บททั้งหมดของ THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS DAUGHTER : บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Twenty-One — The Question Beneath the QuestionDamonI lay it out in my mind the way I'd lay out tracks in snow, trying to see which ones lead somewhere and which ones only look like they do.Seraphina, unable to say plainly what drew her to the eastern boundary that morning. Elias, certain of a timeline that doesn't match what the pack was told. My father's name, surfacing at every turn of the information chain — the patrol schedule, the early word of the alarm, the hearing itself, shaped into exactly the question he wanted asked.Any one of those, alone, is nothing. A coincidence. A busy Alpha's ordinary involvement in ordinary pack business.Together, they stop looking like coincidence and start looking like design.I don't know who built it. That's the question that keeps me from sleeping properly — not did someone lie to me, which I've already answered for myself a dozen times over, but who knew enough, early enough, to make

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Twenty-Three — The Things That Still HurtSophia POVI'm folding linens near the kitchen stores when I hear them coming — Seraphina's voice first, light and unhurried, followed by the lower murmur of at least two others. I don't look up right away. I've learned that looking up too soon only gives people more time to decide what to do with my attention.She arrives with two of her usual companions trailing behind her, the same women who always seem to find her cruelty entertaining rather than distasteful."Still here," Seraphina says, not a question. "I thought the healer might have finally sent you somewhere more suitable. The stables, perhaps."One of the women laughs, soft and knowing, like they've already decided together what this visit is going to be.I don't answer. I keep folding."You know," Seraphina continues, drifting closer, "Damon mentioned to me just yesterday how relieved he is that all of this unpleasantness is n

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Twenty-Five — What She Doesn't SaySophia POVLyra doesn't say anything else right away. She just stands there in the doorway, something cradled in both hands, waiting the way she seems to wait for everything — unhurried, unbothered by my silence."I noticed you weren't alright," she says finally.I don't answer. I don't trust my voice yet, not after the courtyard, not after watching Damon's arm settle around Seraphina like something he'd practiced.Lyra doesn't push. She steps forward, sets whatever she's carrying down on the edge of my makeshift bed, and straightens without making a show of it."You don't have to talk," she says. "You don't have to do anything with it either, if you'd rather not." A pause. "Figured you should have the choice, for once."She leaves before I can ask what she means. No lingering, no searching look to see whether I'm grateful enough. Just the sound of her footsteps fading back down the corridor, st

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Twenty-Seven — The Part She ForgotSophia POVI still keep the comb Lyra gave me, tucked beneath the fold of cloth I use as a pillow, though I couldn't tell you exactly why.It isn't valuable. It isn't anything anyone would look at twice. But I find myself reaching for it in the quiet moments, turning it over in my hands the way you'd turn over a question you aren't ready to answer yet.I still think about Damon. I'd be lying to myself if I said otherwise — I remember his hand finding Seraphina's in that courtyard, the ease of it, the way he let the whole pack see exactly what he'd decided without a single flicker of doubt showing on his face afterward. It still hurts. I don't think it's going to stop hurting simply because I've decided not to let it control what I do next.But something in me has quietly shifted these past few days, and I think it started with this small, worn piece of wood.I asked myself, that first night, wh

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Twenty-Nine — The Cost of Staying SilentSophia POVThe preparations for the announcement have taken over most of the house now — garlands going up in the main hall, fine cloth being measured and cut, servants pulled from their usual duties to help however they're needed. I'm given the hems. Seraphina's gown, mostly, the one she'll wear when Damon finally makes everything official in front of the whole pack.I don't let myself think about that longer than it takes to thread a needle.She has me kneeling at her feet in the fitting room when it happens, pins held carefully between my lips, working the hem of pale blue silk that costs more than I'll earn in my lifetime of service here."Careful," Seraphina says, not looking down at me. "If you prick me, I imagine Damon would have questions about how such a simple task went wrong."I don't answer. I keep working, steady, careful, exactly as I've been doing for the better part of an