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Home / Werewolf / Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore / Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

All Chapters of Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

149 Chapters

Chapter 111

Chapter 111BIANCA"That's what makes you an excellent department head," I said pleasantly.Sarah stopped walking, and I stopped with her. She turned to face me fully, her expression shifting from professional to something more direct."Bianca. Are you safe?"The question was simple and genuine and it caught me somewhere unguarded."Yes," I said, after a moment. "I'm safe.""Are you sure? Because you came to us with a complicated background—your entry paperwork was approved through unusual channels, you have skills that suggest you lived a life that was more dangerous than a standard medical career, and now there are guards at my hospital and an unofficial patient in someone's private residence and—""Sarah." I met her eyes. "I'm safe. The people I care about are safe. Whatever is happening in the background, I promise it is not going to disrupt this department or put our patients at risk."She studied me for a long moment. "You know you can talk to me. Outside of work. If you need so

Chapter 112

Chapter 112 RIVERA I was in my study reviewing Elijah's latest security assessment—the one that placed Thorne's movements at four separate locations connected to Louis's school route over the past ten days—when my phone lit up with an unknown number. I almost let it go to voicemail. "Mr. Rivera?" A woman's voice, professional but with an edge of controlled alarm underneath it. "This is Diane Walsh, school administrator at Greenbrook Academy. I'm calling about Louis." My pen stopped moving. "Louis has collapsed. He's conscious but disoriented, and he keeps asking for his mother." A brief pause, as if she was choosing words carefully. "We've called an ambulance. They're with him now. I wanted you to know before they—" "I'm coming." I was already standing, my chair scraping back. "Don't move him until I get there. Tell them—tell the paramedics—" "Mr. Rivera, they're already assessing him. He needs—" "Five minutes," I said. "I'll be there in five minutes." I didn't remember the d

Chapter 113

Chapter 113RIVERAThe nurse looked at me for a moment, then nodded once and spoke quietly into her radio as we moved through the bay doors.The trauma unit was in its mid-afternoon configuration—busy but not overwhelmed, the shift that I knew from Bianca's schedule descriptions as her most common working hours. I'd memorized her schedule without meaning to. It was the kind of thing you did when someone became essential to your daily existence.They moved Louis into a bay—not the main trauma bay but the secondary assessment area, which meant they weren't treating this as immediately life-threatening, which was something.I stayed out of the way. This was the discipline I'd learned over five years of watching Louis be treated by doctors who knew more than I did: the best thing you could do was stay out of the way and be present when they needed family information, and resist every instinct to insert yourself into the medical process because you were terrified and felt powerless.The ba

Chapter 114

Chapter 114RIVERA"I know." I kept my voice level. "I have people checking security footage. We'll know where and when within the hour."Something moved across her face—acknowledgment, understanding, the connection of two people who'd been building toward this, understanding each other with few words needed."Okay," she said. She turned back to Louis. "I'm going to need you to do something for me, and it's going to feel strange. I'm going to put my hands on your forearms and I'm going to do the same thing I've done before—the counter-resonance work. Do you remember what that feels like?""Warm," Louis said. "And kind of fizzy.""Exactly like that. It's going to feel more intense this time because what's happening is more active than usual. But it shouldn't hurt. If it hurts, you tell me immediately and I stop. Understand?"Louis nodded."And your job—your only job—is to breathe as normally as you can. In and out. Can you do that?""Yes.""Good boy." She glanced up at me. "Lucian, I n

Chapter 115

Chapter 115THEOI didn't want to go to school.That's what I told Dad at breakfast, pushing my cereal around in circles while he made me a lunch I probably wouldn't eat."You'll feel better once you're there," Dad said, the way he always did. "Sophie will be happy to see you."Sophie was my new friend. Well, kind of new. She'd been in my class before, but I'd never really talked to her until last week when she'd asked if I wanted to play at recess.She didn't know about Mama. Didn't know that I'd thought I was a murderer for weeks. Didn't know anything except that I was Theo and I liked dinosaurs and sometimes I got quiet.She just treated me normal.That was nice.But it was also hard. Because being normal meant pretending everything was okay when it wasn't. When Mama was still gone and I still missed her so much my chest hurt."Come on, buddy," Dad said, ruffling my hair. "Let's get you to school. Dr. Fisher has your session scheduled for lunch today, remember?"Right. The video ca

Chapter 116

Chapter 116THEO "I'm sure. Healing from grief doesn't mean forgetting the person you lost. It means learning to carry their memory in a way that doesn't hurt quite so much."The session ended, and Mrs. Davies walked me back to class for afternoon lessons.We were doing art—drawing pictures of our families—which was the kind of assignment that made my stomach hurt now.I drew Dad and me. Just the two of us. Because Mama was gone and Aunty Mia wasn't family anymore.Sophie, who sat next to me, was drawing a big family with lots of people."That's a lot of people," I observed."My whole family," she explained. "My mom, my dad, my two brothers, my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt, my uncle, and my three cousins. We're all going to the beach this summer.""Oh.""What about your family? Do you have brothers or sisters?""No. Just me and my dad.""What about your mom?"The question I'd been dreading."She's—" I stopped. Dr. Fisher's words echoed in my head: *Real friends don't leave just becau

Chapter 117

Chapter 117THEOIt was a picture of me and Mama at the park. She was pushing me on the swings, and we were both smiling. Really smiling, and laughing with me. Not the fake kind that she put on, when she was with Mia or people she didn't like.I thought all the pictures of Mama were gone forever and I wouldn't see them again. Dad said they'd been deleted, that we didn't have any left except the ones he'd managed to find."Can I have it?" My voice came out small."Of course." But when I reached for the photo, Aunty Mia caught my hand. Her grip was tight. Too tight as I instinctively tried to pull away but her grip was too tight, making me wince."Why don't we go somewhere quiet to talk? Just for a minute? I have more pictures of your mama. Lots of them. We could look at them together." She said, sounding a bit tensed about the whole thing. It was more like she wanted me to come this instant.Warning bells started going off in my head. This felt wrong. Bad wrong.Dr. Fisher had taught m

Chapter 118

Chapter 118MIAI sat in the coffee shop across from Theo's school, nursing a latte that had gone cold twenty minutes ago, and watched the entrance with desperate focus.He'd come. He had to come.I'd seen the way his face had lit up when I showed him that photo of Bianca. The hunger in his eyes for connection to his dead mother. The need for something tangible, something real to hold onto.He'd come for more pictures. For stories about Bianca. For the comfort of someone who'd known his mother and could share memories.He had to.Because if he didn't, I was out of options.The coven had given me three months to deliver Theo. Three months that were rapidly running out—I had maybe six weeks left, and I'd spent most of that time paralyzed by fear and indecision.I'd tried everything I could think of to get close to him. Showing up at the pack house—blocked by guards Matthew had stationed after I moved out. Attempting to volunteer at his school—rejected due to "insufficient clearance." Ev

Chapter 119

Chapter 119 MIAWithout access to Theo, I couldn't deliver him to the coven. Without delivering him, they'd kill me.I needed a new plan. Something better than hanging around coffee shops hoping a four-year-old would disobey his father.I opened my laptop—the one luxury I'd managed to keep when I'd moved to my depressing studio apartment—and pulled up everything I knew about Theo's routine.School drop-off: 8:15 AM, always with Matthew or pack security.School pickup: 3:30 PM, same situation.Video therapy sessions: Lunch time, inside the school.After-school activities: None currently. Theo was staying home for the immediate future while he adjusted.Every access point was blocked. Every opportunity had someone watching.Unless...I pulled up the pack's internal calendar, the one I still had access to because Matthew hadn't thought to revoke my permissions.Next week. Pack assembly. Seven PM.Matthew would be there—he'd sent a pack-wide message announcing his intention to address c

Chapter 120

Chapter 120MATTHEWI broke every traffic law on the way to Theo's school, my hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, my mind cycling through worst-case scenarios.Mia had approached my son. Had tried to convince him to leave school property with her. Had grabbed him hard enough that he'd felt scared.The phone call with Theo had lasted less than two minutes, but his voice—small and frightened and trying so hard to be brave—had activated every protective instinct I possessed.I should have seen this coming. Should have anticipated that Mia's increasing desperation would drive her to do something reckless.But approaching a child at school? Trying to lure him away?That crossed a line I hadn't imagined she'd cross.I screeched into the school parking lot at 2:35 PM and was out of the car before the engine had fully stopped. The main office was easy to find—I'd been here dozens of times before for parent-teacher conferences and school events back when Bianca had been alive and we'd

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