Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

For one long moment, nobody moved.Maddox stood between Rhea and the council guards, his body angled toward the table while his wolf filled the chamber like a storm held inside skin. The elders stared at him with the stunned offense of men who had expected obedience and found a wall instead. Isolde’s face had gone pale beneath her perfect control, and Rowan Solmere watched from near the shelves with the grim stillness of someone who had known the ground would crack and had still hoped it might wait another day.Behind Maddox, Rhea stood very still.She could feel his power pressing through the room, dark and protective, and some broken part of her wanted to lean into it. That was the old instinct, the one that remembered him stepping in front of her during council disputes, border hearings, and ceremonies where the elders smiled too softly before trying to cut her apart with etiquette. Her body remembered safety beside his back.Her heart knew bette

By morning, Rhea was finished waiting.She had spent too many hours inside the blue sitting room listening to other people decide the shape of her life. Maddox questioned, the council demanded, Isolde warned, Scarlett measured, Rowan hid behind silence, and even the guards watched her as if the truth might break through her skin if they stared long enough. Everyone had something to say about what Rhea Moonmere might be.Danger.Disruption.Mistake.Influence.Problem.They had words for everything except wife.Rhea stood before the sealed window while pale light stretched over the black pines, and for the first time since waking in the stripped Alpha suite, her grief shifted into something steadier. She could not force Maddox to remember. She could not make the council honest by bleeding in front of them. She could not shake Isolde hard enough to loosen the fear beneath her perfect face.But she could stop sitting in a r

By the time the great hall filled, the whole Obsidian Pack already knew something was wrong.Rhea could feel the unrest before she saw the crowd. It moved through the stone corridors like a living thing, thick with wolf scent, whispered judgment, and fear sharpened by too many unanswered questions. The servants had heard pieces. The guards had seen more than they should have. Council families had carried rumors from supper tables into private chambers, and by morning, the story had grown teeth.The Alpha’s wolf had protected a stranger.Scarlett Holloway had been brought near him.The woman under guard claimed a stolen bond.The council wanted her removed.Maddox Stormhaven had refused.For a pack built on order, uncertainty was more frightening than blood.Darian walked beside Rhea without touching her, while Holt kept a careful distance behind them. The plain gray gown she wore brushed against her ankles with every step

The room beside Maddox’s private suite was beautiful in the way a locked jewel box could be beautiful.Rhea stood just inside the doorway while servants moved around her with fresh linens, folded gowns, polished shoes, and silver trays of washing water. The chamber had dark floors that reflected the lamplight like still water, silver wall sconces shaped into crescent moons, and heavy black curtains embroidered with the Stormhaven crest. A wide bed stood against the far wall beneath a canopy of carved black wood, and near the window, two chairs faced a cold hearth that had been cleaned and prepared but not lit.Everything looked expensive. Everything looked chosen with care.And none of it felt like hers.The room belonged to the Alpha wing, to the private corridor, to the kind of protection powerful men offered when they wanted to keep something close without calling it free. Rhea could see the care in it. She could also feel the cage. It was not a

Maddox ordered breakfast sent to Rhea’s room before dawn.The command was practical. That was what he told himself as he stood in his private study with the morning still gray beyond the windows and the reports on his desk untouched. She had been moved only the previous night. The pack still whispered after the gathering. The council had gone too quiet, which meant they were not surrendering, only planning more carefully. Rhea needed rest, distance from public eyes, and food delivered by servants he trusted.Practical.Reasonable.Controlled.Then he heard movement beyond the wall.A soft step in the room beside his. A drawer opening. The faint sound of fabric shifting. Her breathing, steady at first, then caught slightly as the buried bond stirred awake with the morning.Maddox’s hand closed around the edge of the desk.The pressure in his chest had been there all night, violent and low, as if his wolf had curled a