Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 28
The next full moon rose over Eastwind like a pale warning. Nolan remained in his office long after the mansion settled, reading Vera’s file beside reports of new movement along the western perimeter. Every path seemed to lead back to vampires.
In the Alpha bedroom, Daisy lay awake beneath blankets that carried Nolan’s scent. Learning he had not killed her mother should have made his nearness easier. Instead, the absence of that hatred left every other feeling exposed.
She had expected him to enter after finishing his work. The room was his, despite being surrendered for her protection. Midnight passed, and the door remained closed.
Daisy told herself she preferred it that way. Sharing a bed after one kiss in a school hallway would complicate everything. Still, she listened whenever footsteps moved through the corridor.
Nolan leaned back from his desk and rubbed his eyes. The office couch waited against the wall, too short for comfortable sleep. He had used it each night since moving Daisy into his room.
Elias had suggested placing additional guards around a separate guest suite. Nolan refused. The Alpha bedroom was built to survive an attack, and the connection between it and his office allowed him to reach Daisy in seconds.
Protection was only part of the truth. Nolan could feel Daisy through the wall, a quiet presence in the mate bond. After years of waking to an empty house and memories of loss, knowing she was close had become dangerously comforting.
He returned to the map. Patrols had found signs of a lone intruder near the outer woods but no scent trail a wolf could follow. The timing, so close to Daisy’s awakening, could not be coincidence.
Inside the bedroom, the full moon sharpened Daisy’s senses. She heard Nolan turn a page, pace twice, and sit again. The bond carried his exhaustion, though he had revealed none of it during the day.
She opened the connecting door. Nolan looked up from the desk, surprise briefly overtaking concentration. “Can’t sleep?”
“Neither can you.” Daisy noticed the blanket folded on the couch. “Have you been sleeping in here every night?”
Nolan glanced at the couch as though it required no explanation. “You needed the secure room.” He had not wanted her to feel that safety came with an obligation to share his bed.
“It’s your room.” The sacrifice disturbed Daisy because he had never mentioned it. Scott had announced every small kindness as proof she owed him gratitude. Nolan simply endured discomfort and returned to work.
“An Alpha can survive a couch.” His attempt at humor did not hide the stiffness in his shoulders. Daisy nearly invited him back, but the words tangled with everything that invitation might imply.
“The report doesn’t make us…” She gestured helplessly between them. “It doesn’t fix everything.”
“I know.” Nolan did not use his innocence as leverage. “You don’t owe me a bed, a kiss, or forgiveness because the evidence cleared my name.”
The answer loosened something in Daisy’s chest. She crossed the office and touched his shoulder, intending only to acknowledge what he had given up. The bond brightened beneath her palm.
“Try to sleep,” she said. Nolan covered her hand for a moment, then released it before desire could turn gratitude into pressure.
Daisy returned to the Alpha bedroom alone. Nolan stretched across the narrow couch, alert even after extinguishing the lamp. Neither noticed the shadow moving beyond the mansion’s outer wall.
Under the full moon, Lucien watched a guard pass and waited for the precise gap between patrols. Klaudius had ordered him to retrieve Daisy, but entering Nolan Fenrir’s fortress required a quieter first step. Before he could take her, he intended to make sure her newly awakened power could not resist him.