Chapter 29. Claimed in Moonlight

The moment Mira and Kaelen re-entered the ballroom, all conversation seemed to die mid-breath. A hush spread like ripples in a still pond. Forks hovered in the air. Crystal goblets paused halfway to lips. The murmurs from the high tables went quiet. Heads turned. The assembled guests saw what they had only whispered about before now—rumors made flesh.

Mira Lane, daughter of a disgraced bloodline, moon-marked and half-shunned, walked beside the Alpha with her hand clasped firmly in his. And not merely clasped—it was anchored. His thumb rested against her knuckles with quiet reverence, as if to say: This one. Mine.

Mira’s midnight gown shimmered with each step. The silver lines of her veins burned faintly beneath the fabric, ethereal and iridescent. The runed amulet, returned to her neck and nestled above her collarbone, pulsed with a steady, quiet rhythm—subtle but present, grounding and containing the latent power Ismeria had just unleashed.

Kaelen didn’t sp