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CHAPTER 15: The Deal
publish date:
2026-08-07 18:26:49
Latest chapter
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 19: He Saved Me!
SERAPHINEI was late.Not by minutes, by nearly an hour, my leg dragging the whole road from Riverside like it wanted to punish me for every decision I'd made since sunrise. By the time the manor gates came into view, I was already breathless, sweat sticking my dress to my back, my hair coming loose from its pins in a way that would have made Ally wince.The courtyard was quiet in a way I didn't like. No guards at ease near the fountain. No servants crossing between the kitchens. Just a stillness that felt deliberate, the kind of quiet a house holds when someone important is inside deciding how the day is going to go.I found Isolde in the east sitting room before I'd even had the chance to catch my breath, arranged on a chaise like she'd been carved into it, a porcelain tea service laid out on the low table in front of her, untouched."You're late." She didn't look up from the book in her lap."I'm sorry, ma'am. The walk from the orphanage...""I don't care for excuses." She closed t
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 18: Better to Stay Than to Break
SERAPHINEIt was almost time for roll call, and I still hadn't woken. I pulled the blanket over my face, shutting out the thin morning light creeping through the shutter slats, and let myself lie there a moment longer than I had any right to. Somewhere behind me I could hear Ally moving fast, the rustle of fabric, the soft thud of her sandals against the floorboards. There was too much to do this week, the renovation had every hand in the orphanage stretched thin, and you dared not stand still for long or Calista would find a reason to make an example of you."You've got to be kidding me." Ally's voice cut through the fog of half sleep. "You better get your ass up and start your morning duty before you even think about heading to work. There's no entourage coming to pick you up today."I didn't answer. I was too busy trying to hold onto the last few threads of sleep, the only place my mind wasn't circling back to a pair of kohl rimmed eyes."Sera?" Calm this time, testing. Nothing. "S
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 17: The Woman Before Seraphine
KAELI found my mother standing in front of the painting.She hadn't asked permission to enter my study a second time that afternoon, but then Isolde never asked for anything she could simply take. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, that same storm colored coat still buttoned despite the warmth of the room, studying the canvas the way she studied everything, for weakness, for value, for whatever leverage a thing might yield if pressed hard enough.I'd hung the painting behind my desk the week before, where I could see it without anyone noticing I was looking. I'd caught myself staring at it more times than I could count when I thought the room was empty."She's gifted," Isolde said, without turning from it."You didn't travel all the way to the countryside to discuss my painting. Let's get to it." I gestured for Mohan, who slid into the chair beside my desk, hands ready, the quiet fixture he always became whenever my mother required translating into a language I could n
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 16: A Mother's Verdict
KAELI felt her before I heard the carriage wheels on the gravel.Not Seraphine. My mother's arrival announced itself the way weather fronts do, a pressure change moving through the entire manor, servants straightening their spines two full minutes before her carriage cleared the gates, as though her authority preceded her by scent alone. I'd have known she was coming even without the note Mohan slid across my desk that morning.Lady Isolde has requested an audience. She did not specify a reason.She never did. Isolde Thorne had spent thirty years mastering the art of arriving unannounced and letting the silence that followed do her explaining for her. I knew, reading that single line, that the house wasn't going to be the same by nightfall.I was in the study when her voice, sharp and cultured, carried up from the entry hall, already interrogating some unfortunate servant about the state of the front hedges. I didn't need to hear the words to know their shape. My mother's disapproval
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 15: The Deal
SERAPHINEThe manor was quiet when the driver dropped me at the gates. None of yesterday's chaos, no war room, no orders shouted down corridors, just the long gravel drive and the low hum of bees working the hedges along the entrance. Mohan wasn't in the entry hall to meet me, which felt like its own kind of message, a door left deliberately unanswered. I made my way toward the study out of habit, my footsteps swallowed by the thick runner carpet lining the corridor, and found the door half open. Kael stood at the window with his back to the room, hands clasped behind him, the same posture from the painting that had started all of this."You're early," he said, without turning."The driver drives fast."A short, almost silent breath left him, something close to a laugh that never fully arrived. He turned. His eyes moved over me once, quick, cataloguing, taking in the folder of correspondence I still carried from yesterday, the state of my hair, the faint shadows I hadn't managed to h
The Deaf Alpha’s Unexpected Mate CHAPTER 14: What It Might Cost
SERAPHINE"Fine." The word came out clipped and brittle. She turned on her heel so fast her skirt snapped around her legs. "Ally, get over here. At least you've got two good legs; make yourself useful and grab those baskets."She stalked off without looking back, her heels striking a rhythm that sounded, to my ears, exactly like someone trying very hard not to run.Ally sidled up beside me the moment Calista was out of earshot, a strange, bright little smile tugging at her mouth despite the tension still hanging thick in the air."I think the alpha's feeling generous today." She bumped my shoulder with hers. "Might be a good time to ask him for that favour.""Ally,""Just saying." She was already backing toward the storehouse, hoisting a basket of oranges onto her hip like it weighed nothing. "Generous men don't stay generous forever. You should strike while the iron's hot.""Ally, wait," I reached for her sleeve and missed. "This isn't the time for that conversation.""There's never
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