Defying the Lycan King

Chapter 201: The Least of Your Worries

Olivia sat still behind the steering wheel of her parked vehicle, her eyes glued to the opposite side of the quiet street. Across the road, Brian’s mother was walking casually toward her white family van, completely unaware that she was being watched by a Lycan.

This was the last place where Olivia had managed to track Brian’s digital footprint. After this spot, the trail simply went cold. Brian had gone dark, switched off, vanished off the map entirely, and no matter what she tried, Olivia could not pick his location back up.

But she knew her husband. She knew him better than he ever gave her credit for. And she knew, with absolute certainty, that sooner or later, Brian would call his mother.

The one person in the world he truly cared about. That woman was the single thread still tying him to anything, and if Olivia followed it patiently enough, it would lead her straight back to him.

And she needed to find Brian. Fast.

She watched as the older woman climbed into her van, pulled the door shut, and started the engine. The vehicle rolled out of the drive and onto the road.

Olivia waited a beat, and then put her own car into drive. She pulled out smoothly from the kerb, following the white van from a very safe, careful distance, keeping enough cars between them so she wouldn’t look like a total stalker.

***

"Answer me, Kai. Are you breaking up with me right now?" Jessica asked again, her voice cracking as she followed him into her own bedroom.

The shock of his words was making her head spin faster than a merry-go-round.

Kai did not answer straight away. He simply moved around the room, gathering her belongings, folding them quickly, pushing them down into her bag.

"Kai—"

"How could we ever break up?" he said at last, turning to face her. "Jessica, you are my soul bond. It doesn’t work that way."

He went back to shoving her things into the bag. "I just need you to lay low for a bit until I figure out how things are actually going to play out in Dravengard for the next few weeks. The political situation here is about to turn into a total circus."

He zipped the bag shut and lifted it off the bed with one strong arm.

He walked right up to her, grabbed her cold hand, and started leading her out of the bedroom. "I need you to do something else for me too. You need to get rid of your mobile phone immediately. Throw it in a river. Smash it with a rock. If possible, buy a new one, a clean one later."

"Why?" Jessica asked, stumbling slightly as she tried to keep up with his long strides.

"Just do as I say, please. It’s for your own good." His grip tightened gently. "I have a place in one of the human territories. You and your parents can stay there comfortably. Because right now, none of you are safe in any Western pack territory. Out there, among humans, no one will think to look."

Jessica did not like the sound of any of it. And underneath the fear, there was something worse, a cold, creeping certainty she couldn’t shake, a feeling that once she walked out of this palace, she might never see Kai again.

"How about Kira?" she asked softly, her heart aching for her missing friend. "What happens to her?"

Kai sighed. "If we find her, and we will, it’ll be between her and Derek. That’s not something I can take out of his hands." He paused. "But I’ll do everything I can. I’ll intervene as much as I’m able to. I promise you that."

"What if he kills her?" Jessica whispered.

"He won’t," Kai said. But he did not quite look at her when he said it. "Now, come on."

***

A few minutes later, Kai and Jessica stood in front of Angelica.

They had told her everything, the photographs, the meeting, the drugged guards, the danger Jessica was now in, and exactly what they needed from her.

Angelica was currently staring at the young couple as if they had both just grown a pair of bright green double heads each. Her gaze moved slowly from Kai, to Jessica, and back to Kai again.

"Now," she said. "Tell me one more time. What exactly is it you want me to do, young man?"

Kai took her hands in his. "Please, Mum. I need you to get her out of here. Quietly. I’ve already arranged a place for her to hide in the human territories. She just needs to reach it safely."

Angelica exhaled and pressed her fingers to her temple. "Kai. Do you have any idea what you’re asking of me? You want me to smuggle a suspect out of Dravengard. Right out from under the King’s nose."

"I know, Mum, I know," Kai said, his grip on her hands tightening as he looked at her with pure honesty. "But she’s my soulbond, Mum. My soulbond."

Angelica sighed helplessly.

"I can’t just stand here and watch her be dragged in front of a tribunal. Jessica does not have any powerful pack backings or family status to protect her anymore, and getting into serious trouble with the Lycan council is nothing I can fight entirely on my own."

Angelica was quiet for a long moment, her face caught somewhere between worry, love and exasperation.

"I need to stay here myself," Kai went on, quieter now. "I have to. I need to be present for everything that happens next, every move, every decision. Everyone’s eyes are going to be on me, watching. But you, Mum. Nobody’s going to look twice at you. You can move where I can’t."

Angelica exhaled heavily, her shoulders finally dropping as she yielded to her son’s pleas. "Okay. Fine. I’ll do it."

She turned and fixed Jessica with a hard, level stare. "But understand me. I’m doing this only because I’m choosing to trust you, Jess. And I hope, to the goddess, that every single word you’ve told me is the truth. The whole truth, and nothing but."

Jessica nodded quickly, her eyes brimming.

"If I find out you are lying to me or my son, the King will be the least of your worries."

"It is the truth, Lady Angelica. I swear it."

Angelica held her gaze a moment longer, then gave a short nod of her own.

"Fine," she said. "Let me go to my closet and get properly dressed for a road trip."

She turned toward the closet.

And just as she did, Derek’s voice slid into Kai’s mind through the link.

Kai. Where are you? I need you in my study. Right now.

Kai’s heart dropped straight through the floor.