All Chapters of The Rejected Mate Returns: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

**Lyra**The first sound that woke me wasn’t the singing of birds or the creaking of wood in the castle’s hallways. It was a soft, hungry whimper, followed by the gentle movement of a tiny body against mine.I opened my eyes slowly, feeling the sun’s warmth seep through the curtains. My son was looking for food, and his little mouth moved in an instinctive gesture that filled me with tenderness.I cradled him gently and settled in, letting him feed while I stroked the dark hair beginning to peek out from his head.“You and your fire, my little one…” I whispered with a soft smile. “What kind of fate awaits you?”But when I sat up a little more, I realized I was alone. Tharion wasn’t in bed.I frowned. He hadn’t left my side for a single moment since what happened the night before. Something must have happened.I called out to a servant passing down the hallway.“Do you know where the King is?” I asked, without taking my eyes off the baby I was still nursing.The young man lowered his ga

**Lyra**Krimson cracked another one of his jokes when we saw Rowan at the castle entrance, escorted by guards and looking around with that serious, solemn expression he used to wear when he wanted to look important.“Is anyone else going to show up?” Krimson murmured with a theatrical sigh. “I mean, in case we need to start a waiting list for the exes.”I rolled my eyes and didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was seething inside. Her words, though disguised as mockery, hurt me.I felt watched, judged. And worse still, invaded by the ghosts I’d worked so hard to bury.I saw Tharion. His furrowed brow, his tight lips. I didn’t need to read his mind to know what he was thinking.He was bewildered, annoyed… jealous. And he had every right to be.His words—“you decide if he stays”—gave me a hundred years of life. That means he trusts me despite everything.We’d made it clear that this between us was real. We had a son, and even though we hadn’t put everything into w

**Tharion**The sound of hooves echoed loudly across the floor of the main courtyard, causing the sentries to snap to attention.From the upper window of the hall, I watched with a frown as the approaching caravan drew near, draped in black and silver banners that fluttered arrogantly beneath the cloudy sky.I recognized that coat of arms instantly: the shield of the Valefires, the second most powerful clan after my own, clinging to their lands among the northern mountains.“Kael Vaelis…” I muttered. “What a surprise.”I strode down to the entrance hall. At my side, my advisors exchanged glances heavy with unease.Kael, the clan patriarch and Sienna’s father, dismounted as if arriving to claim a throne that did not belong to him.His amber gaze, cold as steel, swept over every stone, every guard, every shadow.He stopped in front of me, without bowing even an inch.“King Tharion,” he said in a dry tone. “I come in the name of my blood and the honor of Valefire.”“You are on my territo

**Mikail**I thought they would leave. That Kael would finally take his daughter and disappear from King Lycan’s pack, as they should.But no. I wasn’t that lucky.“Mikail!” she cried out behind me, her voice choked with tears. “Listen to me, I beg you!”I turned just to see her running toward me, her eyes swollen and her hair disheveled, dragging the dusty gown that couldn’t quite cover her humiliation.“The wedding… Mikail, the wedding is coming soon,” she murmured desperately. “We can forget all this. We can go back to Silverbane, start over…”“Forget all this?” I spat, feeling my blood boil. “Do you think that after what you did… I can just dress up and smile at an altar?” “After betraying my trust? After lying and allying yourself with a murderer?”She was crying. Tears streaked her face as if trying to erase what had already been etched in fire.“I love you… You don’t know what I did for you. You don’t know what Calista promised me!”“I don’t want to know!” I roared.“Mikail…!”“

**Tharion**The symbol continued to smolder in the earth as if the sacred fire refused to erase it. The black marks, curved like claws, pulsed with an energy that was not of this world.I didn’t need the sages to confirm what I already knew.“Forbidden magic,” I growled, glaring at the elders gathered in the council chamber. “Pure darkness.”My hands clenched the edge of the stone table. The name that echoed through the investigations burned my throat every time I heard it.Eloise.Mikail’s mother.The creature that nearly destroyed my home… had taken her form before fading away.“This is unacceptable,” I said in a low, restrained voice, yet laced with venom. “That woman must be brought before the High Council and tried for crimes of black magic. I will not tolerate any witch playing with the lives of my pack!”I spun around at the sound of soft footsteps. Lyra.She held the child in her arms, wrapped in a white blanket.Her face was tense, her lips pressed together, but her eyes soug