All Chapters of MOONHAVEN CHRONICLES: The Captive mate : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Tyson The ring.The words hit me like a punch to the chest.Naya’s ring. The one found inside the pink bakery box this morning. For a heartbeat, the room falls silent again.Aiden looks between us. “What ring?”Connor reaches into his pocket and carefully places a small evidence bag on the table. Inside it rests the silver ring I slide onto Naya’s finger the night I make her my Luna.My chest tightens. I don’t have to touch it to recognize it. I’d know that ring anywhere.Aiden studies it before looking back at me. “Left it where one of our patrols would find it?”“No, we found it few miles south from the motel.”Aiden frowns. “They’re sending a message.”“They’re playing games,” I say quietly.Both men turn to me. I keep my eyes on the ring.“If they wanted to negotiate, they would’ve sent demands. If they wanted to kill her…” The words catch in my throat. “they would’ve sent proof.”I force myself to finish. “This…” I tap the evidence bag with one finger. “…is bait.”Connor folds h

TysonFor a moment, I simply stare at her. The words refuse to make sense.“My… what?”The Oracle doesn’t repeat herself. She merely watches me with that same infuriating calm that has followed her for as long as I’ve known her.“Your mate is reconciling with her family. That much I can tell you.”A bitter laugh escapes my lips. “My mate doesn’t have a family.” The words come out harsher than I intend. “Her mother, who was the only family member she had is dead.”Silence.The Oracle neither agrees nor disagrees. I take another step toward her.“The only family Naya ever talks about is her mother.”My chest tightens.“Unless…” A horrifying thought slams into me. I shake my head before it can fully form.“No.”Connor looks at me in confusion while Aiden’s brows knit together.I force the words out anyway.“Unless you’re trying to tell me she’s dead.”The room falls into a suffocating silence. Even the flames dancing around the chamber seem to grow still.The Oracle sighs. A weary, almos

NayaThe bakery box is carried into another SUV. Not with me. Deliberately, everything is deliberate. They aren’t abandoning evidence. They’re planting it. I try to use my power, but nothing. What did they do to me after they knocked me out?A bitter laugh almost escapes me.Tyson… please don’t trust this place. It’s exactly what they want.The men move quickly. Orders are shouted, vehicles are rearranged.Then I hear it. The unmistakable chopping sound of helicopter blades.My stomach drops. So this is the real plan. The motel is never the destination. It’s only a transfer point. One final misdirection before I disappear completely.Someone grabs my arm, another man wraps thick black cloth over my eyes. Darkness swallows me instantly.“No!”My voice comes out muffled beneath the cloth over my mouth.The ropes around my wrists are removed. Hope flares, only to die seconds later. New restraints replace them. Metal cuffs, much tighter, much stronger. There’s no space this time, no loos

NayaI stare at the photograph until my vision begins to blur. The woman smiling back at me is my mother.There is no mistaking her, the same warm eyes.The same soft smile.The same tiny gap between her front teeth that she always tries to hide whenever she laughs.And standing beside her Is the man claiming to be my father.I should throw the picture back at him.I should call him a liar again.Instead, my fingers tighten around the worn edges as a thousand memories crash through my mind.My mother never once speaks about my father.Not once.Whenever I ask, she simply tells me that some stories belong in the past. I always think it hurts too much to remember.Now…I don’t know what to believe. I slowly place the photograph back on the table.My voice is quiet.“If…” The word catches in my throat. “If you’re really my father…”His eyes soften immediately.“…then prove it.”“I intend to.”“Then start by doing the right thing.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Let me go.”Silence.His

NayaA month passes before I finally understand that surviving this place and escaping it are two completely different things.At first, every day feels exactly the same. I wake up, stare at the bracelet wrapped around my wrist, and spend several hopeless minutes trying to force it loose. My fingers become raw, my wrist bruises, and my patience wears thinner with every failed attempt. The bracelet never shifts. It clings to me as though it has always belonged there, swallowing every trace of magic inside me until reaching for my powers becomes nothing more than a painful habit.Eventually, I stop fighting the bracelet.Not because I’ve accepted wearing it, but because I realize I’m wasting precious energy battling the wrong enemy. The bracelet isn’t what keeps me here. This mansion is.If I want to leave, I need to stop acting like a prisoner desperate to escape and start acting like someone patient enough to wait for the right opportunity.So I begin watching.Tom gives me exactly wh