Alpha King’s One Night Mate のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 121 - チャプター 128

CHAPTER 122Aria found her father in the garden at dusk, sitting on the stone bench beneath the apple tree where Cassian had frozen four guards a week ago.He had a charcoal rubbing in his hands. When he heard her footsteps, he folded it and slid it into his coat."Don't," Aria said. "I saw it."Richard sighed. "I wondered if Lucas would tell you.""Lucas didn't tell me. Damien did, and he only knows what he saw in the archive." She stopped in front of him. "Dad, you looked at that symbol like you'd seen a ghost. Then you walked out and wouldn't say why. I've waited three days for you to come to me.""I know.""You didn't.""No." He looked down at his hands. "I didn't."She sat beside him, leaving a careful space between them. For a while, neither spoke. Inside the manor, a window lit, and she could hear the faint clatter of dinner being cleared."Tell me where you've seen it," she said.Richard took a long time to begin."Twenty-six years ago, before you were born, I did contract wor

CHAPTER 124Elara brought the rules in writing, on three sheets of cream paper, and read them aloud at the nursery table as though she were reading a will."One," she said. "No sudden frights. No loud arguments in his hearing, no hunting stories at bedtime, and no strangers handling him without warning."Aria nodded. That one was easy."Two. He may not use his gift more than once a day, and never for longer than a count of ten.""Once a day," Damien repeated. He stood at the window with his arms folded. "He doesn't use it. It happens to him.""Then we teach him to stop it from happening." Elara turned the page. "Three. He must never try to reach more than one wolf at a time.""Why one?" Aria asked."Because one is a conversation. Many is a command." Elara's voice stayed even. "The garden was four. That is already too many."Aria read the list over her shoulder, then took the pages and read them herself. Some made sense. Keep him calm. Keep him rested. Keep him away from crowds. But ha

CHAPTER 126 Aria could not stay in bed.The manor was quiet in that false way houses became before something official and ugly. She stood at the nursery doorway longer than she meant to, watching Cassian sleep with one fist curled near his mouth, then forced herself down the corridor before fear could turn into pacing loud enough to wake him.She ended up in the west sitting room with the lamps low and the curtains open to black glass.Tomorrow the Council would decide whether her authority held and whether her son’s training could be claimed under the Ward Law like a dangerous object placed in safer hands.The door opened behind her.Damien did not ask if she wanted company. He crossed the room, stopped close enough for her to feel his heat, and he rested his hands on her waist from behind.“You’re counting again,” he said against her hair.“I’m preparing.”“You’re terrified.” His mouth brushed the edge of her ear. “Say it.”Aria’s fingers tightened on the window frame. “I’m afraid

Five Years LaterMorning came easy to the Blackwood manor.Cassian tore across the south lawn with a wooden practice blade held too high and a battle cry that belonged more to joy than war. At seven, he had his father’s dark hair, Aria’s stubborn mouth, and a laugh that still surprised the guards who remembered when the house had measured every sound for danger.Elara watched from the garden path, older and slower, content to correct his footwork with a raised eyebrow instead of a formal report. No Council observers. No sealed notes. Only a boy learning balance because he asked to, not because anyone feared what he might become.Aria stood on the terrace with coffee cooling in her hands, a script open on the table beside her. She still worked selectively now, on her terms, in seasons that fit their life. The industry had tried, more than once, to turn her into a legend of scandal or survival. She had outlasted both versions by remaining specific: actress, mother, Luna, none of them o