บททั้งหมดของ His Luna Returned—So I Left With His Baby”: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

We didn’t stay in the shed long.Kieran insisted. “This is a pause, not a hideout,” he said. “The second Crowe doesn’t see what he wants on a camera. He’ll widen the net. We need to be back in Vesperridge before he decides to seal the border and call it “public safety."So we moved.Again.The trip back to the city was a blur of wet roads and shadowed highways. The driver Daire had bribed was jumpy but competent, weaving us through side routes and service lanes while Kieran fed him updates from whatever encrypted feeds he was tapped into.I sat in the back seat between Daire and Kieran, damp clothes sticking to my skin, the relic case wedged at my feet like a sullen animal in a crate. The ledgers, copied and stashed, rode in Kieran’s bag.My bracelet pulsed in irregular bursts—sometimes a dull throb, sometimes a sharp, biting crackle that made me grit my teeth. Each flare seemed a little stronger than the last, like something inside it was testing the seal.Pregnancy didn’t just chang

The hole in the wall took an hour to patch well enough that we wouldn’t be explaining it to every guard and landlord who came through.Kieran dragged a tall dresser in front of it as a makeshift barricade. Dust hung in the air. My muscles hummed with the leftover echo of what I’d done.Daire opened every window he dared to crack, letting in damp Vesperridge air and the distant sound of sirens. It didn’t help much. The room still smelled like cracked concrete, adrenaline, and my own fear.“Next time,” Kieran said, “we aim for something we’re willing to lose.”“Like Crowe’s car,” I muttered.“You’re not wrong,” he said.Daire watched me like he was trying to memorize the way I breathed.“You okay?” he asked.I flexed my hand. It still looked like any other hand. The bracelet… less so. The crack that had been a single line was now a spiderweb, thin branches of silver veining out under the metal.“I didn’t black out,” I said. “I didn’t set you on fire. I’ll call that a win.”His mouth twi

I had been looked at my whole life.By guards measuring whether I was compliant enough to leave unchained. By staff wondering why the Alpha’s “guest” never sat at the good tables. By men who saw omega and thought *cheap*.This was different.This was being *assessed.*Women watched me like they were comparing catalog entries. Men watched me like they were doing silent calculus: price versus risk versus reward.The word *Vessel* hung in the air like perfume, blending with the scent of crushed mint, expensive wine, and the faint chemical tang of the Conservatory’s glass-cleaner.“Careful staring,” a Luna in pale blue murmured to her friend as Kieran and I moved deeper into the room. “The Tribunal doesn’t like it when you look too eager to buy.”Her friend laughed softly. “We’re not buyers,” she said. “We’re decorators. We just help pick where things look best.”The fact that she said *things* without blinking made my stomach roll.Kieran steered me not with touch, but with presence—drif

The Tribunal didn’t even bother with a gavel.Just a tone—sharp and metallic—cutting through the apartment’s speakers as Daire accepted the call. The TV blinked from a muted newsfeed to the Tribunal seal, cold and bright as a scalpel.My name glowed beneath it. Then Daire’s. Then, a reference string: *Emergency Marital Contract Review / Asset Compliance.*“Sit,” Daire said roughly.“I’m not a dog,” I answered. But I sat because my knees threatened to go.The camera on the TV shimmered, auto-focusing. A live-streaming courtroom unfolded; or rather, a sleek, staged imitation of one. Neutral gray walls, the tribunal crest behind a high bench, three officials in well-cut suits, and expressionless faces.In the center, just slightly elevated above the others, sat Inquisitor Vaelen Crowe.Of course.He smiled like someone had just gifted him a new knife.“Alpha Daire Nightmoor,” he said. “Elowen—” He flicked his gaze to the file in front of him. “Nightmoor, for the moment. Thank you for joi

The doorframe filled with uniforms and tribunal gray.Two enforcers in body armor. A handler with a tablet. In the middle, a man in a trim coat the color of dried blood, his nose tilted slightly as if the air offended him.Tracker.His eyes flicked over the room in one quick pass—guards, Kieran in the corner, Daire standing just in front of me—and then landed on me as if they’d never left.“Elowen Nightmoor?” he asked, though his nostrils were already flaring, reading the room’s scents like a map.“She has a name,” Daire said. “Use it without the inventory tone.”The handler at his side held up the tablet. The tribunal crest glowed at the top of the warrant. *Temporary Custody Evaluation Order,* Crowe’s digital signature stamped like a bruise.“We’re here under Tribunal authority,” she said. “You’ve been notified. Elowen is ordered to present herself for immediate transfer to a secure facility. We’d like this to go smoothly.”Smoothly. Like this was a house call, not a snatch.Every m