All Chapters of One Mate Was Never Enough : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

POV: Chloe "Stupid move, princess," he said. "You should have stayed behind your men. At least then you might have walked out of here."He came at me.Fast, the last of the potion doing what it promised, his wolf at full force and all of it aimed at me.I stood still."Elixir," I said quietly. Not a command, an invitation... the way you open a door for someone who has been waiting outside it.She came forward.I felt it differently than I had in the earthquake, less desperate, less explosion, more like a tide that had been building knowing exactly where it was going. The white wolf, unhurried and enormous, settling around me like something that had always been there and was simply no longer bothering to be subtle about it.Riley's wolf screamed.I felt it, the moment his wolf registered what it was running toward and understood the mistake, the animal part of him recoiling while the human part hadn't caught up yet. He hit the barrier Elixir had built around me and it was not

POV: Riley The door to my quarters had barely latched behind me when I found her already there.Ella stood in the center of the room with her arms crossed and her hip cocked against my desk, wearing the particular expression of someone who had been waiting longer than she wanted to and wanted me to know it. The morning light caught the sharp angles of her face and made her look older than she was, or maybe that was just the calculation in her eyes, the careful watchfulness of someone who was always measuring."Riley." She said my name like she owned it. "I heard you challenged the Alpha."I crossed to the window. Looked out at the training yard below, where the ring was being prepared for the afternoon's combat. "Word travels fast.""You didn't discuss it with me."The tone made me turn. She was watching me with something that sat between irritation and curiosity, like I was a chess piece that had moved in an unexpected direction."I did not realize I needed to," I said."We had a p

Riley's POVAfter The meeting, I was allowed to move freely in the pack until the next challenge. I headed straight to my office to prepare my mind for what is coming next. The door to my office had barely closed behind me when I found her already there.Ella... Again...“What are you doing here, Ella?Do you want to screw me over, again?” I asked her."What do you mean screw you over?We have a deal, don’t we?I spent two days laying the groundwork for this accusation.”“Just leave Ella, it’s not going to work. We’re screwed!” I told her sternly.“Are you joking, Riley?” She retorts. But I simply scoffed and ignored her completely.“Two days. I told you exactly what to say to the council, exactly how to frame the black magic claim, exactly which elders would be most open to doubt." She stopped in front of me. "And you went to them without a single word to me.""You gave me the claim," I said. "I used it.""I gave you a tool," she said. "Tools work better when you us

POV: Chloe The summons...The accusations...I couldn't stop hearing the word. It rattled around my skull like a stone in a jar, and every time it hit the sides, I saw Riley's face. The way he'd looked at me when the council agreed to the rematch. The flicker of hope. Then the flicker of something else when Tristan had accepted every condition they'd thrown at us.He doesn't know what he's walking into. He thinks Ella's lies will save him. He thinks the verification stones will catch us at something. He doesn't understand that we're not cheating.The afternoon light had shifted to the gray quality that comes just before dusk, and I was standing at the bedroom window, my arms wrapped around myself, staring at the settlement's training yard below. Empty now. In a few hours, it wouldn't be."Chloe."Tristan's voice came from the doorway. I didn't turn. I couldn't. My throat was too tight, my chest too full of things I didn't have names for.His footsteps crossed the room. His ha

POV: ChloeThe training yard had transformed since morning.Benches had been arranged in a loose circle around the combat ring, which was nothing more than a packed-dirt circle marked with stones, but the weight of tradition hung over it like something visible. The pack had gathered in clusters, elders near the front, younger members standing at the edges, children held on hips and shoulders. The murmur of conversation dropped by degrees as we approached.Tristan walked at my right. Ethan at my left. The bond hummed between us, warm and present and steadier than it had been in days.Riley was already there.He stood on the far side of the ring with his arms crossed and his jaw set, wearing the particular stillness of someone who had made a decision and was holding onto it with both hands. He looked at me once, briefly, and something flickered across his face that I couldn't read before he looked away.Ella was beside him.She had positioned herself close, one hand resting on hi