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Chapter 84

Author: Brandi Rae
last update publish date: 2026-06-04 00:46:34

Elara was halfway through a sketch when the library door opened. She didn't look up immediately. Charcoal moved across the page in slow, steady strokes while late afternoon sunlight filtered through the tall windows overlooking the mountains. For the first time in years, drawing didn't feel like work. It felt like breathing.

The door closed. A familiar voice sighed, not irritated. Resigned. That got Elara's attention. She glanced up.

Darius stood near the entrance. Unfortunately for him, he was
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  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 96

    Elara stood beside him and let her hand remain where it was.Not held.Not quite.Just the backs of their fingers resting against each other on top of a closed folder, with the desk between them and the snow pressing softly against the dark windows. It was such a small contact that anyone else might have missed it. Mara would not have. Mara could detect weakness, lies, and romantic hesitation through two walls and a locked cabinet.Darius did not move away.Neither did Elara.The study had gone quiet in a way that felt earned. The fire burned low behind them, steady and gold. The abandoned tea tray sat near the hearth. The summons still lay on the desk, but it looked less like a blade now and more like paper. Dangerous paper, yes. Paper with teeth. But still paper.Darius glanced down at their almost-touch.“So,” he said, voice low, “not yet.”Elara knew he meant the folder under her hand.She also knew he did not only mean the folder.Her mouth curved before she could stop it. “You l

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 95

    The study door opened without warning.Mara stepped in with a fresh stack of papers under one arm, took in the two of them sitting beside each other, the pushed-away folder, and the fact that Darius did not appear to be actively intimidating anyone by phone.Her eyebrows lifted.“Well,” she said. “Progress.”Darius closed his eyes. “Mara.”“I said one word.”“You implied several.”“I’m gifted.”Elara looked down quickly to hide her smile.Mara crossed to the desk and set the stack of new papers on the one empty corner. “I found the eastern precedent file, two older contradictions the tribunal will hate acknowledging, and one truly dreadful procedural loophole that may make several people wish I had retired.”Darius opened his eyes.Despite the exhaustion, interest sharpened his expression.Elara pointed at him before he could reach for the papers.“Dinner first.”Mara froze.Then, very slowly, turned delighted eyes on Darius.Darius stared at Elara.“You’ve recruited her,” he said.“I

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 94

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  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 93

    The study became a war room by noon.Not officially.No one said it aloud, and Darius would have probably objected to the word if they had. But the room changed shape around the problem anyway. Maps were pulled from drawers. Legal files appeared in stacks on the desk and the low table near the hearth. Mara claimed the armchair closest to the window and surrounded herself with enough notes to suggest she planned to insult every council tradition in writing personally.Elara sat near the corner of the desk with a cup of tea gone cold between her hands.She had tried reading the summons twice.Both attempts ended in the same place.Blackwater Authority.Council supervisionJurisdictional review.The words were clean and orderly on the page. That made them worse. There was no claw mark in the paper. No raised voice. No hand around her wrist. Just formal language arranging itself into a cageDarius stood near the window, phone pressed to his ear, his injured shoulder held too still beneath

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 92

    The summons arrived the next morning with no drama at all.That was what made Elara dislike it immediately.No alarms. No rushing footsteps. No wolves bursting through doors with urgent voices. Just a black vehicle moving slowly up the snow-cleared drive shortly after breakfast, its tires whispering over packed ice, its windows dark against the white morning.Elara saw it from the library.She had been pretending to read.That had become a concerning habit.The book lay open in her lap, but her attention had wandered somewhere between the lemon tree in the greenhouse and the way Darius had looked across the table the day before, when he admitted he had not wanted to be alone either.Neither did I.Two words.They had followed her into sleep and waited for her when she woke.Now the vehicle rolled to a stop outside the lodge, and the quiet warmth those words had left behind thinned at the edges.A council crest glinted on the door.Elara sat up slowly.Across the room, Mara stopped mid

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha    Chapter 91

    Elara woke to the sound of snow sliding off the roof.For several seconds, she had no idea where she was.The room was dim, washed in the pale gray light of early morning. The fire had burned low in the hearth, leaving a faint orange glow beneath ash. Somewhere outside, wind moved through the trees with a soft, steady hush.She blinked.Then remembered.Darius’s room.The couch beneath her.The blanket was pulled up to her chin.Her neck ached faintly, but not as badly as it would have if she had fallen asleep in the chair. That, she decided, counted as a victory.Across the room, Darius was still asleep.That held her still more than anything else.She had seen him tired before. Exhausted, even. She had seen him with one hand braced against a table, eyes shadowed from too many hours spent carrying problems other people handed him.But this was different.Asleep, he looked younger.Not harmless. Never that. Even half-buried beneath blankets with one shoulder bandaged, there was still

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 14

    The silence didn’t recover.It broke.Not loudly. Not all at once, but enough.A voice, low but no longer careful, slipped through the edges of the crowd.“That’s not possible.”Another followed, closer this time. “It didn’t take.”“It has to take.”“It didn’t.”The restraint that had held the room

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 10

    The circle began to empty.One by one, the remaining wolves stepped forward, were matched, and moved away. The rhythm of the ceremony slowed, the urgency fading as the outcome became clear.There was nothing left to anticipate. Nothing left to wait for. Elara exhaled quietly. She shifted her weig

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 9

    “Lyria.”The name didn’t need to be repeated. It moved through the room instantly, quiet, but undeniable.Elara’s head lifted before she could stop herself. Her sister stepped forward. Of course she did.There was no hesitation in her movement, no uncertainty in the way she entered the circle. Ever

  • Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha   Chapter 8

    The space behind Elara didn’t stay empty for long.As the ceremony continued, wolves shifted closer, pressing inward for a better view. The distance she’d had before disappeared quickly, replaced by bodies, heat, and movement that made the air feel tighter.Someone brushed against her shoulder.Ela

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