Alle Kapitel von The Rejected Plump Mate Was Pregnant : Kapitel 121 – Kapitel 130

Raven's POV Lord Thorne offered his estate for the ceremony and we said yes because neutral territory felt right, peaceful, safe, and perfectly ours. Neither of us wanted anything that looked like a pack event with all the weight we carried after everything we had been through inside pack halls and council chambers. We kept the guest list small on purpose and by small I mean thirty people. Even that felt like a lot to me, but Alaric said thirty was already small and I said fine. We settled on it and moved on. Sable was not on the list yet because we had not met her. Lord Thorne's closest allies were there, along with the warriors who had stayed loyal to Alaric through the expulsion. Dara was not there yet either because that came later. The people who were there had earned the right to be in the room, and that mattered to me more than numbers. I wore something simple because elaborate felt wrong and I had spent enough of my life being told I needed to present myself in a certain w

Raven's POV Alaric drove me to the meeting location, which was a small neutral territory building about forty minutes from the estate. He pulled up outside and looked at me. He said, "I will be right here." "I know," I said. "If anything feels wrong," he started. "I'll come straight out," I said. He nodded and I got out of the car. I stood on the pavement for a moment and looked at the building. Then I walked to the door, pushed it open, and went inside. The room was small and clean with a table, two chairs, and a window that looked out onto a quiet street. Maren Vale was already sitting at the table and she looked up when I came in. We both went still at the same moment because we were doing the same thing, which was looking at each other's faces and trying to find something familiar in them. She had blue eyes and I had blue eyes. Her hair had gone mostly grey, but underneath the grey, it was the same strawberry blonde that mine was. I stood in the doorway and felt something s

Raven's POV I waited four days before reaching out to Dara because I needed those days to figure out what I actually wanted from the conversation before I walked into it. I had learned by now that going into something important without knowing what you wanted from it was how you ended up agreeing to things you had not decided on yet. I wrote the message through Lord Thorne's office the way Alaric suggested, because it gave it the right weight. I made it clear that this was not an impulsive reach out, but something considered and deliberate. I kept it short by writing just my name, a brief acknowledgment that I had spoken with Maren, and a request to meet at a neutral location at a time that suited her. Her response came back within six hours, which told me she had been waiting for it. She suggested a small building in neutral territory two days from then. I confirmed it and told Alaric. He said he would arrange a warrior to be positioned nearby, and I said fine, as long as they

Raven's POV Alaric picked the note up from the floor before I could open it. I let him because he had gone into the careful assessment mode. I had learned that trying to stop him when he was in that mode was more effort than it was worth. He unfolded it and read it, then handed it to me. I read it and it said “Welcome to Elderwick, hope your first day treated you well, there is a good coffee place two streets from the east gate, third building on the left, tell them Sable sent you and they will give you the student discount.” Underneath that was a small drawing of a coffee cup that was not good, but was clearly meant to be cheerful. "It is a welcome note," I said. "Someone slipped it under our door without knocking," Alaric said. "That is how notes work," I said. "I want to know who Sable is," he said. "Alaric," I said. "It is a coffee recommendation." He looked at the note again, then at the door and back at the note with the expression he got when he was trying to talk himse

Raven's POV We drove back to Thorne territory for the function on a Friday evening and Lord Thorne met us at the estate door. He looked us both over and said, "Good, you're on time," which, from him, was approximately equivalent to a standing ovation. The function was being held at the main council gathering hall in Thorne territory and it was bigger than I expected. Not in terms of the building, which was large enough, but in terms of the people filling it because every significant title holder in every affiliated territory had sent either themselves or a representative. The room had the specific energy of a space full of people who were all quietly measuring each other. I noted several unfamiliar faces quickly as we walked further in. Lord Thorne walked us in. I stayed beside Alaric and watched the room carefully, noting who looked over when we entered and what their expressions did when they saw me specifically. Several people looked at Alaric with recognition and respect and