All Chapters of Pregnant And Rejected Mate : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

We rode the rest of the way in near silence, and I spent every mile of it watching Marek's face, wondering if he already sensed what was coming before any of us said it aloud.Ada was waiting at the outpost gate when we arrived, her face carrying the particular grimness I'd learned to dread over this past week. She didn't waste time on greetings."It's a letter," she said, once we were inside, the door closed against anyone who didn't need to hear this. "Written by your grandmother, Kael, hidden beneath the seal itself using a technique I've never seen — ink that only surfaces once the seal has fully activated and the guardian has arrived.""Read it," Kael said.Ada unfolded a small, brittle page, and her voice, when she read it aloud, carried none of the clinical distance she usually managed even in crisis."If you are reading this, the vow has come due, and someone I love has answered it. I built this protection knowing exactly what it might one day ask, and I built it anyway, becau

I was through the door before Kael finished rising, Marek's voice still tearing through the dark hallway, raw with a fear I hadn't heard from him even when he'd first learned the truth about his father.He was on the floor of the small room, his sleeve torn back, his forearm exposed in the lamplight, and I felt my stomach drop at what I saw there.A mark. Spreading across his skin in real time, dark lines branching outward from a central point like something alive and hungry, and his whole body had begun to shake with it, sweat beading along his hairline despite the cold night air."Ada!" My voice tore out of me before I'd even fully processed what I was looking at. "Ada, now, please—"She was already there, kneeling beside him, her hands moving fast and sure even through her own visible shock."This isn't the seal," she said, her voice tight with concentration. "This is something else. Something new.""I told him I needed time," Marek gasped, his voice cracking with pain and confusio

Marek's eyes filled, his composure finally, completely breaking. "You don't even know what you're agreeing to.""No," Kael admitted. "I don't. But I know what happens if I don't try, and I've watched enough people I love almost die this past week to know I'm not letting that happen to one more person while I stand here deciding whether the cost is worth it."Ada's hands were already moving, drawing something from her satchel, her voice tight with urgency now. "If we're doing this, we do it immediately. Kael, I need you kneeling beside him, skin contact, the same point on your arm where the mark is spreading on his."Kael tore back his own sleeve without hesitation, and I watched, my whole body frozen with a terror I couldn't put into words, as Ada guided his forearm against Marek's, the two points of contact aligning exactly where the dark, spreading pattern had reached its worst."This might not work," Ada warned. "I want you both to understand that. I'm working from theory, not cert

She hauled it open, and cold, earthy air rose up from the darkness below."I'll go first," Ada said. "Make sure it's actually passable before we commit Lena to it."She disappeared down the narrow stairs, and the wait for her return stretched long enough that my whole body had gone rigid with tension by the time her voice finally floated back up."It connects to something," she called softly. "A tunnel, narrow but clear. I can't tell where it comes out from here, but it's our best option."I was halfway to the trapdoor when the sound of splintering wood echoed from somewhere deep in the compound — the front doors, I realized, giving way under force."They're moving," Wren said, her voice sharp with fresh urgency. "Sera, go, now—""Come with us," I said."I'll hold the kitchen entrance as long as I can," she said. "Buy you time to get clear. Go, Sera. Please."I didn't argue further. There wasn't time to argue, and some cold, practical part of me understood that every second I spent tr

They rode through the remaining hours of daylight and into the dark, stopping only when the horses demanded it, Kael's whole body strung tight with a terror that sharpened rather than dulled with every passing mile. The bond flared again twice more during the ride — not words, not clear images, just raw sensation bleeding through whatever thin connection remained. Terror. Exhaustion. And once, unbearably, something that felt like grief."She's still alive," Kael said aloud, more to himself than to anyone riding beside him, gripping the thought like a lifeline. "If I can still feel her at all, she's still alive."They crested the final ridge as the sky began to lighten toward dawn, and Kael's stomach dropped at what came into view below.Smoke, still rising from the compound's outer structures. Bodies scattered across the churned ground near the shattered gate. The unmistakable aftermath of a battle that had already been fought and, from the look of the devastation, fought brutally."N