Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 18
Far beyond Blackwood territory, moonlight poured through the high windows of a castle built from black stone. Lord Klaudius stood before the glass with a silver cup in one hand, listening to the ancient quiet of a court that had been shrinking for generations. Then a pulse of awakened power crossed the distance.
The cup stopped halfway to his mouth. The sensation was faint but unmistakable, carried through blood rather than territory. Something long hidden had finally opened its eyes beneath the full moon.
Klaudius smiled. “At last.” For eighteen years he had waited for proof that the child born beyond his court had survived. Werewolf concealment and Vera Storm’s defiance had kept Daisy from him, but awakening made secrecy impossible.
He remembered Vera as stubborn enough to choose exile over obedience, carrying their unborn child into wolf territory where vampire agents could not move freely. Her death had closed one trail, but Klaudius had never accepted that the power in Daisy’s blood had died with her. Tonight vindicated his patience.
A man emerged from the shadows near the throne. Lucien moved with the silent grace of a predator accustomed to serving power while concealing his own ambitions. “You felt it too, my lord?”
“My daughter has awakened.” Klaudius turned from the window. He did not speak with a father’s tenderness. To him, Daisy’s blood represented strength the fading vampire world desperately needed—and a weapon no pureblood could become.
Lucien lowered his head, hiding the interest that sharpened his expression. Rumors had persisted about Klaudius’s half-wolf child, but rumor had now become a living source of power inside an enemy pack.
“Bring her to me,” Klaudius ordered. “Before the wolves understand what they have.” If Daisy learned to trust Nolan Fenrir, removing her would become more difficult. The Blackwood Alpha had inherited reasons to hate vampires, especially Klaudius.
Nolan’s name chilled the triumph in the room. Old blood stood between the Fenrir line and Klaudius’s court, and neither side had forgotten it. A daughter bound to Blackwood’s Alpha could become a bridge between enemies—or the weapon that finally destroyed one of them.
“Alive?” Lucien asked, testing the limits of his command. Klaudius’s gaze turned cold.
“Unharmed. She is more valuable than every wolf in that territory.” The statement revealed all Lucien needed to know. Daisy was not being summoned as family. She was being claimed as an asset.
Lucien bowed again. “As you wish.” When he rose, a private calculation remained behind his obedient smile. Power valuable to Klaudius might be even more valuable to the man who delivered it.
In the Eastwind gym, Nolan lifted Daisy from the floor while panic spread through the trainees. Her newly formed fangs had receded, but no one could forget what they had witnessed. Blackwood warriors reached instinctively for weapons.
Daisy seemed impossibly vulnerable in his arms after the force that had exploded from her. Nolan could smell no deception and feel no attack through the bond, only confusion fading into unconsciousness. Whatever had awakened was part of her, but it had not arrived with knowledge or control.
“Stand down,” Nolan commanded. Alpha authority silenced the room before fear could become violence. He held Daisy against his chest, feeling the mate bond weakened by unconsciousness but still present.
Elias approached carefully. “Nolan, you saw her eyes.” He kept his voice low, aware that every wolf was listening. “You know what that looked like.”
“I know she needs help.” Nolan refused to name the possibility while Daisy could not defend herself. She had grown up believing she was a wolfless wolf. If vampire power lived inside her, it had awakened without her knowledge.
Mila pointed from the edge of the crowd. “She’s one of them. She could kill us.” Fear made her accusation louder, and several Eastwind wolves murmured agreement.
Nolan’s stare silenced her. “Anyone who touches her answers to me.” He gave Elias orders to clear the gym, collect statements, and prevent rumors from spreading beyond the territory, though he knew secrecy would not hold for long.
Elias obeyed, but concern remained visible beneath his discipline. Blackwood’s laws had been written to keep vampires outside its borders, not to govern an Alpha whose mate might carry their blood. By protecting Daisy publicly, Nolan had made her fate inseparable from his authority.
As Nolan carried Daisy toward the medical rooms, the full moon shone above both pack and distant castle. Two worlds had felt her awakening: one recoiled from what she might be, while the other had been waiting to possess her.
Lucien left Klaudius’s throne room with Daisy’s name and Blackwood territory fixed in his mind. He had been commanded to bring the vampire lord his daughter. Before the night ended, however, Lucien had already begun wondering whether such power should belong to Klaudius at all.