All Chapters of Marked but Unclaimed : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I woke to pounding on the door. Not gentle knocking. Not a polite request. Pounding. "Miss Hart!" A male voice. Unfamiliar. Sharp. "Council representative Marcus Shaw. I need you to open this door immediately." My heart stopped. The council was here. Already. A day early. I stumbled out of bed, still in yesterday's clothes. My phone said 7 AM. Through the window, I saw three black SUVs parked outside the guest house. Official vehicles. Council seal on the doors. "Miss Hart!" The pounding intensified. "If you don't open this door, I have authorization to enter by force." I unlocked the door with shaking hands. A man in a dark suit stood there. Mid-forties. Hard eyes. Flanked by two wolves in matching uniforms—council enforcement. "Della Hart?" he asked. "Yes." "I'm Marcus Shaw, Council Investigator." He held up credentials. Official. Laminated. His photo stared back at me with the same flat expression he wore now. "I'm here to conduct a preliminary assessment regarding your statu

# Chapter 14 - Neutral Ground The council facility looked like a hospital mixed with a prison. Gray concrete walls. Narrow windows with thick glass. Security checkpoints at every entrance. Guards in black uniforms with council emblems on their shoulders. Shaw led me through the main entrance, his hand firm on my arm. Not rough, but I knew running wasn't possible. We passed through a metal detector, then another checkpoint. A guard scanned my wrist with a device. It beeped. "Clear," the guard said. Shaw nodded and kept walking. The hallway was long. Lights hummed above us. Everything smelled like cleaning chemicals and something else. Something wrong. We stopped at a desk. A woman sat behind it, maybe forty, eyes down on her work. "New intake," Shaw said. The woman typed something, then pulled out a folder and set it on the desk. "Della Marie Hart. Case Delta-Seven-Four-Nine. Protective custody. Seventy-two hours. Waiting for council ruling." "Correct." She finally looked at me.

The assistant returned an hour later. She didn't knock. Just opened the door with her keycard. I stood up from the bed, heart already pounding before she even looked at me. "I signed it." "I know." Her voice was flat. Cold. Professional in a way that made my skin crawl. "The form has been processed and filed with your case record." "So what happens now?" "Your testimony will be reviewed by the council tonight. Along with your father's expedited request." She pulled out her tablet. Didn't look at me. Her fingers moved across the screen with practiced efficiency. "There's been a change to your housing assignment." My stomach dropped. The words were too casual for what they meant. "What kind of change?" "You're being moved to a different unit. Higher security. Standard procedure for contested cases." "Higher security? Why?" The question came out sharper than I intended. Desperate. "Your testimony complicates the jurisdiction dispute. The council needs to ensure no external influe

The meals stopped coming at regular times. Breakfast arrived at 7 AM one day. 9 AM the next. Then 6:30 AM. Then nothing until noon. No explanation. No pattern. Just trays sliding through the door slot at random intervals. I stopped trying to track time by meals. Started watching the thin strip of sky through the high window instead. Gray to black to gray again. Days passing. How many? Three? Four? The speaker crackled less often now. When it did, the messages were shorter. More clinical. "Miss Hart. Medication distribution." "Miss Hart. Wellness check in ten minutes." "Miss Hart. Remain in your room." I hadn't left since the medical evaluation. No more common area. No more hallway escorts. Just the room. The bed. The desk. The narrow window. The camera with its blinking red light. A guard came twice a day. Different ones each time. They'd open the door, check a tablet, look at me for exactly three seconds, make a note, and leave. No words. No eye contact beyond the mandatory v

The ruling came on a piece of paper. Someone slid it under my door. I looked at it. Then I picked it up. The paper felt thick. Heavy. Like it meant something big. COUNCIL RULING – CASE DELTA-SEVEN-FOUR-NINE CLASSIFICATION: BINDING – NO APPEAL I read it slow. Each word made my stomach hurt. Miss Della Marie Hart is remanded to the custody of Alpha Lucian Hart, Northern Ridge Pack, effective immediately. Six months minimum residency. No contact with Alpha Kade Thorne. Petition for independence permitted at age twenty-six. Six months. With my father. No way to say no. No way to stop it. I put the paper down on the little table by the window. My hands stayed still. They didn't shake. I had no feelings left inside me. The room was very quiet. Outside the window, cars kept going by. People kept walking. The city kept moving like my whole life hadn't just broken into pieces. I sat on the bed. I looked at the paper again. The words didn't change. They were still there. Still real. --