All Chapters of Claimed By The Reaper Alpha: Chapter 11 - Chapter 15

KAELShe held the child like it was made of glass.I had seen women hold infants before. Servants, mostly. They held them at arm's length, or close but distracted, eyes flicking to the nearest exit. This was different. She curled around the boy as if her entire body existed to shield him from everything else.Including me.I should have told her to hurry. We had a schedule, and every minute spent in this territory was a minute my enemies could use.But I didn't.I watched her rock the child, and something shifted in my chest. An itch I couldn't scratch. An image I hadn't asked for: her holding a different child. One with my eyes — Our child.Ridiculous.I buried the thought before it could take root. This woman was a liar. A schemer. Every Alpha in Darius's pack confirmed it. She'd spread her legs for half the household, and the performance happening in front of me now was just another act.Except I had never seen anyone act like this. The tears she'd pressed into her son's hair were

LYRAThe ride was long. The car rocked with every rut in the road, and the tires ground against frozen gravel that sounded like teeth.I stared out the window. The landscape of Darius’s territory scrolled past. Green hills, patched farmland, a river I used to walk along when I still believed this was home. It all looked different now. Smaller. Like a dollhouse I’d once lived inside.I thought about the first time Darius held my hand. We were sixteen. He’d found me alone in the garden behind the orphanage, crying because the other children had called me wolfless freak again. He’d knelt beside me and said, “You’re not a freak. You’re the bravest person I know.”Three years of marriage built on that lie.I thought about the night he proposed. Candlelight. His pack’s sacred grove. He’d put a ring on my finger and told me I was his future. I’d wept with joy. He’d smiled, and I’d believed every part of it.Serena had been waiting in his bed the entire time.The tears came before I could sto

LYRAHis mouth tasted like blood.Not metaphor. Not memory. Actual blood. He had drunk from the goblet before handing it to me, and now his tongue carried it past my lips with a force that left no room for refusal.The kiss was nothing like I expected. It wasn't tender. It wasn't cruel. It was a claim. His hand pressed against the small of my back, pulling me flush against him. His other hand gripped my jaw, tilting my head, controlling the angle the way a swordsman controls a blade.The blood slipped down my throat. Warm. Metallic. Alive with something that made the mate bond detonate.Heat poured through me. My chest. My stomach. My knees. The mark on my neck blazed so bright I gasped against his mouth. Every nerve in my body screamed in two directions at once. Closer. Run.His scent engulfed me. Pine and smoke and the metallic edge beneath, sharper now, overwhelming. I could feel his heartbeat through his coat. Slow. Steady. He wasn't affected at all. He kissed me the way he did ev