All Chapters of His Father's Mate: Chapter 81 - Chapter 88

VICTORDamian’s call came at seven in the morning, cutting through the quiet of my residence like a blade I’d been half-expecting.I’d been awake since five. That had become my new normal since the Tuesday dinners started.“Victor,” Damian said. “Alpha King,” I replied.A beat of silence. “You don’t have to call me that.”“I know,” I said, staring at the grain of the wooden table. “I’m still deciding if I want to.”Another pause. Then he dropped it, directly. “Aria is pregnant.”I sat down hard, the chair creaking under me. Not because the news shocked me. I’d been bracing for this since Soren first told us what the Maren bloodline truly carried—what it would mean for the next generation. But hearing it out loud… made my chest hurt.I’d prepared for the politics. The protection details of the child that would carry that silver power even stronger than Aria. I hadn’t prepared for how

DAMIANElena Marsh. Forty-one. Former administrative coordinator for the eastern hunter network before Victor dismantled it three years ago. She’d stayed buried in the northern territories with nowhere else to run, watching the same beast slowly stitch itself back together under new money and a new mask.Noah’s overnight dive into the funding chain led straight to a holding company registered eighteen months ago. Three directors. Two shells. The third name belonged to Callum Reid—Brendan Ashcroft’s beta of eleven years. The kind of man Brendan would call “independent” if anyone pressed. Careful distance. Plausible deniability. Brendan had studied Karla’s mistakes and learned exactly how not to leave fingerprints.I sat my jaw clenched, when Noah knocked once and entered without waiting—the only time he ever did that.“Elena Marsh has agreed to cooperate,” he said, setting a fresh document on the desk. “Victor’s contact reached her last n

CASSIANMy phone rang while I was making coffee. This place had taught me the rhythm of a smaller, colder place where wolf and human worlds ran close without much hiding. Everyone mostly just got on with living.The name on the screen stopped me for a beat. Damian.“Damian,” I answered.“Cassian.” A short pause. “How are you?”“I'm doing good and working,” I said, staring at the drafting table. “Honest work, just like you implied.”“I didn’t say that exactly.”“You made it very clear.”Silence.“I need to tell you something,” Damian continued. “In person. Aria wants to be there.”I set the coffee down hard, stomach knotting. “What happened?”“Nothing happened to you. Nothing’s wrong with you specifically. But there’s something you need to know, and we decided you should hear it from us.”Us. I almost forgot Damian and Aria were a unit now.“When?” I asked.

ARIA Rhea arrived for her weekly checkup, took one look at me, and said it plain. "Your bump is showing." "It's not showing," I said. "It's showing to me," she replied. "You have an unfair advantage," I said. "You're a healer. You see things that aren't visible to normal people." "It's visible to normal people who are paying attention," she said. "Which brings me to your husband." Damian stood at the counter with his coffee and said nothing. He had perfected the art of staying out of certain conversations and this was one of them. "Damian," I said. "Is it showing?" "I notice things," he said carefully. "That's not an answer," I said. "It's for me," he said. "It has been protruding for a while now," Rhea said. "Is there anything about my own life I find out first?" I whined. "You were the first to say I love you," Rhea said. "That counted for something." I had no response to that because it was completely accurate and very Rhea and I was not going to let it