Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 21
Daisy slept badly on her first night in Nolan’s mansion. Each time she closed her eyes, the house disappeared and moonlit woods rose around her. She ran through silver mist toward someone whose heartbeat she recognized before she saw his face.
Nolan waited between the trees, his eyes reflecting the moon. In the dream, neither of them spoke about vampires, dead mothers, or conquered packs. The mate bond drew them together without resistance, warm and certain in a world untouched by suspicion.
Daisy woke before reaching him. Dawn lay gray against the heavy curtains, and the connecting door remained closed. She pressed a hand to her chest, disturbed by how real Nolan’s longing had felt—as though the dream had belonged to both of them.
The mansion was quiet when she ventured downstairs. She intended to find the kitchen, but a half-open door revealed a private office lined with maps. Curiosity pulled her across the threshold before caution could stop her.
A large map covered one wall. Red markers clustered along territorial borders, each attached to dates, sightings, and unfamiliar names. Daisy recognized the routes from Nolan’s patrol reports and realized every mark represented suspected vampire activity.
The discovery chilled her. Nolan had not begun studying vampires after her awakening. He had tracked them for months, perhaps years. Files filled the desk, documenting attacks and disappearances that turned his vigilance into something far more personal than prejudice.
Daisy found Eastwind at the center of several lines. The records Nolan stole during the solstice had proved contact between her former pack and vampires. Now that vampire blood had awakened inside her, she wondered whether his protection was merely another investigation.
“Looking for something?” Nolan asked from the doorway. Daisy spun around, knocking a folder sideways. He had changed into a dark shirt and looked irritatingly rested despite the shadows beneath his eyes.
“The kitchen,” she said. It was an obvious lie. Nolan glanced at the map and then at the file beneath her hand, allowing silence to expose her without accusation.
“You took a wrong turn.” He entered the office but left the doorway clear. “Those locations are why you can’t wander outside the mansion alone. If anyone connected to them sensed your awakening, they may already be searching for you.”
Daisy bristled at the warning. “You don’t know what I am, but you’ve already decided I belong on one of your maps.” She moved past him, determined to escape the room and the pull his nearness awakened.
“How do you feel about me?” Nolan asked. The question stopped her. He had stripped away every practical subject and placed their bond directly between them.
“I hate you,” Daisy said too quickly. The words had once been easy. Now they scraped against memories of him carrying her from the gym and standing between her and an armed pack.
Nolan watched the lie travel through the bond. “That’s not all you feel.” His certainty irritated her because it matched the truth she refused to name.
“Fine. I feel trapped.” Daisy reached the doorway, then added, “I can’t get away from you even when you’re not there. You’re in my dreams.” The confession escaped before she understood what it revealed.
Nolan crossed the room and caught her arm—not painfully, but with sudden urgency. “You dreamed about the forest?” His composure had vanished. “Moonlight, mist, and the two of us?”
Daisy stared at him. Those details had never left her mouth. “How could you know that?” The dream’s intimacy became stranger than any physical attraction.
“You had the same dream, didn’t you?” Nolan asked. He had awakened reaching for her, certain for several confused seconds that she had been beside him. A shared dream suggested their second-chance bond was deepening faster than either understood.
Daisy pulled her arm free, though she no longer felt certain she wanted distance. “A dream doesn’t mean I trust you.” Nolan accepted the boundary, but his gaze made clear that neither of them could dismiss what had happened.
She left the office with the map behind her and Nolan’s presence still inside her mind. Hatred had once been a wall strong enough to keep him out. Now even sleep opened a door between them, and Daisy did not know how long she could pretend she felt nothing on the other side.