His Baby Daddy [ Taekook ]

Chapter 19

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Sunrise crawled across the palace like a guilty thief.
Jungkook hadn’t slept. He stood barefoot at the balcony rail, cloak replaced by a soft robe, watching servants below sweep night-bloom petals off marble that still remembered yesterday’s uproar.

Inside, Ami dozed in a chair, embroidery forgotten in her lap; JeongEun and JeongGwon slept on a pile of cushions like cubs in a den.
Only Lixue was awake with him—wolf eyes half-open at the back of his mind.

> We roared, the wolf murmured, equal parts pride and exhaustion.
Now we mend.

Jungkook swallowed a knot of nerves. Mending meant facing the cost:

—Councillors furious
—Sooyun humiliated
—The King practically vibrating with old-magic rage

And Taehyung… gods, Taehyung.

A single memory looped: the prince on one knee, palm against the tiny swell. The look on his face—fear, wonder, guilt—all cracked into one.

The pup fluttered; Lixue answered with a low, reassuring rumble.
Jungkook hugged his belly. “We’re safe,” he whispered, as much for himself as the child.

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The High Council convened before breakfast—vampires in jeweled collars, witches in stiff brocade, lesser nobles buzzing like flies. At the head, King Hansol sat rigid, fingers drumming his moonstone scepter.
Mishil occupied the opposite throne, fan closed but deadly.

Taehyung entered alone. No Sooyun, no guards—just a straight spine and new resolve.

“Prince Kim Taehyung,” the King intoned, voice etched with ice. “Explain. Now.”

Taehyung met his father’s gaze. “I invoked blood-right. The bond proclaimed itself. The ceremony is void.”

A hiss rippled through the chamber.

Councillor Varlis, a skeletal witch, pushed to his feet. “Void? The alliance with Thorn-heart coven—”

“—will be renegotiated,” Mishil cut in, voice pleasant and lethal. “Preferably with less deception.”

Sooyun’s father bristled; violet sigils flickered under his skin.

The King’s knuckles blanched. “And the… fetus?”

Taehyung’s jaw flexed. “The heir. Healthy. I will protect them—and their mother—whether this Council blesses it or not.”

Several vampires murmured approval; others glared. Politics shifted like sand.

At Hansol’s nod, a robed mage produced a crystal orb. “A paternity augury, sire. To confirm.”

Mishil’s chair creaked. “Truth-spells on a carrying omega violate Royal Code.”