Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 15
“Him. I’ll spar with him.” Daisy’s challenge echoed through the gym. The whispers around her swelled into open disbelief, but she kept the staff pointed toward the man who had disappeared after calling her his mate.
“Did she just challenge the Alpha?” someone whispered. Another trainee wondered aloud whether Daisy had lost her mind. To them, the outcome was obvious: Nolan Fenrir could defeat most wolves in the room without a weapon.
Mila looked delighted. “He’s going to kick her ass.” One of her friends muttered that they should have brought popcorn. Neither made any effort to warn Daisy what she had done.
Nolan walked onto the training floor while Elias watched with careful neutrality. The Alpha accepted a staff from the rack and tested its weight. He could have ended the misunderstanding with a word, but Daisy’s fierce expression held his attention.
“Are you sure?” he asked. His tone carried a private challenge beneath the public question. He knew she had trained, but he did not yet know how much her grandfather had taught her.
Daisy mistook the concern for condescension. “What? Did Psycho Alpha ban coed sparring too?” A stunned silence followed. Several trainees looked toward the exits, as if distance might protect them from the consequences of hearing the insult.
Nolan’s mouth nearly curved before he controlled it. Daisy had unknowingly insulted him to his face more than once. Her honesty was dangerous, refreshing, and about to become much harder to maintain.
She moved closer, lowering her voice without lowering the staff. “I still need to get back at you for disappearing on me yesterday.” The remembered pull between them stirred, but anger allowed her to resist it.
Nolan saw hurt beneath the accusation. He had left because instinct threatened his control and because revealing his identity in that moment would have shattered the fragile trust between them. Delay had only ensured the truth would surface in front of an audience.
“Daisy, Daisy.” He turned the staff once in his hand. “You still have so much to learn.” His calmness irritated her more than an apology would have soothed her.
“For example,” Nolan continued, “you can’t talk to me like that.” The authority he had kept muted during their private meetings entered his voice. Around them, heads bowed almost instinctively.
Daisy finally noticed the room’s reaction. Elias stood beside the mat with the formal attention of a Beta awaiting his leader. Blackwood wolves would not meet the stranger’s eyes, while Eastwind trainees watched Daisy with a mixture of horror and anticipation.
Her certainty began to fracture. The man wore no obvious crown or ceremonial symbol, but power settled around him more convincingly than any title. She remembered how Mila had obeyed him at once in the square and how freely he had walked after curfew.
“Who are you?” Daisy asked. The question was quieter now, though she refused to step back. She needed him to say the name he had withheld on the road and beneath the moon.
Nolan planted the end of his staff against the floor. Whatever existed between them could not progress through another lie. He held Daisy’s gaze, allowing her to see the answer before he spoke it.
“I’m Nolan Fenrir,” he said. A murmur ran through the gym despite everyone else already knowing. “Alpha of the Blackwood Pack.”
The staff in Daisy’s hand suddenly felt weightless. The kind stranger who had defended her, walked her home, and awakened a second mate bond was the same invader she called a monster. He was the man she believed responsible for her mother’s death.
Nolan watched recognition turn to betrayal across her face. The mate bond still pulled between them, but hatred now rose to meet it with equal force. Daisy had demanded to know who he was, and the truth had transformed the man she wanted into the Alpha she despised.