All Chapters of Once Lost, Twice Found: Chapter 91 - Chapter 99

Reginald's POVLogan said he didn’t know where Ann was, but his expression made me doubt him. I had known him long enough to recognize when he was choosing his words carefully, and tonight he seemed more concerned with what he could avoid admitting than with answering me.“You expect me to believe that?” I asked.“I expect you to believe what I said.” He held my gaze, although his jaw tightened when I stepped away from the desk.“You changed the patrol, created the false alert, cleared the car, and removed her necklace. You admitted helping her escape. Then you told me Blackwood was never part of the plan.”“Because it wasn’t,” he said.&ldquo

Reginald's POVJack Blackwood didn’t make me wait long.He emerged from the trees across the creek with Tristan a few steps behind him. They approached slowly, though the twelve Blackwood warriors I could smell in the forest made the gesture pointless.Dead leaves rustled whenever one of them shifted.Jack had brought backup; I had come alone.He stopped on his side of the boundary while I stayed on mine, the creek and neutral ground between us.Neither of us spoke at first.His wolf tested mine, and the pressure between us made Tristan shift his stance.Jack’s expression never changed.

Ann’s POVFor one terrible second, I was back in Silverstone.The creek still separated us. Jack stood beside me, and Blackwood warriors surrounded the forest. Reginald was outside our territory, not inside a bedroom or council chamber where no one would dare challenge him. None of that mattered to my body. It remembered him before my mind could accept that everything was different now.His voice, my name in his mouth, and the weight of his stare dragged old fear to the surface. His wolf pressed against the air as if dominance alone should still make me lower my head.My fingers trembled around Jack’s hand, and Reginald noticed. Of course he did. His gaze dropped to our joined hands before returning to my face.“You’re alive.”Of all the things I had imagined him saying, that had never been one of them. “Yes.”He studied me as if he needed proof. “You disappeared.”A bitter laugh escaped me. “I escaped.”His expression hardened. Behind him, Logan shifted uneasily, but Reginald ignored

Reginald’s POVBy the time I returned to Silverstone, the blood on my clothes had dried. Some of it belonged to Jack, some to me. Mud from the creek stained my boots, and I could still feel Logan’s grip on my arm from when he had dragged me back from the edge of a war he had helped create.I should have gone to the infirmary. I should have spoken to the council before making any formal move. Instead, I shut myself in my office and wrote the claim with my own hand. I wanted no secretary softening my words, no Beta watching over my shoulder, and no adviser warning me what might anger Blackwood. I wanted Jack to know exactly who had sent it.More than that, I wanted Ann to understand that leaving when she asked did not mean I would walk away from my children.Three children. Two sons and a daughter.I sat behind my desk long after the messenger left with the sealed declaration, repeating their names until they no longer sounded like strangers. Adrian. Lucas. Isla. They were mine by blood

Logan’s POVI learned about the council hearing from Celeste, not Reginald. That alone told me how badly things had deteriorated between us.I was in my office, pretending to read a border report, when Celeste walked in, shut the door, and dropped a folded notice on my desk. “You should see this before someone decides you don’t deserve to know.”The Neutral Council seal tightened something in my stomach. I opened the notice and read it twice. The preliminary hearing would take place in four days on neutral territory. Reginald Ashcroft, Jack Blackwood, and Ann Carter were named. Ann was required to testify about her departure from Silverstone before the council decided whether Reginald’s paternal claim could move forward. Doctor Elias Mercer had also been summoned.“They want Mercer,” I said.“Yes.”“They’ll want me too.”Celeste took the chair across from me. “You aren’t named. Not yet.”Reginald had moved quickly. The moment he discovered he had two Alpha sons, he reached for the onl