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Chapter 51
publish date:
2026-09-18 15:57:54
Latest chapter
Carrying His Claim Chapter 53
Aldric departed two days later, the same modest company he'd arrived with, though the farewell carried considerably more warmth than the visit itself had managed. He embraced Selene at length in the courtyard, said something to her quietly that I couldn't hear from where I stood, and offered Kieran a firm, formal handshake that struck me as somewhere between reconciliation and a warning held carefully in reserve.Lucan lingered a moment longer than the rest of the party, exchanging a few final words with Gideon about supply logistics for the return journey, and I found myself, watching him from across the courtyard, thinking of how effortlessly he moved through this household despite his infrequent visits. He had the particular ease of a man who'd never once needed to work at being liked."Safe travels," I offered, when he passed close enough for the courtesy to feel natural."And to all of you, given everything currently keeping this compound occupied." His smile carried the same war
Carrying His Claim Chapter 52
Kieran found me late that night, well after the compound had settled, and I understood from the particular weariness in his posture that whatever conversation he'd finally managed with Aldric had cost him considerably more than the earlier, quieter meeting had let on. He'd changed out of the formal clothes he'd worn to receive Aldric that afternoon, but he still carried himself like a man who hadn't fully set down whatever weight the day had handed him."He was direct with me," Kieran said, settling into the chair across from mine without waiting for an invitation. "More direct than I expected, honestly. I think he'd been holding it back all afternoon, waiting for a moment when Selene wasn't in the room to hear it.""What did he say?""That he doesn't yet know whether I'm still the Alpha he agreed to ally his daughter to, or whether I've become someone considerably less certain of himself than the man he originally trusted with her future." Kieran's voice carried none of its usual car
Carrying His Claim Chapter 51
Aldric Thorne arrived without the formal delegation this time, just himself, Lucan, and a small honor guard, and I understood the moment I saw him dismount in the courtyard that whatever warmth had colored his first visit had been left behind at Thorne territory entirely. The gate that had once opened for a procession worth an entire afternoon's preparation now opened for five riders and a mood that settled over the compound like weather changing.He moved through the compound like a man conserving his patience for a conversation he'd already decided would test it. Selene met him at the gate, and I watched from an upstairs window as she embraced him, watched him hold her a beat longer than a simple greeting required, his hand pressed flat between her shoulder blades in a gesture that read, even from a distance, as something closer to bracing than affection.I wasn't invited to the meeting that followed. I understood that without needing to be told. I spent the better part of the after
Carrying His Claim Chapter 50
The news reached the household the way most bad news did lately, quietly, through a courier who looked as though he'd rather have been delivering anything else. I heard it secondhand from Dessa before Kieran ever confirmed it directly, and I understood, watching her face. At the same time, she told me, that this particular blow was going to land differently than anything Blackmoor had managed with scouts or skirmishes. There was no urgency in the telling, no alarm bell or sudden commotion through the halls, only a quiet, careful gravity that somehow felt worse for how contained it was."The Redwater merchants have suspended their trade agreement," she said, setting down the tray she'd been carrying with more care than the task strictly required, as though the careful placement of a teapot might soften what she had to say next. "Effective immediately. No timeline given for when, or if, they intend to resume.""That's the southern route," I said slowly, piecing together what little I un
Carrying His Claim Chapter 49
I felt the first unmistakable kick on an otherwise unremarkable evening, alone in my room, one hand resting against my stomach out of habit rather than any particular expectation, and went entirely still when the small, deliberate flutter answered back. The fire had burned low, the household quiet in the particular way it only ever seemed to be well after supper, and I'd been half-lost in a book I wasn't really reading when the sensation caught me — nothing like the vague, uncertain flutters Ottilie had told me to expect weeks from now, but something unmistakable, deliberate, a small presence announcing itself for the first time in a way my body had no ambiguity about at all.I sat with it for a long moment, breath caught, waiting to see if it would happen again, and when it did — a second, firmer press against my palm — I felt something enormous crack open in my chest, equal parts joy and a fear so sharp it nearly stole the joy away entirely.Five months. I did the math the way I'd b
Carrying His Claim Chapter 48
Ottilie's expression shifted partway through my checkup that week, the same careful, clinical stillness I'd come to recognize as her version of alarm, and I felt my own pulse quicken in response before she'd said a single word about what she'd found. I'd noticed, walking into the healer's wing that morning, a particular heaviness in my own steps I'd been attributing simply to the pregnancy's advancing weight rather than anything worth mentioning."Your blood pressure's elevated," she said, unwrapping the cuff from my arm with more deliberate care than usual. "Not dangerously, not yet. But it's climbed steadily over your last three visits, and that's not a pattern I like to see this late in a pregnancy, particularly one that's already running ahead of a typical Conduit timeline.""What does that mean? For the baby, I mean.""It means your body's under more strain than I'd like, and it's very likely responding to something other than the pregnancy itself." She made a note in my file, he
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