All Chapters of The Mate He Rejected: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

"Who is she?" I demanded. The words were quiet, but they cut through the air like a serrated blade.Cullen stopped walking. The warm, genuine relief that had just brightened his face vanished in a single second. He dropped his dark tie onto the back of the velvet sofa, his broad shoulders tensing under his fitted dress shirt."Who?" he asked, his voice low and laced with immediate caution.I stood near the stone hearth, my hands shaking so violently I had to press them flat against the sides of my dark green dress. The heat from the dying embers warmed the backs of my legs, but my chest felt completely hollow, packed with freezing ice."Do not play dumb with me, Cullen," I whispered. My throat burned. I fought the urge to blink, terrified that if I did, the tears welling in my eyes would spill over, and I would lose whatever tiny fraction of pride I had left. "Your father was just here."Cullen’s jaw tightened. The silver-gray of his eyes darkened, shifting into a deep, stormy gray as

I could not stay in that suite for another second.The heavy timber door clicked shut behind me, sealing Cullen and the shattered remains of our fight inside the room. I walked blindly down the stone corridor of the Arden wing, my boots moving on pure, raw instinct. Barclay and Talbot stepped forward from their guard posts, their massive frames shifting to intercept me, but I didn't slow down."Luna?" Barclay asked, his deep voice thick with concern."Do not follow me," I ordered. My voice was completely hollow, scraped entirely clean of emotion. I didn't stop walking. "I need air. Just stay here."The two enforcers exchanged a tense glance, but the sharp authority in my tone rooted them to the spot. I turned the corner and kept walking until the thick walls of the neutral compound gave way to the heavy glass doors of the southern courtyards.I pushed the doors open and stepped out into the summit gardens.The freezing night air hit my face, biting sharply into my tear-stained cheeks.

He turned around, his silver eyes finding my face in the shadows. The feral, pitch-black darkness in his pupils was already beginning to recede, replaced by the familiar, stormy gray. He reached out, his large, warm hand wrapping firmly around my upper arm. His grip wasn't painful, but it was incredibly possessive. "We are leaving," Cullen announced. He didn't wait for my response. He gently pulled me forward, guiding me away from the frozen fountain and the sobbing mess of a man left behind in the dirt. We walked back into the neutral compound in complete silence. The heavy glass doors shut behind us, cutting off the biting winter wind. The stone corridors of the Arden wing were dim and quiet, illuminated only by the flickering torches on the walls. The heat of the building began to thaw my frozen cheeks, but the chill in my chest remained. I looked down at

The shattered pieces of porcelain crunched softly beneath Cullen’s heavy boots as he shifted his weight. I stared up at him, the silence in the suite ringing loudly in my ears. The sharp, bitter scent of spilled bergamot tea mixed with the deep, grounding fragrance of his winter pine. My mind was spinning, frantic and reeling, trying to process the massive, staggering truth he had just dropped into the center of the room. He didn't want a treaty. He wanted me. For five years, I had built my entire life in the North around a lie. I had convinced myself that the safety I felt in his territory was just a byproduct of a solid political alliance. I had looked at the way he commanded his guards, the way he managed the massive fortress, and thought his restraint was just the mark of a cold, tactical leader. But looking into his bright silver eyes now, stripped of all his defenses, the past fi

CULLEN'S POV I stood perfectly still in the dim light of the bedroom.Meghann’s hands dropped away from the unfastened collar of her dark green dress. Her bright green eyes looked up at me without a single trace of fear, shining with a profound, quiet certainty.I crossed the thick woven rug slowly. My boots made no sound against the floorboards. I didn't want to rush this. I had spent thousands of nights staring at the ceiling of my empty room in the North, trying to banish the memory of her face, trying to forget the scent of crushed lavender and sweet rain I had caught on the wind. Now, that scent was filling my lungs, real and warm and entirely mine.I stopped right in front of her. The heat radiating from her skin chased away the lingering chill of the winter storm outside."Let me," I whispered. My voice was a rough, fractured rasp in the quiet room.I reached out, gently brushing her trembling hands away from the fabric of her dress. My large fingers felt clumsy against the sm