Chapter 31: The Rejection Reversed

Lady Seraphine did not arrive like an enemy. She arrived like a grandmother. Her carriage was white, her hair silver, her gloves pearl-gray. She stepped into the Blackridge courtyard with a smile gentle enough to sell poison as tea. Behind her came attendants carrying gifts: blankets, carved toys, a cradle charm, and one small velvet box that made Darius order every item searched before it crossed the gate. Seraphine laughed softly. "Lycan suspicion is so exhausting." Darius did not bow. "Thornveil survival is usually worse." Nora watched from the top step with Venn on one side and Maeve on the other. Rowan had been brought under guard because this concerned his pack. Iris remained locked in the west room under watch, which improved the air. Seraphine looked at Nora. For a moment, all warmth disappeared. Then it returned, brighter and faker. "Nora Ashford. You have your mother's eyes." Nora's fingers curled. "You knew my mother?" "I tried to save her from a poor match." "You mean buy her." "Such harsh language from someone who has never seen what blood can do when wasted." Darius stepped forward. Nora touched his sleeve. "No. Let her keep talking." Seraphine's smile sharpened. "There is the Ashford spine." The audience moved to the ceremony hall because Seraphine insisted public matters deserved public light. Nora agreed for the opposite reason. Hidden rooms had fed too many monsters. Seraphine's first gift was not a blanket. It was a petition. She requested reversal of Rowan's rejection. The hall erupted. Rowan stood so quickly his guards caught his arms. "What?" Seraphine did not look at him. "If Alpha Vale's rejection was executed under fraudulent fertility information and external coercion, the original mate bond may be considered legally unresolved. That would place the unborn child fully within Blackridge, not Frost sanctuary." Nora understood at once. Thornveil did not need Rowan to win custody. They needed to drag Nora back into Rowan's legal orbit long enough to claim the debt contract. "No," Nora said. Seraphine tilted her head. "Do not be emotional. Reversal restores your status." "Status as whose wife?" "As Luna." "I am already more than that." For the first time, Seraphine's smile thinned. Rowan stared at Nora with something like hope. The sight made her stomach turn. Venn opened the law book. "A reversed rejection requires proof that both parties desire restoration." "I desire it," Rowan said immediately. Nora laughed. Not politely. The sound struck the hall and kept going. "You desire my child's claim, my mother's bloodline, the accounts I fixed, the servants I protected, and the title you threw at Iris when you thought I was empty. Do not mistake greed for love in front of me again." Rowan flinched as if slapped. Seraphine watched with interest. "Then reject him properly." Darius went still. Nora turned to her. "What?" "The first rejection was his. Reverse it, then speak yours. Publicly. Cleanly. If you dare." The trap gleamed. A formal counter-rejection would sever Rowan, yes, but it might also trigger old blood debt clauses tied to failed mate bonds. Darius murmured, "Nora, wait." But Nora was tired of letting traps remain traps because men feared their teeth. She walked to the center of the hall and faced Rowan. "Alpha Rowan Vale," she said, "I accept the record that your rejection was fraudulent." Hope lit his face. Nora let him feel it. Then she finished. "And I reject you by my own will."