Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 40
Nolan woke in his own bed with Daisy asleep beside him. One of her hands remained over the bandage at his ribs, as if she had refused to release him even after the healer declared the wound stable.
He moved carefully. Daisy woke at once, her returning senses attuned to every change in his breathing.
“You were stabbed,” she said when he tried to sit. “Being Alpha doesn’t make that optional information.”
Nolan settled back against the pillows. “You stopped the bleeding.” The healer had found the wound partially closed before treatment began.
Daisy examined her hands. Lucien’s seal still pressed against her power, but cracks had formed wherever the mate bond touched it.
“Your blood made me hungry,” she admitted. Shame lowered her voice. “For one second, I wanted it.”
Nolan lifted her chin. “And what did you do?”
“I saved you.”
“Then that is the part that defines you.” His answer left no space for the disgust she expected.
Daisy told him the attackers had been testing her. They knew the seal would fail under enough fear, hunger, or attachment.
“Lucien wanted to know whether I could control it,” she said. “Now he knows the bond helps me.”
Nolan’s expression hardened. The attack had targeted more than the territory. It had turned him into a key capable of unlocking Daisy’s power.
Elias entered with the casualty report. Two wolves were injured, none killed, and every vampire had escaped or dissolved into ash before questioning.
One object remained: a black insignia bearing Klaudius’s crest. It had been left deliberately where Daisy would find it.
Attached was a message offering safe passage if Daisy came willingly to meet her father. Refusal, it warned, would make Eastwind responsible for the consequences.
“I’m not going,” Daisy said. The certainty surprised Nolan.
“You may need to eventually,” he replied. “But not on his terms and not alone.” Revenge wanted Klaudius within reach; love demanded that Daisy never become bait.
Daisy climbed carefully onto the bed beside him. “Then we find another way.” For the first time, she spoke of the coming conflict as something they would face together.
Nolan drew her close despite the pain in his ribs. Their kiss carried no secrecy, argument, or denial. It was a choice made with full knowledge of the blood dividing their families.
Outside the mansion, Mila slipped through a service gate with Klaudius’s crest hidden beneath her coat. While Daisy and Nolan chose each other, someone inside Eastwind had already chosen to betray them.