His Rejected Plus-Sized Secret Heir 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 111 - 챕터 120

XanderThe delegation arrived from the eastern territories without warning, a caravan bearing banners I recognized immediately as belonging to House Voss, distant relations of my own council elder, and the young woman who emerged from the lead carriage carried herself with the particular polish of someone raised her entire life to expect a crown."Princess Selene," Marcus informed me quietly, watching my expression carefully as the young woman approached the palace steps. "Her father sent word ahead requesting an audience regarding a potential alliance.""What kind of alliance?""The kind that typically involves marriage, my King."I felt my jaw tighten immediately, seven years of building a life around Elma and our children leaving little room for the particular political calculus Marcus was now describing."I have no interest in an alliance built around marriage," I said flatly. "Send word that I'll receive her for diplomatic courtesy, nothing more."Selene, when I finally granted h

ElmaOndine's training began the following morning, and within hours I understood exactly what she'd meant about the cost of readiness, my own dormant power responding to her careful, patient instruction with a speed that left me shaking, exhausted, and faintly terrified of what lived beneath my own skin."Your mother suppressed this her entire life," Ondine said, watching me kneel in her small garden, silver light flickering unsteadily beneath my palms as I attempted, and failed, to heal a wilting plant the way instinct insisted I should be able to. "Fear does that, teaches a bloodline to hide rather than master what it carries. You've spent years unconsciously suppressing the same instinct, channeling only enough power to explain your medical talent, never enough to draw the attention your mother died trying to avoid.""How do I do more, then? Without losing control the way the elders always feared?""Control comes from acceptance," Ondine said. "Not suppression. The Ashcrofts belie

DamienI found Elma in the training yard long after the children had gone to sleep, practicing the careful, deliberate control Ondine had spent weeks teaching her, silver light flickering steady now beneath her palms rather than the uncertain, frightened sparks I remembered from our journey home."You've grown remarkably strong," I said, settling onto the low stone wall to watch her work. "Faster than even Ondine expected, I think.""I have considerable motivation," she said, extinguishing the light and turning toward me, exhaustion and satisfaction mixing plainly across her face. "Three children who need me capable of protecting them properly."I studied her for a long moment, something uncertain stirring in my chest that I'd been carrying, quietly, since Ondine first confirmed I carried none of the Moonbound inheritance myself."What is it?" Elma asked, reading my expression with the particular perceptiveness she'd always shown toward me."I sometimes wonder," I admitted, "whether I

ElmaThe alarm bell's toll reached the house before the messenger fully finished his report, and I was moving before conscious thought caught up, sprinting toward the children's rooms with Damien close behind, every instinct screaming toward the same fierce, protective purpose that had carried me through every previous crisis this life had thrown at me."Wolves at the northern perimeter," the messenger gasped, following us into the house. "Skilled, coordinated, testing the guard rotation the same careful way the reports described the palace incursion years ago.""Ashcroft," Damien said grimly, already pulling on the light armor he'd taken to keeping near the door since Ondine's warning had first arrived. "They've found us faster than we expected."I gathered the children quickly, Quinn already awake and alert, Mia rubbing sleep from her eyes with obvious confusion, Jax gripping my hand with a grip far stronger than his age should have allowed."Ondine," I called, and the old woman ap

XanderSelene's suspicions about her father's household proved accurate within days, though confirming them required a patience that tested every instinct I possessed to act immediately rather than wait."She's been passing messages through the eastern trade routes," Selene reported, her expression grim as she laid out the evidence her father's own guards had finally gathered. "Small packages disguised as ordinary correspondence, but the pattern matches exactly the kind of coded communication your archivist identified in Camilla's old records.""Bring her in," I said. "Quietly. I want her interrogated before anyone alerts her handlers that we've caught on."The woman, when we finally confronted her in a private chamber away from Selene's father's watching court, proved considerably tougher than Camilla had ever shown herself to be, meeting my questions with a calm, unblinking silence that suggested training far beyond anything an ordinary spy might receive."You're Ashcroft," I said,