Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 07
“No.” Daisy pulled her hands from her grandfather’s grasp as though refusing his touch could make the words untrue. “I just talked to her on the phone last week. She can’t be gone.” Her mind seized on the memory of Vera’s voice, impatient but alive, asking whether Daisy was eating properly.
Her grandfather caught her when her knees weakened. “I know. I know, kid.” He held her against his chest while grief broke through every defense she had built during six months of training. Daisy clutched his shirt and wept with the helplessness she had sworn never to feel again.
Questions came between sobs, but he had few answers. Vera had died during the chaos surrounding Blackwood’s takeover, and the details reaching the cabin had been incomplete. Scott had fled before protecting the people who trusted him. No one could tell Daisy exactly what had happened to her mother.
Guilt filled every space uncertainty left open. Daisy remembered the final argument before she abandoned Eastwind, her refusal to explain the rejection, and each unanswered message she had postponed sending. She had believed there would be time to return when she was stronger. Now there would be no reconciliation.
Her grandfather kept one arm around her until her breathing steadied. He looked older than he had that morning. Vera’s death had taken his daughter as surely as it had taken Daisy’s mother, yet he had carried the news alone while searching for the gentlest way to deliver it.
“There’s one more thing,” he said at last. Daisy lifted her swollen eyes, unable to imagine what could remain. His reluctance warned her that grief had not ended their choices.
“The Blackwood Alpha demands that we move back into pack territory.” The order applied to every Eastwind member living outside the main settlement. Blackwood wanted the conquered pack accounted for, including those who had left before the invasion.
Daisy looked around the cabin that had become her refuge. Here, no one called her defective. Here, her grandfather trained her as though strength could be learned even without a wolf. Returning meant walking back into the place where Scott rejected her and Mila delighted in her pain.
Yet her mother’s last days were buried there. If Daisy stayed hidden in the forest, she might never discover how Vera died. The thought turned the Alpha’s command from an intrusion into a path she could not ignore.
“The Blackwood Alpha?” Daisy asked. She knew the invading pack by reputation: disciplined, powerful, and feared across neighboring territories. Stories described its leader as a merciless conqueror, a beast who swallowed weaker packs whenever it suited him.
Her grandfather watched her carefully. “His name is Alpha Nolan Fenrir.” The name carried weight even inside the isolated cabin. Daisy repeated it silently, attaching it to the faceless monster she already blamed for Eastwind’s fall.
If Nolan Fenrir had ordered the invasion, then Vera’s death belonged at his feet. Whether he had struck the fatal blow himself seemed almost irrelevant. He had brought Blackwood into their territory, and Daisy’s mother had died in the consequences.
Anger steadied her where sorrow could not. Six months ago, Daisy had fled because she possessed neither power nor purpose. She was not the same woman now. Her wolf had not appeared, but her grandfather had taught her to stand, strike, and endure.
She wiped her face with both hands. “When do we leave?” Her voice was raw, yet the decision inside it was firm. She would obey the demand to return, though she would never mistake obedience for loyalty to Blackwood.
Her grandfather searched her expression as if weighing what the journey might awaken. “At first light,” he said. “We’ll stay together, and you’ll keep your head down until we know what kind of rule they’ve established.”
Daisy gave no promise about keeping quiet. If Nolan Fenrir expected gratitude from the people he had conquered, he would not receive it from her. She wanted the truth about her mother, and she intended to judge the new Alpha by what she found.
That night, she packed the few belongings she had brought from Eastwind, along with the training clothes and staff she had earned at the cabin. She paused over her phone, opening the final message she had sent Vera. The unanswered words felt like a door permanently closed.
Before dawn, Daisy stood outside beneath fading stars. Somewhere beyond the forest waited her mother’s grave, the ruins of Scott’s leadership, and Alpha Nolan Fenrir. She did not remember the nameless stranger who had defended her at the solstice clearly enough to connect him with that feared name. She only knew she was returning to face the man she believed had taken everything else from her.