Claiming the RUNT
"I told you once, Obi... power is the only truth. Your father taught me that while I bled in his gutters. Now, I’m the one with the power, and you’re the one on your knees."
In the cold, ruthless world of the Shadowfang Syndicate, the weak are nothing but collateral. Obi Ashford was born the "runt" of the most powerful mafia dynasty in the country—the Black Eagle. Deaf, sickly, and discarded by his own father, Duke Gideon Ashford, Obi lived as a ghost in a gilded cage, bearing the literal scars of his family's cruelty on his back.
But when the empire falls, the ghosts come back to haunt the living.
Cassius Okoye has returned. Once a high-born heir himself, he spent ten years as a branded slave in the Ashford household after the Duke razed his family to the ground. Now, he is the Sire of the Syndicate, the man who conquered the Ashfang Dominion in a single night of fire and blood. He came for vengeance. He came to destroy every last Ashford.
When Cassius finds Obi trembling in the Hollow Pit, he expects to find a monster's son. Instead, he finds a broken boy who can’t even hear the threats whispered in his ear.
Cassius promised to give the Ashford heir hell. He intended to use Obi to break the Duke's legacy, claiming him as a slave, a toy, and a debt to be paid in the bedroom. But as he peels back the layers of Obi’s past, he discovers a horrifying truth: the boy he wants to destroy was never the enemy—he was the first victim.
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Chapter: 51Obi Ashford POV"How are you holding up?"The raspy, soothing voice broke through the haze of my heavy eyelids. I blinked slowly, taking in the dim chamber, my mind still tangled in the aftermath of the torture Cassius had put me through."E-Elder Vale...?" I rasped, my vocal cords stripped raw."Amira went down to the Syndicate kitchen to fetch warm water," Elder Nnamdi Vale said softly. The elderly physician placed his hand against my forehead, letting out a short, relieved sigh. "The chemical fever from the withdrawal has broken.""How long... have I been out?" I dragged my eyes toward the window. Bright sunlight cut through the glass, blinding me after the dark storm of the past couple of days."It's past noon. Cassius summoned me late last night," Vale said, pulling a leather bag from his hip to check my pulse. "Your body went through extreme shock. Are you in severe pain?"The moment the old medic mentioned the fever, the brutal memory of the desk, the torn fabric, and Cassius’s
Last Updated: 2026-09-16
Chapter: 50Obi Ashford POV"Cassius, please..."My throat felt like I had swallowed broken glass. The words tore out of me, raw and scraped bloody, as I clutched at the heavy silk lapels of his discarded jacket.My skin was on fire. Total, agonizing fire. Every nerve under my flesh burned like a lit fuse, a sickening, unnatural fever consuming my veins from the inside out. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. Sweat drenched my forehead, sticking dark curls of hair to my temples as I lay collapsed on the cold marble floor beside the balcony doors.I had dragged myself across the room hoping the midnight air from the estate grounds would cool the blaze in my blood. It hadn't done a damn thing. If anything, the cold wind made the internal heat rage harder. My legs were useless, trembling so violently I could barely keep my chest off the ground."Pain... Cassius, it hurts... please," I choked out, dragging my chin up to look at him.Cassius Okoye stood over me in the shadows of the Duke’s Suite. He lo
Last Updated: 2026-09-15
Chapter: 49CASSIUS OKOYE POV“Why are you suddenly interested in the black market?” Draven asked, his brow furrowed as his dark eyes darted toward Obi.Obi was crouching near the edge of the shelter, wringing the rain out of his dark trousers. He didn't look at us. He was only standing here because I had dragged him out of the Silver Chamber.“Unless your boys can go through this winter without food, you can start giving me answers right now,” I replied smoothly, ignoring Obi’s quiet presence as I focused on the problem at hand.Draven shrugged, leaning his back against the wet concrete wall of the range. “I can survive just fine. And I’m certainly not in the habit of helping the man who stole my family’s territory.”He was pushing his luck. Because Draven hadn't taken the formal oath of allegiance to the Shadowfang Syndicate, I couldn't legally execute him without causing an uproar among the captured Black Eagle loyalists.“Fine,” I said flatly.Draven looked confused. He probably expected me t
Last Updated: 2026-09-15
Chapter: 48OBI ASHFORD POV“How many days to cross from the Ashfang Dominion to the Rust District?” Cassius asked Malakai.We had just turned back the crooked broker who brought those seventeen trucks of rotten meat and cut-rate grain. Malakai had crushed the door of the lead vehicle with his boot, leaving the scammer to haul his toxic cargo away into the deluge. But breaking his truck didn't solve our problem. The syndicate’s food stores were running empty, and nobody in their right mind could feed whole families on rat-eaten garbage.“It takes a full week on the black roads,” Malakai grunted, leaning his shoulder against the damp stone wall of the tactical room.The rain beat a heavy rhythm against the overhead iron beams. Our tempers were sour after the broker's betrayal.“You aren't planning a run down to the subterranean market, are you?” Malakai slammed his hands on the table, trying to figure out what Cassius was plotting.Beside him, Tavian Blake looked equally grim. He dragged a finger
Last Updated: 2026-09-15
Chapter: 47OBI ASHFORD POV“Good morning, Obi!”Malakai’s loud voice shattered my thoughts before I could even find my footing in the grand hallway. I flinched, my boots skidding on the cold marble floor. My dark suit coat felt suffocating around my chest, but I pulled the lapels tight, hiding the tremor in my fingers.I gave a stiff, tiny nod, keeping my jaw locked. "Good morning, Malakai."Silence stretched between us like a drawn wire. I couldn't look him in the eye. I didn't belong in the Ashfang Dominion, and I certainly didn't know how to speak to Cassius’s top enforcer. The silence turned heavy, suffocating.Malakai rubbed the back of his neck, forcing a tight grin. "It’s a good day today!"Right on cue, a brutal crack of thunder rattled the floorboards under our feet.I turned my head toward the tall arched windows on my left, my brows drawn low as water slammed against the thick glass. "It’s a downpour," I said, my voice deadpan and flat."Yeah... well, guess we got different ideas of w
Last Updated: 2026-09-15
Chapter: 46Obi Ashford POV"This room is completely wrong," Tavian Blake muttered, his boot heels echoing against the bare concrete of the high-security sector. "Cassius told Kaz to lock you up in a place that fits the family, but this looks like a holding block."I stood in the center of the cold, windowless space. The floor was uncarpeted stone. The only furniture was a narrow iron bed and a rusted metal locker. Nothing about it suggested that the former underboss of the Black Eagle Syndicate had ever lived here."I am not complaining," I said, my voice quiet as I kept my eyes fixed on the blank wall. I hated looking directly at Tavian. Every time I did, I remembered the horrifying expression on his face when he caught me in the library with Cassius—the sight of the conqueror pinning me against the mahogany desk, claiming my life as his leverage."The Duke's Suite is right next door," Tavian said softly. He stepped closer, tapping my elbow to make sure I caught his expression. "Obi, look at me
Last Updated: 2026-09-15
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