Claimed by the Ruthless Alpha Prince의 모든 챕터: 챕터 371 - 챕터 380

I never thought I would find it in myself to actually give Colt a chance, but spending that day and the following night with him felt like exactly what I needed. In the evening, Billie visited us with something to eat. I snipped the zip ties around Colt’s wrists so that he could use his hands. As night fell, we lay in the bed with my temple on his shoulder, his hand on my side, gently stroking my hip under my shirt. What I felt for him wasn’t love. It was too soon to call it that. But gazing back into his cool blue eyes under the dark hair hanging over his brow, tracing the scar across the bridge of his nose, watching the way his eyebrows twinged every now and then with his thoughts—I found myself appreciating this docile side of him.Surprisingly, I managed to fall asleep and wake up again that next morning before sunrise. Colt dozed peacefully beside me. He hadn’t made any attempt to harm me during the night, and I had no urge to run away.After everyone was showered and dressed—the

Shortly after we had finished preparing the feather darts, my heart plunged into my stomach with such intensity that I felt sick. Blanched with nausea and inexplicable fear, I sat at the kitchen table and stared out the nearest window, fighting to keep myself from hyperventilating.“Something happened.”Everett looked suspiciously at me.“What do you mean?”“Something happened,” I repeated with mounting anxiety. Standing up, my legs trembled, although I hadn’t exerted myself at all that day. I barely made it to the window and stared outside into the night as if I could see the very source of the trauma that suddenly struck me. But the mountainside was quiet that night. Deep within me, I knew something was wrong. My fated mate was experiencing intense fear, and now pain radiated through my head and into my body, exploding through my hands like I was impaled by a hundred teeth. “Kiara’s in trouble.”Still sitting at the table, Everett and Gavin exchanged looks. Aislin and Billie had gon

I didn’t remember falling asleep, but when I jolted awake on the couch, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. The front door cracked open, and Everett spoke quietly to somebody just coming in. Gavin was still dozing beside me, with Billie beside him and Aislin on the other end of the couch. Craning my neck, I looked past the couch and saw a few men clad in black step inside, then met Everett’s eyes. “The Mythguard is here,” he said. “Wake everyone up. We’ll begin planning while the recon team visits the mine.” Aislin was already unfurling her limbs and blinking sleep out of her eyes, which was fine. I didn’t want to get near her. I gently shook Gavin’s arm, then tipped forward to my feet while he and Billie stirred, looking up at the people coming inside. Everett welcomed a swarm of strangers into our space, looking focused and hardened while we sagged with exhaustion and dark circles under our eyes. After a quick breakfast, we sat around the table with five Mythguard representatives. A

Kiara POV)Hours in the refrigerator left me approaching hypothermia. My teeth chattered, and my muscles shivered without stopping. Pain from exposure to all the meat in the room radiated through me. All I could think about was the relief of warmth, but with the way my body was strung up, I couldn’t warm up my hands or feet, cover my bare skin, or even move to generate heat. A few times, I thought David had made a mistake in leaving me here to freeze to death, and I found small satisfaction in the idea of him coming to retrieve me only to find me a corpse. But as the hours dragged on, I continued to live. Through sheer force of will or simple misfortune, I didn’t know.Then my body became numb to the cold, and I stopped shivering. At that point, I knew my condition was deteriorating toward the point of no return. Once hypothermia set in, your body stopped feeling cold—in fact, your blood vessels dilated, and you felt warm instead. I still felt sluggish, but as my thoughts deviated awa

Colt POV)For seven hours, we had deliberated where my father and the dragons would be hiding. The manor was among the last places we checked, simply because it seemed too obvious that they would go back there, but around 4 PM, the recon team confirmed the heavy presence of wolves and dragons. Then we conceived a new plan, and at the risk of rushing in unprepared, we took an hour to thoroughly consider our approach and every possible outcome. Part of our team returned to the mine, confirming that Lothair was still there. We had given his daughter to Everett and Aislin’s mothers to watch over. Then by 7 PM, we were finally ready to go to the manor, but knowing that we were approaching nightfall, we chose to wait until the Lycan transformations were underway. We would strike when their bodies were shifting—when they were most vulnerable. And the entire time, I was in so much agony I could barely think.Kiara was still alive. I would have sensed it if she died. But she was still alive a