All Chapters of His Father's Mate: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

94 Chapters

Chapter Seventy One

ARIA We scheduled a meeting to take place on a Tuesday afternoon. Mara arrived first. She always arrived first—I’d noticed this quirk about her. Soren entered behind her and stopped dead when he saw her. Two seconds of something that wasn’t quite surprise and wasn’t quite ease passed between them before they both found chairs on opposite sides of the room. Clara sat near the window, blending into the shadows. Victor arrived last, which I was fairly certain was a tactical choice. Damian was present, but he had positioned himself near the back wall. His arms were crossed, his posture vigilant. He was watching, available if needed, but pointedly refusing to be the center of the room. I sat in the middle of it. That had been a decision I’d made at seven in the morning and hadn't second-guessed since. "Thank you for coming," I said. Mara looked at Victo

Chapter Seventy Two

SOREN The villa kitchen at midnight was becoming familiar in a way I hadn't planned for. Clara was already there when I wandered down. A cup sat on the counter, the kettle still warm. She was reading something on her phone. She looked up as I entered. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked, her voice soft in the dim light. "No," I replied, grabbing a mug. She turned back to her phone without another word. I made tea, the routine soothing. This had become our unspoken pattern over the past two weeks: we never announced our arrival, we simply drifted into the kitchen, sometimes together, sometimes one after the other, and stayed until the sky began to bleed into gray. I sat across from her. "The meeting today," I said, breaking the silence. "Yes," she murmured. "Victor and Mara." "Yes," she agreed, setting her phone down. "That was

Chapter Seventy Three

ARIABrendan Ashcroft smiled the entire time he was in the villa.He arrived at eleven with two members of his pack and a gift—good wine, Northcrest label—presented to Noah at the door warmly. Noah accepted it. Afterwards Damian met him in the main hall while I stood beside him. Brendan looked at me when he walked in. The smile didn't change, but his eyes did—just slightly, just for a second—before the mask covered the flicker."Alpha Hawke," Brendan said, shaking Damian's hand firmly. "Congratulations on the ascension. It was long overdue.""Brendan," Damian said. "Thank you for making the trip.""Of course." Brendan glanced at me. "And this must be the Luna.""Aria," I said. "Yes.""Remarkable," he said. We sat in the main sitting room while tea was served. Brendan talked about the Northcrest Pack—territory updates, border security. He gave the formal visit more courtes

Chapter Seventy Four

NOVADarius mother—Mireille Foster arrived on a Friday. He had told me the previous day, very calmly. "My mother is coming tomorrow," he said.I put down my fork. "Tomorrow?""Yes.""As in the day after today?""That is generally what tomorrow means," Darius replied."Darius," I said, my voice dropping."Nova," he countered."You told me she might come," I reminded him. "You didn't tell me she had chosen tomorrow.""She confirmed this morning," he said. "I'm telling you this evening.""That is a very small window.""I know," he said, picking up his fork again. "She wanted it that way."I stared at him, bewildered. "She wanted it that way?""My mother prefers to arrive before people have time to prepare for her," he said, devoid of any emotion. "She believes you learn more about a person when they haven't had time to prepare."I considered

Chapter Seventy Five

ARIADamian explained how the wolf mating ceremony worked one evening while we were in the study. He simply stated the facts. It involved two wolves, their people as witnesses, and an exchange of ancient, immutable words. Both wolves would shift briefly as confirmation—the wolf side acknowledging the human side's decision—followed by the mark. It wasn't the claiming bite, but a formal declaration spoken over the bond that sealed it in the pack record permanently."That's it?" I asked.“Yes," he confirmed."No flowers, no venue deposit, no seating chart"."No," he said."Nova is going to be devastated about the lack of a seating chart"."She will survive," he said."She won't," I countered. "She's going to make one anyway, and then she'll be annoyed she has nowhere to put it".He looked at me, tilting his head. "Is that a problem?"."It's for Nova," I said with a smile. "So, no".

Chapter Seventy Six

ARIA The city courthouse on a Monday morning was not romantic. It smelled of floor cleaner, old paper. We took a number from a dispenser by the door. Damian stared at the paper ticket with the number forty-seven printed on it, his expression that of a man who ran a state yet had been handed a slip of paper like everyone else."We have to wait," I told him."I see that," he said."There are chairs.""I see those too.""Damian. Sit down," I commanded.He sat with the dignity of someone who had addressed pack councils and corporate boards but was now occupying a plastic chair in a waiting room. Gabriel sat on my other side, his oxygen tank parked neatly, while Nova sat next to him, looking suspiciously calm."Forty-seven," the electronic board read; we were currently on thirty-two."How long?" Damian asked."However long it takes," I said."I could—”"No," I

Chapter Seventy Seven

BRENDANI had been Alpha of Northcrest Pack for twenty-two years, having built it from a mid-tier territory into the largest northern pack in the state. I had navigated council restructures, territorial wars, and political shifts that broke lesser alphas and forged stronger ones. I had done it all correctly.Then Damian Hawke had stepped into the Alpha King position—which should have been an open process with multiple candidates—and simply taken it. He did it through a level of dominance so complete that everyone accepted the outcome before it happened. He wasn't inevitable. He was simply very good at creating the illusion that he was.I had identified the hybrid Luna as the gap eighteen months ago. It wasn't about her specifically, though she was formidable, but because a hybrid Luna represented a question the council had never formally answered. Could a hybrid hold the Luna position of the pack whose Alpha was ascending to Alpha King? The law h

Chapter Seventy Eight

ARIAThe afternoon sun beat down on the Hawke Pack main grounds as the formal Alpha King ceremony unfolded, pulling both worlds together at once—our pack on the grass, the human press release from Hawke Global hitting at the exact same second. Damian had spent weeks making sure of it. No world could claim it first. No one could twist it.I stood beside him at the front, the crescent mark on my skin burning like a brand everyone could finally see. The mating papers were filed. Torres-Hawke, official in both realms. My stomach twisted with the weight of it all.Six months ago I was just a girl in a bar with nothing but bruises and rage. Three months ago I was folding laundry in a villa, lying to myself that I was fine. And now… this.Niara stayed warm in my chest, quiet for once. She’d known this was coming long before I did.Councilwoman Drea stepped forward, that same silver-haired woman who’d dragged us through the hearing and

Chapter Seventy Nine

ARIA The villa kitchen smelled like fresh coffee exactly one week after the ascension. I poured a cup out of habit, lifted it to my lips, and my stomach immediately clenched hard. The rich scent that usually grounded me now hit like something foreign and wrong. I set the mug down fast, staring at it like it had betrayed me.That was strange. I always wanted coffee.I stood there frozen, heart picking up speed as my brain finally got what my body had been trying to tell me for days. The past four days flashed through my mind— the way certain smells turned my stomach, the bone-deep exhaustion that crept in earlier than usual, the way Niara had been sitting warm and suspiciously patient in my chest.Oh.I picked the mug back up, then set it down again, fingers trembling just slightly against the ceramic.Niara pulsed with that knowing heat, the kind that said she’d been carrying this secret with zero guilt.“How

Chapter Eighty

ARIA Clara let us in without a single question, her eyes flicking from my face to Damian’s and back again. She simply stepped aside and murmured that Gabriel was in the sitting room, television humming low in the background. That was Clara—twenty years of reading rooms and knowing exactly when a moment wasn’t hers.Gabriel looked up the second I stepped inside. The TV showed some garden renovation program he’d clearly been watching with real interest. He muted it with the remote and studied us both.“Aria,” he said, voice warm. Then his gaze shifted past me. “Both of you.”“Both of us,” I confirmed, my pulse kicking up.He searched my face with that piercing attention he’d always had, the kind that saw straight through me before I could even open my mouth. Being loved like that was one of the most inconvenient and beautiful things in my life.“Sit down,” he said.I sank onto the couch across from him. Damian s

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