The Lycan King’s Mark (Nevara) by Tiffanie L. Campbell novel Chapter 128

Chapter 128 – Old Embers

Nevara

Jonas froze.

“She is?” he asked quietly.

Noah shrugged, but there was something guarded in the movement. “Yeah.”

“What bad things did she do?”

Noah hesitated.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just know it was really bad.”

The room shifted.

Jonas processed that.

“Oh.”

That was all he said.

But the weight in it was heavy.

Thoren’s hand found mine instinctively.

Two boys.

Two mothers in prison.

Two very different stories.

The same consequence.

“Alright,” I said gently, stepping forward before the air thickened further. “You have a couple of hours before bed. Play. Build something. No sword fights inside.”

Noah grinned. “We’ll build a fort!”

Jonas nodded. “A jail fort?”

Noah gasped. “That’s dark.”

They dissolved into laughter and scrambled toward the toy chests.

Thoren closed the bedroom door softly behind us.

The laughter dulled to muffled chaos as we stepped into the hallway.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

Then Thoren exhaled.

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Chapter 128- Old Embers

“Gods.”

I looked at him. “What?”

He ran a hand down his face, tension surfacing now that the boys couldn’t see it.

“Between the engagement party, Bethany showing up, the DNA test, wedding planning, arrests-” He stopped himself. “We’ve been reacting. Constantly.”

“Yes.”

“And in the middle of reacting, we stopped tending to what started this entire spiral.”

The words landed hard.

Tobias.

Vanessa.

The pack we had left fractured in the aftermath.

In the rush to extinguish new fires, we had ignored the original burn.

“Vanessa,” I said quietly.

“And the wolves,” he corrected.

We stepped into our suite and closed the door behind us.

The castle felt quiet.

Too quiet.

Thoren walked to the center of the room and stopped.

“I want to merge the wolf lands with the Lycan kingdom.”

It wasn’t a suggestion.

It was a decision.

I studied him carefully. “They won’t automatically accept it.”

He nodded once. “Exactly.”

If we were going to stand before the kingdom and speak about unity between Lycans and wolves, it

couldn’t be theoretical.

It had to be real.

“Then we go back,” I said.

“Yes.”

“When?”

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Chapter 128–Old Embers

“As soon as security can prepare a controlled travel window.”

That wasn’t impulsive.

That was calculated.

“When was the last full report?” I asked.

“Two weeks ago. Surface level. Claimed stability.”

“Claimed,” I repeated.

“Yes.”

Stability on paper meant nothing.

It could mean order.

Or it could mean suppression.

“We removed the chaos at the top,” I said slowly. “But that doesn’t mean we built anything solid

underneath.”

“No,” he agreed. “It means we left an opening.”

And openings did not remain empty for long.

Behind the wall-

“I’m the alpha!” Noah declared loudly.

“You can’t be alpha!” Jonas argued back. “You’re not even the oldest!”

“I’m older in dog years!”

“That’s not how it works!”

Thoren’s lips twitched faintly.

“They instinctively understand hierarchy,” he murmured.

“Children understand power long before they understand politics.”

His gaze shifted to me.

“They’re basically ours now.”

The words settled heavy and warm at the same time.

“Yes,” I said softly. “They are.”

He turned back toward the window.

“If the pack has reorganized properly, this will be simple,” he said. “We formalize the merge. Install a

council structure under Lycan oversight. Stabilize trade and border control.”

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© Chapter 128–Old Embers

“And if it hasn’t?” I asked.

“Then we correct it.”

That was it.

Not three hypotheticals.

Not circles of speculation.

One decision.

We would go. We would assess. We would act.

I moved closer to him.

“And the boys?” I asked. “If we go, they go.”

Thoren didn’t hesitate.

“Yes.”

That surprised me.

“You’re sure?”

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“We told Jonas that he would be able to see his mom again. Noah will want the same,” Thoren said. “He

may not have the language for it, but he feels it. If Jonas visits Bethany and Noah doesn’t see where he

comes from, resentment will take root.”

He was right.

Children didn’t resent facts. They resented imbalance.

“And Vanessa?” I pressed.

“We have her transferred closer to the capital,” he said. “Structured visitation. Controlled environment.”

“They were dangerous,” I said quietly. “But they were still mothers.”

“And the boys still love them,” he replied.

That was the part that mattered.

Love didn’t dissolve just because crimes were committed.

Behind the wall-

“Protect me from the monster!” Noah shouted.

“There is no monster!” Jonas yelled.

“There’s always a monster!”

A loud thud.

< Chapter 128 – Old Embers

Then laughter.

Thoren shook his head slightly.

“We keep removing monsters,” he said, “but we never teach them what one looks like.”

I turned toward him.

“What do you mean?”

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“Tobias ruled through dominance. Vanessa utilized manipulation. Bethany tried to weaponize lineage. And

the wolves… they’ve grown up watching all of it.”

He exhaled slowly.

“If we merge lands without reshaping leadership, we’re just changing the banner over the same behavior.”

That landed deeper than anything else he’d said.

This wasn’t just territorial oversight. It was cultural reform.

“We go quietly,” I said. “We speak to the elders. To the younger wolves. We listen before we act.”

He studied me.

“You don’t want this to look like conquest.”

“No. I want it to look like partnership.”

Silence stretched between us.

Strategic.

Aligned.

Behind the door, the boys‘ voices lowered into intense negotiation.

“Okay fine,” Noah whispered loudly. “You can be alpha. But I get to be head warrior.”

“You don’t even know what that means,” Jonas shot back.

“I know it sounds cool.”

Thoren almost smiled.

“They’re building structure out of blankets,” he murmured.

“And we’re trying to build it out of land,” I replied.

He moved toward the window again, staring out at the city lights.

Beyond the capital, the wolf territory stretched into darkness.

Untended.

“If someone consolidated influence,” he said carefully, “removing them won’t be clean.”