All Chapters of STORMBOUND: Claimed by the rival alphas.: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

“We’re getting divorced.”I froze, my spoon suspended halfway to my mouth, as the chocolate cereal I was eating slowly dissolved into beige mush. Dad’s newspaper crinkled as he folded it with sharp, precise movements—the same way he’d been folding his life away from us for months.Mom’s coffee mug trembled against the granite countertop. “I thought we agreed I would tell her, Richard.”“There’s no need to keep putting it off, Margaret.” Dad’s voice carried that flat, corporate tone I’ve seen him use in business meetings. The same tone that had slowly replaced any warmth in this house over the past year. “Aria’s seventeen. She can handle the truth.”“Handle it?” Mom’s voice cracked “Our daughter shouldn’t have to handle her parents’ failure. She should be worried about college applications and prom dates, not—”“Not what? Would you rather she keep living under a fake illusion that we are happy, when her mother has been sleeping in the guest room for six months? Or you think she’s no

“Magic doesn’t exist,” I whispered, but the tornado spinning in my palm suggested otherwise.The bathroom had become a war zone. Water cascaded from every faucet, the mirrors cracked in spider-web patterns, and paper towels whirled through the air like confetti at the world’s most chaotic party. I pressed myself against the wall, watching the miniature cyclone dance above my outstretched hand, responding to every flutter of my fingers as if it were an extension of my body.This wasn’t possible. This was the kind of thing that happened in movies, not in the girls’ bathroom at Millbrook Prep. Not to me.The door burst open, and I expected to see a teacher or administrator ready to demand explanations I couldn’t give. Instead, a woman stepped through the chaos as if walking through a gentle breeze. She was tall, elegant, with silver-streaked hair pulled back in a severe bun and eyes the color of storm clouds. Her clothes—a tailored navy blazer and pencil skirt—should have been soake

“It’s nice to finally meet you, after what? Decades of dreaming about you.”The voice, cold and smooth as polished marble, sent a chill down my spine that had nothing to do with the air temperature.“Dreaming about me?” I managed, my voice sounding strained. “I don't even know you. And I just turned seventeen.”The vampire, Lucian Ashworth, titled his head, his eyes like ice chips boring into mine. He didn't smile, but a hint of something—amusement? pity?—flickered across his mouth.“Ah, but time, Aria, is a far more flexible concept than you realize. Especially in circles like mine. Let's just say a great many people have been anticipating the arrival of the next Prime. For centuries, in fact.” He took one deliberate step closer. I didn't flinch, but my shoulders tightened. His proximity was agony, not for him, but for me. My skin felt like it was crawling with static electricity, and a dull, painful throb started behind my eyes.“That doesn’t answer my question,” I insisted, sudden

Blaze moved toward the door.I got there first.My hand closed around the handle before he could stop me. The metal was still warm from the heat that seemed to live in this room now.I pulled it open.The man standing in the corridor didn’t move.Arms crossed. Shoulders straight. Dark coat falling in a clean line to his knees. He looked like someone who had been standing exactly where he was for a very long time without shifting a single inch.His eyes found mine.Steel gray.Flat and unreadable.They dropped briefly to the side, past my shoulder.Blaze stood behind me, shirt half buttoned, hair still a mess from sleep.The man looked back at me.One muscle moved in his jaw.That was the only reaction he gave.“Morning,” I said.Behind me, Blaze leaned against the wall like he had nowhere else to be.“She’s fine,” he said calmly. “She was safe.”The man’s gaze slid back to him.“She was unregistered.”Every word came out clipped and exact.“This academy tracks Prime energy signatures

I didn’t tell anyone about the dream. Not about the girl with my face standing in the field, and not about the frost spreading across my window like a hand pressed against the glass from the outside. By morning, the whole thing felt unreal in the way nightmares sometimes do after daylight touches them. Still, the memory stayed with me as I walked across campus toward Elemental Theory. It sat in my chest like a small, dense stone I couldn’t swallow or spit out. I kept telling myself it was just a dream.The classroom overlooked the valley below the academy, wide windows letting the morning light stretch across the curved rows of desks. Students filtered in around me, talking quietly, the hum of conversation filling the room before class began. I took a seat near the back and pulled out my notebook, pretending to focus on the blank page instead of the occasional glance someone sent my way. Being the academy’s newly discovered Prime had turned me into a walking headline overnight. Some p