All Chapters of Claimed By The Reaper Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

LYRA"Congratulations, Alpha Darius." The doctor extended the bundle to my husband. "A healthy male. Your heir."After eighteen hours, my son was born.He screamed. Just once — a furious, perfect sound, the most alive thing I had ever heard. I reached for him from where I lay — arms shaking, barely able to lift them. Darius said one word to the nurse, and she walked out of the room with my son.The door swung shut.His cry was on the other side of it. Muffled, then fainter. I had spent nine months imagining the sound of his voice. I had not imagined it moving away from me."Wait." I tried to push myself upright. My arms gave. "Please — I haven't held him—""You won't need to."Darius pulled a chair to my bedside and sat. He folded his hands on his knee. Then he looked at me and smiled.Not the smile I knew. Not warmth, not relief, not the expression of a man who had just watched his child come into the world.This was something else — the particular satisfaction of a man whose plan ha

LYRAI did not sleep.I sat in the doorway of the nursery all night, that was as close as they would let me, and I watched my son breathe. The nurses changed his swaddle twice. His color stayed good. By the time gray light came through the window, his fists were curling in sleep the way healthy babies do, and something in my chest that had been locked tight for two days finally loosened one notch.By morning, his symptoms were gone. I found Darius at his breakfast table."The physicians have no explanation for the recovery," I said. "I do. And so do you."He didn't look up from his plate. "Get out.""Breast milk has documented healing properties." My hands were behind my back, clenched so hard the nails bit into my palms. My voice came out level. I didn't know how. "You've had three senior physicians in that room in twenty-four hours. None of them could stabilize him. I did it in one night."He set down his cup."Let me stay." My jaw ached from holding it still. "As a servant. Omega

KAELHolt was still talking.He had been talking for fourteen minutes. I knew because I had been counting. He stood on the raised platform in his formal pack coat and delivered the kind of speech built entirely out of words that meant nothing.I was standing along the back wall because sitting felt like a commitment.At some point during the third paragraph, I had closed my hand around the crystal stem of my glass. I became aware of this when the stem snapped. The broken edge opened my palm and blood ran down between my fingers and dripped onto the floor.I couldn't feel it.I looked at Holt's face. I thought about what it would take to end this right now — not the ceremony, but the particular irritation of this man's continued existence.The math was clean. The timing was poor. Gary would point out the timing. Gary would be right, which was why I had a Gary.Then Holt came toward me with four women behind him. He had come prepared. With a fawning tone, he told me they had high fertil

DARIUS"He's insane." Serena paced the length of our bedroom, her silk robe trailing behind her like a flag of surrender. "He marked her. In front of everyone. In front of our entire pack, he put his teeth on that — that wolfless cast-off — and claimed her like she was worth something."I sat on the bed and listened to her. My forearm, the one Kael had twisted until something gave—throbbed beneath the bandage. I healed fast, but the damage he'd done was stubbornly slow to mend. I wanted to cut him down.But right now, we needed to think. Serena had to let the panic out before she could think clearly—so I let her."He hasn't left that room since," she snapped, spinning toward me, mascara streaked down her cheeks. "He's been in there with her for hours, Darius. What if she tells him everything about us?""She wouldn't dare. Besides, her word means nothing.""You don't know that!" Serena's voice cracked. She dropped onto the bed beside me and pressed her face into my chest. "We should ki

DARIUSThe news of the white wolf spread through the pack like wildfire. The thing Kael Ashvorn had been searching for—it had been in my pack. In my bed.Fuck. Why hadn't I seen it sooner? I could have kept her. I wouldn't have thrown her away like trash.I could have kept her for years. Gotten more children out of her. Before she was still useful.Now she belonged to the Reaper, and I looked like a fool who'd sold gold for copper.No. She was mine. That womb was meant to carry my bloodline. I wasn't about to let a white wolf slip through my fingers.Maybe it wasn't too late. That stupid woman had loved me for three years. One good performance—a little regret, a little tenderness—and she'd soften. Women always did.---LYRAI was counting the window panes when Darius walked in.No knock. No announcement. Just the soft click of the door and the weight of him filling the room.I sat up slowly. My body had healed enough to move without pain, but the mark on my neck throbbed at his presen