All Chapters of Midnight Debt: Never His, Always His: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

REINAIt started so ordinarily that I didn't see it coming.That's the thing about humiliation. It doesn't arrive with warning signs or dramatic music. It walks in dressed like a normal Tuesday afternoon and by the time you understand what's happening you're already in the middle of it with nowhere to go.It was a pack gathering. Not a formal one, not the kind with the whole pack assembled and Zaden at the front of the room radiating authority and everyone standing at attention.This was smaller. Fifteen, maybe twenty people in the main hall, a mix of senior pack members and a few of the inner circle. The kind of gathering that happened regularly, from what I could tell, to discuss territory logistics and pack decisions and the general business of running what was essentially a small, highly organised, extremely dangerous community.I had been told by Lena, not by anyone who actually owed me information, that as Luna I was expected to attend these. That my presence was part of what th

REINASofia called on a Thursday.I had been marking the days in the small notebook I kept in my bedside drawer, just the way you track things when the days start bleeding into each other and you need something concrete to hold onto.Thursday. Four weeks and two days since the wedding. Four weeks and two days since I had last seen my sister's face.My phone lit up and her name was on the screen and something happened in my chest that I wasn't prepared for.I picked up on the second ring."Rei!" Her voice came through warm and so painfully normal that I had to close my eyes for a second. "Oh my God, finally. I've been trying you all week. Is everything okay? Are you okay? The reception there is terrible, I kept getting your voicemail and I swear I was two days away from showing up at the gates and demanding to see you."I laughed.It came out real. That was the thing about Sofia, she had always been able to do that, pull genuine things out of me when I was working very hard at performi

REINAI didn’t plan to come downstairs so early.Usually, I timed my mornings perfectly, waiting until I was sure Zaden had left for whatever important Alpha business waited for him before I dared leave my room. It was safer that way. Less painful. There was something about moving around this enormous house while Zaden was still in it that always made me feel like an intruder in my own life.But last night had been rough. Sleep came in broken pieces, filled with dreams of my mother’s bracelet, of Sofia’s laughter, and of cold eyes that never quite looked at me. When the clock on my nightstand hit 5:47 a.m., I gave up trying. I slipped out of bed, pulled on a soft cream-colored sweater and black leggings, and tied my hair into a messy bun. My bare feet made almost no sound as I walked down the wide staircase.The house felt different in the early morning light. Almost peaceful. The kind of quiet that made you believe, for just a second, that this place could be something other than a b

REINAThe afternoon light was soft as it filtered through the tall windows of the main sitting room. I had come here to escape the heavy silence of my bedroom, carrying a book I wasn’t really reading. I mostly just needed something to do with my hands, something to occupy my mind so it wouldn’t keep replaying that strange moment in the kitchen from yesterday morning.I stood in front of the tall oak bookshelf, slowly sliding books back into their places. The pack’s library was enormous and beautiful, filled with old leather-bound volumes that probably cost more than my family’s entire house. Yet most of them looked untouched. Just like everything else in this place, expensive, perfect, and cold.I was so focused on arranging the books by height that I didn’t hear him enter the room.“Reina.”His deep voice cut through the quiet like a blade.I startled slightly, nearly dropping the heavy book in my hands. I turned around slowly, clutching the book to my chest like a shield.Zaden stoo

ZADENThe house was quiet.Too quiet.I stood in my office long after midnight, the only light coming from the desk lamp that cast long shadows across the dark wood. My side still throbbed from the wound Reina had cleaned earlier. I could still feel the ghost of her fingers on my skin, gentle, trembling, careful in a way no one had ever been with me.I hated how much I remembered every second of it.I walked over to the heavy oak desk and dropped into the chair. For a long time, I just sat there staring at the closed drawer like it was an enemy. I had avoided this drawer more often lately. Told myself I was finally moving on from the mystery woman who haunted my thoughts. Told myself the bracelet was just a useless piece of jewelry from a night I should forget.But tonight, the pull was stronger than my willpower.With a slow breath, I reached forward and slid the drawer open.There it was.The delicate bracelet lay exactly where I had left it. I picked it up carefully, letting it res