All Chapters of Claimed By His Daddy (Stripper/Nerd): Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Arielle. My muscles were sore and my brain felt like mush from the training but I forced myself down to dinner anyway because hiding in my room felt worse than being stared at. The hall smelled like roasted meat and wine and everything Kael judged normal. I moved slow and ate slower and every bite felt like I was swallowing something I had no right to keep. He was already there when I sat watching me the way a storm watches a tree. His face was not kind tonight. Not like it ever was but sharper and angrier even. It’s something close to how I’ve been seeing him anyways. “You’re still moving like you want to break.” he said without preamble. No softening at all and itlanded like a slap. “You fall on the field and you cry and you come back like a scared animal. You can’t keep being that. The pack needs strength around me not weaklings.”Heat rose in me but it was different this time. Not the hot ashamed flush that usually followed his words. This time it was a hard flare of anger an

Arielle. I was walking back from the training grounds, my legs still sore from the endless drills Thomas had pushed me through. My shirt was damp with sweat and hair sticking to my neck in messy and tangled strands and my arms burned like fire from holding the wooden training sword too long. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever stop feeling like my body was betraying me like it was too weak to handle any of this but I couldn’t let them see it. I had to survive, for myself and for the baby.As I rounded the corner near the private path that led to the upper quarters I heard voices. Sharp and clipped words carried through the hall and my curiosity or maybe my stupid need to understand made me pause behind a pillar. Kael’s voice was unmistakable (deep and low and dangerous) and Thomas’s calm tone followed it. I could hear their argument though I tried not to, tried to pretend I wasn’t eavesdropping.“Do you understand Thomas? She needs to learn her place. She’s too defiant. Too stubborn. Too wea

Arielle. The library was unusually quiet that afternoon, almost too quiet, the kind of silence that didn’t feel natural but forced. I had tucked myself into the farthest corner and the one near the dusty shelves that no one touched anymore where old texts with cracked spines and faded ink lived like forgotten ghosts. I had spread my books across the table my notes scattered in the disorderly way that only I understood, lines of scribbled thoughts highlighted sentences witj arrows drawn so fast they bent sideways. My mind should have been calm after the defense earlier today but instead it was a storm.I leaned back in my chair staring at nothing, remembering the way the room had felt when I finished my presentation. For the first time since I stepped foot into that classroom years ago, the entire hall had gone still every face turned toward me with that mixture of surprise and disbelief that I secretly craved. I had spoken with fire my words pouring out sharper and clearer than I

Kael. The excuse was easy enough to make. There were contracts piling up in the human world and trade deals that needed signatures, a few boardrooms that required the weight of my presence. Normally I sent my representatives but this time I took the trip myself. Not because I was needed but because I needed to get away. Away from her. From the red hair that seemed to glow under the sun and from the sound of her voice in the halls rven from the way she carried herself like she was daring me to break her. Her scent followed me everywhere clinging to my clothes, my sheets, my damn skin and I couldn’t take it anymore. If I stayed another day under the same roof with her I wasn’t sure what I’d do.The jet was sleek and black mine of course and the cabin smelled faintly of leather and whiskey. I reclined in my seat as we flew over the city lights, the hum of the engines steady and for the first time in weeks I thought maybe I could breathe. But even then, her image wouldn’t leave. I shu

Kael. The palace gates opened for me like they always did and the guards lowering their heads in reverence yet I barely acknowledged them. My return was supposed to feel like victory like I had conquered the distance and cleansed myself of the fire Arielle had lit beneath my skin. But the moment I stepped into my territory, the weight of her scent lingered in the halls sweet and sharp threading into me like chains I had failed to sever. I told myself I had control. That I could face her and remind her of who I was and the one who owned these walls, the one who commanded without question, the one who had never bowed to anyone. But as I walked through the marble corridors past servants who scrambled to move out of my way I knew the truth. The days of running had only made the hunger worse.I found her in the courtyard where the air smelled faintly of iron and sweat and her hair damp against her temples with that sinfull body moving with a grace that startled me. She was training.