บททั้งหมดของ The Alpha’s Forbidden Omega: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

Kieran’s POV“They’re ready for you.”Wren’s voice is low at the antechamber door. The noise of the main passage runs behind him—messengers, pack colors, the particular attention that gathers when a window is about to close one way or another. Juni stands at my right side. The bond is warmer than it has been in days, steady with what we gave each other in the north-wing room. No mark under her collar. Only the claim, spoken and answered, still private until we walk through these doors and make it otherwise.“Alder?” I ask.“Already inside. He’s arguing that a claim without a mark is incomplete under current law. Seraphine is with him. She hasn’t spoken publicly since the last session.”Juni’s voice is quiet. “And the clerks?”“Waiting. The twenty-four hours aren’t finished. A public claim presented before the close still has to be entered. What they do with it after that is the fight.”I look at her once. The space between us is no longer the careful distance of the first nights. It i

Kieran’s POV“They’ve given it a date.”Wren stands just inside the door. Late afternoon light cuts across the north-wing floor. Juni is at the table. The bond sits warm between us—claimed, unsealed, still hers to finish when she chooses—but it has been running closer to the surface since the chamber. Every shift of her weight registers. Every change in her breathing. The hours we took were not enough to quiet what the claim opened.“Alder’s petition,” I say.“Hearing at second bell tomorrow. He’s framing it as clarification of standing: a claim without a mark cannot shield an Omega from Selection while an investigation remains unresolved. Three neutral Alphas have already signaled support. Seraphine’s name is not on the filing. She’s made no public statement since the chamber.”Juni looks up. “And the man she met?”“Lower lanes. He entered a river-trade counting house that has taken Crane’s coin before. He didn’t stay long. No exchange we could confirm. She’s back in her father’s win

Juni’s POV“This shouldn’t be happening yet.”Kieran’s voice is rough against my temple. I am half in his lap on the edge of the bed because standing has become unreliable and every inch of distance from his scent makes the heat spike harder. The lantern is low. Night sits against the shutters. The bond is no longer warm and steady—it is a live wire pulling low in my stomach, sharp behind my ribs, restless in a way the first heat never got to finish.“I know,” I manage. “Days, not weeks. It doesn’t care.”“The first one never finished.” His hand moves slowly up and down my back—steady, grounding, not taking. “Suppressants crashed. Recognition hit. No mark. You came down because your body had nothing left, not because it resolved. This is that edge coming back. The claim pulled it forward. The rest of it—chamber, petition, the net—is pouring oil on it.”Another wave hits. Heat rolls up from my stomach through my chest until my vision narrows at the edges. I fist my hands in his coat an

Kieran’s POV“She’s still running hot.”Wren’s voice is low on the other side of the door. I have not left the room. Juni is against my chest—not fully asleep, not fully under the heat anymore—and the bond has not quieted the way a sealed bond should. It runs under my skin in two currents: the mate-claim, solid and complete, and something else underneath it, cool and bright, that does not belong to any bond I have ever been told about.“I know,” I answer through the wood. “The mark took. The heat is coming down. Slowly.”“Alder received the word an hour ago. Second bell is postponed—not withdrawn. He’s reframing. A mark completed in private during a medical crisis, after the claim’s standing was already challenged. He wants verification that the seal was mutual and not coerced by heat.” A pause. “Seraphine hasn’t returned to her father’s wing. The counting-house contact was seen near the outer river stalls at first light. No sign of her with him. No sign of her anywhere since she left

Kieran’s POV“I can walk.”Juni says it through her teeth. She is upright, dressed, the mark dark against her throat, and she is not steady. The residual heat has gone, but the sealing has left her pale and precise in the way of someone spending the last of their strength on posture. The bond runs dual under my skin—claim solid, the cooler current underneath it low and watchful. I keep my hand at her elbow. She does not shake it off.“You don’t have to prove anything to Alder on your feet,” I say.“If I go in carried, he calls the mark coerced by weakness. If I go in walking, he has less room.” A breath. “I can walk.”We walk.The chamber is smaller than the full review—two clerks, Torvin as neutral, Alder already standing with his jaw set. No full benches. No spectacle. Only the formal confirmation the Summit still requires before packs begin to leave. Juni’s weight leans a fraction into my side on the threshold. I adjust without making it visible to the table.“Alpha Voss,” the seni