All Chapters of REBORN TO LOVE MY FATHER-IN-LAW: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Scarlett Vance “Come with me.”Elder Cain said it beside my ear.His hand was still around my wrist. His body leaned close that I could smell the worn leather of his jacket and the faint bitterness of black tea on his breath.He did not wait for an answer.He stood.His grip shifted from my wrist to my arm and he guided me toward the side door of the council hall like a man who had already decided how the next few minutes would be.I went.Not because he was forcing me.Because in a room full of Elders, with Dominic at the head of the table and half the pack leadership within earshot, struggling against Cain would create the kind of scene I could not afford.So I placed the decanter down on the nearest table.I kept my expression neutral.And allowed him to lead me out.The side door closed behind us.The sound was soft.But it felt final.The corridor outside was narrow.Cold.Stone walls that held the chill like memory.A single window at the far end let in pale daylight that did v

Scarlett Vance"Elder Cain was reminding me to keep pack matters private," I said. "Whiskey girls who gossip get dismissed, he wanted to make sure I understood that."Luca's eyes dropped to the folded paper in my hand.I didn't move it, nor did I hide it, nor did I tighten my fingers around it….I just held it loose at my side and looked back at him with the flat, bored expression of a woman who had been pulled aside by an old man to be told things she already knew."He gave you a piece of paper to tell you what?" Luca asked."Pack protocol," I said. "Written code of conduct for service staff during council sessions. He said I breached it by spilling the whiskey." I held the paper out toward him. "Read it if you like."He looked at it for one second, then two, then turned and walked away.I let out a slow breath and tucked the paper into my jacket pocket, pressing my palm flat against it once before going back to work.That was three days ago…Today he came home at four in the afternoo

Scarlett Vance"He is in the records room again right now. And this time he is not alone."I stared at the message for about five seconds, then I looked up at Luca, still sitting in the armchair with his whiskey and his unguarded face, and I made a decision."I am going for a walk," I said.Shockingly, he did not stop me.I went upstairs, put on my coat and boots, and walked out of the mansion…but I did not go to the records room… The funny thing is, I've been thinking about the paper in my jacket pocket for three days and I was done thinking. I needed Tay. Yeah…I needed her before anything else moved, before Luca cracked further and did something unpredictable, and before the unknown contact in my phone decided to stop helping and start using.I needed the witch.Not Tay…the other one.Mama Roux.I had heard her name exactly twice in my previous life, both times in the same breath as words like dangerous and do not go there alone. She lived at the outermost edge of Dark Eclipse te

Dominic's POV"She went to Mama Roux, boss. Alone on foot, stayed forty minutes and came back through the east gate."Marco stood on the other side of my desk with his hands clasped in front of him and his eyes forward and his voice completely flat, like a man delivering a report when he has learned that the man receiving it does not want color or opinion. Just facts.I did not respond immediately.My pen was in my hand. I set it down on the desk carefully.Mama Roux.I had walked that same path once…eleven years ago, before Luca was old enough to be a problem and before the Crimson Prophecy had moved from a thing Elders whispered about in corners to a thing that had started keeping me awake. I had gone alone, same as her, through the wolfsbane and the dark, and knocked on that door.The witch had opened it before my fist connected.She sat me down and gave me something hot to drink that tasted like burnt pine, and she looked at me across that small table with those pale eyes and said

Scarlett Vance"Luca is gone."Lyra said it at my bedroom door at six in the morning, her face pale and tight, her voice just above a whisper like the words themselves were too dangerous to say out loud.I was already dressed.I hadn't slept though because I had just come back from Mama Roux's with mud on my boots and a head full of unfinished thoughts, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the clock move from midnight to one to two while the pack outside stayed quieter than it should have. At this time…no bikes nor patrol movement after one thirty and that silence had its own weight, I had felt it pressing against the window glass the entire night.A shift had happened before dawn."How long," I said."Since last night, they think. His bed was not slept in…Zara is gone too." Lyra pressed her hands together. "The Alpha has called a full pack assembly for eight."I nodded, Lyra left. I pulled my jacket on and went downstairs.By seven, the mansion was a different building entirely.