Chapter 17\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Beta nodded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBring her home,\u201d I ordered. \u201cTell her I need her back at the villa. Now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe might not want to come willingly,\u201d he warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always comes when called.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My voice tightened when I said it. That was the Ellie I knew\u2014or thought I knew. Now, I wasn\u2019t so sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Beta left instantly, but it wasn\u2019t ten minutes later when my phone buzzed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing in the middle of the marketplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her expression was vivid, fire in her eyes, hands moving with the kind of fury I hadn\u2019t seen in years. She looked\u00a0<\/p>\n
livid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My eyes narrowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was another in the frame. A man she seemed to be aguing with, that frame unmistakable\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2026It\u2019s Cassian?!\u00a0<\/p>\n
***\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in their temporary accommodation\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the quiet sitting room of the Moonstone Pack\u2019s temporary villa, the fire had long since burned down to embers, but Alaric sat unmoving in his chair. His fingers were steepled beneath his chin, eyes fixed on a single candle that flickered on the windowsill. Behind him, his son paced restlessly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe looks just like her,\u201d Alaric murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian stopped mid\u2013step, turning. \u201cYou\u2019re still thinking about the Alpha\u2019s wife?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alaric didn\u2019t respond right away. His mind was back in time, two decades past, to when his mate had cried herself to sleep every night for a year. When they\u2019d buried an empty cradle. When a child had gone missing and the Moon Goddess had offered no sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Missing a child, it broke everyone\u2019s heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had dreamed for her to return, so many times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has your mother\u2019s nose,\u201d Alaric finally said, voice low. \u201cAnd her eyes, moonlit, soft but not weak. Gods, Cassian. What are the chances?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassian folded his arms, his mouth a hard line. \u201cThe Alpha\u2019s wife is a rogue. That\u2019s what the files say. No background. No lineage. Just a name.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 17 Chapter 17\u00a0 The Beta nodded.\u00a0 \u201cBring her home,\u201d I ordered. \u201cTell her I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}