All Chapters of THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS DAUGHTER : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Forty-One — The Weight of Old PromisesSophia POVI wake with three threads still unresolved and no clean way to pull on any of them — Halen's strange half-answer from yesterday, the case that wasn't on my copied list, and the warmth that keeps finding my wrist whenever I let myself think too long about any of it.I don't get the luxury of choosing which one to chase first. I'm assigned straight to the ceremonial preparations, directly under Halen's supervision, before I've even finished my morning chores.He puts me to work arranging the old ritual pieces in their proper order — nothing I understand the meaning of, only the sequence he insists on, repeated until I have it memorized exactly as he wants it.I catch the mistake before anyone else does. One of the attendants has set a bowl according to the newer wording of the rite instead of the older phrasing Halen keeps correcting everyone back toward — a small difference, the ki

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Forty-Four — The Cost of Standing Beside HimSophia POVI'm still turning the attendant's half-finished answer over in my mind — someone who served before the current schedule existed — when my assignment changes entirely."The announcement hall," the supervisor tells me. "They need extra hands finishing the dais."I don't ask why me. I've learned better than to expect an explanation for anything in this household, let alone a cruel one dressed up as ordinary scheduling.The space where Seraphina will stand beside Damon tonight is draped in gold and white, flowers woven through every rail, exactly the kind of beauty built to be remembered. I work at the edges of it, arranging cushions no one will notice unless they're placed wrong.The bond doesn't care what I let myself think about. It pulls anyway, low and constant, the moment Damon walks in to inspect the arrangements.I keep my eyes on my work. I don't look up when his footst

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTER Chapter Forty-Six — The Truth Behind Simon's DeathSophia POV Damon finds me the following afternoon near the washing lines, and I know before he says a word that whatever he's carrying, it's heavier than the usual weight he brings to these conversations."I need to ask you something about your father.""Which version of him," I say, "do you want to ask about? The one everyone agreed to remember, or the one I'm only now starting to suspect existed?"Something flinches in his face at that, small, there and gone. "I've been looking into how he died.""I know. I've heard."That surprises him, I think, though he doesn't ask how. I don't tell him about Branwen, or the scroll, or the words I've memorized and refused to let myself believe apply to me. Those are mine. I'm not ready to hand them to a man whose family may have built its whole authority on my father's murder."I think the official account is wrong," he says. "I think my father ma

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Forty-Eight — When the Pack TurnsSophia POV I don't go near the eastern path that night.I want to. Every part of me wants to walk straight past that guard and whatever he's been told to watch for, straight to the stone beneath the old pines, and finally see with my own eyes what my father left me. But Simon didn't survive nineteen years of careful secrecy by being reckless at the last step, and I don't intend to undo everything he protected simply because I'm impatient.I go back to my duties instead. I fold linens. I carry water. I make myself as unremarkable as I've ever been, while underneath it my mind keeps circling back to a guard standing where no guard has ever stood before.---It's at the well the next morning that it happens — nothing I couldn't have predicted, if I'd let myself."Still here," one of the younger wolves says, not even bothering to lower his voice as I pass with my bucket. "I'd have thought the Alpha

THE REJECTED MATE IS THE MOON GODDESS'S DAUGHTERChapter Fifty — The Night of WolvesSophia POVI've been watching the guards for three nights now, the way Lyra taught me to watch everything — patient, patterns before conclusions, nothing decided until the evidence earns it.Tonight the pattern breaks.I notice it before anyone sounds an alarm — the eastern watch thinning instead of doubling, two guards pulled from their post and sent running toward the main gate instead. Something's wrong, and it has nothing to do with me for the first time in weeks.Then the horn sounds, low and urgent, the call Moonridge keeps for exactly one kind of danger.Rogues. At the boundary. More than a handful, from the sound of the second horn blast that follows close behind the first.The courtyard turns to chaos within minutes — warriors pulling on armor, servants herded toward the main hall for safety, the whole household rearranging itself around a threat nobody saw coming tonight of all nights.I'm p