All Chapters of Rejected by the Alphas Claimed by the King : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Tatiana’s POVI paced the hallway outside the conference room for what felt like an hour, though it was probably closer to twenty minutes, my mind spinning through every worst-case scenario I could imagine while Carlos stood beside me, arms crossed, jaw tight, both of us staring uselessly at a door that refused to open.Eventually Mrs. Veriland found us there too, drawn by some staff member who must have told her where the meeting was taking place, and the three of us formed an awkward, silent little cluster in that hallway, none of us speaking, none of us quite able to look at each other for very long.When the door finally opened, it wasn't Carlos's father who came out first. It was one of the academy officials, the same woman who had shown up with the withdrawal paperwork earlier, and she looked considerably less composed than she had before, her expression somewhere between flustered and relieved that the meeting was over."We'll be in touch regarding the paperwork," she said quic

DEUS POVThe letter was waiting on my desk when I got back from practice, sealed with the same wax stamp my father used for anything he considered too important to trust to a casual conversation, which told me immediately that he no longer believed I would take a spoken warning seriously enough to act on it.I stood there for a long moment before actually picking it up, some part of me already dreading whatever was written inside, though nothing could have fully prepared me for exactly how far he was willing to take this.I broke the seal and unfolded the paper slowly, my eyes scanning the tight, controlled handwriting that had always made his letters feel more like legal documents than anything resembling a message from a parent to his own son.He wanted me to publicly recommit to Veronica at the Moonrise Festival, in front of both families, in front of the entire pack gathered for the celebration, with no room left for exceptions or quiet withdrawal afterward.He wanted a formal ann

TATIANA'S POVThe banners went up sometime overnight, because when I walked out of my dorm that morning, the entire courtyard looked completely different from how it had looked the evening before, strings of deep purple and silver fabric stretched between the buildings, catching the wind in a way that made the whole academy look like it was already celebrating something I hadn't fully understood yet."Isn't it exciting?" Liana said from somewhere behind me, practically skipping to catch up, all traces of her usual coldness replaced by genuine enthusiasm now that there was something new to gossip about."The Moonrise Festival is only a few days away, and apparently this year is supposed to be the biggest one they've held in over a decade.""I've never actually been to one," I admitted, mostly to myself, studying the banners as we walked."Of course you haven't," she said, though for once it didn't sound like an insult, just an observation."Every major pack family in the region is expe

DEUS POVThe invitation sat on my desk for almost an hour before I actually made myself open it, my own name printed across the front in formal gold script, the Hale family seal pressed into the wax like this was something to celebrate instead of something closing in around me from every direction at once.I finally broke the seal and read it through twice, though I already knew exactly what it would say before I even opened it. The formal reaffirmation ceremony. The closing night of the Moonrise Festival.My name and Veronica's, printed together, the entire pack invited to witness it happen in person.There was no version of tonight where I walked away from this without losing something.I found my father in his study later that afternoon, going through paperwork at his desk with the same controlled focus he brought to everything, and I stood in the doorway for a long moment before he even looked up."I need to talk to you," I said."I assumed you would," he said, setting his pen dow

DEUS POVHer eyes stayed gold, and she was trembling so hard against my hands that I could feel it traveling straight up through my own arms, something moving beneath her skin that I had absolutely no way of explaining to her or to myself in that exact moment."Deus, something is happening to me," she said, her voice stuttering with panic. "I feel it, right under my skin, moving, like something is trying to get out.""I don't know what's happening," I admitted, keeping both hands firmly on her shoulders, trying to hold her steady even as I felt her whole body shaking harder with each passing second. "Just breathe. Look at me. Just breathe.""I can't," She gasped. "Deus, it feels like it's on fire."Behind me, someone in the crowd let out a sharp, audible gasp, and I turned my head just enough to see what had drawn their attention so suddenly.A faint shimmer of deep crimson had begun spreading across the bare skin of her arms, subtle at first, almost like a trick of the candlelight, e