Chapter 21: Derek Stone

"Are you going to kill Rosie?"

Xavier quietly asked Conan.

They were both in the passenger seats of a gray highlander, currently on their way to a board meeting Conan was approximately eight minutes late for already. Despite being the King of Lycans, Conan also led an impressive life as the CEO of Northgate Capital, the largest private investment firm in the world, with holdings in over forty countries

Conan kept his eyes fixed on the window, watching numerous cars speed past them.

"No, I won’t."

Xavier let out a breath of relief, his shoulders sagging. After Rosie’s stunt the day before, he had genuinely feared for her life. Xavier had guessed that Conan wouldn’t be so foolish to make an attempt at taking her life right there and then, especially after the drama with Alpha Rowan during the wedding.

Thankfully he had been right.

"But it doesn’t mean I will spare her."

Conan’s voice came again, and all the warmth Xavier had felt suddenly vanished again in a cold huff. His eyes spotted a vein that had popped beneath Conan’s neck, and he knew without a doubt his Alpha was currently fighting his Lycan.

"I know...as long as you don’t kill her, Conan. How is Hazel handling it? Did she—"

"Don’t mention her name." Conan spat, suddenly yanking his head to face Xavier. Xavier nearly flinched, noticing his eyes had gone red.

He had merely speculated it, but Conan’s reaction sealed it in stone.

Something happened between them last night... probably to do with where he had disappeared to yesterday morning.

"I apologise for that. I won’t mention her again."

The apology made Conan go back to viewing the landscape just outside the window, and Xavier couldn’t help but feel an increasing feeling of worry for his friend.

What in the goddess’s name happened between them last night?

~

The boardroom was made out of glass and chrome, forty floors above a city that had zero idea Lycans existed.

Twelve men and women in expensive suits sat around a table. Conan sat at the head, Xavier standing just behind his chair, tablet in hand.

"The Halberg acquisition is straightforward," the CFO, a young-looking man by the name of Matt Terrence, was saying, tapping his pen against a printed deck. "We absorb their logistics division, retain their client base, and fold the rest into—"

"No."

Matt stopped mid-sentence. "I’m sorry?"

Conan hadn’t looked up from his phone. "I said no. We don’t retain their client base. We cut it."

A murmur rippled around the table.

"Sir, that is nearly forty percent of their revenue—"

"Which is exactly why we cut it." Conan finally lifted his head. "Their clients are loyal to the old management. We keep them, we inherit their problems. We cut them, we start clean. Anyone who objects can find another deal to close."

Silence.

Matt opened his mouth to argue with Conan, thought better of it, and closed it again.

Xavier typed a note on his tablet, keeping his face neutral. He had seen this mood before. It was the mood that had ended a three-billion-dollar merger last spring, and the mood that had gotten a rival CEO escorted out of the building by security.

Oh dear.

The meeting limped forward.

Conan tried to focus on the numbers. He did. But somewhere between the revenue projections and the integration timeline, his mind slipped.

The look on her face.

How heartbroken she had looked when he told her they should live their lives separately. The hurt when he said the night they had shared was a ’mistake’.

He wanted to tell her why he had left so early, why he had to speak to her that way.

But he couldn’t.

It also didn’t help that Rosie had somehow found out about their failure to have sex, and he still had to deal with the fallout.

Now this?

Damn it.

His jaw clenched, and he forced his attention back to the table, where someone was droning about quarterly forecasts.

His phone chimed against the polished wood.

He glanced down.

Maddox: She refused to see Becky, just as you expected.

A chuckle escaped Conan’s lips, surprising even him.

Well, yes. He had anticipated that from her. Xavier had been right to describe her as a woman with a lot of internal fire and rage.

Refusing the literal King of Lycans.

He chuckled again.

That was when he noticed the room had gone quiet.

"Sir?" one of the board members asked carefully. "Is something funny?"

Conan’s face snapped back to cold in an instant. He set the phone face-down on the table.

"Nothing."

The board member swallowed and looked at Xavier, who offered absolutely nothing.

"Continue," Conan stated quietly, extinguishing thoughts of her immediately.

~

"Your Majesty."

Hazel studied the man slightly lowered in a bow to her.

He had slightly short silver-grey hair, multiple rings adorning fingers on both hands. A small chain loosely resembling a choker was clasped on his neck, and to her shock, he even wore dangling silver earrings.

He looks like trouble.

"Greetings, Alpha Derek," she kept her voice calm as she took her seat, Derek also following suit. He took a seat on the plush couch opposite her, their legs only separated by a massive desk covered with delicacies of all kinds.

Hazel’s stomach grumbled at the sight of a particularly delicious looking plate of biscuits, but she restrained herself.

You are the Queen of Lycans now. Act like it.

"To what do I owe the surprise of your visit? I don’t believe I saw you at the party yesterday."

Derek shamelessly reached out for a cupcake, taking a bite before crossing a leg over another.

Eh? He’s so bold!

"Mere curiosity," he said between bites. "I was present, but couldn’t speak with you due to the...." He paused, letting the silence fill the space.

Hazel bit the inner of her lower lip. ℯℯ𝘭.

Rosie.

"Well, you’re here now. What are you curious about?"

Derek chomped some more, relishing in the sweet honeyed taste. The casualness of each all made Gertrude shut her eyes in irritation from where her, Miranda and Tawny stood, close to the door.

Show some respect to the Queen!

"The kind of woman my cousin married," Derek finally said, and Hazel nearly choked.

Cousin???

"You are Becky’s brother?!" She couldn’t help the exclamation that tore out of her immediately. Derek’s eyes widened briefly, before a small laugh left his lips.

"No, I am not. Rebecca is Conan’s cousin from his father’s side, the daughter of his father’s younger brother, who is unfortunately also late. I, on the other hand, am related to the dowager Queen. I am her nephew you see."

The calmness with which he explained himself made Hazel nearly groan in embarrassment.

Right, of course. How could I have missed that?

"Oh, I see."

Silence stretched again, only broken by his eating.

A vein popped up on Hazel’s forehead.

"If you are quite finished with wasting my time, I shall—"

"I know how Rosie found out." Derek interrupted her, finally done and now staring with a most serious expression.

His eyes were gray like hers, she noticed, and they bore a similar intensity to Conan’s.

"Found out? What are you talking about, Conan and I—"

"Your worst mistake, would be to take me for a fool, my Queen," Derek cut her off, leaning in. "Anyone with a functioning brain cell knows you two did not infact consummate the marriage."

Hazel swallowed, keeping her face neutral.

"Hmm," she said slowly, "Assuming you’re right, and we failed to keep to tradition, who do you believe told Rosie about it?"

Derek’s gaze darted to the servants and few guards stationed at the corners of the room.

Not with them here, it seemed to say.

Hazel narrowed her eyes. She didn’t know who Derek was, and the personal agenda he had, but the curiosity gnawed at her.

"Leave us," she commanded. The guards and servants exchanged glances with each other briefly, before obliging the queen, and exiting the room. Hazel watched them go, and as soon as the door was clamped shut, she turned her head again to Derek, who was eyeing a piece of candy.

Ugh, he acts like a child.

"They’re gone now. Who told Rosie?"

Derek’s eyes snapped up, and he parted his lips to speak.