All Chapters of A SURROGATE FOR MY SISTER'S ALPHA HUSBAND: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

MicaSomething changed in the house after that night.I couldn't pinpoint the exact moment it started, only that within a few days of the grave visit, I began noticing small differences everywhere I turned — subtle at first, then increasingly impossible to ignore."Miss Hale, allow me." The butler appeared at my elbow before I'd even fully reached for the stack of books I meant to carry upstairs myself, taking them gently from my hands. "You shouldn't be lifting anything heavy.""They're paperbacks, not furniture.""Still. Alpha's orders."I blinked. "His orders?""He mentioned it this morning. Nothing over a few pounds, and someone should always be nearby when you're on the stairs." The butler said it so matter-of-factly, like this was simply how things worked now, that I didn't know whether to laugh or be irritated.I found the same shift everywhere. The kitchen staff started preparing meals with an obsessive attention to nutritional content I hadn't asked for. My afternoon tea arri

NyricNeither of us moved.Our hands stayed exactly where they'd landed, overlapping on the same small, invisible point on her stomach, and for a long moment the only sound in the room was the faint hum of the overhead lights and my own pulse suddenly loud in my ears."Sorry," Mica said quietly, starting to pull her hand back."Don't." The word came out rougher than I intended. "You don't need to apologize."She stilled, her hand still beneath mine, and I made myself hold steady, made myself breathe evenly, even as something shifted low in my chest that had nothing to do with the awkwardness of the moment and everything to do with something far harder to explain.It started as warmth. A low, unfamiliar warmth spreading through my hand where it touched her skin through the thin paper gown, entirely separate from her actual body temperature, entirely separate from anything that made logical sense.Then I caught it. Her scent.I'd noticed it shifting for weeks now, subtly, in ways I'd to

MicaI was still shaking by the time I got back to the estate, the grocery bags I'd never filled forgotten entirely in the passenger seat where I'd tossed my purse instead.I found Nyric in his study, exactly where I'd expected him to be, deep in paperwork that could apparently wait until I'd said what I needed to say."We need to talk."He looked up, immediately reading something in my expression that made him set down his pen entirely. "What happened?""I went into town. To the market.""Alone?""That's not the point right now, Nyric." I crossed my arms, trying to hold onto the anger before it dissolved into the humiliation still burning underneath it. "A woman recognized me. Called me by name before I'd said a word. Told me the whole town's already talking about me. About us."His jaw tightened. "Talking how?""They're calling me the replacement Luna." The words came out sharper than I intended, months of careful composure finally cracking under the weight of a stranger's casual cr

NyricBlackthorn didn't accept "no" easily, even over the phone. I should have known he wouldn't accept it in person either.He arrived four days after our call, unannounced except for a brief message from his assistant that morning, the kind of visit only someone with his standing could get away with making on such short notice."Alpha Blackthorn," the butler announced, though Magnus was already three steps into the entryway behind him, silver-haired and imposing despite his seventy-some years, carrying himself with the particular authority of a man who had led the Royal Council for longer than most pack members had been alive."Nyric." He extended a hand, which I shook out of respect rather than warmth. "I hope this isn't an inconvenient time.""It's always somewhat inconvenient when you arrive unannounced, Magnus, but I imagine that's rather the point."The corner of his mouth twitched, something almost like amusement crossing his weathered face. "You know me well.""I should. You

MicaI didn't sleep well that night.Ethan's half-confession kept circling through my mind, the shape of what he'd almost said looming larger in its absence than it probably would have if he'd simply finished the sentence. *An incident. Something that split the family in a way that's never really healed.* I turned the words over and over, trying to imagine what could be significant enough to make Ethan — steady, unbothered Ethan — suddenly retreat behind careful silence.By morning, curiosity had hardened into something closer to determination.Nyric left early for a Council matter he hadn't elaborated on, leaving the house quiet except for the usual rhythm of staff moving through their morning routines. I told myself I wasn't going to go looking for anything specific. I told myself I was simply restless, that wandering through the east wing's old library — the same room where I'd once found the fertility clinic paperwork — was purely coincidental.I didn't entirely believe myself, ev