CHAPTER 5 – Claimed by the Beast[Part 2]

“Welcome to Blackthorn,” he said.

I swallowed, looking up at the looming keep.

“Is this where you…break your toys?” I asked before I could stop myself, Lucian’s words echoing cruelly in my skull.

Kael’s eyes cooled dangerously. “I don’t play with toys.”

A tall, wiry man with mischief in his eyes and a scar on his chin strode forward, grinning. “You brought us a Luna and didn’t warn anyone? Rude, Alpha.”

“Jace,” Kael said in warning.

Jace only laughed and bowed to me with surprising grace. “Jace. Gamma of Blackthorn. Welcome, Luna. Don’t worry. We don’t bite half as hard as the rumors say.”

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Luna.

The word sat wrong on my tongue and yet—

Kael’s hand settled lightly at the small of my back. “Inside,” he said. “You need food and sleep.”

“And the claiming?” Jace asked wickedly under his breath.

Kael shot him a look sharp enough to cut stone. “Later.”

Jace threw up his hands. “See? Not half as hard,” he told me lightly. “For now.”

The inside of Blackthorn Keep was all stone and furs and warmth, very different from the polished marble of the palace. Fire roared in the main hall hearth, banners hung from the beams, worn but solid.

Kael led me up a wide stair and down a quieter corridor, then into a chamber that took my breath for a different reason.

It was huge.

A heavy bed dominated one wall, piled with dark furs. A hearth crackled opposite, warming the room. A large window cut into the stone looked out over the forested slopes below. Shelves lined another wall, filled with maps and weapons, a few books.

“This is—” I swallowed. “Your room.”

“Ours now,” he corrected simply.

My heart did something strange.

He closed the door behind us with a soft click, and for the first time since dawn, the noise of other wolves and horses fell away.

Silence wrapped around us.

I turned to face him, suddenly very aware that we were alone. In his room. Marked.

My pulse jumped.

He watched me for a long moment, something unreadable moving behind his eyes.

Then he walked past me, toward the fireplace, and grabbed a log, tossing it into the flames.

“You’re shaking,” he said without turning. “Sit.”

“I’m not—” I looked down at my hands. The faint tremor said otherwise.

He gestured toward a low bench near the hearth. I sat, if only because my knees felt unreliable.

He leaned against the mantel, arms folding loosely, studying me.

“Do you think I’m going to take you apart the second the door closes?” he asked.

My mouth went dry. “Isn’t that what everyone says?”

“Everyone says a lot of things.” His gaze flicked to my neck, then back to my face. “I’ve spilled enough blood today. I don’t need yours added to it.”

Something in my chest loosened a fraction.

He moved closer but not close enough to crowd. He dropped into a crouch in front of me, bringing his face level with mine.

“You’re mine now,” he said matter‑of‑factly. “By law. By mark. By the Moon, whether we like it or not.”

I flinched slightly at "whether we like it" or not*, but he continued.

“That means a few things.” He held up one scarred finger.

“First: no one touches you. They answer to me. Forget what they taught you about what you’re worth.”

My brows shot up. “You don’t exactly seem like the…asking type.”

His mouth twitched. “I’m not. But I’m not Lucian, either.”

Second finger. “Second: if anyone from your old life tries to lay claim again, they deal with me. Not you.”

Lucian’s mocking face flashed in my head. My stomach twisted. “You don’t owe me that.”

The look he gave me said I was being stupid.

“You were thrown at my feet with the Moon still on your skin,” he said. “That makes you mine. And I keep what’s mine.”

A pulse went through the new bond at those words—dark and hot, not entirely unpleasant.

Third finger. “Third: whatever they beat into your head about what an omega is worth? Forget it. You’re in Blackthorn now. You carry my mark. Their rules don’t apply here.”

I stared at him, throat thick.

“I can’t just forget,” I whispered.

“Then we’ll teach you different,” he said.

Silence stretched.

His gaze dropped to my mouth, then to my neck again.

Heat crawled up my cheeks.

He rocked back slightly on his heels. “I won’t take your body tonight.”

I blinked. “You…won’t?”

“Not while you still smell like his rejection,” Kael said bluntly. “Not while you’re shaking so hard, my wolf thinks something else is trying to tear you apart.”

Humiliation and relief tangled in my chest.

“But,” he went on, voice dropping, “I am going to do something you can’t refuse.”

My heart stuttered. “What?”

“Feed you,” he said dryly. “You reek of hunger.”

Heat flared in my face for a completely different reason.

He stood, crossed to a sideboard I hadn’t noticed, and brought back a plate piled with roasted meat and bread. He set it on my lap.

“Eat,” he ordered.

My stomach growled loud enough to answer for me.

I ate.

The food was simple but hot and real. I hadn’t realized how empty I was until I started. My hands shook a little around the bread, but the warmth began to creep back into my limbs.

Kael watched, not speaking, just…watching.

When the plate was empty, I set it aside, suddenly exhausted.

He studied me a moment longer, then straightened.

“You’ll sleep here tonight,” he said, nodding toward the bed. “I’ll take the chair.”

I gaped at him. “You expect me to sleep in your bed while you—”

“It’s softer than the floor,” he said. “And I’ve slept in worse places than that chair.”

“That’s not the point,” I muttered.

His eyes gleamed faintly. “Do you want me in the bed instead?”

My mouth opened. Closed. “No.”

“Then that’s settled.”

He walked to the large, high‑backed chair near the window, pulled a fur from the foot of the bed, and tossed it over the arm.

“Get under the furs, Aria,” he said without looking at me. “You’re almost falling over.”

Arguing would take more energy than I had.

I stood on shaky legs, walked to the bed, and slid under the heavy pelts. The mattress was firm but forgiving, the furs soft and warm. My body sank in with a sigh. I didn’t mean to let out.

Kael dimmed the hearth a little, then settled into the chair, stretching his long legs out, one ankle over the other.

The room glowed with a low firelight, shadows licking the stone.

“Kael,” I said softly, before sleep could drag me under.

“Hm?”

“If I… If my wolf doesn’t come back…”

“She will,” he said with quiet certainty.

“You don’t know that.”

“I’ve seen wolves break,” he said. “Yours isn’t broken. She was torn. There’s a difference.”

Silence fell again.

My eyes grew heavier.

Just before they closed fully, his voice came again, softer, edged with something I couldn’t name.

“Sleep, little omega,” he murmured. “Lucian may have thrown you away. But the Moon doesn’t make mistakes twice.”

The bond between us pulsed once more—dark, steady, and unignorable.

I drifted down into sleep wrapped in the warmth of furs and the weight of a monster’s promise.

Whatever tomorrow brought, one thing was brutally clear:

I was no longer the prince’s rejected mate.

I was the Bastard Alpha’s claimed Luna.

And monsters, it seemed, really didn’t let their things go.

And somewhere deep inside me… something answered him back.

Faint. Weak. But there.

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