All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE BEAST: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The word hung in the air like smoke from a fire nobody had put out yet.Pet. She had called me a pet while standing in front of the man who had claimed me, with her hand on his chest like she belonged there, like the bond mark on my neck meant nothing, like I was something Caspian had picked up on the roadside and would discard when he got bored. I felt the anger rise in my chest, hot and immediate, and I let it show on my face because hiding it would have been a mistake. In a place like this, people needed to know what would happen if they pushed too far. "Remove your hand," I said. Morgessa's smile widened, but she did not move. "Excuse me?" "Your hand. Remove it from him. Now." "Or what?" She tilted her head, studying me like I was something mildly interesting that had crawled out from under a rock. "You'll bite me? Scratch me with those little wolf claws?" Her laugh was musical and cruel. "Darling, I've been at this court since before your grandmother was born. I've seen doze

I woke to sunlight and the sound of voices I did not recognize.The bed was warm but the space beside me was empty. Caspian was gone, and the sheets where he had been were cool enough to tell me he had been gone for a while. I lay still for a moment, letting my body remember where I was. The ceiling was too high and too clean. The mattress was too soft. The air smelled like expensive things I could not name and underneath that, faintly, like something wild trying to hide inside something civilized. Then I heard the voices again, coming from somewhere beyond the bedroom door. Low and tense and distinctly male. Caspian and Ezra. I got out of bed quietly and moved toward the door, which was slightly open. Through the gap I could see a sitting room I had barely registered last night, all leather and glass and dark wood, and in the center of it Caspian and his brother standing too close to each other for the conversation to be friendly. Caspian had dressed in clothes that fit him prope

The Council met in a room that looked like a boardroom designed by someone who wanted to remind you that the people sitting around the table could have you killed before lunch.Long glass table, twelve leather chairs, screens on the walls showing security feeds and data I could not read from where I stood. Floor-to-ceiling windows on one side, tinted dark enough that you could see out but no one could see in. The whole space hummed with a low electrical frequency that I realized was a ward of some kind, magic woven into the walls to prevent eavesdropping. Caspian walked in like he owned the room, which he did. I walked in beside him and tried to look like I belonged there, which I did not. For now... Seven people were already seated. Seraphine at one end, Ezra at the other. Draven, Aldric, Lyra, and two others I had not met at breakfast. A man with a narrow face and nervous hands who was introduced as Lord Silvaine, and a woman with braided white hair and calm dark eyes who introduc

I woke to Caspian's mouth on my neck.Not gentle and not asking. His teeth dragged across the claiming mark and my whole body arched off the mattress before my brain had time to catch up. Heat flooded through me so fast it felt like being poured into, like my skin was a container and he was filling it with something molten from the inside out. "What are you doing?" I managed, though the words came out breathless and half-formed. "Reminding you." His voice was rough against my throat, heavy with sleep and something darker underneath. "Reminding myself." His hand slid under the shirt I had slept in, palm flat against my stomach, fingers spread wide. He pulled me back against him and I felt how hard he was through the thin fabric between us, and something deep in my chest flared hot enough to steal what was left of my breath. "Reminding yourself of what?" "That you're here. That you're mine. That yesterday I sat in a room full of people who want to take you from me and I smiled throu

The leather pouch contained three things.A handful of dark granules that smelled like burnt rosemary, a smooth black stone small enough to fit in my palm, and a folded piece of paper with instructions written in handwriting so cramped and ancient I had to squint to read it. "The granules go along the base of the walls," Helene had explained before we left. "They react to foreign magic by changing color. Green means passive wards, standard protection. Red means active surveillance. Black means something I need to see in person because it means she's done something truly unpleasant." "And the stone?" "Hold it in your left hand while you walk the room. If your blood is what I think it is, the stone will warm when you pass over a ward point. The stronger the warmth, the more complex the spell." "That's it? Just walk around holding a rock?" "The rock does nothing on its own. Your blood does the work. The stone just helps you feel what you're already sensing." Helene had given me that