Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

Tahlia's POV"I will not be a prize two Alphas argue over."I said it to the empty archive room first, just to hear the words exist outside my head and take up space in the world. The ledgers from Veylan's offices were still spread across the table in careful stacks. The succession document sat under a heavy paperweight, as if it might try to crawl back into the misfiled grain bundle where I'd found it. My wolf paced under my skin, unsettled by the second connection Alaric had named in the courtyard and the first one that still pulsed, faint but unmistakably alive, whenever Ronan entered a room or spoke my name like it still belonged in his mouth.Footsteps approached along the corridor. I knew the rhythm before the door opened: the weight, the pace, the barely leashed control.Ronan closed it behind him and stopped a careful distance away, as if he'd learned at least one boundary since the last time he reached for me without permission. The bandage on his arm was smaller now, cleaner

Ronan's POV"I'm not killing him."Cassian didn't look surprised. He closed the door to my rooms with deliberate care, checked the corridor once through the narrow viewing slot, and only then turned back with his arms folded and his expression already set for a long night."I didn't think you would," he said. "But whoever wrote that note thinks pressure will change your mind. Or that your wolf will do the work for them the next time Alaric stands too close to her, or the next time the bond pulls and your pride decides violence is cleaner than patience.""My wolf wants Alaric gone. That's not a secret from you or from me. My judgment doesn't take orders from anonymous paper, and it doesn't outsource murder to satisfy a coward who won't put a name on a kill order." I set the note on the table between us, the single line facing up like an accusation that hadn't yet found its proper target. "We find who sent it. We don't perform for them. We don't give them the spectacle of two Alphas tea

Tahlia's POV"He's going to name a politically safe fiancée."The whisper moved through the hall like a current, low and certain. I heard it from three different directions while the Alpha King's pause still held the room in place. A daughter of the northern line. A councilor's niece. Someone elegant, unblemished by scandal, easy to print on formal announcements and easier to seat at a high table without reminding anyone of a courtyard and a cruel word. Everyone had already decided the shape of the evening. They'd decided it before the first glass was poured.Ronan stepped forward before his father could continue."I will not be announcing an engagement to any of the names being traded around this hall," he said. His voice carried without theatrics, without the Alpha register that forced submission, only the hard clarity of a man who'd chosen the most public possible ground for what he was about to do. "There's only one woman I intend to pursue as my future Luna. Tahlia Osadebe."For

Ronan's POV"He's clean on the surface. That's exactly why he's dangerous."Cassian shut the door to the inner office and dropped a slim folder onto the table. Outside, the palace moved with its usual controlled noise: boots on stone, low voices, the distant scrape of chairs as the council prepared to assemble. Inside, the air already felt too tight."Adviser Halden has seniority, unrestricted access, and my father's trust," I said. "If Nadia's warning is real, he also has the reach to bury evidence before it ever reaches a formal charge. We move carefully. We move fast. We don't give him a single night to hide anything else."Cassian nodded once. "Where do we start?""The accounts Tahlia flagged. Then we trace every authorization that touched those intermediary routes. If Halden's involved, his name or his secondary mark will turn up somewhere he thought was safe. Start with the courier logs, the ones that were supposed to be destroyed."We worked without breaking for nearly six hour

Tahlia's POV"Take her."The order cut through the medical wing before the healer's last words had fully settled in the air. Guards moved at once, disciplined and eager, as if they'd been waiting for permission. Hands closed around my arms hard enough to bruise. The same hands that had parted for me an hour ago when I was useful now locked me in place like I'd already been sentenced and the rest was only formality."I didn't touch his medicine," I said. My voice stayed steady only because breaking would have given them the performance they wanted. "I never prepared it. I never delivered it. Check the logs. Check the seals. Check the timing. I was in the archive when he took it—""The access list is enough," Councilor Veylan said from the doorway, smooth as oil on a blade. He'd arrived quickly. Too quickly. "The King is barely alive. The toxin came from his private tonic. You were one of three with access. The other two have already been questioned and provisionally cleared. You'll be