Semua Bab His Luna Returned—So I Left With His Baby”: Bab 91 - Bab 100

The ridge slept louder than the outpost.Even with the probes silent for the night, the ward murmured under the trees—low, constant, like a distant sea. Most of the guardians rotated off after sunset, leaving a skeleton crew on watch. The elder had ordered Elowen to rest. Mae had seconded it with a look that could curdle milk.Elowen lay on her pallet, staring at the ceiling, every muscle humming.Rest, her body said. Move, something deeper answered.After an hour of pointlessly counting cracks in the stone, she gave up.Lysa would murder her if she walked into the circle exhausted.Lysa would also murder her if she walked into the Rite hollowed out by loneliness.She rose quietly, pulling on her cloak, careful not to jostle the small bundle of silver humming under her ribs and hand.The corridor outside her door was empty but for a drowsy guardian at the far end who pretended not to see her disappear into the trees.The path to the ridge felt easier now. Her feet knew it. Her bones

They tightened security after the note.Extra patrols on the inner paths. Double checks at the ward gates. Runes brightened and recalibrated until the whole sanctuary hummed like a live wire.It didn’t matter.Danger didn’t always come from outside.***Elowen finished the afternoon’s exercises with sweat prickling between her shoulder blades and a low, familiar ache in her lower back. Nyra had driven her hard—shield compression, then gradual release, then walking with the shield half‑raised while Mae lobbed tiny, invisible pulses at her, like static shocks against her skin.“Again,” Nyra had said every time Elowen flinched.Now, hours later, Elowen just wanted a bath and something bland and starchy to settle her stomach.Mae dismissed the small circle of trainees with a flick of her fingers. “Eat,” she ordered. “Sleep. Nobody channels alone after dusk. I’m not explaining another burn to the healers because you decided midnight was a good time to experiment.”There were a few tired la

His head jerked back, eyes flaring. “Cowardice?”“Yes,” she said, heat slicing through the lingering cold of the corridor. “If you stand by my side because we choose each other, that’s bravery. If you leave because Calista and Crowe have made it uncomfortable to stay, that’s letting them write our story. Again.”He stared at her through the ward, chest heaving.“I don’t want to be the reason they come,” he said. The words sounded flayed. “I was already once.”“You were,” she agreed. “Once. Before you knew. Before we did. But look at today, Daire. They didn’t say, “bring us Nightmoor.” They said, “bring us the Lunaris vessel.” They stepped over your name to get to mine. You cutting yourself out of the picture now doesn’t erase the bounty on my head. It just leaves me standing in the open without the Alpha I chose.”He pressed his palms harder against the ward, like he could push through sheer will.“If my stepping back protects your standing here—”“It doesn’t,” she snapped. “We are pa

The “Auction the witch” chant hadn’t even finished cresting before the next blow landed.This one came with a Nightmoor seal.***Daire’s voice hit her comm like a blow.“El.”She was already moving toward the boundary path. “What happened?”“A courier from Nightmoor,” he said, words clipped. “With witnesses. With cameras.”Her stomach tightened. “What did they bring?”“A challenge,” he said. “Formal. On Covenant record.”***He waited at the far side of the Lunaris ward, flanked by two of his own wolves—loyalists who’d insisted on staying near him despite the political cost. A third figure stood off to one side, in Nightmoor black with the crest on his breast and a folded document in his hands.“Read it to her,” Daire said, jaw hard.The envoy looked at the ward like it offended him, then cleared his throat and lifted the paper.“Notice of Challenge,” he intoned. “Filed by Dominic Kael, heir apparent of the Kael branch and claimant to the Nightmoor Alpha seat.”Kieran, Rae, and Nyra

The bounty didn’t just bring rogues.It brought politicians.***“They’re here,” Rae said, peering through the narrow viewing slit above the main hall. “Nightmoor delegation. Plus, three Covenant reps who look like they haven’t smiled since the last war.”Elowen adjusted the fall of her cloak, then smoothed her hand over the chain at her throat. The old instinct to hide—to let Daire or Lunaris elders speak for her—itched under her skin.She ignored it.“Who asked for this meeting?” she asked.“Technically?” Kieran said. “They did. Nightmoor pack council and allied houses. “Concerned parties” requesting clarification before the trial.”“Translation,” Rae muttered. “They want to see if you’re a monster or a mistress.”Nyra stood by the door, arms folded. “You don’t owe them anything,” she said. “Lunaris can handle—”Elowen shook her head. “If I let everyone else speak for me, I’m already half a file again. They came demanding answers. They can have mine.”Mae studied her for a second, t