Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reborn on my wedding day: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

Derek moved fast for a man in a tuxedo. He came down the aisle with his shoulders forward and his face red, shoving past two uncles and a pack elder who barely got out of the way in time. "What is this?" His voice cracked off the stone walls. "Claire — what the hell is this?" Julian didn't look at him. He looked at Claire. One long, steady look, like he was checking that she was still decided. She held his gaze without flinching. Something in his face settled. He bent slightly, hooked one arm behind her knees, and lifted her over his shoulder in a single motion. Claire grabbed his jacket. "A little warning next time." "You'll live." He was already walking toward the side door, one hand flat against the back of her thighs to keep her steady, completely unhurried, like carrying a bride out of her own wedding was something he did every other Tuesday. "Put her down!" Derek was six feet behind them now, his voice going higher. "That's my—" "She was," Julian said without t

The courthouse closed at five.Julian had a word with someone on the phone and the courthouse opened again at eleven.Claire had changed into a white blouse and dark trousers that Julian's assistant had brought to the hotel room without question, as though dressing women pulled from their own weddings was a normal part of the job. She had eaten half a sandwich and drunk the tea and sat for an hour in the window light, watching the city go dark, thinking about everything she was about to do.She had made her peace with it before the car stopped outside the courthouse steps.Inside, the building smelled like floor polish and old paper. A clerk waited for them at the civil ceremony desk, looking like a man who had been paid well enough not to ask questions. Julian's lawyer was already there — a sharp-eyed woman named Reid who had apparently drafted the land transfer documents in the four hours since the hotel. Claire read every line twice. She signed where it mattered. Reid notarized it

Derek left without another word.That surprised Claire more than anything else that had happened tonight. She had expected shouting, threats, something she could brace against. Instead he looked at her eyes — at whatever the gold had done to them — and then he looked at the five people on their knees, and then he grabbed Vanessa's wrist and walked out through the stairwell door without closing it behind him.The silence he left was thick and strange.Julian stepped away from Claire and pulled the stairwell door shut himself. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and turned to face the five people now rising to their feet.The silver-haired woman was watching her with an expression that was hard to read — not warm exactly, not cold either. Careful. The way you looked at something fragile that had survived longer than anyone expected."Who are you?" Claire said."My name is Councilwoman Adler." She inclined her head slightly. "We traveled from the regional seat tonigh

Elder Marsh was not what Claire expected.She had been bracing for a wall of cold silence, for the kind of scrutiny that came from someone looking for reasons to say no. What she got instead was a man the size of a large armchair with white hair down to his collar and eyes that were doing something complicated the moment she walked through the door.He stood when she entered. The other eleven elders, seated around the long table, followed his lead a half-second later. It was reflex — she could see they hadn't planned to, it had simply happened — and the slight confusion on their faces told her they weren't entirely sure why.Julian sat at the head of the table. He said nothing. He had told her in the car on the way here: I won't speak for you tonight. Don't expect me to.She had said: Good.The dinner was venison and roasted root vegetables and bread that Rosa had made herself. It was the best meal Claire had eaten in three years, which she kept to herself. She ate without rushing and

She made him eat soup.He looked at the bowl like it had personally insulted him. He ate all of it without further complaint, which told her more about his actual condition than any pulse count — a man who felt genuinely fine argued about soup; a man who was still recovering ate it and said nothing.Rosa appeared, refilled the bowl, gave Claire a look of pure approval, and disappeared again.The office was tidier now. The broken door had been replaced with a temporary panel — Cal's work, quick and efficient — and the lamps were on against the evening dark coming through the windows. Outside, the pack house had settled into its night rhythm. She could hear distant voices, the housekeeper's radio, Ethan's laugh from somewhere below. The pack carrying on, which was what packs did when their Alpha was down and needed to not know they were worried.Julian had moved from the desk chair to the low couch against the wall when his legs started working reliably again. He sat with his jacket off