was a strikingly beautiful blonde, with sharp, charming amber eyes.

Kira did not need anyone to tell her who she was. She looked nothing like Kai. If anything, she looked far more like Derek, the same colouring, the same eyes, the same regal bearing.

Kai’s mother. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The woman’s gaze landed on Kira, and her face hardened instantly, every soft line of it turning to stone. Her eyes narrowed into a glare.

Kira rose quickly from the chair, releasing Kai’s hand.

The woman looked her up and down, slow and deliberate, taking in every inch of her with open distaste.

"What," she said, "are you doing in here?"

"Good morning." Kira kept her voice steady and warm. "I’m so sorry, I should have introduced myself. My name is—"

"I know exactly who you are." The woman’s voice cut clean through hers, cold and final. "I don’t need you to tell me. And I need you to get out of my son’s room. Now."