All Chapters of His Rejected Plus-Sized Secret Heir : Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

LiamI'd freed perhaps a dozen prisoners from their cells before the hooded figure Damien had spotted finally stepped forward into the chamber's flickering torchlight, and the moment her hood fell back, revealing a face I'd genuinely never expected to see within these walls, my entire understanding of this conspiracy's true shape rearranged itself violently."Mother?" Xander's voice cracked entirely, disbelief and horror mingling in equal measure as he stared at the High Luna, standing calm and composed amid a battle her own son had walked directly into."Xander." Her voice carried none of the furious cruelty I remembered from Elma's account of that whipping years earlier, only a cold, patient satisfaction that somehow proved considerably more disturbing. "I wondered how long it would take before you finally understood exactly who's been guiding this conspiracy from the very beginning.""You're Ashcroft," Xander said slowly, the words clearly costing him considerable effort to accept.

ElmaThe very High Luna moved with a speed that belied her age, her own considerable power, born of decades commanding a Lycan court, meeting my silver light with a cold, silvered darkness that spoke to magic I didn't recognize, ancient and patient in a way that made my chest tighten with genuine alarm."You've trained well," she observed, deflecting my first strike with practiced ease. "Ondine's work, I assume. She always was the most dangerous scholar our order ever failed to properly contain.""You know Ondine?""I trained beside her, decades ago, before she abandoned our order's purpose for what she called compassion, and what I've always called dangerous naivety." The High Luna pressed her attack, forcing me backward across the chamber's stone floor. "She could have prevented all of this, Doctor, simply by helping us refine our methods rather than abandoning the cause entirely.""Your methods murdered my mother," I said, channeling fury into the silver light gathering fierce bene

DamienThe fortress's remaining chambers, once we'd finally secured them fully, revealed a scope to this conspiracy considerably larger than any of us had anticipated even after everything we'd already learned, decades of records documenting Moonbound bloodlines across multiple territories, some eliminated entirely, others simply monitored the way Elma's own childhood had apparently been monitored without her ever suspecting it."There are others," Ondine said, arriving to help catalog the fortress's extensive archives once the fighting had fully concluded. "Elma, your bloodline isn't the only one the Ashcrofts have tracked across these centuries. There are references here to at least four other Moonbound lines, scattered across territories we haven't even considered searching yet.""Are they still alive?" I asked. "These other bloodlines?""Some, according to these records," Ondine said grimly. "Though whether the Ashcroft organization's remaining agents, wherever they're scattered b

"The evidence is extensive," Voss said, presiding over the proceedings with the same careful gravity he'd shown during the earlier challenge to my children's legitimacy. "Decades of documented murder, torture, and manipulation, all conducted under the authority this council granted her as High Luna. The traditional sentence for crimes of this magnitude is execution."Murmurs rippled through the assembled elders, and I felt every eye in the chamber turn toward me, waiting for whatever position I intended to take regarding my own mother's fate."I will not defend what she's done," I said, rising to address the full council directly. "The cruelty inflicted on Elma, on Nadia, on countless victims across three centuries of this conspiracy, deserves the full weight of justice this council can offer. But I ask you to consider exile rather than execution, not from misplaced mercy, but because I believe her knowledge of the Ashcroft network's remaining operations proves considerably more valua

You're quiet," she observed, catching me watching the map spread across the table rather than participating fully in the discussion surrounding it."I'm considering how much I've changed," I admitted, surprising myself with the honesty. "A year ago, I would have approached this entire situation demanding my own pack receive credit for whatever assistance we offered. Now I simply want to help, without needing anything in return.""That sounds like genuine growth," Wren said, something curious entering her expression as she studied me. "Most Alphas I've encountered remain considerably more concerned with their own territory's advantage.""I spent seven years learning, painfully, exactly how much damage pride and possessiveness can inflict on people who deserved considerably better from me," I said. "I don't intend to repeat that particular mistake."She studied me a long moment, something warm entering her sharp, assessing gaze. "I've heard about your history with Dr. Elma. The pack gos