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Home / Romance / The Hostile Takeover: Signed, Sealed, and Claimed / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of The Hostile Takeover: Signed, Sealed, and Claimed: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

62 Chapters

31

"Where are we going?"Caleb didn't look at me. He kept his eyes on the road, his knuckles white against the steering wheel of the nondescript gray sedan. The federal safe house was two hundred miles behind us. The vault, the gas, and the screaming sirens were even further."Away," he said."That's not an answer." I shifted in the passenger seat. My wrists throbbed under the fresh white bandages. The skin was raw, chewed up by the leather straps Samuel had used to anchor me to that mahogany chair. "Hayes gave us the papers. He gave us the new names. But he didn't say where the car was stopping.""It stops when I say it stops." Caleb reached over and grabbed a crumpled pack of cigarettes from the dash. He lit one with a shaky hand. The smell of cheap tobacco filled the cramped cabin."You're shaking," I said."I'm driving." He blew a cloud of smoke against the windshield. "My name is Samuel now. Samuel Miller. You're Daniel. Daniel Carter. Get used to it. If you slip up once, if you eve

32

"Is that a wolf?"Caleb didn't answer. He stood on the edge of the porch, his coffee mug frozen halfway to his lips. The steam curled into the freezing mountain air, vanishing against the black silhouette of the pines. Another howl ripped through the silence, vibrating in my chest. It was too deep. Too rhythmic. It sounded like a man screaming through a throat made of gravel and wet fur."It’s too close," I said. My breath hitched. My heart slammed against my ribs. I stepped back, my boots crunching on the frosted cedar planks. "Caleb. Look at me."He turned. His eyes weren't right. The pupils were blown wide, swallowing the hazel iris until only a thin ring of color remained. He looked at the forest, then at the heavy silver-oak leaf sitting on the small table between our chairs."It’s not a wolf, Ethan." Caleb dropped the mug. It shattered. Ceramic shards danced across the wood. "They’re here.""Who? The feds? Samuel’s people?""The Pack." Caleb grabbed my wrist. His grip was iron.

33

"Don't move, Ethan."Caleb’s voice was a low vibration, barely human. He stood in the center of the cabin, his shirt shredded across his shoulders. The moonlight through the shattered window hit the sweat on his skin, making it look like liquid silver."My ribs," I gasped. I doubled over. My chest felt like a cage that was suddenly three sizes too small. "Caleb—something is breaking. Inside me.""Nothing is breaking. It’s expanding." Caleb stepped closer. His eyes weren't hazel anymore. They were molten gold, glowing in the shadows. "The gas Samuel used in the vault. It wasn't just a sedative. It was a suppressor. A chemical lock on your DNA.""What are you—" I choked. A jagged, hot pain spiked up my spine. I hit my knees. The floorboards felt like they were vibrating. Or maybe I was. "You knew? You knew this would happen?""I’m your Guardian Beta, Ethan." Caleb knelt in front of me. He grabbed my face with hands that felt like hot coals. "Your father didn't run a crime syndicate. He

34

"Who the hell are the Silver-Oak?"My voice sounded like it had been dragged through a gravel pit. I sat up. The clearing was a graveyard of broken pine needles and frosted mud. My skin felt too tight, like I was wearing a suit two sizes too small, but a strange, humming heat radiated from my stomach. I was naked. Completely. But I wasn't cold."Your family, Ethan."Caleb stood ten feet away. He was human again. Mostly. His chest was bare, mapped with fresh, angry red welts from where my mother’s claws had found him. He didn't look like the man who had stolen my company anymore. He looked like a man who had finally found the air he was meant to breathe. His eyes stayed on mine, heavy with a look that made my pulse skip—a raw, terrifying devotion."I don't have a family," I said. I tried to stand. My knees buckled. My muscles felt like they had been re-strung with steel cable. "My father is dead. My mother is a ghost. I’m a bankrupt CEO in a ditch.""Your father was a Warden. Your moth

35

Sign the merger, or I’ll rip your throat out."Ethan tossed the gold-plated fountain pen onto the mahogany table. It rolled, clicking against a crystal carafe of scotch. Across from him, Marcus Collins—the pale, sweating heir to the Collins' empire—stared at the pen like it was a live grenade. The stone amphitheater of the Silver-Oak stronghold was cold. Torches flickered against the damp granite walls, casting long, jerky shadows that looked more like beasts than men."This is illegal," Marcus whispered. He wiped snot from his upper lip with a trembling hand. "You can’t just... we have lawyers. The SEC—""The SEC doesn't have jurisdiction in this zip code, Marcus." Ethan leaned forward. The movement was fluid. Predatory. He didn't blink. He hadn't blinked in three minutes. "And your lawyers are currently being 'retained' by my security team in the basement. They’re fine. For now. But the clock is ticking."Caleb shifted behind Ethan’s right shoulder. He didn't say a word, but the lea

36

"Sign it."I leaned over the mahogany table. The scent of expensive floor wax and the metallic tang of Caleb’s pheromones filled the room. Across from me, the minority shareholders of the Collins estate sat like rows of salted slugs. Their eyes darted. Their hands shook. They didn't see the fur under my tailored charcoal shirt, but they smelled the apex predator."Mr. Walker, the valuation is—""The valuation is whatever I say it is." I dropped a stack of acquisition papers. The thud echoed off the glass walls. "You have thirty seconds before I stop using the pen and start using my hands. Caleb?"Caleb shifted behind me. His suit was a prison. The seams at his shoulders strained against his new, broader frame. He didn't speak. He didn't have to. When the light hit his eyes at the right angle, they flashed a molten, predatory gold. He stared at the lead attorney for the opposition, a man named Henderson whose skin was the color of curdled milk."Twenty seconds," Caleb growled.The floo

37

"Kill me if you have to, but don't let go."Caleb’s voice was a ragged scrap of velvet in the dark. He sat on the edge of the oversized bed, his knuckles white as he wrung a cloth soaked in ice water. On the mattress, I was vibrating. My skin didn't feel like skin anymore. It felt like a sheet of tinfoil being crumpled and flattened, over and over. The monitors stacked against the penthouse wall shrieked, a high-pitched electronic panic that matched the hammering in my skull."I can't—Caleb, it's inside my bones." I tried to sit up. My spine snapped like a dry branch. I fell back, snot bubbling at my nose. My fingernails were gone. In their place, black, serrated talons scraped against the silk sheets, shredding them to ribbons. "The grey. It's moving.""I see it. I've got you." Caleb pressed the cloth to my forehead. The steam hissed off my skin. My body temperature was climbing past 105. The silver-grey veins crawled up my neck, thick and pulsing, a map of a city made of poison. "Ha

38

Get your hands off me!"I shoved Caleb’s chest. Hard. He hit the reinforced headboard with a crack that sounded like a dry branch snapping. I didn't care. My vision was a jagged landscape of silver and white. Every pulse of my heart sent a wave of liquid fire through my veins, a metallic itch that made me want to peel my own skin off. My claws—black, curved, and dripping with a grey, viscous fluid—dug into the silk sheets, shredding them into confetti."Ethan, look at me." Caleb didn't move to defend himself. He didn't even raise his hands. He just sat there, chest heaving, a dark bruise already blooming where I’d hit him. "It’s the fever. It’s the silver. Fight it.""There's nothing left to fight!" I roared. The sound ripped through my throat, part human scream, part animal snarl. I lunged at him, pinning his shoulders against the wood. My face was inches from his. I could smell the salt of his sweat, the copper of the blood leaking from his ears, and that underlying scent of cedar t

39

"Who the hell are you?"I stood in the doorway of the Glass Hall. My chest heaved. Silver fur, matted with the black sludge of the virus and the fresh red of the guards outside, bristled along my spine. Caleb was at my shoulder. His breathing was a wet, ragged hitch. He held a silver combat knife he’d stripped from a corpse in the garden. The thousand candles lining the stone walls flickered in the draft we’d brought in with the shattered oak doors."I'm the solution to a very old problem, Ethan." Elara Thorne didn't flinch. She sat at the head of the banquet table, swirling a dark liquid in a crystal glass. She looked at my blood-stained claws like they were a smudge on the upholstery. "You were always too emotional. Too human. Like your father.""My father is dead." I stepped forward. My claws clicked against the polished marble. "You killed him. You told me the Hunters took him. You made me watch the car burn.""I made you watch a car burn," Elara corrected. She set the glass down.

40

"Take... him... out..." Caleb choked. He looked at me, his eyes already turning white. "Take the mother... Ethan... now!"I looked at Elara. She wasn't smiling anymore. She was backing away toward the hidden door behind the tapestry."You think you can just leave?" I growled.I surged upward, the Construct’s paw losing its strength as Caleb drained its power. I shifted, my body becoming a blur of silver fur and vengeance. I was across the room in three bounds.I caught Elara by the hair just as she reached the door.I slammed her against the stone wall. Her head hit with a sickening thud. The silver chalice fell from her hand, bouncing across the floor."The children," I hissed. I pressed a claw to her jugular. "Where are they?"Elara coughed. Red blood sprayed my muzzle. "In the... Cathedral... basement. Maya is... already... preparing the... ritual. You’re... too late... Ethan.""I'm never too late for a funeral," I said.I didn't kill her. Not yet. I wanted her to see the end of he

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