My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 144

Chapter 144

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Chapter 144

My Cheating Mate

Jeremy pov

The sun had fully risen by the time I made it back to the living room. The Council representatives had been gone for an hour, their departure marked by thinly veiled threats disguised as diplomatic warnings. Lord Castellan had vanished shortly after-something about “sending a message” to Council operations in the region that I hadn’t

asked for details about.

Now I sat alone on the couch, staring at the wall across from me. My coffee had gone cold an hour ago. I hadn’t moved to get more.

My mind was racing in circles, chasing thoughts that led nowhere productive.

Grace was barely a month old. Four weeks of life, and she already had an enemies list that included:

– An eight-hundred-year-old secret organization

– Rogue factions within that organization

– Unknown numbers of operatives embedded in supernatural communities worldwide

– Anyone else who decided that a baby represented a threat to the “natural order” of species separation

Four weeks old.

Most babies her age were worried about gas and diaper rashes. Mine had a permanent vampire guard and her own section in an ancient conspiracy’s threat assessment files. 1

I heard footsteps on the stairs—soft, careful, trying not to wake anyone. Emma appeared in the doorway, Grace in her arms, both of them looking sleepy and peaceful and completely at odds with the chaos swirling around us.

“Hey,” Emma said quietly, reading my expression immediately. “The meeting went badly.”

“The meeting went exactly as Lord Castellan predicted. They offered everything. Territory, resources, political support. All we have to do is dissolve the alliance and raise Grace in isolation from vampires.” I gestured to the chair across from me. “They called it ‘protecting traditional supernatural values.””

Emma sat, adjusting Grace who was making soft waking sounds. “And you said?”

“No. Obviously.” I ran my hands through my hair. “Emma, I don’t even know if I made the right choice. They’re offering us everything the pack needs. Security, expansion, legitimate political backing. And I turned it down because-” I stopped. “Because what? Because I’m stubborn? Because Lord Castellan has somehow convinced me that vampire-wolf cooperation is the future?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Her voice was firm. “Jeremy, the alliance with Lord Castellan kept us alive through Black River. Kept us alive through the hunter attacks. His vampires are literally the only guards we can trust with Grace right now because our own pack had spies. How is any of that wrong?”

“It’s not wrong tactically. But Emma-“I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “Is it fair? To Grace? To raise her in the middle of a centuries-old ideological war just because we think species cooperation is the morally correct position?”

Grace chose that moment to fully wake up, her tiny face scrunching as she prepared to cry. Emma immediately began soothing her, that automatic maternal response I’d watched develop over the past month.

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“Life isn’t fair,” Emma said while rocking Grace. “Grace was born into a world that was already broken. Already divided. We didn’t create that division-it’s been there for centuries. But we have a choice about what we do with

it.”

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