Derek Wolfe in Defying the Lycan King: Revenge King

Derek Wolfe in Defying the Lycan King is the subject of this character analysis, with spoilers to chapter 297. The novel is for adult readers; we keep everything here non-graphic.

The wound

As a boy, Derek watched from a closet as a peace banquet turned into a massacre that took his parents. His beast surfaced nearly wild, and he spent two years locked in the deepest cell while Ruby sang outside and Declan, Kai and Connor ran Leo on a leash. He grew up with a photographic memory, no sleep and one purpose: destroy the traitor and everyone who belongs to him. Everything cold about Derek starts there.

The plan

He married Kira for revenge. The book doesn't soften it: in chapter 236 he tells her the full version, a year of tormenting Rolf's daughter and, if she bore a son, using the boy to claim werewolf land. He chose a werewolf bride because he was sure he could never love one. "Fate has a twisted sense of humour," he says after he does.

The cracks

What makes Derek watchable is how early the plan fails. In chapter 15 he pins Rolf's hand to a desk for scarring his queen. He sits all night outside her hotel door, cooks for her, runs across town in his fur for plantain, builds a crib, and lets her write on his life with notes and teddy bears. His tells are small and constant: he saves her silly video, keeps the photo strip, laughs for the first time in years in a market alley.

The low point

Chapter 209 is the worst thing he does. Fed Lydia's chip and Chloe's story, he believes Kira spied for Rolf, confirms his old plan in front of his family, and repeats Rolf's cruellest words. Nana slaps him. Kira shifts and runs. The book makes clear the evidence was there all along, and that his trust broke at the first push. It is hard to read, and it is meant to be.

Earning it back

Derek's redemption is better than most in the genre because it is specific. He apologises to the werewolves publicly. He writes Kira's brother a humble letter instead of making demands. In the garden he tells her everything, including the parts that make him look worst. He accepts her rules. And when the refused bond starts draining him, he hides it, because he would rather wither than be chosen out of pity.

Derek and the people around him

Derek's best scenes are often with other people. Nana is the only one who can scold him into honesty, and her slap in chapter 209 is the book's verdict on him. Declan's loyalty feeds his worst instincts until Declan himself apologises to Kira. Kai tells him the truth with jokes, and in chapter 234 tells him to stop shouldering the blame for everything that went wrong when he was a boy. Connor protects Kira even from him, because Derek once ordered him to, and when Derek learns Connor hid her for a month, he lets go of his collar. Derek is at his best when he listens to the people who love him, and at his worst when he listens only to his anger.

Our read

Derek is a revenge hero who discovers he got the revenge wrong: the man he hated wasn't guilty of the crime, and the woman he meant to hurt was the one person who never betrayed him. You can find him too cruel to forgive, and plenty of readers do. But his arc is honest about what he did, and the payoff, "I love her the way you loved each other", at his parents' columbarium, lands because the book made him pay for it.

Read about the woman he married in Kira's analysis, or start at Recap Part 1.