My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 150

Chapter 150

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Chapter 150

My Cheating Mate

Jeremy pov

Grace’s fifth birthday party was winding down. The backyard was a mess of torn wrapping paper, half-eaten cake, and exhausted children running on pure sugar. Grace herself was showing Uncle Cas-she’d dropped the “Lord Castellan” entirely by age three-her new art supplies with the intense focus she brought to everything.

“And this one is sparkly purple, see?” She held up a marker. “It’s my favorite because it’s pretty AND it smells like grapes.”

“Sniffable markers.” Cas examined it with the same seriousness he brought to vampire political negotiations. “A technological marvel. When I was young, we used crushed berries and hoped they weren’t poisonous.” 1

Grace giggled. “You’re silly, Uncle Cas. Markers aren’t poisonous.”

“Not anymore. Progress is wonderful.”

I was cleaning up discarded plates, Emma beside me collecting stray cups, both of us watching our daughter with that particular parental satisfaction that came from a successful party. Five years old. Grace was five years old, healthy, happy, completely unaware of the threats that had surrounded her from birth.

We’d worked hard to keep it that way. The Council had gone quiet after that first year-occasional probing attempts that Cas’s network intercepted before they got close. We’d built the integrated world we’d dreamed of. Vampire guards were normal. Uncle Cas attending family dinners was normal. Grace growing up seeing wolves and vampires cooperate was just her life.

Sometimes I let myself believe we’d actually won. That the threats were truly over.

Then Marcus appeared from the pack house, his expression grim, an envelope in his hand.

My wolf recognized danger before my human brain processed it. A low growl built in my chest-instinctive, protective.

Emma saw my face. “Jeremy? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know yet.” I moved toward Marcus, intercepting him before he could reach where Grace was playing. What is it?”

Marcus handed me the envelope without a word. Heavy paper. Expensive. Sealed with dark red wax that bore a symbol I’d seen before in the intelligence files Cas had compiled.

The Council’s seal. Official, not rogue operations.

11

I broke it open, Emma reading over my shoulder. Cas had noticed the shift in atmosphere and was moving Grace toward her grandmother-creating distance between her and whatever this was.

The letter was handwritten. Formal. Precise.

*To Alpha Jeremy Trent and Luna Emma Trent,*

*It has been five years since you declined the Council’s generous offer of protection and resources in exchange for dissolving your vampire alliance. Five years during which we have observed with growing concern the normalization of species integration within your territory.*

*Your daughter, Grace, represents the culmination of everything the Council was founded to prevent. She is being

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Chapter 150

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raised without proper understanding of the natural separation between supernatural species. Without respect for the traditions that have maintained peace for centuries. Without recognition that wolves and vampires are not meant to coexist as you have taught her.*

*This is unacceptable.*

*Furthermore, Lord Castellan’s continued presence in your pack-his assumption of a familial role with your daughter-constitutes a deliberate violation of supernatural order. His influence over the next generation of Alpha leadership threatens to spread this dangerous ideology to other territories.*

*This too is unacceptable.*

*Therefore, the Council has reached a unanimous decision. We are prepared to offer one final opportunity for peaceful resolution:*

*1. Grace must be removed from Lord Castellan’s influence and placed in a Council-approved educational facility where she will learn proper supernatural values and species separation protocols.*

*2. Lord Castellan must sever all ties with Crescent Moon Pack and submit himself to Council judgment for his violations of established supernatural order.*

*3. The vampire-wolf alliance must be formally dissolved and all integration protocols reversed.*

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