Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 22
After breakfast, household staff carried Daisy’s belongings into Nolan’s private bedroom. She followed in disbelief, certain there had been a mistake. The connecting room he had first offered was being secured after guards discovered a vulnerable exterior window.
“Absolutely not,” Daisy said when Nolan explained the change. Sharing his roof was already difficult. Sharing the Alpha bedroom turned protection into an intimacy she had never agreed to.
“It’s temporary,” Nolan replied. “This is the only room with reinforced doors, interior shutters, and direct access to the security corridor.” Practical reasons did nothing to ease the heat rising into Daisy’s face.
He gave her the bed and moved his work to the adjoining office, promising to sleep elsewhere. Daisy suspected an Alpha accustomed to command had never surrendered his own room so easily, yet Nolan behaved as if the arrangement required no sacrifice.
She returned later to collect a book and stopped inside the doorway. Nolan stood near the wardrobe changing his shirt, his back bare and marked by old scars. He turned at the sound of her breath.
Daisy’s gaze dropped too slowly. “Do you always undress with the door open?” The bond responded to his nearness with embarrassing warmth, making her anger sound less convincing than she wanted.
“This was my room yesterday,” Nolan reminded her. Amusement touched his voice. He drew on a clean shirt without rushing, fully aware that her pulse had quickened.
“And now I’m staying here.” Daisy folded her arms. “You could knock.” The demand was reasonable, even if the room technically belonged to him.
Nolan buttoned his cuffs. “You walked in on me.” He stepped closer, and Daisy retreated until the edge of the bed pressed behind her knees. Neither mentioned the shared dream.
“Then I’ll knock,” she said. “You stay out, I stay in, and we pretend this arrangement isn’t completely insane.” The plan sounded sensible until Nolan looked toward the bed they were supposedly not sharing.
“You called me into your dreams without knocking.” His teasing struck too close to the confusion she had carried from the office. Daisy picked up the nearest pillow and threw it at him.
Nolan caught it with one hand. The brief playfulness startled them both. Their relationship had contained accusation, danger, and desire, but almost nothing simple.
Daisy turned toward the window to regain control. Heavy shutters waited inside the frame, prepared for a threat she still could not name. “Do you really think vampires are coming for me?”
“I think someone hid your identity for eighteen years,” Nolan said. “People don’t bury a secret that carefully unless discovery has consequences.” He did not tell her every detail of his history with vampires, but the scars across his back suggested those consequences were personal.
“And if I become one of them?” Daisy asked. Her reflection in the glass looked human, but she remembered fangs and the hungry sound of heartbeats. “Will you still call me your mate?”
Nolan’s expression grew serious. “You are my mate now. What your blood contains doesn’t change what the Moon Goddess chose.” The answer was immediate, though neither knew how severely that promise might be tested.
Daisy wanted to believe him. Scott had once spoken about fate as if it were unbreakable, then discarded her when the bond threatened his status. Words from an Alpha were no longer enough.
“I need more than a claim,” she said. “I need the truth about my mother and about why you hate vampires.” Nolan looked away for the first time, confirming that his own secrets remained guarded.
“You’ll have the investigation report soon,” he promised. “As for the rest, I’ll tell you when I can tell it without turning you into a target.” Daisy heard protection in the answer and control beneath it.
Nolan left with the pillow still in his hand, closing the door behind him. Daisy sat on the edge of his bed, surrounded by his scent and the evidence of his guarded life. Sharing a bedroom would be awkward; wanting him there might be far more dangerous.