All Chapters of Rejected Once, Now Claimed By The Lycan : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Ava's POVI saw her before we reached the stairs.She was sitting on the floor outside the room door, back against the wall, head tilted slightly, asleep. Her hands were folded in her lap. She was still wearing the clothes she had put on however many hours ago when the noise in the yard had woken everyone.I stopped looking at her and looked at Sebastian's shoulder instead."We should wake her," Isabelle said.I said nothing."She stayed," Isabelle added, quieter. "The whole time.""I know," I said.I did not know what to do with that information. My mother had stayed outside the room of a daughter she had spent twenty years treating as a mistake, sleeping sitting up against a wall in a corridor, while I was unconscious inside. She had led Sebastian to the room when he asked. She had sat in the corner while the doctor worked and while Isabelle cried and while Sebastian held my face.She had slipped out before I opened my eyes.There was a version of that story where she had done it fo

Sebastian's POVI left Ava sleeping and went downstairs.I had slept two hours. It was enough. I had functioned on less.The breakfast hall was already in the middle of its meal when I arrived. The silence that fell when I walked in was immediate — chairs half-turned, forks set down, the collective adjustment of people who had been wondering what to say when they saw me and were now discovering they had not prepared adequately.My mother found my eyes first. She exhaled visibly when she saw my face."My king," she said.They began to rise. I waved them back down."Do not let me interrupt the meal," I said. "I am here to pass a message."They settled. Every face at the table was turned toward me with the particular attention of people who understood that what was coming was significant and were not certain in which direction."My mate is pregnant," I said. "Most of you are already aware of this." I looked around the table. "What you may not know is that she was kidnapped yesterday from

Ava's POV"You are going to the office today?" I said.Sebastian nodded, pushing my plate slightly closer. "I will be back early.""My first day of work was yesterday," I said. "The day I got kidnapped.""That is not a sign," he said, reading my expression correctly. "Jackson chose that day. It means nothing about the work.""Are you certain?""Entirely." He held my hand briefly. "When you recover, you go back. That has not changed."I looked at him."You promise?""I promise," he said. "I would also like you back. The twenty-fifth floor has been very quiet without you disrupting it.""I was there for three hours," I said."It was a very good three hours," he said, and the specific warmth in his voice when he said it made me look at my food.Isabelle cleared her throat again."I am still here," she said."We know," Sebastian and I said at the same time.She looked between us with an expression of profound suffering.---Sebastian left for the office after breakfast, pressing a kiss to

Ava's POV"Has anyone seen Sandra lately?" I asked.Isabelle looked up from her phone. "She is in the palace. Working as a maid. Cleaning floors and changing linens as of this morning, according to the kitchen staff.""And Fiona?"Isabelle's expression shifted. "Still in her room. Sebastian has not moved her yet."I looked at the ceiling."She is going to try again," I said."Sebastian will not let —""Isabelle." I looked at her. "Fiona does not stop. I have been here long enough to understand that. She does not accept losing. She will find another way." I pressed my hand against my ribs. "I just wish I knew when."Isabelle put her phone down properly."Tell Sebastian," she said. "Tonight when he gets back. Tell him exactly what you told me.""He already knows what Fiona is capable of.""Tell him anyway," she said. "So he knows you are worried. He makes better decisions when he knows specifically what you need from him rather than guessing."I thought about that.She was right. Sebast

Ava's POVIsabelle walked back into the room and stopped.I was standing in the middle of it, arms at my sides, weight distributed evenly, doing absolutely nothing except existing without pain."What are you doing?" she said immediately. "You should be in bed —""I am fine," I said."You are not fine, you fell down a —""Isabelle." I held out both arms and turned once, slowly, to demonstrate. "Look at me."She looked at me. Then at my arms. Then at the way I was standing — straight, not braced, not favouring anything. Her expression moved through confusion and landed on something approaching disbelief."How," she said."Sebastian came back," I said. "He tried the thing Edwin suggested. It worked." I pressed my hand against my ribs and felt nothing except the pressure of my own hand. "All of it. Gone."Isabelle stared at me for three more seconds.Then she crossed the room in four steps and wrapped both arms around me and I heard her exhale against my shoulder in the way she did when s