บททั้งหมดของ The Price Of Fate: บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

Ronan’s POVI dropped Nyra off at her cabin and stood with her at the doorstep longer than I should have.The night air was cool, the porch light weak, but she was warm, eyes bright, cheeks flushed from laughter and lingering kisses, my scent still clinging to her skin like it belonged there.Her mother wasn’t home.The absence made something restless in me. I didn’t like leaving her alone. Not after everything. Not in a pack that still didn’t know how to behave around what they couldn’t control.I caught her hand before she could turn away.“Come back with me,” I said, voice low. “Tonight.”Nyra’s lips parted in surprise, then softened into a shy smile.“I can’t,” she murmured. “My mother, ”“She isn’t even here,” I cut in gently, not arguing, just wanting. “And I don’t want to be away from you.”Her eyes lifted to mine, and my wolf stirred, pleased at the way she looked when she wasn’t bracing for pain.“I can’t wait to start waking up to you every morning,” I admitted, the truth sli

Ronan’s POVMy mother’s hands curled into fists.Ethan kept going.“If she was anything good,” he said, “Elaine would have told us who her father was. She wouldn’t have escaped back here. I can’t tell you everything that happened in detail, but I believe it is my duty to protect you the way I would protect Keiran.”He finished and looked at me as if the case was closed.As if I would nod obediently and accept that my mate was a threat simply because Ethan didn’t understand her.I nodded once.Not in agreement.In acknowledgement that he was done talking.Then I spoke.Calmly.Respectfully.And with enough steadiness to make it clear I wasn’t a boy being scolded.“Your son is broken,” I said.Ethan’s eyes sharpened instantly.My mother’s gaze flicked to me, brief surprise, then a quiet approval that I didn’t soften the truth.“It’s sad,” I continued, voice level, “that you can’t see that.”Ethan’s smile disappeared fully now. The mask dropped a little. His shoulders tightened.I didn’t

Ronan’s POVMy mother looked at me for a long moment, then shook her head.“Trying to avert what she saw,” she said. “Trying to force fate into a different shape. She thought she was saving people.”“And?” I asked, voice low.“And she caused a great calamity,” my mother said flatly.The room went colder.My wolf pressed closer to the surface.“What calamity?” I asked.My mother held my gaze.“Not tonight,” she said, voice firm. “One day. But not tonight. You asked about your father.”I nodded once, swallowing frustration. I could tell when my mother drew a line, and I wasn’t going to waste time fighting her on a story she wasn’t ready to tell.“Go on,” I said.She inhaled slowly, visibly steadying herself.“The Prima committee sent word to Victor,” she said.My father’s name sounded different in her voice. Softer. Warmer. Like a place she still lived in sometimes when she was alone.“Because our pack is one of the packs closest to the barrier,” she added.I nodded slowly. “I know that

Ronan’s POVMy wolf stirred under my skin, the old instinct that didn’t care that I was sitting on a couch with my mother. The instinct that heard barrier and disturbance and immediately wanted to run.“We all went there,” she said, voice cracking.I leaned forward. “Who is ‘we’?”My mother took a breath and steadied herself.“Victor,” she said. “Ethan. Me. Ingrid. Warriors. Elders. The Prima society were notified, but Vandwood was closest. The duty fell upon your father.”Her mouth tightened on the words duty fell upon your father like it was a sentence she had repeated in her head a thousand times, trying to find a different ending.“When we got there,” she said, eyes shining, “we realised it was Elaine.”My heart thudded once, hard.Elaine at the barrier.Elaine trying to return.My mouth went dry.“She was trying to get back in,” my mother whispered. “It was as if she was running away from something.”I pictured it without wanting to, Elaine, frantic, breathless, eyes wild, tearin

Nyra’s POVMorning came soft and pale, the kind of morning that looked innocent enough to fool you into thinking life couldn’t bite.The air was crisp, the dew still clinging to the grass outside our cabin, and the woods smelled like damp earth and sleeping leaves. I had barely tied my hair back properly. I wasn’t dressed for anything except work, an old skirt, a loose top, sleeves pushed up, my feet already dirty because I’d stepped outside barefoot to check the small basket I kept by the door.I was thinking of mushrooms.Of the safe, quiet task my mother had assigned me, pick the ones near the mossy stones, avoid the ones near the rotting log, don’t go too far. I wish you didn’t have to go alone.Like a wish come true, I wasn’t alone anymore.Because when I stepped out, there he was.Ronan.Standing just beyond the cabin’s little boundary like he belonged there, like the woods themselves had decided he was part of the landscape now. He held a small bunch of flowers in one hand, wil