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Alaric's POV The night before graduation, I could not settle. Raven could tell because she looked up from her book at half past nine and said, "Come sit on the floor with me." I looked at her. "Why the floor?" "Because the floor is better for conversations that need to go somewhere," she said. "I read that somewhere." "You made that up," I said. "Sit on the floor, Alaric," she said. I closed my laptop, sat on the floor across from her and she put her book down. Cael was asleep in the crib behind her and the campus was quiet outside the window. The room was small around us in a way that felt like closeness rather than constraint. "Talk," she said. "About what?" I said. "About whatever is making you unable to sit still for more than ten minutes," she said. I looked at the floor and then back at her. Then I said, "I keep thinking about the beginning." It never stopped feeling like the moment everything changed. "Which beginning?" she said. "Valkhor high," I said. "Walking in

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Raven's POV I woke up before the alarm and lay still for a moment. The room was grey with early light and Cael and Alaric were still asleep. I thought this was the day and then I got up. I showered, got dressed, and wore my hair down because I almost always wore it up. Today felt like a day for something different. When I came out, Alaric was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at his phone. Then he looked up and said, "You look different." "My hair is down," I said. "It looks good," he said. "Get dressed," I said. "Lord Thorne is going to be there at eight." He got up and I got Cael ready. He was in a cooperative mood which I was grateful for because uncooperative Cael on graduation morning was not something either of us needed. By half past seven, we were ready. The dorm room looked strange with both desks cleared and the portable crib folded against the wall. This was because we had packed most things the day before and the room that had been home for two years

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Raven's POV Three months after graduation, we were settled in Thorne territory in a house that was ours, not a university housing system, a safe house arrangement, or anyone else's estate. I stood at the kitchen window on a Tuesday morning in October. I looked at the garden where Cael was running in circles around one of Lord Thorne's warriors who had unofficially appointed himself Cael's favorite person sometime around the succession confirmation and had not relinquished the position since. The warrior's name was Corren. He was the same one who had spoken to Maren at the edge of the mating ceremony garden and he had a way with Cael that had nothing to do with it. He just got down to his level and stayed there. Cael had decided early on that this was the correct approach and rewarded it with complete loyalty. I watched them in the garden and drank my coffee. Then I thought about how ordinary this looked from the outside and how much had happened to produce this ordinary Tuesday mo

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Raven's POV Cael turned two on a Saturday and we had a small gathering in the garden. By small, I mean the people who mattered and nobody else because I had learned over the past two years that small and right was better than large and complicated in almost every situation. Lord Thorne arrived first and he came through the gate with a wrapped gift that was larger than I expected. When Cael saw him, he said his name clearly and ran across the garden toward him. Lord Thorne caught him, held him up and looked at him for a moment with the expression he always worked hard to keep off his face in public and did not bother hiding in the garden. Dara came twenty minutes later with Maren beside her. I had not known Maren was coming because Dara had arranged it quietly. When I saw them come through the gate together, I stood at the kitchen door for a moment before going out to meet them. Maren looked at me and said, "Dara said it was alright." "It is more than alright," I said. Sable arri

All Chapters of The Rejected Plump Mate Was Pregnant : Chapter 151 - Chapter 154

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