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TWENTY ONE: THE FIRST LEAD
publish date:
2026-08-21 23:09:15
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MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: WHAT NEITHER OF US STOPPED
Ivy was called away that morning, a birth in the eastern quarter that couldn't wait, and Roman offered, almost too casually, to take me down to the bunker himself rather than delay training a full day. I said yes before I let myself think too hard about why that felt different from every other morning we'd trained together. The underground chamber felt smaller than usual, or maybe I only noticed the size of it because there was no one else in it this time, just the two of us and the torches and the particular quiet that comes from being somewhere private with someone you've spent months very carefully not naming what you feel. "Same as always," Roman said, though his voice had a rougher edge to it than the words needed. "Listen,reach,no walls." I closed my eyes and reached for my wolf, and she came easily now, familiar in a way she hadn't been months ago, no fight in the letting go anymore, only trust. Careful, she said anyway, quieter than usual, more warning than instruction. Y
MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... TWENTY ONE: THE FIRST LEAD
Roman read Kane's letter twice before he said anything, standing by the window with his back to me, shoulders set in a way that told me he was working through something more complicated than the words on the page."He's not wrong," he said finally. "About the coalition. My scouts confirmed Vantage movement along the eastern ridge two days ago, closer to our border than Thornfield ever tested.""But.""But it's Kane Voss asking me to trust him with something as significant as a formal alliance, weeks after I dragged him out of my own dirt at the border." He turned to face me, something unreadable in his expression. "I don't distrust his reasoning. I distrust how easy it is to agree with a man for the right reasons and forget every wrong one underneath them.""That's fair," I said. "It's also not really your decision alone, is it. Not entirely."His expression flickered, quick and reluctant. "No. I suppose it isn't."Careful, my wolf said, low and watchful. He doesn't want to need this
MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... CHAPTER TWENTY: TWO VERSIONS OF THE SAME FIRE
Corinne listened to all of it without interrupting, her hands folded in her lap, her expression giving away nothing until I'd finished."He told you they ended the war," she said finally. "Not caused it.""He told me they forced peace on packs who didn't want it, and got erased for the trouble." I sat across from her in the same cluttered cottage, Roman standing near the door the way he always did in this room, close enough to matter, careful not to crowd the conversation. "Is that true?""I don't know," Corinne admitted, and something in her honesty steadied me more than a confident answer would have. "My own records are fragments, warnings passed down to keep pups from wandering old territory, not a full accounting of what actually happened. Thornfield's records may be more complete. They may also be shaped to serve exactly the argument Ferris wants you to believe.""That's not an answer.""No," she agreed. "But it's an honest one, which is more than either Ashwood or Thornfield see
MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... CHAPTER NINETEEN: NEUTRAL GROUND
The meeting place was a clearing exactly between the two territories, unclaimed land neither pack had bothered fighting over, marked only by a single dead oak split down the middle by some old lightning strike.Roman brought six of his own guard, positioned at a careful distance, close enough to reach me if something went wrong, far enough that Thornfield couldn't call it an ambush. I appreciated the calculation even as it did nothing to steady my nerves.Alpha Ferris Thornfield arrived precisely on time, no earlier, no later, which told me something about the kind of man he was before he'd said a single word. He was older than Roman, silver threading through dark hair, and he approached alone, hands visibly empty, stopping a respectful distance away."Miss Ashford." He inclined his head, formal in a way that felt neither mocking nor overly deferential. "Thank you for agreeing to this.""I didn't agree to trust you," I said. "Only to listen.""That's more than most would offer, given
MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: WHAT THE PACK ARE SAYING
Roman found me on the back steps that morning before either of us had said a word to anyone else, a cup of tea in each hand, and settled beside me without asking if he could."You're up early," he said."Couldn't sleep." I took the cup he offered, and for half a second longer than the exchange required, neither of us let go of it, his fingers still against the ceramic under mine before he drew back first. "The twins have decided sleep is for people who don't have anything better to do."That got something close to a real laugh out of him, low and unguarded.He didn't say anything for a while after that, just sat with his forearms braced on his knees, looking out over the training field instead of at me, though I noticed, the way I'd started noticing things about him without meaning to, that he'd angled himself slightly toward me anyway, like his body hadn't gotten the same instruction his eyes had.I noticed too that neither of us moved when a gust of wind pushed a loose strand of hai
MY MATE REJECTED ME ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT. NINE MONTHS... CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A FORMAL INTRODUCTION
The messenger arrived three days after Kane left, alone, unarmed, and carrying a sealed letter bearing a crest none of us recognized, a wolf's head circled by a ring of thorned vines.Roman's scouts brought him in under guard, though the man made no move to resist, standing calm and patient in the front hall while Roman read the letter twice before speaking."Thornfield," he said finally, passing it to me without comment.The handwriting was neat, formal, almost courteous in a way that made my skin crawl more than open hostility would have.To Alpha Cade, and to whoever else this letter may concern,Word has reached us of a guest currently residing on your land, one whose bloodline our own histories remember rather differently than most packs in this region have chosen to. We do not come with hostile intent. We come to request an audience, formally, through proper channels, rather than the border tests that have apparently already alarmed you.We would like to speak with the Ashford w
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