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CHAPTER 17: LEVERAGE
publish date:
2026-08-24 15:54:07
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The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 18: THE COUNCIL’S PATIENCE
COLEMy father did not take it well.I found him at the window when I came to the study, hands clasped behind his back as he always did when he was speaking to me with the certainty that he'd already made up his mind long before he'd even said the words, the late afternoon light throwing his shadow long and sharp across the old rug that had belonged to his father before him. He didn't turn around immediately, and it made the silence between us feel like something far more tangible than the absence of sound."You told her no?"His voice was even, the kind of even that meant he was far more furious than he was at that moment, far more furious than he was at any point, and the worst part was, he was right to be."Cole. Do you understand what you've done? Ridgeview's council meets in eleven days. If Damien Holt saunters in there with the last of the Corwins on his arm and we stumble in with nothing to show, we don't just lose our leverage. We lose the throne. You lose the throne.""I'm no
The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 17: LEVERAGE
LENACole shows up to my dorm the following afternoon, all messed up from his practice game, which is not exactly a surprise since he looks like he hasn't gotten much sleep that week. He's still in his practice gear when he arrives, his hair damp from the shower he probably took right after the rink, which makes me realize just how much he must have wanted to talk and why he was in such a hurry."We need to talk," he tells me when I don't immediately invite him in, standing in the hallway, unsure of his welcome, which is completely understandable given the circumstances."So talk."I don't move, and he looks over my shoulder to where Astra is and knows she's at class, and I'm being petty, if I'm being completely honest, but I'm not ready to let him in."I'm in a hallway.""You said something like that last time, too." Cole sighed as he ran a hand over the back of his neck, looking down the hallway as if he was expecting someone to pop out and listen in. "Can we at least have a convers
The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 16: WHAT ASTRA DIDN'T SAY
COLEShe didn't show up the next day, which was perfectly normal, since she had never had any reason to before, but I still found myself wasting precious minutes looking up and down the bleachers between drills anyway, hoping, just hoping that she might appear.Noah was the one who caught me doing it during a water break."You're doing it again.""I'm not doing anything.""You're doing the exact same thing that you always do. You're staring at empty seats like they're going to fill up if you concentrate hard enough. He shoved a water bottle into my hands, giving me a shake of his head. "C'mon, man, give her the day. You blew the one chance she gave you, so let her be mad about it before you try doing anything else."He was right, which sucked, and I spent the entire practice mentally berating myself instead of paying attention to the drills, my mind wandering to a certain set of four drawers in a certain girl's dorm room that I had no business thinking about.It was my dad who found m
The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 15: THE TREATY
LENAI read the article four times on the walk back to campus, the first two times shaking all over so badly I couldn't make sense of it anyway.It was old, an old piece of paper with text that had been scanned in from the original handwritten, judging by the words, and using heavily archaic terms like "hereby," "aforementioned," and "territorial boundary as established." There was a signature in the second paragraph, a name I couldn't place, and a line somewhere toward the fourth about water rights in years of drought that twisted in my gut like a knife if what he said about Damien's family was true, and it wasn't that hard for me to believe him this time.I couldn't quite place the feeling of impotence as I stared at this thing, this proof of sorts, in my hands. It would have been much easier if they hadn't been telling the truth, if my family had died for no reason at all, as another tragic family loss to be mourned. Instead I had this treaty, this drought that supposedly caused it
The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 14: THE PROMISE BREAKS
COLEI watched him whisper in her ear from two tables away, and something inside me quieted, all the violent dangerous parts that used to scare my father when I was sixteen and hadn't yet learned to rein them in"Noah," I muttered, not looking at him. "Whatever it is, don't.""I'm not doing anything," he said flatly, not looking at me either. He was staring at the menu. "You're the one deciding you aren't doing anything a second before you always do." He finally met my eyes, and I could see something like concern in them, as well as the usual exasperation. "She told you to let her do this, Cole. Let her handle it."It took me four more goddamn minutes to get across the restaurant, counting them out in my head the way she'd counted the minutes in my truck before I watched Damien slide a folded paper across the table to her, saw the horrified expression on her face as she unfolded it, and all the promises I'd made to her suddenly ring hollow and meaningless.I was across the restaurant
The Captain's Forbidden Mate CHAPTER 13: RIDGEVIEW TERRITORY
LENADamien chose the location, which, in hindsight, should have said it all. Not the training facility this time, but a restaurant in the city - an upscale establishment with cloth napkins and a maître d' who eyed my thrifted coat like it was a personal affront to the establishment. Public, civilised grounds - the kind where a boy like Damien would choose to make his stand, all pretence of deniability stripped away, with nobody to accuse him of anything either.if he chose poorly.Cole was waiting inside the restaurant with Noah, using the cover of the menu to hide his jaw-clenching scrutiny of the area. He'd wanted to be closer. I'd practically begged him to stay at the facility, telling him it was safer, but it was mine to lose, and he knew it. Now he was seeing exactly what I was forced to. Damien stood when I reached the table, all polished courtesy and expensive cologne, guiding me to a chair with the air of a man who thought the evening was already under his control. "You came,
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