All Chapters of In Love With My Dad's Best Friend : Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

LianaThe first morning without Father in the keep, I walked into the high hall with Kael’s hand in mine and did not let go when the talk dipped.Not a parade. Not a performance. Contact. The bond sat warm and obvious under my skin; my wolf was calm for the first time in days, satisfied that we had stopped pretending the den was temporary. Kael’s wolf pressed through the link in a low territorial hum every time a gaze lingered too long on my collar.A coastal clerk cleared his throat halfway through grain allotments. “With the Veyne departure complete, some houses still request clarification on the mate-bond’s standing in formal process. Seasonal language remains in older records—”“Older records are wrong,” I said before Kael could answer for me.The table turned.I kept my voice even. “The mark is permanent. I am not a lease, a wartime exception, or a private arrangement waiting for better paperwork. If your ledgers still say seasonal, update them.”Silence held for a beat. Then Kae

LianaSeraphina did not ask if I had time.She met me at the inner yard gate at first light with two water skins and a look that meant the discussion was already over. “Controlled outlet. Three mornings a week. Dual form included. If you only use her in bed or in panic, she will start picking her own hours.”My wolf lifted her head, interested. “Kael?”“Him too. Chaining a wolf through a war leaves a habit. Habits break cleaner on a schedule than on pride.”Kael arrived as she said it, coat still half-fastened, bond already brushing mine with morning heat and reluctant amusement. “I can hear you assigning me.”“Good,” Seraphina said. “Then you can also hear me leave before this becomes a couple argument with an audience.”She left the water and walked off.Kael looked at me. “Yard.”“Yard.”We started human, footwork, clinch breaks, the ugly practical drills that had nothing romantic in them. He corrected my stance once; I corrected his grip on a counter and watched his mouth tip whe

LianaThe box was smaller than the weight it carried.Father had left it on the kitchen table the day I visited, under a folded cloth like it was only spare twine and fence nails. He had not handed it to me. He had only said, when I reached for my cloak, “Your mother sealed those before you were tall enough to reach the shelf. I never broke the wax. If anyone opens them, it should be you.”I brought it back to the keep without opening it on the road. Kael watched me set it on the side table in our chamber and said nothing. Through the bond his curiosity coiled once, then went still. He knew the difference between a weapon and a grave.Tonight the keep was quiet enough to hear my own pulse.I sat on the floor with my back to the bed frame, box between my knees, and broke the seal.Wax dust. Old paper. Mother’s hand, sharp, certain, nothing like the soft stories people told about dying women.The first page was not a confession. It was a list.Ages. Blood markers. Warnings written like

LianaThe draft came back marked in three hands.Harran’s notes were neat and poisonous. He had softened “standing” into “protected counsel,” then into “advisory presence at the king’s discretion.” Every change dragged me one step back toward the girl under a promise.I read them in the antechamber with Seraphina at my shoulder and Adrian pretending to study a wall map while listening to everything.“They’re not rejecting the bond,” Seraphina said quietly. “They’re rejecting you as a fact that has weight.”“I know.”Kael entered late on purpose. Through the bond I felt the choice: arrive as her partner, not as the man who ushers her in. He took the page from my hand, scanned the edits, and the silver in his eyes went sharp.“They want my discretion to be the door,” he said.“Then we take the door off,” I answered.We walked into the hall together.The clerk began the second reading. When he reached Harran’s watered lines, I lifted my hand.“Stop.”The clerk stopped. The benches shifte

LianaMorning light made the war room look honest.No banners. No audience. A table, a map, two cups of bitter tea, and the parameters Kael had promised we would write in daylight.Adrian sat at the end with a blank slate and the expression of a man who had seen kings lose wars over pride and did not intend to watch this one do it in miniature. Seraphina leaned against the wall, arms folded, healer’s eye already reading the tension in my shoulders.Kael stood on the other side of the table.Not at the head.That detail landed first.“East road scouts,” he said without preamble. “No named house. No second sighting overnight. The double watch stays for three days. After that it drops unless a new sign appears.” He met my eyes. “Inner wall restriction is lifted as of now.”My wolf paced once under my ribs, testing the words for a trap.“Lifted,” I repeated.“Lifted.” His jaw was tight. “You move with an escort you help choose. You refuse a route and it is refused, not overridden. If I rec