Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 08
Nolan stood over a map of Eastwind territory when Elias entered the temporary command room. Six months of Blackwood occupation had restored discipline to the pack, but the western perimeter remained marked with pins. Every one represented a route vampires might use to approach unseen.
“Did I come at a bad time?” Elias asked. Nolan’s attention had not left the map for most of the morning, and reports were stacked across the desk. The former Eastwind leaders had left behind more secrets than infrastructure.
“Your report, Beta?” Nolan replied. He had no patience for an attempt to soften bad news. The files stolen during the Winter Solstice celebration had justified intervention, but they had not revealed the full extent of Eastwind’s contact with vampires.
“The last scouting party came back. No reported signs of vampire activity outside the west perimeter.” Elias expected relief. Nolan felt none.
“Keep looking. They’re hiding somewhere.” Months without a sighting did not erase a threat. Vampires could wait with a patience wolves often underestimated, and Nolan had no intention of allowing Eastwind’s people to pay for that mistake.
Elias exhaled. “When we took those files six moons ago, they proved Eastwind was at least talking to those bloodsuckers before we took over. But it’s been months since the last sighting. Even if they’re planning something, they don’t have the numbers. They’re dying out.”
Nolan’s hand tightened against the edge of the table. Dying enemies were not harmless enemies. Desperation made them unpredictable, and history had already taught him what happened when danger was dismissed because it seemed distant.
“Do you know what happened the last time we let our guard down?” The question silenced Elias. Whatever loss lay behind Nolan’s vigilance was not something either man discussed lightly. “I won’t do that again.”
Elias inclined his head, accepting the order. Blackwood scouts would continue sweeping the perimeter, and every unexplained movement would be investigated. Nolan would endure complaints about his curfew and control before he permitted another preventable attack.
Movement beyond the window drew his eye. A truck had stopped near the returning residents’ checkpoint, and an older man began unloading worn bags. Beside him stood a young woman with dark hair and a guarded posture.
Nolan knew her before she turned fully toward the house. Six months had changed Daisy Storm: grief had sharpened her face, and training showed in the steadier way she carried herself. Yet the strange pull he had felt during the solstice returned at once, stronger across the distance.
“She’s here,” he said. The map, the report, and the vampire threat receded for one unguarded moment. He had searched the abandoned celebration grounds after she disappeared, only to learn that Daisy had left Eastwind that same night.
Elias moved to the window and followed his gaze. “Daisy Storm?” Her name had appeared in the residency lists, attached to a notation that she had no known wolf and had been living beyond pack territory with her grandfather.
Nolan had read the entry more times than necessity required. It explained nothing about how he had heard her voice inside his mind or why six months of distance had failed to erase her from his thoughts. He had not named the possibility aloud again.
Below, Daisy surveyed the place that had once been home. Blackwood guards stood where Eastwind sentries used to lounge, and unfamiliar rules had reshaped every public space. Her expression hardened as she looked toward the command building.
She did not glance up. If she had, she might have recognized the stranger from the Winter Solstice celebration, though grief and time could have blurred the memory. Nolan remained hidden behind the glass, studying someone who had no idea he was the Alpha she had been ordered to obey.
The reunion he had imagined was complicated by the reason for her return. Vera Storm’s death remained an unresolved casualty of the takeover, one of several incidents clouded by conflicting accounts. Nolan knew only that he had not killed her.
Daisy lifted one of the bags and followed her grandfather toward the settlement. Nolan felt the invisible pull tighten, insistent as a command from the moon itself. The girl he had failed to find was finally inside his territory, and this time he did not intend to let her vanish before he understood why.