Chapter 51

Crystal's POVDamon requested the council convene one final time before the delegation's departure, and I was not surprised, walking into the chamber that morning, to find the air already thick with the particular tension that meant he intended to make one last attempt at something."I want to raise a formal proposal," he said, once the room had settled, "that the council recommend the Alpha reconsider the Thornewood match, given the security benefits it would provide against the vampire threat gathering at our boundary.""The council does not recommend an Alpha's personal choices," Conrad said, before Kenneth could respond, something sharp entering his usually measured tone. "That has never been how this pack operates, Damon, and you know that better than most of us.""This is not merely personal," Damon pressed. "It concerns the security of every person in this territory.""It concerns exactly one person's discomfort with a decision he does not agree with," Kenneth said, his voice c

Chapter 52

Crystal's POVThe three black vehicles that had arrived a week earlier stood ready in the same spot along the drive, engines idling, the morning still carrying enough of a chill that everyone's breath showed faintly in the air.Desmond shook Kenneth's hand with the same easy warmth he had shown on arrival, whatever disappointment he carried apparently folded away neatly behind decades of practiced diplomacy."The trade terms stand as discussed," he said. "And regardless of anything else, this alliance remains exactly as strong as it was before we arrived. I hope you know that was never in question for me.""I know," Kenneth said. "Thank you, Desmond. For understanding.""There was nothing to understand beyond an old idea that simply did not become what your father and I once hoped for," Desmond said, something almost fond in it. "I am glad you did not pretend otherwise, for any of our sakes."He turned to me then, offering a short, respectful nod. "Take care of him," he said. "And of

Chapter 53

Crystal's POVThree weeks passed in a very calm way.Training in the mornings, sometimes two sessions, sometimes one depending on what the elder judged my body could sustain. Afternoons that belonged, to the garden, the dining hall, the low corridor near the kitchens where Jordan and Stella had long since stopped pretending their conversations were about herb stock.Evenings belonged to Kenneth, and I no longer felt the need to justify that to myself the way I once had, some old instinct insisting that wanting something good made you foolish for trusting it would stay.It was Stella who told me first, finding me in the garden on an ordinary Tuesday morning, her hands trembling slightly around the basket she carried, her face lit with something so bright I nearly dropped the trowel I was holding."He said it," she said, before I had even fully turned toward her. "Last night. By the lake, of all places, the same one I used to push him into when we were children.""Jordan," I said, thou

All Chapters of The Hybrid’s Fate: Chapter 51 - Chapter 53

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53