Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 11
Daisy closed the front door with the stranger’s unanswered name still on her lips. Her grandfather sat at the table, waiting beneath the yellow kitchen light. “You’re home late,” he said, and the concern in his voice made the words heavier than a reprimand.
“Sorry, Grandpa. I lost track of time.” She removed her jacket and tried to sound casual. The walk had unsettled her in ways she did not want to examine. Kindness from a Blackwood wolf should not have felt so rare or so welcome.
Her grandfather slid a phone across the table. A message ordered Daisy to report to the main gym at nine the following morning for Alpha Nolan. The command was concise and offered no explanation.
“You gave Alpha Asshole my number?” Daisy demanded. Her brief good mood vanished. Nolan Fenrir had already dragged her back to Eastwind; now he apparently intended to control her schedule as well.
“He has everyone’s number,” her grandfather replied. “He’s very hands-on that way.” The description sounded careful, neither praise nor criticism. Living outside the pack had taught him caution around leaders who could turn suspicion into punishment.
He explained that Nolan had also invoked a territory-wide curfew. Daisy would not be allowed to stay out this late again. Blackwood presented the restriction as protection, but to her it felt like another reminder that Eastwind no longer belonged to its people.
“You expect me to listen to the Alpha who basically killed my mom?” Heat rushed through Daisy. She thought of the faceless Beast from the rumors, then of the nameless Blackwood man who had gently challenged her lack of proof. The contrast only sharpened her confusion.
“Daisy, hold on now.” Her grandfather rose, reaching toward her. He wanted her to separate grief from certainty, but he also knew more than he was saying. Fear shadowed his expression whenever the subject of Blackwood or her absent wolf came too close.
Daisy turned away before he could lecture her. “I’m going to bed. Night.” She carried the phone down the narrow hall, leaving him alone in the kitchen.
Inside her room, she sat on the edge of the bed and reread the summons. She considered ignoring it. Yet disobedience might bring Blackwood guards to the house and place her grandfather in danger, so she set an alarm with angry, unnecessary force.
Her reflection in the dark window caught her attention. For an instant, her eyes seemed to flash with a color that did not belong there. Daisy leaned closer, but the change disappeared, leaving only her own tired face staring back.
A strange hunger tightened low in her body, unlike the emptiness left by Scott’s rejection. She opened the window, hoping cold air would clear her head. Night scents rushed toward her with unnatural clarity—wet earth, distant smoke, and the faint movement of animals in the trees.
Daisy shut the window quickly. She told herself grief and exhaustion were playing tricks on her. If her wolf were finally awakening, she should have felt a comforting second presence, not this sharp, alien awareness.
In the kitchen, her grandfather had seen the brief change in her eyes. He gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles paled. The sign confirmed a possibility he had spent eighteen years hoping would remain dormant.
He looked toward Daisy’s closed bedroom door. Telling her the truth now might frighten her into making a dangerous mistake, but withholding it carried risks of its own. Nolan’s order had brought her back among wolves at precisely the moment her hidden nature began to surface.
“Damn it,” he whispered. The cabin, the isolation, and the training had never been only about helping Daisy become strong enough to shift. They had also bought time while he watched for evidence of what she had inherited.
Beyond the house, the curfew bell sounded. Daisy lay awake listening, unaware that her senses followed the fading vibration long after an ordinary wolf would have lost it. The darkness beneath her skin did not feel like the wolf she had prayed for all her life.
Her grandfather remained at the table, facing a truth he could no longer postpone. “I thought we had more time,” he said to the empty room.