All Chapters of Rejected by the Prince, Claimed by the Alpha: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Elara knew something had gone wrong before she even reached the first floor. Voices echoed through Nightfall House long before sunrise, too many footsteps, too many doors opening and closing, too many phones vibrating with incoming alerts.By the time she stepped into the lower hallway, one of the wall-mounted screens near the security office was already flashing territorial updates beneath the Nightfall crest.BLACKWATER BORDER LOCKDOWN ENTERS THIRD DAY RITUAL FOOTAGE LEAKS CONTINUE ACROSS REGIONAL FEEDS HOLLOW CREST REQUESTS FORMAL SACRED REVIEWWonderful.A pair of Nightfall guards hurried past wearing tactical jackets over dark uniforms, earpieces crackling softly with overlapping reports. Through the front glass entrance, Elara caught sight of black SUVs lining the circular drive outside the house.Delegations. Plural. The realization settled heavily in her stomach.Sella appeared from the operations room carrying a tablet under one arm and coffee in the other. “You’re awake,”

The first media request arrived at 2:13 p.m. By 2:20, there were thirty-seven more. Elara discovered this because one of Nightfall’s communications analysts looked moments away from throwing his tablet through the strategy room window.“Please tell me none of them are getting through,” Sella said from the coffee station.“Depends,” the analyst muttered darkly. “Do we consider drone footage technically ‘getting through’?”Darius looked up immediately from the territorial reports spread across the central table. “What drone footage?”The analyst turned his monitor around. A grainy aerial shot filled the screen showing the Nightfall compound from above before security countermeasures scrambled the image into static.Elara blinked. “Are reporters literally flying drones over the territory?”“Yes,” Cassian said flatly. “Welcome to public scandal.”Wonderful.Another notification chimed sharply across the room. Then another.One of the mounted screens shifted automatically to a live territo

By midnight, Elara’s name had overtaken every major territorial feed. Not just because of Kael’s containment request. Because of Darius. More specifically, because of the clip.Elara discovered that she was sitting in Nightfall’s upstairs lounge with a borrowed tablet balanced against her knees and a blanket pulled loosely around her legs. Rain tapped steadily against the tall windows while muted news panels rolled silently across the mounted television near the fireplace.“This is humiliating,” she muttered.Sella glanced up from the armchair across from her. “You’re trending.”“That’s not better.”On the screen, the slowed footage replayed again. Darius stepping directly in front of her the second Kael used the word containment. Someone had edited dramatic music underneath it. Someone else added subtitles. The comments moving beneath the clip were somehow worse.That man looked furious. Nightfall’s Alpha is one insult away from declaring war. Blackwater really thought threatening

The vote announcement hit the feeds just after noon. Not the outcome. The countdown.REGIONAL REVIEW SESSION BEGINS IN SIX HOURSEvery major territorial network carried it across the bottom of its broadcasts while commentators dissected Blackwater’s containment request in increasingly dramatic detail.Elara lasted exactly four minutes watching before muting the television in Nightfall’s upstairs lounge.Silence settled instantly. Blessed silence. At least until her phone buzzed again. Another notification. Another article. Another stranger was debating whether she was dangerous. She dropped the phone onto the couch cushion beside her with a groan.Across the room, Sella looked up from her laptop. “You keep checking them.”“I know.”“You should stop.”“I know that too.”“Yet here we are.”Elara glared halfheartedly while pacing toward the tall windows overlooking the training grounds below. Rain from earlier had finally stopped, leaving the Nightfall compound washed in silver beneath h

The interview ended, and for several seconds, Elara wasn’t entirely sure what to do with herself.Around the studio, the silence broke all at once. Technicians started talking over each other again while territorial feeds refreshed across the monitors lining the walls.“Viewer count peaked at one point eight million.”“Riverfang reposted the raw stream already.”“Blackwater’s trying to push edited clips, but the original feed spread too fast.”Elara slowly removed the earpiece, her pulse still uneven beneath her ribs. She had actually done it. No panic attack. No power surge. No catastrophic loss of control. Just her voice. Strangely, that felt more exposing than the ceremony itself.Sella appeared beside her, holding out a bottle of water. “You’re shaking.”Elara accepted it immediately. “I think my nervous system quietly resigned halfway through the interview.”“That’s healthy.”“I don’t think you know what healthy means.”Sella’s mouth twitched faintly before her attention shifted