Lahat ng Kabanata ng Fate Chose the Prince, I Chose the Alpha: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

"I reject you as my mate, Janiah Cross."Pain hit my chest so hard my knees bent. I planted both feet and forced myself to stay standing. People laughed. I looked at Alpha Prince Tyler Moore and tried to breathe.Less than a minute earlier, he had walked into the Moon Assembly and my wolf had recognized him at once.Mate.Tyler stopped. His eyes locked on mine. His body went still. Tyler had been away from Crown territory for years. That was why we had never recognized each other before tonight. I still knew who he was. Everyone in Crown Pack did. He was the Alpha King's son and the man expected to inherit the Crown.I was a low-status pack member who spent most public events trying not to give people another reason to laugh at me. I had never expected Tyler Moore to notice me. I definitely had not expected my wolf to call him mate. For a few seconds, I had been happy.I had come to the Moon Assembly with one goal. Get through the event without giving anyone another reason to compare

"Can Tyler force me to live with him?"The clerk at Crown Bond Administration looked from me to the mate-status notice on my phone. She did not laugh, look shocked, or tell me I was asking the wrong question. That already made her one of my favorite Crown employees. "No," she said.My hand loosened around the edge of the counter. "Can he force sex because the bond isn't fully severed?""No. An incomplete severance does not create that right."That answer helped more than I wanted it to. I had spent the walk from St. Mercy imagining every possible meaning of temporary mate-status hold, and my brain had apparently chosen the worst ones as a hobby.I unlocked my phone again. "Then what exactly is being held?"The clerk turned her screen slightly so I could see the same status I had received outside the hospital. Verbal rejection recorded. Acceptance not recorded. Fractured bond pending completion. Crown-heir review active."Formal severance," she said. "Because Prince Tyler is the direct

Tyler's hand was still locked around my arm."My mate isn't going anywhere."The pain under his fingers had changed from sharp to hot. I looked at his hand, then at his face. "You rejected me in front of the entire pack. You don't get to use the word my when I try to leave. Take your hand off me."His jaw tightened. "The bond isn't severed.""I know. I was at the office where your paperwork made that very clear." I kept my voice steady even though my stomach was still tight. "I accepted a job with Black Ridge. I am leaving because I chose to leave. Not because Eric chose for me. Not because you chose for me. Me."For the first time, Tyler hesitated.Eric spoke from behind him. "Black Ridge recognizes her stated choice. If she says she is leaving, we will not treat her as a forced transfer, a possession, or anything else you can claim between packs."Tyler looked over his shoulder. "Stay out of this.""She already answered for herself," Eric said. "I'm making Black Ridge's position cle

I arrived at Black Ridge expecting a luxury prison, so the first thing I did was check what they had actually put in writing about me. The intake record called me a temporary protected resident. A separate work entry called me a paid employee. I read both twice, then kept going. There was no ward status next to my name. Nothing called me Eric's mate, and nothing said I was some debt asset.My housing record was in my own name. So were my wages, my work credential, and the protected-residency record. Then intake handed me the written exit procedure. I could stop working there without Eric's personal permission. I could end protected residency without his personal permission too, and ending one did not automatically end the other.Ashley gave me more records. She showed me closed protective-transfer files, not promises about what Black Ridge claimed it would do. People had actually left. Other records showed that someone could stop working for Black Ridge and still keep protection.Laur

Vanessa’s attention snapped to the scheduled suppressant before mine did. “That isn’t part of my treatment plan for him.”The words landed hard because nothing about the continuation looked broken. It had moved far enough through the ordinary bedside workflow to be given if nobody stopped it. I looked at Malik, then back at Vanessa.“Hold it.”“Already doing it.” She stopped the dose before it could reach him.Relief hit first, sharp and useless. The immediate danger was gone, but the order that had carried it there still sat in the workflow as if it belonged. “Don’t delete anything,” I said.Vanessa looked at me. “I wasn’t going to.”“I want the dose kept. The order history too.”“The dose stays. So does the history.”Good. We already knew Malik had been exposed to suppressant over time, and nobody had explained that exposure through his current treatment or the ambulance. Now another suppressant had become an active bedside problem while Vanessa stood right there telling me it was n