All Chapters of Claimed By The Wolf Kings: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

ARIEL I slammed the suitcase shut, spun the lock, and shoved it back into the closet. By the time I opened the door, my face was calm, my breathing controlled. Nikolai stood in the hallway, one shoulder propped against the frame. He was holding a plate of sandwiches, his expression carefully casual. "You didn't come down for lunch," he said. "Again." "I wasn't hungry." "You're never hungry. It's becoming a thing." He glanced past me at Evie, still sleeping. "How is she?" "Tired. The trip wore her out." Nikolai's eyes lingered on Evie's face for a moment too long. I stepped sideways, blocking his view. "Thank you for the sandwiches," I said. "I'll eat them later." "You'll eat them now." He pushed the plate into my hands. "Lev's orders. He says if you lose any more weight, he's putting you on a feeding tube." "He did not say that." "He implied it. Very strongly." Nikolai smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You look tired too, you know. When's the last time you s

KAZIMIR The meeting with my brothers ended exactly as I'd expected. And exactly as I'd feared. "You can't punish him for saving a life," Nikolai said, leaning against the wall of my study, his arms crossed. "That's insane." "He kept a secret from us. For ten years." I paced the length of the room, my hands clenched at my sides. "That's not nothing." Lev sat in the corner, his glasses sitting on the crook of his nose, his expression unreadable. "He was protecting her. A child. A victim. Would you have done differently?" "I would have told the truth." "Would you?" Lev's voice was quiet but sharp. "You, who didn't tell us for a long time that you didn't kill the rest of the Blondeau family? You who kept that from us?" I stopped pacing. "That's different." "Is it?" Nikolai pushed off the wall. "Look, I'm not saying Dimitri was right to lie. He wasn't. But he's our brother. He's been our brother through everything, Father's death, the wars, the rebuilding. You're going to

ARIEL I should have known it was a trap. Not because Kazimir had planned it. I I didn't think he was capable of that kind of subtlety. But because the invitation itself was a trap. Dinner. Seven o'clock. My table. Not a request. Not an invitation. A command. And I had walked right into it. The dining room was too grand for just the five of us. Crystal chandeliers. A table that could seat twenty. Polished silver and white linen and candles that flickered like they were trying too hard to create atmosphere. Nikolai sat to my left, fiddling with his napkin. Lev sat across from me, his face unreadable. Dimitri's chair was empty, I didn't know why. And at the head of the table, Kazimir. He hadn't looked at me once since I sat down. Not directly. His eyes swept over me like I was part of the furniture, something to be noted and dismissed. He drank his wine. He cut his meat. He acted like I wasn't there. It made me angrier than if he'd been staring. "So," Nikolai said, break

KAZIMIR The border was worse than reported. I stood at the tree line, surveying the damage. I could see blood. Bodies, some ours, some theirs. The metallic scent of death hung in the air, thick enough to taste. Three of my wolves were dead. Two more were wounded, their howls of pain echoing through the dark. "Casualty count?" I asked without turning around. Nikolai appeared at my shoulder, his usual levity gone. "Three dead. Two critical. A medical team is already on the way, but it could be hours till they get here." "Hours too late for the critical ones?" "Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on how stubborn they are. They'll need to heal on their own first." I nodded. Stubbornness was the only thing that kept wolves alive sometimes. That and spite. The rogue pack had been testing our borders ever since they found out our shipments passed through that border. Small incursions. Quick strikes. Nothing we couldn't handle. But tonight, they'd come in force because they knew we ha

ARIEL (Before Kazimir’s arrival) Out of boredom, I decided to go to Lev's lab. I found Lev in his lab that evening. The room was clinical, white walls, stainless steel counters, machines I didn't recognize humming in the corner. It smelled like antiseptic and something else. Something chemical. Something that made my stomach turn. "Ariel." Lev looked up from his microscope, surprised. "I didn't expect to see you here!" "Well... I was bored." He waited. He was good at that, waiting. Letting silence do the work of prying. I wandered around the room, touching things I probably shouldn't touch. Beakers. Vials. A row of syringes lined up like soldiers. "Can I ask you something?" I said. "You can ask. Whether I answer depends on the question." "Hypothetically. If someone needed a medication that was very very hard to find. Something custom. Something that couldn't be bought at a regular pharmacy. Where would they look?" Lev's eyes sharpened. "Hypothetically?" "Hypo