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Home / Werewolf / Puck Destiny : A Triplet's Claim / Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

Lahat ng Kabanata ng Puck Destiny : A Triplet's Claim: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

178 Kabanata

131

INKA'S POV "That's all I'm asking," Hunter said."Is it?" Graham held his gaze. "Because what you're asking, Hunter, is for me to choose my son over my pack's political structure. To challenge three council members and everything Miranda has built over the past months. To stake my own reputation on documents obtained through questionable means." A pause. "That's considerably more than 'all you're asking.'"Hunter was quiet for a moment."You're right," he said. "I know what I'm asking. I know the cost." He held his father's gaze. "I'm asking anyway."Graham's jaw shifted. Just slightly."Forty-eight more days," he said."Forty-eight days," Hunter confirmed."I'll hold the vote as long as I can." Graham glanced at the two council members beside him—a look that communicated something political and complicated that I didn't fully understand. "But don't ask me to promise more than that."He turned to leave.Then stopped.Without turning back around: "The girl. Inka."My breath caught."I

132

INKA'S POVI didn't sleep.Not because of the baby, or morning sickness, or the mate bond pulling in my chest.Because Elder Thaddeus was right and I knew it and knowing it was the most terrifying thing I'd felt in months.By the time dawn meditation started, I'd already made up my mind.I just didn't know what to do with that yet.**Meditation was impossible. I sat on my cushion while Elder Thaddeus's voice guided the community through breathing exercises and I stared at the floor and thought about Graham's face when he saw my hand on my stomach.Thought about Hunter saying *I don't know what I'll be like out there. But I know I don't want to lose you again.*Thought about the baby moving under my palm while all three of them stood there completely undone."Inka."I looked up. Everyone else had already left the meditation temple. Elder Thaddeus stood in front of me."You weren't here," he said."I was thinking.""I noticed." He sat cross-legged on the cushion across from me. "About

133

INKA'S POV I found Ruth in the medical room after lunch. She was restocking shelves, back to me."I talked to them," I said.Ruth didn't turn around. "I know. Elder Thaddeus told me.""What did you think?""I think you set reasonable conditions." She moved a bottle from one shelf to another. "I think they agreed too quickly.""You think they're lying?""I think they believe what they said. Whether they can follow through is a different question." She finally turned. "People always mean what they say in the moment. It's six months from now that matters. A year from now. When pack politics get complicated and pack instinct kicks in and it's easier to default to old patterns.""I know.""And?""And I decided to try anyway." I crossed my arms. "Not because I'm certain. Because staying paralyzed by uncertainty wasn't working."Ruth studied me for a long moment."Forty-seven days," she said finally."Forty-seven days.""A lot can happen in forty-seven days.""A lot has already happened in

134

INKA'S POVThe emergency bell rang at three in the morning.I was on my feet before I was fully awake, white robe pulled on with shaking hands, Sister Claire already at the door."What's happening?" I asked."I don't know." She was pale. "That bell only rings for—""Zunter." Ruth's voice from the corridor. Already dressed, already moving. "Everyone to the main hall. Now."*The main hall was controlled chaos.Elder Thaddeus stood at the center, completely calm in a way that made everything feel more frightening not less. Brother Marcus was beside him. Sister Leah had the children gathered in a tight cluster—Ana pressed against her side, Thomas gripping the twins' hands, everyone wide-eyed and silent in the particular way frightened children go silent.Hunter, Seth, and Zane were already there.Hunter's eyes found me the second I walked in. He crossed the room in four strides and stopped directly in front of me. Not touching. Just close. A wall between me and whatever was coming."How

135

The side door burst inward.Two figures. Black clothing. Masks. Moving with the practiced coordination of people who did this for a living.Seth met the first one before he fully cleared the doorway. The bow was useless at this range—he'd dropped it, was fighting hand to hand, and Seth was good, was very good, but the second operative was already past him—Zane intercepted the second. Knife in hand. They struggled. A table overturned.The main door broke.Three more through the front. Hunter absorbed the first impact like a wall—took a hit, didn't move, hit back harder. The second tried to go around him.I stepped forward.My hands were blazing gold.The operative who'd gotten past Hunter stopped.I don't know what they saw. I don't know what it looked like from the outside. But they stopped."Don't," Elder Thaddeus said from behind me. Warning.I didn't attack. Didn't advance.Just stood there with my hands glowing, putting my body between the operative and Elder Thaddeus, and let th

136

INKA'S POVI couldn't explain it if someone asked me to.There was no single moment that pushed me toward the decision. No revelation. No dramatic realization in a mirror somewhere. Just a quiet accumulation of small things that had been building since the night the ward line broke and three men in dirty white robes stood between me and eleven Zunter operatives without hesitating for a single second.Sister Claire was already asleep. Her breathing was slow and even across the room.I lay there staring at the ceiling for a long time.The baby moved. Low and rolling, stronger than yesterday, stronger than the day before.I pressed my hand flat against my stomach and felt it—felt them—and thought about three men in the room three buildings away who had no idea this was happening right now. Who had never once felt this at the right moment without me specifically deciding to let them.I got up.Didn't think about it too hard. Thinking too hard was what had kept me in this room for forty-se

137

HUNTER'S POVShe came to us.I kept thinking about that while I stacked firewood in the early morning. The repetitive work that had wrecked my hands two days ago now felt almost meditative—find the branch, break it, stack it. Find, break, stack.She came to us.Not because we asked. Not because Elder Thaddeus suggested it. Not because of the baby or the bond or fifty days or any of the structures we'd built around this thing.Just because she decided to.I split a particularly thick branch against my knee and felt the crack all the way up my arm.Worth it.Brother Marcus appeared at the edge of the treeline carrying his own load. He set it down beside mine and began stacking without comment. We'd developed a rhythm over the past two days—me gathering, him organizing, neither of us feeling the need to fill the silence.It was the most comfortable I'd been with another person not saying anything in a long time."She stayed," Marcus said.Not a question. He always seemed to know things w

138

INKA'S POVI didn't go to breakfast.Went straight to Elder Thaddeus's study instead.The sun was barely up. The sanctuary was still quiet. Sister Claire had been asleep when I left the room, and I didn't wake her because I didn't want questions and I didn't want anyone to talk me out of what I was about to do.Elder Thaddeus was already awake. Of course he was. He was sitting at his desk reading something that looked like medical texts, half-glasses on his nose, completely unsurprised when I knocked and didn't wait for an answer before entering."Good morning, Inka."I closed the door. "I want intensive training. Starting now."He set down his book. "For healing?""For everything. Healing, defense, understanding my gift completely." I stood in front of his desk. "I want to know every single thing my blood can do. Every limit. Every possibility."Elder Thaddeus studied me over his glasses. "Why the urgency?""Because I'm not running anymore. And I'm not letting anyone fight my battles

139

INKA'S POVI didn't sleep.Not because I was restless or anxious. Because I'd spent eight days becoming someone new and tonight I needed them to understand exactly who that person was.The training had changed everything. Not just my body or my gift. The way I moved through the sanctuary. The way I held space when I entered a room. The way I could feel the mate bond now—not pulling at me desperately but humming between us like a choice I made every second to maintain it.The clock in the main hall chimed midnight.I stood. Pulled on a clean white robe—simple, plain, the same as always. But the way I wore it now was different. Not hidden. Not apologetic.Walked through the dark corridor with glowing hands lighting my way.Nobody stopped me. Brother Marcus at perimeter watch didn't even acknowledge me as I passed. He knew.The guest quarters door opened to darkness. All three of them were awake—I could feel that through the bond, could sense the alertness in the way they were positioned

140

HUNTER'S POVI stood in the courtyard watching Inka spar with Ruth.Not casual practice. Real combat. Inka moving with precision I'd never seen before—knife work that was efficient and deadly and beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with grace and everything to do with purpose.Ruth blocked. Inka countered. They moved in rhythm that suggested days of training I hadn't been part of.Inka's hands glowed golden where they gripped the knife. Not for healing. For power. For certainty.She was radiant.And I couldn't feel my own strength anymore.---The realization had been building for days.Started subtle—watching Inka and Zane in the library analyzing strategy maps. Watching them debate approach to council confrontation with the kind of intellectual partnership that made them move in sync without planning it.Then escalated to watching her train. Watching her healing gift evolve into something that made even Elder Thaddeus step back with respect.And yesterday—yesterday when she'd

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