My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

+25 BONUS

Chapter 137

My Cheating Mate

Emma pov

The pack house living room was too quiet except for Lord Castellan’s footsteps. Back and forth, back and forth, a predator caged by his own fury. Each step perfectly measured, perfectly controlled, but I could feel the violence radiating off him like heat from a furnace.

Grace slept in my arms, completely oblivious to the vampire lord currently having what I could only describe as a controlled meltdown three feet away.

Jeremy sat beside me on the couch, his hand on my knee, his presence grounding but tense. My father and Marcus stood near the doorway, uncertain whether to stay or leave. Lord Castellan had dismissed his vampire lieutenants twenty minutes ago-sent them away with curt orders to secure the perimeter and interrogate Connor and Michael.

But Sarah. Sarah he’d sent somewhere else. Somewhere I didn’t ask about. The look on his face when he’d ordered

her taken away had been enough to know I didn’t want details.

Now he was pacing. And making phone calls.

The first call had been in a language I didn’t recognize. Harsh, guttural sounds that made my wolf want to retreat. Lord Castellan had spoken for maybe thirty seconds before whoever was on the other end hung up on him.

He’d stared at the phone for a long moment. Then thrown it across the room hard enough to shatter against the wall.

Jeremy had silently handed him a replacement phone from his pocket.

The second call was in English, but heavily accented. “I don’t care about protocol. I need information about Council activity in the Pacific Northwest. Now.” A pause. “Because they’ve targeted a child under my protection and I’m going to burn their operations to the ground, that’s why.” Another pause, longer this time. “Fine. You have two hours. If I don’t hear back, I’m coming to Montreal myself.”

He hung up. Started pacing again. Pulled up another contact.

This call was different. Softer. In French, I thought, though I couldn’t be sure. Lord Castellan’s voice had lost some of its edge, replaced with something that sounded almost pleading. He was asking for help. Actually asking, not demanding.

Whoever was on the other end must have agreed to something because Lord Castellan’s shoulders relaxed fractionally. “Merci. Yes. I understand the risk. I’ll owe you.” He listened for another moment. “No, it’s personal. They threatened-” He glanced at me and Grace. “They threatened family.”

My heart clenched. Family. He’d called us family.

After he hung up, he turned to face us fully for the first time since we’d gotten back from the tree line. His eyes were still that unsettling black I’d seen earlier, but something in his expression had shifted. Less rage, more

calculation.

“The Council,” he said

years. Maybe longer-ho preamble, “is an organization that’s existed for approximately eight hundred

origins

origins are

between supernatural species.”

deliberately obscured. They were formed originally to maintain separation

“Separation?” Jeremy’s hand tightened on my knee. “You mean segregation.”

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Chapter 137

+25 BONUS

“Exactly. Wolves with wolves. Vampires with vampires. Witches with witches. No intermingling. No alliances. No cooperation.” He stopped pacing, standing in the center of the room like a statue. “They believe that mixing supernatural species weakens both. That alliances lead to conflict. That isolation is the only path to survival.”

“That’s insane,” my father said from the doorway. “Supernatural species have been forming alliances for centuries. Marriage bonds between packs, vampire-witch agreements, shifter coalitions-”

“All of which the Council has historically opposed. Sometimes passively, through political pressure. Sometimes actively, through-” Lord Castellan’s jaw tightened. “Through violence. Assassination. Strategic elimination of key figures in cross-species alliances.”

The room went very quiet.

“They kill people,” I said slowly, “who try to build alliances between species.”

“Yes. Though they’ve been relatively quiet for the past century. I thought-” He paused. “I genuinely believed

they’d disbanded. That the modern supernatural world had moved past that kind of extremism.”

በኔ

‘Apparently not.” Jeremy’s voice was hard. “Sarah said Grace was a bridge between wolves and vampires. A symbol of our alliance. That’s why she’s a target.”

“She’s more than a symbol.” Lord Castellan moved closer, his eyes dropping to Grace sleeping in my arms. “She’s the daughter of a future Alpha and his mate, born during a time when wolves and vampires are forming an unprecedented alliance. If she grows up in a world where that alliance is normalized-where cooperation between species is expected-she represents everything the Council opposes.”