Chapter 4: His Claim

Ciara’s POV

My brain short-circuited, and went blank for a split second as I stared up at him, and then realization crashed into me as the truth my soul had whispered all along finally screaming loud.

This was him... the man from my dreams. The shadowed beast who’d fucked me senseless against that club wall, growling dirty promises while he bred me raw. The stranger whose face I never saw clear, but whose scent, and raw dominance had haunted my sleep for weeks.

And Jasper had just called him Father.

Congratulations, Ciara. You have officially fucked yourself harder than anyone else ever could.

The second wave hit darker, twisting my stomach into ice-cold knots.

Dax Blackthorne, the Dax Blackthorne, the untouchable mafia kingpin who ruled the deadliest empire across human streets and hidden supernatural shadows with ruthless precision.

The stories whispered about him were nightmares, he vanished enemies without trace, controlled entire cities through fear alone, walked into rooms and made grown men piss themselves with one look. He was the ghost at the top of every food chain, the devil you made deals with and never walked away whole.

And I’d let him inside me, drunk, desperate, and spreading wide for the most dangerous man alive.

Fuck… I was carrying my father-in-law’s child.

My heart wasn’t just pounding crazy, it was filing an emergency exit.

The sheer bizarreness of it almost made me laugh, a hysterical, broken bubble rising in my throat that tasted like tears.

Of all the random cocks in the city, I pick the one attached to my brand-new husband’s dad? The universe had to be cackling somewhere.

Taboo didn’t even begin to cover it, this was straight-up forbidden tragedy p**n. I’d be the mafia’s favorite dirty joke forever... the “pure” bride who got railed and knocked up by her father-in-law before she even kissed the groom. Hilarious in the worst way. Sad as hell. I wanted to scream, laugh, disappear all at once.

I scrambled back on the cold floor, heart hammering, “No… stay back…”

He moved closer anyway, and squatted beside me again, inhaling deep against my belly, like he was claiming territory. His face hardened further, certainty carving into stone.

“This child in your womb,” he said, voice flat and absolute, “is mine.”

The hospital detonated into chaos again,

Disbelief exploded everywhere, shouts, gasps, and bodies lunging forward.

“Impossibile!” my mother screamed, clutching her pearls like they could save her.

Jasper stood frozen, face ghost-white, staring like he’d been gut-punched.

“This is blasphemy!” his mother shrieked. “Incest filth! The bloodline defiled by your own seed?”

“Unnatural abomination!” uncles roared. “Father breeding the son’s bride? We’ll all burn for this shame!”

I just sat there trembling, tears burning tracks down my cheeks, watching the madness like it was someone else’s life, and trying to wrap my head around the impossible turned real.

Pregnant with my father-in-law's child. How the fuck did this happen? Why him? Why me? The words looped insane, terrifying, absurd.

Dax ignored everyone, drew a chair, and made me sit, like I was his guest and not the center of the storm.

My legs barely held me, my brain couldn’t even piece together fear properly. This couldn’t be real...could it? Pregnant for him? Was that even legal? I wondered if there was a secret mafia rulebook with a chapter titled What to Do When Your Bride Is Carrying Your Dad’s Child.

Jasper approached slowly, shock etched deep but voice low, and respectful. “Father… How can this be? It doesn’t make sense. You can’t…”

I watched, a bitter flicker cutting through the fear. This was the same arrogant prick who’d shaken me like trash minutes ago? Now he deferred, head dipped, no fight in him when he's talking to his father. All that screaming at me, all that bravado, and he folds like wet paper in front of daddy.

Maybe I should have been born a man. In my family, women don’t get power, we get rules. No power, no guns, no empire. We get to be currency, or mothers, or trophies. I always thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. All this blood and money, and you still needed a dick to count for anything.

Stupid as fuck. If emotions disqualified leadership, half these hot-headed pricks should’ve been banned years ago.

Jasper’s mother wasn’t done. She lunged forward, shrieking, “Questa cosa va tolta! Il bambino deve essere abortito! Non può essere sangue Blackthorne!”

(This thing must be removed! The child must be aborted! It cannot be Blackthorne blood!)

Dax didn’t even flinch. He shot her a look so cold she shut up mid-scream, stumbled backward, and didn’t say another word.

I blinked through tears wondering how her relationship was with her husband. Were they divorced? Separated? They were never seen together, rumors said she lived isolated in some wing, he vanished into his realm for months, years. The Blackthorne family was a tangled web of ice and secrets, weird as hell.

And now I was tangled deepest in the filthiest knot.

Pregnant from one forbidden night.

God.. any god...save me.

Jasper snapped out of his shock, and stepped forward hard, eyes locking on mine with pure ice-cold denial.

“You’re lying,” he spat, voice sharp. “This child can’t be my father’s. It’s impossible. We abort it now and end this farce.”

He turned to the room, chest puffed like he still owned the narrative. “Even if he… touched her, the child can’t be his. Everyone in my family knows the truth. It’s not possible.”

Anger boiled up in me hot and sudden, and the urge to slap that smug, stupid face welled so strong my palm itched.

What absolute bullshit was he spewing? Dax had already confirmed my one-night story, sniffed me like a damn animal and claimed it, so what idiot nonsense was this?

Was Jasper brain-dead? Delusional prick, acting like his daddy’s cock was some mythical failure while my cunt apparently got fucked by another. Arrogant, limp-dick morons couldn’t even accept being cucked by the bigger wolf.

My mother surged forward, face twisted in fury. “Che cazzo dici, Jasper?” (What the fuck are you saying?)“Signor Blackthorne has taken responsibility! He claimed the child. How dare you accuse my daughter of lying when the patriarch himself speaks?”

Jasper glanced at his father looking hesitant, almost pleading permission, like a boy asking daddy for backup.

Dax’s voice cut through cold and lethal, leaving no room for argument. “What the boy is insinuating is that I’m infertile. Incapable of siring my own blood.”

Shock ripped through the room again.

My mind went blank for a beat, and then spun into pure chaos. Sterile? Dax Blackthorne... sterile? This had to be a nightmare. I'd wake from screaming, because nothing made sense anymore.

The man who’d bred me raw in a club, filled me until I leaked for days, was supposedly shooting blanks? What insane cosmic joke was this? Were they all fucking mad? The universe laughing its ass off at the timid little princess who accidentally got knocked up by the one cock that wasn’t supposed to work?

Jasper’s face hardened colder, and he signaled the doctors sharp. “Take her. Abort the bastard now. End it and bring her back to explain herself, this can’t be over.”

Hearing abortion, I moved before I could think, grabbed Jasper’s belt, he was too stunned to stop me and yanked out his gun, flicked off the safety with trembling fingers, and pointed it right at the doctors, my finger stiff on the trigger.

“No one touches me,” I warned, voice savage and cold, “and no one lays a fucking hand on this child. Try it, and I swear to God, I’ll put a bullet through the first bastard who comes close.”

Everyone went dead silent. All those old men with power, all those aunts with sharp tongues, they stared at me now, wide-eyed, like I’d turned into a monster.

"Aborting this child won't get me anywhere, this child is fucking his, he fucked me pregnant. Y'all will just kill me in the name of aborting my child but before I go down, I'm shooting bullets in your twisted head." I cried out, ready to shoot.

Jasper sputtered, “You...you crazy bitch...”

Before he could finish, Dax moved. One blink, and he was beside me, faster than I thought. His hand wrapped around mine, grip hard, and in one brutal, silent motion, he twisted the gun from my hand and held it easily, like it weighed nothing.

Jasper lunged forward. “Grab her! Restrain her! Get rid of that...”

Dax’s voice dropped, darker than I’d ever heard, vibrating with pure, savage threat.

“If anyone in this room touches her, or the child, they’ll die where they stand.”

His eyes swept the crowd, cold, merciless, and glowing faintly gold.

“Abortion isn’t an option. Not here. Not now. Anyone who tries will pay in blood.”

No one moved and breathing seemed hard now and I stood there trembling, gun gone, trapped between monsters, carrying the most forbidden child alive.

Yeah.. my life is officially fucked beyond repair.