Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 72
Weeks later, Eastwind no longer looked like occupied territory. Blackwood banners remained, but pack members from both sides trained, worked, and served on the new council together.
Daisy reopened the main gym under revised rules. No trainee could be excluded for lacking a wolf or an established rank.
Her grandfather supervised the first class and complained that everyone held a staff incorrectly. The familiar grumbling sounded like peace.
Daisy demonstrated a defensive turn once used against Nolan. Younger trainees watched without the contempt that shaped her childhood.
One wolfless girl approached afterward and asked whether strength could be learned. Daisy placed a staff in her hands.
“Yes,” she said. “And you don’t have to become someone else to deserve it.”
Nolan observed from the doorway, recalling the day Daisy challenged him without knowing his identity.
She pointed a staff toward him again. “Are you volunteering?”
The class laughed when their Alpha accepted. No one expected Daisy to be humiliated this time.
Their spar ended with both weapons on the floor and Daisy’s red-silver barrier holding Nolan at bay.
He conceded publicly, though he whispered that the rematch would continue in private.
After class, Elias delivered reports from the vampire territories. Klaudius’s court had scattered, and several groups requested peaceful negotiations.
No verified sighting of Lucien or Mila had reached Blackwood. Their absence remained an unfinished danger.
Daisy refused to let uncertainty steal the life they had rebuilt. Preparations continued without turning the territory into another prison.
She visited Vera’s grave with fresh flowers and described the new training program.
Nolan joined her carrying two cups of coffee. He spoke about plans for a memorial honoring everyone lost to Klaudius’s wars.
Daisy leaned against him. Home no longer meant the place where pain began; it meant the place they were changing together.
At sunset, the pack gathered for an ordinary meal rather than a ceremony. Daisy sat beside Nolan by choice, arguing with him about patrol routes.
Her grandfather told them they bickered like an old mated pair. Neither denied it.
Far away, servants cleared rubble from the vampire throne room. Someone had begun rebuilding the black throne.