My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 167

Chapter 167

Now, seeing me, the composure dissolved.

She walked to me quickly and I met her halfway, pulling her close without a word. Her arms went around me and she held on with the kind of grip that communicated everything words couldn’t.

“You’re hurt,” she said against my shoulder.

“Healing.” I kissed her temple. “Emma, we held. The Council’s tactical force is broken. The coalition held together.”

“I know. Victoria was sending updates.” She pulled back to look at my face. “There’s something else. I can see it.”

“The Council sent a letter. They want a meeting.” I watched her process that. “A sit–down. Neutral territory. Equal numbers.” “They’re asking for dialogue?”

“For the first time in eight hundred years, apparently.” I kept my hands on her face. “We think last night shifted things. The defections especially. They need a way out that preserves some dignity.”

“And we give them that way out?” Her voice was careful.

“We explore whether a genuine framework is possible. That’s all.” I looked at Grace, who was now explaining the block stable situation to Cas in detail while he listened with absolute focus. “Emma, if there’s any chance at actual resolution–at Grace being able to grow up without this hanging over her–we have to try.‘

She followed my gaze to Grace and Cas. Her expression softened into something complicated and fierce and deeply loving.

“Okay,” she said. “We try. But Jeremy-” She looked back at me. “I want to be in that meeting. Whatever you and Cas decide about format, security, agenda–I’m at that table.”

“I expected nothing less.”

“Good.” She took my hand. “Come inside. You need food and medical attention and possibly twelve hours of sleep.”

“In that order?”

“In whatever order gets you functional again.” She squeezed my hand. “We have a meeting to prepare for. And Jeremy-” She paused. “What did the letter actually say? About why they’re suddenly open to dialogue?”

“They acknowledged miscalculation.” I smiled slightly, still finding it remarkable. “Said the defections demonstrated ideological failure they hadn’t anticipated.”

“Fifteen of their own people watched our wolves and vampires fighting together and couldn’t keep believing it was wrong.” She understood immediately. “Grace is their worst nightmare, isn’t she? Not because she’s powerful or special. But because she’s normal. A normal little girl with a normal family that just happens to include a vampire uncle. That’s terrifying to them.”

“Because if it’s normal, their ideology falls apart.”

“Yes.” She looked at our daughter, who had moved from explaining the block stable to demanding Uncle Cas explain why bats and vampires were associated because she’d seen it in a book and it seemed like a stereotype. “We take the meeting. We sit across from them and we show them Grace’s drawings and we make them confront what they’ve actually been fighting against.

“A family,” I said.

“Just a family.” She leaned against me. “Weird, complicated, wolf–vampire–human family that shouldn’t exist according to their rules but exists anyway.”

Are you going to mention the block stable to them?”

“I’m absolutely mentioning the block stable. Specifically that a five–year–old designed it with historically accurate horse

Chapter 387-

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