All Chapters of Pregnant And Rejected Mate : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Rowan acted before anyone in the room even realized what was happening.With a single step, he closed the distance and grabbed Torvin's wrist half a second before the blade struck its target. The two of them crashed sideways against the long council table with such force that chalices and scattered papers flew across the stone floor.Sera didn't see the rest clearly. Ada had pressed her firmly against the wall, placing an arm protectively over her and Lena, and Sera could only catch glimpses of what was to come—Rowan's forearm entwined in Torvin's, the older man's face contorted with rage that had erased all traces of his calm authority from moments before, Kael turning a fraction of a second too slowly to the sound of the struggle and already rushing to help."Kael!" Sera blurted out before she could stop herself.He didn't need the warning. When Kael reached them, Rowan had already ripped the blade free and pressed it against the table. Two pack warriors from the doorway pulled Torvi

Kael read it twice before he handed it to her, his hand steady but his face gone the color of old ash.Sera took it carefully, Lena still settled against her shoulder, and unfolded the parchment with fingers that had started to tremble before she'd even read the first line.Torvin was a tool, nothing more. His failure changes nothing. The girl is a liability to interests older and larger than your pack, and interests of that size do not stop because one instrument was clumsy enough to be caught. You have until the next full moon to reconsider your claim on both of them. After that, the decision will be made for you.There was no signature. No seal that meant anything to her. Just the same precise, deliberate handwriting, cold in a way that made her stomach turn."Older and larger than your pack." Sera's voice had gone thin. "Kael, what does that mean. Who is bigger than a full pack council willing to have someone assassinated for opposing them?""I don't know." His jaw had locked tigh

"It won't come to open conflict," Wren cut in. "Thorne doesn't fight wars in daylight. He fights them exactly the way he has been — through proxies, through poison that kills before questions can be asked, through deadlines dressed up as mercy. If you try to meet him with warriors, you'll lose before you understand what happened. The only way to beat a man like Thorne is with proof loud enough that his own allies abandon him rather than be tied to the scandal.""And do you have that proof," Kael asked. "Is that why you're here."Wren reached into the satchel slung across her shoulder and drew out a small, worn ledger, its cover cracked with age and handling."This is what I found four months ago," she said, holding it out. "Financial records. Correspondence. Enough detail about the compact, about Torvin's payments, about at least two other incidents like the one in those woods, that no honest council could ignore it if it were presented properly. It's why I left. Once I read it, stayi

I stopped so fast Ada nearly ran into my back, my whole body going rigid around Lena, every instinct in me screaming to shield her even as my mind refused to fully accept what I was looking at."Cressida." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "What are you doing.""What does it look like." She took a slow step closer, the blade still loose at her side, but her grip on it had tightened, knuckles pale even in the dim light. "I'm finishing something Torvin was too clumsy to finish properly.""You're working with Thorne." Wren's voice, behind me, had gone flat with a kind of horrified understanding. "That's how he knew I was here. That's how he's known everything.""Wren." Cressida's eyes flicked toward her, something like contempt crossing her face. "Should have guessed you'd turn up eventually, crawling back with your stolen ledger and your righteous conscience. You always did think you were better than the arrangement you served for six years.""I left because what I found made me

"Ada!" My scream tore out of me before I'd even finished forming the thought, my legs already carrying me toward the cottage door, Lena's small body gone frighteningly limp against my chest. "Ada, something's wrong with her!"The door burst open before I reached it, Ada already moving, her healer's instincts cutting through panic the way years of training had taught her to. She took one look at Lena's face, at the shallow, uneven rise of her tiny chest, and her expression snapped into something focused and terrifyingly calm."Bring her inside. Now. On the table, quickly."I laid Lena down with hands that wouldn't stop shaking, and Ada was already working, two fingers pressed gently against the pulse point at her throat, her ear bent low to listen to her breathing."What happened," Ada said, not looking up. "Did she hit her head? Was there any impact—""I don't know." My voice had gone ragged, tears already streaking down my face. "I was holding her the whole time, I tried to protect h