All Chapters of Luna's Rejection: Draven's Dirty Secret : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

BUTTERCUP "The new wing is ready for the first ten beds." I walked the fresh timber floor with the building crew, the smell of cut wood and clean earth thick in the ridge air. "We'll prioritize the ones still sleeping in the temporary rooms. No one stays in a cot through another cold week." Rose walked beside me, a list clenched in her hand. "We have fourteen waiting. Three of them need a quiet space, not open dorms. Two have kids. The rest can share if the rules are clear." Kai leaned against a support post, his arms crossed hard against his chest. "Rules are the part people will fight. Half of them came here to escape the structure. Now we're building it right back up around them." "There's a difference between a structure that protects and a structure that owns." Draven's voice cut sharp from the doorway. "Make it obvious, or they'll tear it down before it stands." Asher stood near the open end of the wing, tracing the ward lines Lila had set before her movement was restricted.

ASHER *** LATER ON "I need the temple," I said, standing in the mansion. "I need one full day. No questions until I return." Buttercup's eyes narrowed as she studied my face. "You have been carrying something again, and you have been hiding it from us. Fine. Go. But do not think we have not noticed you pulling away." She crossed her arms. "We will hold the line here." Draven said. "Take your time. But come back clearer this time. Tell us all your findings." Kai, still close to Lila on the bench, lifted a hand, though his expression stayed hard. "Bring back fewer ghosts. We have enough living work, and we cannot keep working around whatever this is." He gestured vaguely at me. Lila's voice cut through, soft but laced with warning. "The child kicks when you are near. It already knows your energy." She paused, keeping her hand pressed to her stomach. "Come back whole, or do not bother coming back distracted. We cannot raise a child around half a man." The words landed harder than

BUTTERCUP *** THE NEXT DAY "Three more complaints came this morning," I said, dropping the papers onto the table hard enough to make them scatter. "All of them about the River Bend joint spring. All of them worked almost the same. Someone is feeding a script." Draven snatched up the top sheet, his eyes scanning it fast. "They are anonymous. With the same phrasing about bias and Neutral overreach." He slammed it back down. "This is not real. Some one made it up." "My contacts on the border heard the same story in two different packs yesterday," Kai said, pushing off the wall with a sharp motion. "Buttercup favors the weak. Buttercup punishes traditional structures. It's spreading on purpose, and fast." Asher's eyes narrowed to slits. "Coordinated language means coordinated intent. Someone is testing how you respond under repeated pressure." He paused, letting the words land. "And they are watching closely." Lila frowned, deepening into something closer to anger. "Some of the voi

DRAVEN "We'll move on with the names we have," I said, standing over the table with the complaint sheets and the matches Asher had marked. "They want to open after the ruling. So do we." Buttercup shook her head. "We'll move on proof, not anger. If this looks like the bond shielding me with pack force, the story writes itself. Everything they already claim, and they'll use it against us." Kai tapped the list. "Then we'll use their own methods against them...The named patterns. The identical complaint. The trading house that kept tying debt to land. The secondary ranks who walked out talking about resistance. All of it dragged into the open, where they can't deny it." Asher muttered. "The magical signature on the coordinated sheets traces to a single preparation site near the old Neutral archive. Someone with access to Council channels helped shape the filings. That narrows the field and it means this goes higher than we thought." Lila, seated and pale with the late stage of pregn

LILA. *** ONE WEEK LATER "It is too early." The words tore through my clenched teeth as the first real contraction locked across my middle, and the bench in the ward room suddenly felt too narrow. "Thirty-four weeks. Mira swore we had six more. This is not six weeks!" Kai was already on his feet, his chair clattering backward. "Mira! Now! Lila's labor has started!" Buttercup's face appeared in the doorway, then Draven's, then Asher's, all three frozen for one useless heartbeat before the bond network flared with alarm. Another contraction hit harder than the first, it was like a fist closing around my spine. I grabbed Kai's wrist hard enough to bruise and did not let go. "Breathe with me." His voice cracked despite the steadiness he was fighting for. "In. Out. I am right here. I am not going anywhere." Mira shoved into the room with her kit and two assistants trailing, already barking orders. "On the bed. Now. Early labor with this signature is not a drill." Her eyes cut to the