บททั้งหมดของ Her Daughter’s Mate: บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

LucianThat single circled payment—E.C.—had clawed its way under my skin like a parasite. By the time the sun finally came up, the jolt of adrenaline had soured into a cold dread sitting behind my ribs. I kept replaying the image of the ledger on my mother’s desk: the six-figure payment, too big to be recorded, too old to explain, and too private to be innocent.It wasn't for Pack budgeting. It was a bribe. A payoff. A burial. And the fact that it dated back to my father’s last year alive made my skin feel too tight.The Alpha Lodge, usually a place of humming power, felt small and watchful. After hours of digging through dusty archives, my eyes were burning, and I had found nothing. Just the kind of silence that meant someone had worked hard to make something disappear.There was only one person I trusted for the unfiltered truth: Elias.I found him in the armory, sharpening a ceremonial blade. He looked like he’d been waiting for disaster. I held the ledger up like a weapon. "Elia

AriaThere’s a strange type of silence that happens after you’ve been ordered to erase someone from your skin. It’s not peaceful. It’s not quiet in the normal sense. It’s the kind where your own heartbeat sounds like someone knocking from inside your ribcage, asking if you’re okay. Mine wasn’t. Not even close.I stayed under the shower until the water turned scalding, until my skin flushed pink and the steam turned the bathroom mirror into a sweaty blur. I scrubbed the same spot on my neck over and over—right where his hand had been—and somehow the heat made the memory worse. Like it was waking it up instead of washing it away.Lucian probably didn’t mean the words to echo the way they did: “Wash it off completely.” But they got stuck in my ears anyway.I don’t know how long I stayed there. Long enough for my fingers to prune, long enough for my wolf to start pacing restlessly under my skin, confused and irritated by the sudden assault of soap and fear and shame. I dried off in a rus

AriaI didn’t remember deciding to run. One moment I was standing in Elara’s dim healing room trying to absorb the impossible truth she had dropped on me like a burning coal, and the next I was tearing through the trees, branches whipping at my face as if the forest wanted to slow me down. Cold air knifed into my chest until my lungs burned, but fear is its own kind of fuel. It pushed my legs harder, faster, reckless.By the time the fire road came into view, my breath felt like a fist in my throat. Elias’s SUV was idling where he’d said he’d wait—always the steady Beta, always exactly where he needed to be—and yet the second he saw me break into the clearing, everything in him changed. The door slammed open, and he was out, the calm in his eyes collapsing into something sharp and commanding.“Aria!” His voice was low, hard, threaded with Beta authority that vibrated in the air. “Talk to me—what happened?”I didn’t answer at first. I stumbled into the side of the SUV, one hand grippin

Lucian’s POVLucian didn’t slow down. He didn’t even breathe properly. The anger in him had crystallized into something sharp enough to cut through air. By the time he reached the Luna’s private suite, the fury was no longer hot… it was cold, clean, and focused.He didn’t knock.He pushed the door open with a controlled burst of Alpha force. The heavy oak frame shook against its hinges, but the room’s occupant barely reacted. Helena sat at her vanity, wrapped in silk, brushing her silver-blonde hair with slow, deliberate strokes. The mirror framed her like a portrait—composed, elegant, untouchable.She met his eyes in the glass and smiled faintly.“Lucian,” she said, her voice smooth as still water. “You look tense. I assume the ritual was successful? Lyra is stable?” She set the brush down with a practiced grace knowing he found out about the forbidden magic she used. “Good. Then your outburst is unnecessary.”Her tone did it.The last bit of restraint he had been holding onto snapp

LucianLucian left the medical room before the sun was even thinking about rising. The hall outside was cold and too quiet. Behind him, Aria finally slept without flinching at every breath. He had watched her chest rise and fall for a long time… longer than he should have, trying to convince himself he wasn’t afraid of losing her.His body begged him to rest, but he pushed the exhaustion down like he always did. Alphas didn’t get the luxury of collapsing. Especially when the Pack was waiting for him to explain the chaos he had just unleashed.He didn’t change his shirt or fix his hair. He didn’t even wipe the dried blood from his knuckles. He wanted the Council to see the truth: that he’d fought a war inside his own Pack and come out the other side.When he entered the Council Chambers, every conversation fell dead. The room was full—elders, advisors, warriors pretending to be calm but failing. They watched him like he was a ticking bomb.He walked straight to the head of the table a