All Chapters of Married Off as a Breeder, She Became His Only Mate. : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Briony's POVHalric crossed the room slowly, reaching for my hand like he needed permission before actually touching it. "May I?"I nodded, too weak still to do much beyond hold my palm steady while he turned it toward the window light, studying the new pattern etched into my skin with the same reverence he have given an ancient text."This isn't the same mark," he murmured, mostly to himself. "The knot pattern you carried before, that was the base form. Healing, force, the ability to seal a bond. This…" He traced one of the new branching lines without quite touching it. "This matches something deeper in the records. Older.""Older how?" Kieran asked, still gripping my other hand like he hadn't let go once in two days, and looking at him now, exhausted and unshaven, I believed it."There's a section in the oldest healer's records, barely legible in places, describing a rarer form of the Anchor-born gift. Full command over frenzy itself." Halric's voice had gone quiet, almost awed. "No

Sage's POVBy midday the whole pack house had shifted into something I hadn't seen since the day the horn first sounded weeks back,controlled chaos, everyone moving fast but nobody running blind, Kieran's orders cutting through the noise clean and sharp as he assigned posts along every wall Ashvale had."East wall gets doubled," he said, pointing at the map spread across the war room table, half the senior warriors crowded around it now. "Rourke's already shown us he favors that stretch. I want archers positioned on the ridge overlooking it, not just wolves at ground level.""What about the healing house?" Bettina asked, arms crossed, clearly thinking ahead to what came after the fighting started. "I'll need runners between there and the front line.""Two guards on the healing house at all times," Kieran said. "No exceptions, no matter how the battle shifts elsewhere."I was already moving before he finished, pulling my own gear together, checking blades I sharpened twice already that

Briony's POV"How long ago," I asked, needing the answer even though dread already told me I wouldn't like it. "How long ago would he have started building something like that?"Marisol hesitated, clearly working through the timeline in her own head. "Based on what I overheard, and how established the craftsmen seemed to be with the specifications, I'd guess months. Possibly longer.""Months," Kieran repeated, disbelief and fury in his voice. "Before the wedding even happened. Before any of us knew the mark had resurfaced in this generation at all.""I think that's exactly right," Halric said quietly, having arrived partway through Marisol's confession, his own face pale with the weight of it. "Which means Rourke's people didn't simply react to learning Briony carried the mark. They anticipated it. Planned for it. Possibly even engineered circumstances to ensure it happened exactly the way it did.""You're saying the wedding switch, Marisol running, all of it," I said slowly, "might n

Sage's POVI grabbed my old cloak the next morning without thinking much of it, needing something warmer than my usual gear for the early patrol shift Kieran had assigned me before dawn. The lining had been loose for weeks, catching on things, and I made a mental note to finally fix it once this whole mess with Rourke settled one way or another.Something crinkled against my fingers as I pulled it on.I paused, frowning, reaching into the torn seam where the lining had come apart. My fingers closed around folded parchment, tucked deep enough that it clearly hadn't ended up there by accident."What the hell," I muttered, pulling it free.I recognized the handwriting the second I unfolded it. Briony's, careful and neat even when clearly written in a hurry, ink slightly smudged in places like tears had fallen before it dried completely.I read the first line, confusion knotting tight in my chest.‘If you're reading this, it means I didn't come back.’My stomach dropped straight through t

Briony's POVI heard him before I saw him, his footsteps hard and fast down the hallway toward my room, urgency radiating off him even through the walls. I barely had time to set down the herbs I'd been sorting before the door slammed open."Kieran…""When were you planning on telling me?" His voice was rough, shaking with something raw underneath the fury. He held up the letter, and my stomach dropped straight through the floor."Sage found it," I said,but it wasn't really a question."Sage found it, and had the decency to actually tell me, unlike you." He stepped further into the room, closing the door hard behind him. "You wrote me a goodbye letter, Briony. You hid it in her cloak like a coward instead of telling me to my face.""I'm not a coward." The words came out sharper than I meant, defensive and hurt in equal measure. "I made a choice. A hard one, but mine to make.""Yours to make." He laughed, short and bitter, nothing like an actual laugh. "You want to talk about choices?