Semua Bab Not yours to reject : Bab 31 - Bab 40

"Marcus saw Dean leaving the clinic this morning."Jaxton's voice is tight when he finds me near the supply shed, and I know immediately from his expression that he already knows more than I'd like him to. "I want to hear it from you before I assume anything.""I healed him." There's no point lying, not when he's clearly already pieced together the shape of it. "He came to me desperate, his wolf was slipping worse than before, and he had information about my mother he wouldn't give me otherwise.""You traded healing for information.""I traded it because he was falling apart in front of me, Jaxton, and because I needed to know what he knew." My voice sharpens, defensive despite myself. "Don't act like this is some simple, reckless decision I made without thinking it through.""I'm not saying it was simple. I'm saying it was dangerous, and you didn't tell me before you did it." He crosses his arms, and beneath the frustration I can see real fear working through his expression, not the

"Show me exactly what was taken."Jaxton follows Rosalind into the archive room, the same locked storage space that has held Ashford Ridge's oldest pack records for generations. She points to an empty space on the shelf, dust disturbed in a clean rectangle where something once sat undisturbed for decades."That's where the ledger was. The one with the blacked out name." Rosalind's voice carries real alarm, unusual for a woman who's spent years handling pack history with careful, unbothered professionalism. "I checked the access log first thing this morning and nothing recorded. Whoever took it either bypassed the log entirely or had a key that doesn't require signing in.""How many people have keys to this room?""Fewer than you'd think. Myself, you as the Alpha and Marcus, by virtue of his position." She hesitates, clearly running through the list in her own head. "And whoever held the position before Marcus, though those keys should have been surrendered when he took over as second

"Silas has requested a formal meeting tomorrow evening."My father says it the second I walk into the study, and something in his tone tells me before he even finishes explaining that this is worse than the last conversation we had in this room. "He's proposing a custody arrangement. Protective terms, he's calling it.""You're not actually considering this.""I have to consider it, Delaney. That's my responsibility as Alpha, whether either of us likes the position it puts me in." He rubs a hand across his face, looking older than he did even a week ago. "The council pressure hasn't gone away just because you refused him once already. If anything, refusing him publicly at the border camp may have made him more determined to force the issue through official channels instead.""So your solution is to hand me over anyway, just through a different door.""My solution is to survive this without losing everything th

"You cannot reverse a formal rejection simply because the timing is inconvenient for you."Jaxton's voice cuts across the stunned hall, sharp and controlled despite the visible tension in his shoulders. Dean turns to face him fully, some of the old arrogance creeping back into his posture now that his wolf isn't fracturing beneath him anymore."There's no rule against reversal, provided both parties consent. I checked the pack code myself before walking in here." Dean holds his ground, steady in a way that unsettles me more than his earlier instability did. "I'm not asking anyone's permission to want her back. I'm telling this council I'm prepared to fight for the bond I threw away out of fear.""Convenient, given how much easier that fear seems to have gotten since you were healed," Jaxton says, voice edged now, and I feel the room's attention shift toward me at the implication."I earned that healing." Dean's jaw tighten

"He said I'm the one Thomas has been looking for."I sit across from Jaxton in the medical tent, hands finally steady after hours of treating wounded fighters, the adrenaline of the attack long since drained into bone-deep exhaustion. "Not a random target and not incidental to some larger bloodline research. Specifically me.""That tracks with everything else we've pieced together." Jaxton rubs a hand across his face, equally worn down by the day. "The break-in at your clinic, the stolen ledger. This attack, timed exactly when the council convened to settle the custody dispute. None of it reads as separate incidents anymore.""It's a pattern." I say it slowly, the full shape of it finally settling into place. "My mother wasn't an isolated tragedy that happened to our family once, years ago, and ended there. This is ongoing and active. Something that's been building toward exactly this moment for a long time.""You think Th