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Chapter 10 Part 4: First Catch
publish date:
2026-06-09 11:44:14
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Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 4: First Catch
Bastien was back at the Alderton by one in the morning.Adler was already there, which meant Adler had not gone to sleep and had not intended to. He was at the table with the legal pad and a coffee that was on its second hour and a specific expression that Bastien had come to associate with situations that were developing in directions Adler found professionally uncomfortable."The bank account," Bastien said."Monitored as of this morning." Adler turned a page on the legal pad. "The direct deposit from The Meridian is the only regular income. Cash transactions only elsewhere, no ATM withdrawals in any traceable pattern. The first installment of the commission is sitting in the account untouched.""She hasn't touched the commission.""Not yet. The autopayments continue. Gym membership, a storage facility in the grey zone, a prepaid phone service that cycles every four to six weeks." A pause. "The phone cycles make her difficult to reach by conventional means. Every time a number goes
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 3: First Catch
Rook had positioned himself on the opposite side of Crane Street with a direct sightline to both the alley exit and the street, which was the correct position for someone who had been told to observe rather than intercept. He had watched Bastien come out of the front entrance of The Meridian and walk around to the alley exit with the patience of someone who had thought carefully about which exit she was using. He had watched the conversation play out on Crane Street, the specific quality of Occy's posture, the specific quality of Bastien's, which were very different from each other and interesting in their difference.He had watched her walk into a group of bar patrons and disappear.He had watched Bastien stand on the pavement looking at the space where she had been.He pressed his lips together very firmly.He maintained this for approximately four seconds.Then he took out his phone, because Adler was going to want to know, and because if Rook was going to document this situation a
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 2: First Catch
"A shared interest," she said."The marriage benefits you materially. It benefits me politically. The twelve months is a defined period with a clear end point. I am not suggesting anything beyond the terms of the documents you signed.""The documents I signed thinking I was selling a painting.""Yes." He said it without flinching. "I understand that the circumstances of the signing were not what you believed them to be. I understand that's not a small thing. I am not asking you to pretend otherwise." A beat. "I am asking you to consider that the arrangement, despite its origins, serves your interests as well as mine."She looked at him for a long moment. The grey zone street moved around them, a group of people spilling out of a bar two doors down with the loose laughter of a good night finishing."The warehouse," she said. "Even if I accept that premise. You're asking me to spend twelve months as your wife.""I'm asking you to spend twelve months as the legally registered spouse of a
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 10 Part 1: First Catch
She should have seen him coming.That was the part that bothered her afterward, walking fast through the grey zone with the cold air cutting through her jacket and the specific residue of annoyance that came from being caught off guard by something she should have anticipated. She had clocked his people in the booth. She had gone out the back. She had taken three different routes to the gym over the past week and varied her timing and done everything that her working knowledge of not being found suggested she should do.She had not accounted for him coming personally.It was eleven-forty-five when she came out of The Meridian's back exit, gym bag over one shoulder, backpack over the other, the night cold and clear and the alley behind the club empty in the way alleys behind clubs at this hour were usually empty. She turned left toward Crane Street.He was leaning against the wall at the end of the alley with his hands in his jacket pockets, which was a cashmere jacket and therefore an
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 9 Part 4: Mona Lick Returns
She went on at nine. The room received her the way the room always received her, with the particular quality of attention that meant Mona Lick was on and the evening had properly begun. She took the pole. Started slow. Let the music do what the music did and let her body do what her body knew.The thinking part of her mind ran its separate track in the background.Track one: the warehouse number and the probate dispute and how long she had before circumstances changed in a direction she couldn't counter.Track two: Bastien Leclair and the twelve month binding period and what a practical management strategy actually looked like for a legal problem she had not yet fully mapped.Track three: the specific and inconvenient memory of a courtyard and precise patient fingers and the way he had watched her the entire time without looking away once.She shut track three down. She was working.She climbed. The pole cold and familiar in her grip, the muscle memory taking over the moment her hands
Claimed as the Wrong Bride Chapter 30 Part 4: Silverpine
"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. "Handle him. But he doesn't die. Not yet. Elowen deserves to see him answer for what he's done."Sylvia nodded. "Understood."We talked for hours. House Varen's movements. The other packs' likely responses to my return. The logistics of a coronation. The question of what to do about Elowen's human family, her human friends, her human life.By the time Corvin finally led me back to the royal suite, my head was spinning.The bedroom was empty when I entered, but I could hear water running. The bathroom door was cracked open, steam curling out."El?""In here."I pushed the door open and found her in the walk-in shower — massive, all stone and glass, with multiple heads and a built-in bench. She was sitting on the bench, her wounded leg stretched out carefully to keep weight off it, bandages removed, letting the hot water run over her.She looked up at me, wet hair plastered to her face, and smiled tiredly. "I couldn't take it anymore. I smelled like
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