บททั้งหมดของ The Dragon King's Weak Mate: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

The formal wedding celebration that Kael had promised took shape over the following weeks, planned amid the ongoing work of rebuilding what the siege had damaged, and Sable found herself swept into preparations considerably grander than anything she'd imagined for herself even in her most hopeful daydreams back in the lower territories."You'll want the deep blue silk for the ceremony itself," Fenna declared, surveying the small mountain of fabric samples that had accumulated in Sable's chambers over the past several days, courtesy of merchants eager to curry favor with the soon-to-be-celebrated queen. "It matches your eyes, and it'll photograph beautifully against the throne room's black stone for whatever portraits the court insists on commissioning afterward.""I still don't entirely understand why we need a second ceremony," Sable admitted, turning one particularly elaborate length of embroidered silk over in her hands. "We're already properly mated. The priest said the words. I d

Aria was three months old when the first unsettling report reached the palace, delivered not by a frightened messenger or a breathless scout, but by a cautious trader from the southern markets who'd insisted, repeatedly, on speaking with the king directly rather than any lesser official.Sable sat in on the audience with Aria sleeping against her shoulder, a habit she'd fallen into easily these past months, unwilling to be parted from her daughter even during matters of state that might once have seemed to require her undivided attention alone."Strange movement along the old southern road," the trader reported, turning his cap nervously in weathered hands. "Riders in no banner I recognized, moving at night, avoiding the usual trade stops entirely. My caravan nearly ran afoul of them outside Thornwick, and I'd not have thought much of it, except one of my men swore he recognized a face among them. A face he'd seen before, in this very palace, years back.""Whose face?" Kael asked, som

Garrick's response arrived six days later, carried not by a single rider but by a small delegation that rode into the mountain's gates with the particular urgency Sable had learned to recognize meant whatever news they carried wouldn't wait for formal scheduling.She met them in the courtyard herself, Aria settled with Fenna for the afternoon, and found Garrick's eldest son, a broad-shouldered young wolf named Bren Harrow, dismounting with the weary stiffness of a man who'd ridden hard and long."Lady Sable," he said, inclining his head with the easy respect the Harrow pack had shown her since the siege. "My father sent me the moment your message reached us. We've seen the same movement your scouts reported, and more besides."Kael joined them within minutes, and the delegation was shown into the war room where maps still bore the careful markings from their earlier planning session, Faelan already clearing space for whatever new information Bren had brought."Tell us everything," Kae

Kael was on his feet before the soldier had finished speaking; every trace of the evening's hard-won diplomatic satisfaction burned away by fresh alarm, and Sable felt her own heart lurch painfully at the news, old memories of Marisol's poisoning surging back with uncomfortable immediacy."Tell me everything," Kael said, voice tight with controlled urgency."A chambermaid found her quarters disturbed early this morning, my king," the soldier reported. "Furniture overturned, a broken vase, blood on the windowsill, though not enough to suggest a mortal wound. There was no sign of Lady Marisol herself anywhere in the palace. Captain Faelan has the guard searching every corridor and storeroom, but he wanted you informed immediately, given everything that happened to her once before."Sable's mind raced through the implications even as Kael pressed for further details, the timing itself deeply unsettling. Marisol disappearing now, in the midst of their journey to secure the border alliance

The news landed in the war room like a thrown stone through still water, ripples of alarm spreading through every advisor gathered for what had, until moments before, been a final review of logistics for the formal gathering."He means to turn our own event against us," Kael said slowly, working through the implications with visible fury building beneath his controlled exterior. "If he arrives uninvited, presenting his case directly to packs already gathered under our roof, he forces us to either refuse him audience, which plays into every claim he's likely prepared about dragon court arrogance silencing dissenting voices, or we allow him to speak, handing him exactly the platform he's been working toward all along.""There's a third option," Sable said, turning the problem over with the same patient calculation she'd applied to every crisis these past months had presented. "We don't refuse him an audience, and we don't simply let him speak unanswered either. We let him make his case,