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CHAPTER 16
publish date:
2026-07-16 21:34:54
Latest chapter
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 81
ELLA’S POVThe days following the false alarm passed in a strange, suspended quality, danger and tenderness existing side by side in a way I hadn’t quite experienced before—Aldric’s security review continuing urgently in the background, while Jason and I found ourselves clinging to each other with a closeness that felt considerably more essential than any careful courtship ritual we might have otherwise observed.He barely left my side during those final days before the wedding, and I found I didn’t want him to, the fear from that night settling into both of us a fresh understanding of exactly how fragile and precious what we were building together actually was.“I keep thinking about how close we came,” I admitted one evening, curled against his side while he read through yet another security briefing, his free hand resting protectively against my stomach the way it so often did now. “Not just tonight, with the false alarm. All of it. Sherwood, Chloe, Cross’s entire scheme. How easil
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 80
JASON’S POVI reached Ella’s quarters within minutes, my earlier careful composure entirely abandoned in favor of raw, protective urgency, and found her sitting exactly where I’d left her hours earlier, pale and visibly shaken though otherwise unharmed.“Tell me what Aldric’s found,” she said immediately, before I’d even fully settled beside her, her own fear apparently channeled into the same urgent need for information that had characterized her response to nearly every previous crisis.“The scene suggests Marcus was killed by someone with intimate knowledge of the patrol timing,” I said grimly, relaying what little Aldric had managed to piece together in the chaotic aftermath. “Someone who knew exactly when he’d be alone at that particular section of wall, exactly how long the gap in coverage would last before the next patrol rotation.”“Someone inside,” Ella said slowly, understanding settling into her expression alongside fresh horror. “Not simply an outside intruder who happened
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 79
ELLA’S POVI noticed the shift before Jason mentioned it directly, some instinct built from weeks of navigating this household’s rhythms picking up on subtle changes in the security personnel’s demeanor that suggested fresh, urgent concern beyond what I’d already grown accustomed to.“Something’s different,” I said, watching through my window as an unusually large cluster of guards conferred near the eastern perimeter, their body language carrying a tension I hadn’t seen even during the most heightened moments of our previous crises. “The patrols have changed pattern. There are more of them, moving differently than they were even yesterday.”Jason, reviewing security reports at the small desk near my bed, glanced up with an expression that confirmed my instinct before he’d said a single word. “Sherwood’s approached Cross directly. Sold information about our security protocols, based on whatever he observed during his previous visits here.”I felt my stomach tighten with fresh alarm. “
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 78
JASON’S POVI implemented the near-total lockdown within hours of the council’s decision, understanding that whatever compressed timeline we now faced for the wedding also meant we needed to survive an entire week of heightened vulnerability without giving Cross any further opportunity to exploit our defenses.“Full perimeter lockdown,” I told Aldric, reviewing the security protocols with a thoroughness I hadn’t previously employed even after the vehicle sabotage. “No unnecessary personnel movement in or out of the estate grounds. Every staff member’s background reverified, regardless of tenure. I want redundant security on Ella’s quarters specifically, multiple overlapping systems that don’t depend on any single point of potential failure.”“That level of lockdown will be considerably disruptive to normal estate operations,” Aldric observed, though his tone carried understanding rather than objection. “Wedding logistics, staff coordination, even basic supply deliveries will need care
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 77
ELLA’S POVI spent the following morning reviewing the legal documentation Jason’s attorneys had prepared for the wedding, a task I’d initially found tedious given everything else demanding attention, until a particular clause caught my focus and refused to let it go.“This section,” I said, pointing to a paragraph detailing the legal status of children born within a formally recognized marriage versus those born prior to it, my mind already racing ahead to implications I suspected Jason hadn’t fully considered yet. “What exactly does this mean for the children’s legal standing if they’re born before we’re actually married?”Jason, reviewing his own set of documents across the desk, glanced up with sudden, sharpened attention. “It means their legal status would remain somewhat more vulnerable to challenge. Legitimacy claims, inheritance rights, formal recognition within pack succession law—all of it carries considerably stronger protection once children are born within a legally recog
FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED CHAPTER 76
JASON’S POVThe old records Vivienne provided arrived at Aldric’s office within the hour, exactly as promised, though sorting through decades of accumulated documentation would clearly take considerably longer than the urgency of our current situation comfortably allowed.I found myself, that evening, unable to shake a nagging sense that Vivienne’s earlier explanation of Cross’s grievance, however genuinely painful for her to share, hadn’t fully accounted for the sheer, patient scale of what he was now attempting. A business partner cheated out of his rightful share, however genuine that grievance, seemed an insufficient foundation for thirty years of careful planning culminating in an attempt to literally steal my unborn children as generational retribution.I found her in her study again, the same room that had become the site of nearly every difficult revelation this family had faced over these past several weeks, and settled into the chair across from her with a directness I’d gro
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