Lahat ng Kabanata ng Hunted By Alphas, Claimed By The Alpha King: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

I tell him everything in the car.Not the managed version. Not the version where I edit for his comfort or mine or leave out the parts that are harder to say. All of it... the way the room felt when the ability woke up, every Alpha's position like a pressure point in the air, the weight of Noctyros at the center of it heavier than anyone else, the specific clarity of it, like a frequency I have always been able to hear but never knew I was hearing.He listens.The whole way back without interrupting, which is a thing about him I have learned, the way he gives information the full space it requires before responding to it, and I talk and the city moves past the windows and the bond is warm between us and when I finish he is quiet for a long moment."How strong was it?""Strong enough that I could feel the difference between every person in that room," I tell him. "Not thoughts. Not intentions. Just presence. Weight. Direction of attention." My hands settle in my lap. "Noctyros was the h

Soren does not know what he agreed to.That becomes clear approximately forty five seconds into the testing session when I close my eyes in the middle of Thalrion's main room and reach for the ability and feel it come up immediately, sharp and present, nothing like the effort it used to take to sense anything, and Soren's Alpha presence hits it like a wall.I open my eyes."Well..." I say.Soren stares at me. "What did you do?""Nothing yet," I tell him. "I can just feel you. Your position. Your attention." I tilt my head. "You're concerned. Not about the test. About something you haven't said yet today."Soren looks at Thalrion.Thalrion looks back at him with an expression that says yes, he did just do that, keep up."That's..." Soren stops. "That's unsettling.""Imagine living with it," I say."Move," Thalrion tells me. "Go to the other end of the room and tell me what changes."I cross to the far wall.The signal doesn't diminish the way I expected. It shifts, the pressure point o

I find him in the kitchen at eleven at night and he is eating leftovers standing at the counter and I stand in the doorway and look at him and think that this is genuinely unfair.He is in dark sweatpants and nothing else.Just, nothing else. The Alpha King who wears suits like a second skin is standing at his own counter at eleven pm eating cold food directly from the container in sweatpants and his back is to me and his shoulders are right there and I have had a very long difficult operationally demanding day and I did not need this.My wolf is unhelpful about it.My body is unhelpful about it.I cross to the counter and open the fridge and get water because I need something to do with my hands and I am standing beside him before I fully think that through and his scent is right there, warm and specific, and I take a long drink of water and look at the wall."Long day?" he asks."Very." He looks at me sideways.I look at the wall."You're doing the thing," he says."What thing?" "

His name is Drev.Forty three years old. Medium height. The kind of forgettable face that is either natural or cultivated and in his case I am willing to bet it is cultivated because forgettable faces in Noctyros's circle are never accidental. He has been on the building's maintenance rotation for eight months, which means he was placed here two months before Thalrion found me, which means Noctyros was already positioning pieces before he knew exactly what floor I would land on.That is the part that stays with me.He placed Drev here as preparation. Not response. Preparation. Which means finding me at the gala was not the beginning of his active move. It was the middle of one that started long before that night.I am sitting in the book room with this information and a coffee going cold beside me when Thalrion comes in.He reads my face the way he always does, fast and specific, and closes the door and sits on the end of the window seat and waits."He placed Drev here before the gala

He sits in the chair like a man who has already calculated his options and found them limited.I give him that. Most people in Drev's position would be performing something, fear or defiance or a very convincing version of confused innocence. Drev just sits in the chair in Thalrion's main room and looks at the table and does the math quietly and waits to see what we offer before he decides what to give back.Professional.Noctyros recruits professionals.Thalrion sits across from him and says nothing for a long moment and I stand near the window because my presence in this room is specific and Thalrion wanted it specific and Drev has not looked at me yet but he knows I am here, I can feel the direction of his attention even when his eyes are on the table."Eight months," Thalrion says finally.Drev looks up."Eight months in my building," Thalrion continues. "Doing your job. Filing your reports. Showing up on time." He holds Drev's gaze. "What did he pay you?"Drev looks at the table