Alle Kapitel von Rejected: The Lycan's King Fated Mate : Kapitel 41 – Kapitel 50

The ride back to the Citadel was silent.Not the bad kind of silent. The good kind. The kind that happens after a war is actually over and you’re too tired to do anything but hold your kid and be grateful she’s alive.Aria slept the whole way in my arms. No nightmares. No whispers. Just deep, peaceful baby sleep for the first time in weeks. The grey ring around her eyes was gone. Just pure gold again, bright and calm.The Sunspire Caverns behind us were just empty stone now. No sick light. No hungry whispers. The shard was gone and with it, the Sun Eaters. Lyra checked twice with her Fae magic just to be sure. Nothing.“They’re really gone,” she said on the third night, staring at the stars like she couldn’t believe it. “800 years of that thing and it’s just… gone.”Darius rode beside me, one hand on Aria’s back like he couldn’t stop touching her to make sure she was real. “Not just gone. Undone. Moonblood and the Source canceled each other out. Balance, like the old texts said.”Kade

The quiet lasted 9 days.Nine days of Aria saying new words. Nine days of the fields turning green again. Nine days of no whispers, no shadows, no attacks.On the 10th day, the Moonstone fragments on the shelf shattered.No one touched them. No warning. Just a sharp _crack_ at 3 AM and silver shards all over the floor.Aria sat straight up in her crib, eyes wide open, gold glowing.Darius was at her side before I was even out of bed. “What is it, little moon?”She didn’t answer me. She looked past us, at the wall, like she was seeing something we couldn’t.“It’s not finished,” she said. Her voice was her own, but layered again - that older, Lyra-like echo. “The Prophecy… there’s another line.”The room went cold.Lyra was there in 30 seconds, breathing hard, old texts under her arm. “The original Moonstone. The one that shattered to make the fragments. It had 7 lines. We only ever found 6.”Kade cursed. “There was a 7th line?”Lyra was already flipping pages, hands shaking. “The 7th l

We decided last night didn’t count enough.One soft morning wasn’t enough to wash out 4 months of war, prophecies, and monsters. So we took another.This time we didn’t even get out of bed until the sun was properly up.Aria woke us by climbing onto our faces at 8 AM with a grin and a handful of hair. “Up! Pankake!”“Bossy little moon,” Darius groaned, but he was smiling as he scooped her up and tossed her in the air. She shrieked with laughter.Elias showed up 10 minutes later in the same pajamas, this time with a tray that actually looked intentional. No lopsided pancakes. Lyra had clearly given him a real lesson.“Second breakfast,” he announced solemnly, setting the tray down. “And no syrup in the hair today, Aria. We tried that.”Aria giggled and dove for a blueberry one.After breakfast we did something we hadn’t done in months: nothing.We took her to the gardens.The Citadel’s gardens were in full bloom now. No grey, no dead patches, just color everywhere. Bees buzzing, flower

“We don’t negotiate with traitors,” Darius said before I could even think. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, knuckles white enough to show through his gloves. The gates were still open behind Garrick, and I could see the Citadel guards forming a line behind us. One wrong move and Garrick would be dead on the stones before he could blink. The air smelled like iron and rain and old betrayal. “Not even to save your court?” Garrick shot back. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t drop to his knees again or beg. He just stood there, exhausted and raw and honest in a way I’d never seen him be under Kade’s shadow. His cloak was torn at the shoulder, dried blood crusted at the hem. He’d ridden hard to get here. Kade stepped out of the guard line, silent. No chains. No collar. Just the black-on-black of the King’s Guard. He stopped at Darius’s right shoulder. His eyes never left Garrick. “You chose him,” Kade said. Quiet. “Then you ran.” Elias stepped forward, his presence a calm, solid weight at

The east tower smelled like blood and old stone. Dawn hadn’t fully broken yet, but the seers’ cells were already lit by harsh torchlight. Three of them sat chained to the wall — two boys who couldn’t be older than 18, and a woman maybe in her 30s with her hands shaking so hard the iron cuffs clanked. They weren’t warriors. They weren’t even Lycans. They were humans born with the Sight, drafted by the Council and trained to be tools. I didn’t feel sorry for them. Not after what they’d done to Mara. But I wasn’t here to kill them either. “Names,” I said, leaning against the doorway. Darius stood to my right, arms crossed and silent. Kade was behind me, his presence cold and still. Elias watched the hall. Garrick was outside with orders not to come in unless called. The woman answered first. “Mira.” Her voice was hoarse. “These are Thom and Jarek.” “Good,” I said. “Mira, Thom, Jarek. You’re going to tell me everything the Council is planning. Where their other strongholds are. Who’