Todos os capítulos de REJECTED ONCE, CLAIMED TWICE: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

The Alpha of NightglassThe wolf who rode through Silver City's gate beside Vesper carried himself like a man who had never once, in his life, been told no and made to accept it.He was older than Xavier by perhaps a decade, broad through the shoulders in the way of Alphas who'd spent their whole lives being deferred to, and he dismounted in the courtyard with an unhurried ease that felt, to Ivy, less like confidence and more like a man reminding everyone present exactly how little he had to fear from them."Cassian," Vesper said, by way of introduction, "Alpha of the Nightglass Pack. My father.""You didn't mention you'd be bringing him," Xavier said, his voice carrying an edge Ivy had heard from him only once before, the night of the breached wall."I mentioned nothing because I hadn't yet decided whether it would be necessary." Cassian's gaze swept the courtyard once before settling on Ivy. "My daughter tells me you're taking your time with a decision that, frankly, shouldn't requi

Two DaysThe council hall filled within the hour, every senior wolf in Silver City summoned at once, and Ivy stood at the front this time not as someone being questioned, but as someone whose fate the entire room had gathered to help defend."Thornhollow," Farron said, laying a rough map across the table, "isn't a pack we've had direct dealings with before, but their reputation precedes them. Aggressive expansion over the last decade. A history of taking territory through force when negotiation doesn't move fast enough for their liking. If they're moving on us in two days, they've likely been preparing for considerably longer than that.""Numbers?" Xavier asked."Uncertain. Ivy's mother's information puts their traveling party at forty to sixty, though that could easily be a vanguard rather than their full strength. They wouldn't commit their whole pack to a single claim, not if they're smart. But forty to sixty disciplined wolves is more than enough to overwhelm a border settlement t

A Borrowed BannerThe watchtower gave them their first real look at the approaching force, and what Ivy saw from its height turned the abstract danger of the last two days into something cold and immediate.Thornhollow's numbers were worse than Farron's estimate — closer to eighty than sixty, moving in disciplined formation across the open ground beyond Silver City's eastern border. And there, unmistakably, riding at the formation's edge under its own separate banner, flew the deep violet and closed eye of the Nightglass Pack."That's not possible," Damian said, standing beside Xavier at the tower's rail, his expression as troubled as anyone's. "Nightglass doesn't ally with packs like Thornhollow. Cassian built his reputation specifically by refusing exactly this kind of arrangement.""Maybe Cassian didn't authorize it," Xavier said grimly.Farron's spyglass had already found the banner's bearer, and his expression shifted from confusion to something harder as he studied the formation

What the Wall CostThey found Toren among the wounded, and for a long, terrible moment, Ivy thought he might not survive the morning.He was one of the younger wolves she'd spent weeks drilling in the training yard, barely past his first full shift, the same boy whose life she'd once bought three seconds for during the first breach. He'd fought beside her again last night, and somewhere in the worst of the fighting, a blow meant for someone else had caught him instead.Mara worked over him with grim, focused efficiency, and Ivy stood at the edge of the makeshift infirmary with her hands clenched at her sides, useless in the one way that mattered most right now."He'll live," Mara said finally, straightening, exhaustion carved into every line of her face. "Barely. It was close. Closer than I'd like to say out loud." She looked up at Ivy. "He asked for you, before the fever took him under. Wanted you to know he held the line.""He did," Ivy said, her voice thick. "He held it better than

What Neither of Us Ran FromThey left the archive room as the first grey light of dawn crept through the high windows, exhaustion settling into every part of Ivy that the night's fighting hadn't already claimed.Farron peeled off toward the council hall, already composing the message he intended to send south by midday. Xavier walked with Ivy instead, neither of them speaking, the training yard quiet and grey around them in the hour before the rest of the pack stirred.He stopped at the same fence rail where she'd first found him watching the mountains, back when this had all still felt survivable in a small, contained way."I keep thinking about what Morrigan built," Xavier said quietly. "Power through discarded bonds. Alliances secured and abandoned as convenience demanded. It's not so different from what nearly happened to you, at your old pack's hands. A different scale, but the same rot underneath it.""I noticed that too.""I don't want to build anything like that." He turned to