บททั้งหมดของ Married Off as a Breeder, She Became His Only Mate. : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

Briony's POV"You want me to do what?"Halric didn't say it again. I heard him the first time, I just needed a second for my brain to catch up to it."There's no time to search for her," he said, already turning for the door like the conversation was finished. "Blackfen's watching our borders closer every week. If we don't hand over a Thistlewood bride tonight, the treaty's dead, and so's any peace we've got left with it.""Then find another bride." Sage stepped in front of him, blocking the doorway like that would actually stop a man twice her age and rank. "Briony's not a stand-in for a wedding. She's a person.""The treaty says a Thistlewood daughter." Halric didn't even look at her when he said it. "It doesn't say which one."I opened my mouth and nothing came out. Torin was still asleep on the table behind me, blood drying under my nails, and somehow that felt like the only real thing left in the room."I have herbs to grind," I said, which was stupid, but it was the only sentenc

Briony's POV"Chin up." Rowan fell into step beside me at the bottom of the stairs, straightening the collar of the plain gray dress they put me in,nothing like Marisol's silver gown, just something that wouldn't embarrass anybody. "Whole pack's out there. Don't let them see you flinch.""I wasn't planning on flinching.""Good. Because Kieran's about ten seconds from doing it for the both of you, and one of us needs to hold it together."I looked past him toward the courtyard doors, where I could already hear it, the low hum of a crowd that hadn't decided yet whether to be angry or curious. "How bad is it out there?""Half the pack thinks the elders lost their minds. The other half's just here for the show." He caught my face and softened it a little. "You'll be fine. Just stand there and let them look."Kieran was waiting by the doors when we reached them, jaw set like stone. He didn't say good morning. He didn't say anything at all, just looked me over once, quick and unreadable, an

Briony's POV"What the hell did you just do?"Kieran's voice filled the room before I had a single word ready for it. He crossed the floor fast, eyes going from my glowing palm to Faro's chest rising steadily and even, like he couldn't decide which one scared him more."I don't know." It was the truth, and it came out shakier than I wanted. "One second Bettina said he wasn't going to make it, and the next…""The next you did that." He grabbed my wrist, not rough, but not gentle either, turning my palm up toward the torchlight like he needed to see the mark again to believe it was real. The gold in it had faded to almost nothing now, just a faint shimmer under the skin. "This isn't a healer's trick. I've watched healers work my whole life. This is something else.""It's the Thistlewood mark." Bettina's voice cut in, but it landed hard enough that the room went still. She was still gripping the edge of the table like it was the only thing holding her up. "Anchor-born. I thought that lin

Briony's POV"Whatever you think you saw," I said, "you don't actually have anything. Just a story with no proof behind it."Petra's smile didn't waver. "Don't need proof to get people talking. Rumors work just fine on their own.""Then go start one." I turned back to the shelf, hands steadier than I felt, and kept sorting like she wasn't still standing there. "See how far it gets you when the healer who trained half this pack backs her own story to the elders' faces."For a second neither of us said anything. Then Petra pushed off the shelf she'd been leaning against and walked to the door, unhurried, like she had all the time in the world."Have it your way." She paused with her hand on the frame. "For now."She left. I stood there another minute with my hands buried in dried herbs, waiting for my heart to slow back down to something normal, and it took longer than I wanted it to.Bettina found me an hour before sundown, done with the day's patients, and told me to sit without givin

Briony's POVI found Kieran in the war room going over patrol maps with two of his trackers, and I didn't wait for an invitation to interrupt."Petra passed a note to a man at the border market. He didn't smell like Ashvale. Didn't smell like anybody I've smelled before, actually."The trackers went still. Kieran's head came up slowly."Describe him.""Tall. Dark coat, no colors on him. Kept his face turned away from the crowd most of the time." I crossed my arms. "He took the note and disappeared before I could get a good look.""And Petra?""Told me I was imagining things. Then told me to be careful who I said that to."Kieran's jaw worked once. He turned to the older tracker, rattled off three names and a stretch of border to cover before nightfall, and the two men were gone within a minute, boots already moving down the hall."You should've come straight to me instead of confronting her," he said, once they were gone."I didn't confront her. She confronted me.""Same difference, i