Todos os capítulos de Reborn After Rejection: I Chose the Alpha Everyone Feared: Capítulo 281 - Capítulo 290

“If I ever said yes, what would actually happen?” Hallie asked the next morning.Saevren was in the same workroom where too many impossible things had become practical questions, but Hallie did not sit.His gaze settled on her. “You are not saying yes now.”“I’m not.”“Good.”The word should not have steadied her. It did.Hallie crossed her arms. “I know what the end could be. I want to understand the part between here and there.”Saevren did not invite her closer.“It would not be a cure,” he said.“I know I’m not sick.”“That is not what I mean.”He rested two fingertips on the table.“A cure implies a condition being removed from you by a process that is primarily about your body. This would involve both of us.”Hallie felt her shoulders tighten.“Because of the bond-hunger.”“Because of how it develops.”She waited.“I would have to access the bonded bond from your side more than once.”“How many times?”“I cannot tell you.”Hallie frowned.“You don’t know?”“No. And I will not in

Hallie noticed it at breakfast because Grant did not touch her. There was nothing dramatic in the absence.He set a cup near her hand. He answered when she asked about the route reports. He told her Caleb had already taken the first patrol discussion and that the western road was still clear.Then he stood before she finished eating.“I’ll be outside.”Hallie looked at the empty space beside her.Grant had always known how to leave room around her when she needed it. This was different.By evening, after three conversations that ended the moment the necessary information was exchanged, she stopped pretending not to notice.He came into their room after dark with the same quiet he had used all day. Hallie was sitting on the edge of the bed, unlacing one boot.Grant paused when he saw her awake.“You don’t have to stop,” she said.“I wasn’t.”“You were.”His mouth tightened. Hallie set the boot beside the other. Grant stayed near the door.“What are you doing?”“Giving you space.”“I di

“Mine,” Hallie said.Saevren looked up from the remaining Everen papers.She had waited until the next afternoon because the word would not leave her alone.“You’ve used that language before.”“I have.”“I need to know what you mean by it.”Saevren set the page down. Hallie moved closer to the long table, though not to him.“If helping me could make you need me, that need will never become proof that I belong to you.”Saevren set both hands flat on the table.“I would not ask you to.”Saevren met her questions without retreat. “I want you in my life, and I want intimacy. I would need you to choose that before I accepted the risk.”“But I am not something you acquire because you paid enough.”“No. Nothing I risk would make you property.”“Consuming Austin’s bond, being hurt by it, or needing me later would still give you no ownership.”“Then don’t call me yours unless you can tell me what the word means without turning me into property.”For the first time, Saevren looked away to think

Grant stayed outside longer than he needed to.The last of the day’s work had already been handed off. Nothing required him in the yard.Across Cedar Draw, ordinary sounds carried through the cooling air. Boots on packed ground. A door shutting. Someone laughing briefly before the sound disappeared behind a wall.Grant rested both hands on the rail. He had spent years believing there were some things strength could solve.If someone threatened Cedar Draw, Grant could stand between danger and the people under his protection. If a road became unsafe, he could close it. If someone was taken, he could go after them.Hallie’s mate bond was different. He could hate it, refuse to let Austin use it as authority, and build a life with Hallie in spite of it. He could not remove it.That truth had become harder now that Saevren could.Saevren could consume the current and choose the risk of dependence on Hallie’s presence. Grant could not make the same offer.His wolf hated the comparison before

Hallie kept her eyes on the route map. That was easier than looking at Austin.Grant tapped the western segment with one finger. “Cedar Draw will keep protecting travelers as long as we can keep our road safe.”Austin nodded. “Bellamy will do the same.”The mate bond pulled hard enough that Hallie’s breath caught. Austin’s gaze lifted at once. So did Saevren’s.Grant saw Hallie tense. Saevren’s attention fixed on something else.His attention moved once between her and Austin, precise and unreadable, as if the current between them had become visible in a way no one else in the room could follow.Hallie’s stomach tightened. Saevren did not move toward her. He did not touch her.He did not feed.Nothing inside the bond changed except what Austin’s nearness was already doing to it.Grant looked at Hallie.“You need a pause?”“No.” His eyes stayed on her for half a second longer.Hallie knew Grant could sense her fear, anger, and concentration without sensing the current itself.He accept