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CHAPTER 127: OLD FRIEND
Dernière mise à jour:
2025-04-03 22:47:43
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CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 128: ALLIES
DAVIDThe room was dimly lit, the flickering candlelight casting long shadows on the stone walls. Burning sage filled the air with its scent and something far more bitter—dark magic at work.I stood centre, hands clasped behind my back, exuding an aura of authority. But inwardly, my blood churned with impatience. Things were going too slow for my liking. I couldn't take the sluggish progression of things. Hailey should've been mine now, or at least she should've warmed up towards me.Both of the women before me—one my mother, the other a baseline friend—were the only ones I had allowed close enough to stand beside me and fight in this battle. That did not mean I trusted them.Flora, my mother, reclined lazily on a gold chair, draped in a sumptuous emerald robe that appeared to throb with vital energy. The years had not touched her beauty. If anything, she was even more beautiful now, her once-benevolent features sharpened into something deadly."You appear troubled, my son," she purre
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-03CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 129: SEED OF DISCORD
MARISSA The moment I stepped into the packhouse hallways, a chill went down my spine. Not because of the cold—it was something different. A warning. A hint of darkness, of unnaturalness. I am not alone yet I see no one. The atmosphere was vile. The smell of wood and heat was overlaid with something bitter, something rotting. I gritted my teeth. Dark magic. My grip on the hilt of my dagger tightened as I moved, silent and cautious. I had lived under Hailey's command for too long to dismiss my instincts. They had saved me too many times. And now? Something was wrong. An unnatural being is in with me. All my instincts were screaming that something was horribly amiss. I made the turn, my boots making a mere whisper against the floorboards. The packhouse was too quiet. Hailey's warriors were on high alert, but even they couldn't sense what I could. Because this wasn't an enemy within our walls. This was something otherworldly. And then—I heard it. A whisper. A soft, mock
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-04CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 130: DEVLISH BARGAIN
CONNORThe air was thick with the scent of damp earth and rotting leaves. The full moon hung low in the sky, its light an unearthly glow on the forest. There was a storm on the horizon—I could feel it in my bones, in the way the wind blew whispers through the trees.I was not so easily intimidated. As the Bear King, fear was something I had lost long ago. But tonight?Tonight was different.My warriors were out in the land, watching the borders as they always did, but I knew they would not see what I had been summoned to find out. Or at least—who?I don't like this.The deeper I get into the forest, the more loudly my instincts scream at me to return. The trees rise higher here, their branches curled like skeletal fingers reaching for something unseen. The air is thick—wrong—charged with something I don't recognize. Magic.I was summoned. Summoned. As if some lower creature to heel. The very thought makes my teeth ache. I am the King of Bears. I bow to no one.And yet… here I am.Flor
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-04CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 131:: PREMONITION
ISAIAHThe air within my rooms had been heavy, the weight of hidden powers bearing down on my form. The smell of smoky sage clung to me, not willing to rinse the rot that clung to the edges of my visions.I sat before a single candle, the fire swaying as if it felt too that something was coming. My hands trembled above the divination stones, but I couldn't bring myself to cast them. I already knew.The balance was crumbling. Everything has been made unstable in all forms.Flora's return was unnatural. Death was irreversible—it was meant to be irreversible. But if she had died and gone through it, then something very old and powerful had intervened. Something that belonged nowhere in our world.And that left only one answer:David was not acting alone.I closed my eyes, struggling through the buzz in my head, trying to clear my mind. My power had been shattered for weeks, visions twisted and fragile. But tonight… I felt different.I stretched out a hand for my water bowl, reciting the
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-05CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 132: ALLEGIANCE
FLORAMy day had started with going to different tea parties, smiling and keeping fake facades of innocence and niceties just to create friendships that could be a source of funding for us because we had a long way to go. We needed connections from powerful humans and beasts alike and while I was told to do all I could to secure the Dragon Kings' loyalty the man had no known weakness except for the general known fact that he had no mate of his own and had been searching the entire continent for her all these years yet even I couldn't find her and by the gods, I tried but I found nothing and though my naive son believes I'm not aware of the secret plans he made in the dark, I knew everything. Azure had burned me badly, and a part of me did care for Logan, but my need to fulfil what my ancestors couldn't serve as a daily reminder for me to let go of my sentimental feelings and do what needed to be done. Hence I had put away all sentiments and did what needed to be done. Alexia would one
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-05CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 133: DRACO
AURORAThe thrumming energy of the shopping quarter was a blissful contrast to the cold, calculating council sessions I'd endured since my arrival at the castle. I indulged in the change—I indulged in the giggling voices of hucksters, the scent of hot bread drifting from the bakeries, and the dappled dance of sunlight on the cobblestones.And above all, I welcomed the company of the two women at my side. I had missed them greatly. I had to go away for a while so education sakes hence we kept in touch via emails and chats but that was never good enough. I am so glad I am back but things have been unnecessarily tensed around here and they all needed a break hence I'm helping them have the much needed break they believe they do not need despite their reluctance. Alexia and Turtela were easy to get along with. They were the siblings I wanted but never had but Fate gave me them and it's been such a privilege and honor knowing them. Where Turtela was a bundle of light and warmth, Alexia ha
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-06CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 134: THE FIRE THAT CALLS ME
KAELDraco was missing once more. For years now, he'd go missing this way, for weeks, Months even and shut me out but this was hardly the time for this was hardly the time. The Queen needed all the allegiances she could get and she has my loyalty and support. A woman who did what needed to be done is well desrving of respect and more.I stood at the cliffs, the howling mountain winds ripping at my face, my gaze on the valley below. His smell was far away, his normal path changed. I had been searching for hours, fury burning in my chest. He had never disobeyed me so, not until recently.My beast and I were bound in ways that no one else could understand. He was my other half, my fury, my fire. But lately, he had been leaving without speaking, vanishing into the interior of the nation, to reappear with some smell that I could never identify.Until today.The air stank of scorched earth, coals still faintly smoldering in the wake of Draco's tantrum. I followed the trail by instinct, boot
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-06CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 135: FAMILIAR PRESENCE
JADENI detected the scent of the fire before I was able to see him.That characteristic smell of burning coals, the rich dragon musk of smoke—it enveloped me like a stale warmth, a spark that kindled in my belly. For a moment, I questioned whether or not I'd dreamed it, if maybe my longing had played a trick on my nose.Kael had been a guardian, but more than that. He had been my anchor, my tormentor, my savior—all in one.I remember to this day the first time I had stood before him, a gangling pup not yet skilled at shifting, trembling at the sight of his attention. He had towered over me like a war god, his size as great and intimidating as the dragons he commanded."You are weak," he had said to me that day, voice rough, eyes slicing. "But weakness is a choice. I will not raise a coward."And he hadn't.Kael had been brutal in my training. He had broken me, torn me apart, bled me, made me hurt. But he had never abandoned me. Not ever.When I had fallen, he had made me get up.When
Dernière mise à jour : 2025-04-07
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CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 198: THE PLAN
AUDACUSFire spat and spat in the fire before me, shadows curling around the walls of stone like hungry snakes. I reclined in the chair of dark, high-backed obsidian in the center of my war room, robes of smoke and midnight folded around me in loops of fate. My hands tapped a slow, calculated beat on the bent armrest, lethal.Lilith sat motionless in the adjacent room.Her breath—if one could even call it that anymore—was shallow. Barely there. Her fall into the coma had been abrupt, unforetold, un-theatrical. Just. silent. A silence so deep that it vibrated through the realm.And I hated it.She alone had ever spat venom right back at me and still made me crave the taste of her defiance. Her anger. Her fury. But now? Glass. Shattered. Cold. And worse—silent.No more filthy words.No more threats that she'd rip out my heart if I ever sinned against her daughter.Now, all I had was time.But Ryan… oh, Ryan didn't have time at all.Ideal.A knock echoed on the door—sharp, brief. My gene
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 197: LOOMING WAR
RAYThe night was mine. The odor of war clung heavy to the atmosphere, and the promise of approaching chaos made my skin crawl, bones moving just below as I stretched through all my shapes. Tonight the game was set, and I, Ray, his most trusted one, had the honor of delivering the king's new scheme.Audacus loomed over us, demonically serene, every inch of him a vision of lethal refinement. That voice, so smooth but colder than winter's cold, was a force no sane man would want to challenge. "Keep them busy," he instructed us, fingers lazily spinning a glass of dark wine as if this plan wasn't going to break the world. "Isolate Hailey and Ryan at all costs. The two of them together are trouble. Alone, they fall apart."A vicious grin crept gradually across my lips. Simple in appearance. Deadly in purpose."What about the others?" I asked, masking my enthusiasm with polite calmness.Audacus's golden eyes flashed to mine, as cutting as a knife. "The triplets are strong, but unripe. Diver
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 196: INFILTRATION
AUDACUS The moment I stepped through the massive glass doors of Kings Enterprises, the atmosphere shifted. Clean, polished, professional—exactly how humans liked to present their tiny empires. It was nearly funny. The whole building reeked of ambition, desperation, and carefully hidden fear. It smelled like opportunity.I adjusted the mortal guise I was wearing: well-pressed suit, comfortable leather loafers, and a pair of glasses perched low on the bridge of my nose. The perfect image of a struggling investor who'd at last been able to scrounge up sufficient capital to swim with the sharks. Beneath, I smiled. They had no idea.The receptionist greeted me with that rehearsed corporate warmth. "Welcome to Kings Enterprises, Mr.?""Addison," I supplied the alias with ease. "Jon Addison. I'm here to see your investment representative. I'm interested in purchasing direct stock."Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and within a second she nodded. "Right this way, Mr. Addison."It all pr
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 195: LOOMING WAR
RAY The night was mine. The odor of war clung heavy to the atmosphere, and the promise of approaching chaos made my skin crawl, bones moving just below as I stretched through all my shapes. Tonight the game was set, and I, Ray, his most trusted one, had the honor of delivering the king's new scheme. Audacus loomed over us, demonically serene, every inch of him a vision of lethal refinement. That voice, so smooth but colder than winter's cold, was a force no sane man would want to challenge. "Keep them busy," he instructed us, fingers lazily spinning a glass of dark wine as if this plan wasn't going to break the world. "Isolate Hailey and Ryan at all costs. The two of them together are trouble. Alone, they fall apart." A vicious grin crept gradually across my lips. Simple in appearance. Deadly in purpose. "What about the others?" I asked, masking my enthusiasm with polite calmness. Audacus's golden eyes flashed to mine, as cutting as a knife. "The triplets are strong, but unripe. D
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 194: CHAOS
AUDACUS The council chamber stank of old magic and old pride. It clung to the stones, bleeding into the mortar like the blood of all fools who'd ever sat upon high thrones and imagined that they were invulnerable. I was in the center, hands clasped behind my back, the gravity of a century measured in the loose bend of my shoulders. Ten wizard elders stood around me, faces etched with lines made of centuries, eyes filmed over by complacency. The robes flowed over the marble floor as they shifted to stand nearer, as if attitude itself might distort fate in their direction. "Audacus," the oldest, Master Callum, said, his voice husky with a challenge never breached in all his years. "Your arrogance does not belong here. You are not welcome." A smile flared at the edge of my lips. "Arrogance is the right of the already triumphant. You just haven't quite caught up with reality." Whispers circulated around the circle, soft, trembling shivers from tired old gods in mortal flesh. I could
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 193: AUDACUS
AUDACUS Been out again in the mortal world feels so surreal but good, it's been so long, too long really but the night tasted sweet. Sweeter than a vow. More bitter than deceit. I stood beneath the crooked arm of a dying oak, one hand leather-gloved, the other bare, tracing my finger along the cold curve of my ring. The dark stone pulsed softly beneath my fingers, full of the quiet, slow hunger I always kept just beneath my skin. The world was still tonight. Even the wind had enough sense to whisper not when I heard it. I could sense the earth beneath my feet, the shift of shadow as it crawled towards me, drawn like a moth battering itself around its own funeral place. The shifter was late. It was always so with beasts bound by fear and not by love. Still, I was impressed by its cunning. Its guile. The art of slinking in and out of hides like leaves from a book. Finally, the beast emerged out of the woods. A distorted shape, wrapped in the stolen form of a man — the fifth, I thi
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 192: HE'S COMING
LOGAN The air reeked of blood, pungent enough to slice through bone-deep exhaustion. I arrived too late for the battle, but just in time for the cleanup. Marissa stood with her arm raised over the shape-shifter's deformed body, which collapsed at her feet like a crumpled flower. Its body shook as if even death would not claim it cleanly. Her sword dripped with black, noxious ichor. I'd wanted to feel proud — darn it, I was proud — but my wolf howled inside my chest walls, screaming for vengeance. "Are you alright?" I pressed forward, ready to catch her if her legs gave out under her. Marissa cleaned the knife on her hand, jutting chin as if the fighter I knew her to be was finally free of that cage she'd been holding herself in. "It won't be the last." That solitary stark truth weighed between us like a boulder. "Not if I have any say in it," I growled. And I meant every damn word. ISAIAH The scent of smoke still hung in the air, seeping into the stone walls like an unwelcom
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 191: MOTHER'S CHOICES
TURTELA The castle had never been this still, not really. Even at midnight, its old bones vibrated with the thrum of wards and remembrances. But tonight, after the fight, after blood and smoke, the stillness was oppressive as ever. It lay on my chest like a heavy hand, smothering the wolf inside me who trotted in ceaseless circles, anxious and watchful. I should have stayed in my own chambers. Should have soothed myself with a hot bath or the echoing sound of dad's voice up and down the halls. Instead, my own feet led me out, past the marble pillars, to the garden where everything was bathed in moonlight. And she was there. Serenia. Sitting on the stone bench like it was her own, as if she had burst forth from the earth itself, dark hair falling like silk down her back. She was so still that I almost mistook her for another statue, some forgotten relic the old kings had left. I did not sneak up on her. I wanted her to hear me coming. I wanted her to know that I was not afraid.
CLAIMING HAILEY CHAPTER 190: A DAUGHTER'S VERDICT
ISAIAH The moment Hailey's call brushed my thoughts, I felt it — the shift in the air. There was no desperation in her tone, no panic, but resolve. And that scared me more than any battlefield ever managed. I arrived in the courtyard as the moon carved silver wounds in the stone. My steps faltered as my gaze met hers. Serenia. The last time I'd ever seen her was under other skies — when I'd lost all hope of having a mate. When fate woke me up, I'd never expected that she would be bound to me again, or in this manner. She was now by Hailey's side. Not as an enemy. Not even as a stranger. Her eyes settled on me, hard and unflickering. "You came," she said. I cleared my throat, finding my balance. "Your mother summoned me." Her lips curled into a semblance of laughter, but there was no warmth behind it. "Oh, naturally she would. Always the Queen, always the commander." I started to open my mouth in defense of Hailey — habit — but Serenia raised a hand, stopping me. Her voice so
