All Chapters of Rejected as the Fat Mate: Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

Tahlia's POV"Alpha Cavan Rusk. Dunmere's current ruler, inherited his father's position three years ago." Cassian spread what little intelligence he'd gathered within the hour, the coronation's joyful atmosphere entirely shattered by the messenger's devastating news. "We've had minimal contact with his territory throughout this past year. No prior conflict, no previous indication of hostility.""Then why declare war now, tonight of all nights?" Ronan demanded, fury and confusion mixing visibly across his features despite his obvious effort to maintain composed authority."The declaration references theft," the messenger said, still kneeling despite Ronan's gesture for him to rise. "Alpha Rusk claims the royal family has stolen something belonging rightfully to his territory, though the message doesn't specify exactly what.""Bring me the complete declaration. Word for word."The messenger produced a sealed scroll, hands trembling slightly as he offered it toward Ronan's waiting grip.

Ronan's POV"I'll burn the document before I let anyone hand my wife to a stranger."The words left my mouth before I'd decided to say them, and I watched half the council flinch. Tahlia, seated beside me at the long table, didn't. She simply set her hand over mine, a quiet signal that meant breathe."That's exactly what he wants," she murmured. "Let's read it first."The document had arrived at dawn, delivered by a Dunmere envoy who stood now at the chamber's center with the stiff composure of a man who expected to be thrown out. Cassian unrolled the parchment across the table, and the entire council leaned closer."A formal betrothal contract," Cassian said grimly. "Between Alpha Rusk of Dunmere and a woman named Seraphine Osadebe, binding her daughter to the Rusk bloodline in exchange for territorial protection.""My mother's name," Tahlia said quietly."And her seal. It appears genuine. Wax composition, ink age, even the pressure of the signature all match authenticated samples fr

Tahlia's POV"Say that again, Mother. Slowly, so every person in this chamber hears it."My mother's fingers tightened on the parchment. "That is not the document I signed. The wording is wrong. I never wrote that Dunmere's heir would marry you. I never named an heir at all.""A convenient denial," the envoy said, though a faint tightness had crept into his voice."I'll prove it." I took the document from her hands. "Cassian, I need the council's authenticated copy of my mother's original agreement with Alpha Rusk. The one the archive logged when she first described it to us.""It was filed this morning," Cassian said. "I'll have it here in minutes."The council erupted while we waited, Corliss arguing for immediate recognition of Dunmere's claim, others demanding caution, the envoy insisting on his Alpha's honor. Ronan stood silent beside me, but I felt the controlled fury radiating from him like heat from a forge."You should rest your voice," I murmured. "You'll need it.""I'm savi

Tahlia's POV"It's still here. He never had it moved."Wenna led us through a servants' passage so narrow that Cassian had to turn sideways to follow. The old woman moved with surprising speed, her white braid swinging, one hand trailing along the wall as though she had walked this route in the dark a thousand times. Behind us, Dorran's protests had faded to a miserable muttering."You said the east wing burned," Ronan said."The roof burned, Majesty. The walls held. Your grandfather had the study sealed behind a false panel before the fire, and no one has opened it since." She stopped at a section of plain wainscoting and pressed her palm against a knot in the wood. Something clicked. The panel swung inward on a cloud of dust. "Forty years I've kept that secret. I'm too old to carry it into the grave."The room beyond was small and airless, furnished with a desk, a high backed chair, and shelves stripped bare of everything but cobwebs. Dust sheets draped the shapes of larger furnitur

Tahlia's POV "You still stand like her when you're afraid. Weight on the left foot, hands loose, ready to run and refusing to admit it." Cavan Rusk said it gently, as though commenting on the weather, and every muscle in my body went rigid. The border station was a squat stone building the three northern territories had shared for two hundred years, back when they still trusted one another enough to share anything. Its single room held a scarred table, four chairs, and a cold hearth. Cassian had searched it twice. Ronan stood against the wall to my left, arms folded, his stare fixed on our enemy with the patience of a wolf waiting for a throat to expose itself. Alaric had ridden two days from Ember Crest the moment he heard, and he leaned against the opposite wall, his hand never far from his sword. "You've never met my mother," I said. "I've met her twice. Once when I was seven, and once when I was twelve." Cavan sat down across from me without being invited, then glanced a