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All Chapters of Claiming the RUNT: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

51 Chapters

C1

"Obi, look at me when I’m talking to you! Or do I need to break a limb to get your attention?""I... I can't hear you if you aren't facing me, Enforcer. Please, your grip—""Shut it, Ashford! I don't care about your excuses or your broken ears. Your old man’s empire is ash, and you’re just the leftover trash we haven't burned yet. Stand up! The Sire is tired of waiting.""Where are you taking me? Is it the Hollow Pit again?""The Hollow Pit is too good for a runt like you. You’re going to the Duke’s Suite. Cassius Okoye wants to see exactly what Gideon Ashford left behind. Move!""Wait, I can't keep up! My legs—they aren't strong like yours. I've been sick since the siege began.""Keep stumbling and I’ll drag you by your hair through the halls of the Ashfang Dominion. You think being a Duke’s son makes you special? In the Shadowfang Syndicate, you’re less than the dirt on Cassius’s boots. Now, move your useless ass!""Is he... is he going to kill me today?""Kill you? Death is a mercy

C2

"Why am I the one paying for his sins? Why don't you direct this vengeance toward my father instead? He is the one who ran the Syndicate!""You think I haven't asked that same question every night for a decade? Why me? Why my family?""I don't know... I didn't choose to be born an Ashford!""Look at me, Obi! My parents are rotting in the ground because of Gideon. My younger siblings were executed while I was forced to serve as a foot soldier for the Black Eagle, treated like a dog in the Ashfang Dominion. Your father told me that power is the only truth—that the strong do as they wish and the weak suffer what they must. Now, I have the power. Take off that silk. Get on the bed.""Please... don't do this. I’ve never... nobody has ever touched me. Please, Cassius!""You're begging? I spent ten years begging! Every time Gideon or Draven used me as a punching bag, I begged. And you know what they said? They said a slave has no right to words. You aren't a Duke's son anymore. You’re my pro

C3

"The shirt Cassius left on the ground is so oversized it almost reaches my knees, like I'm wearing a tent. He’s massive, isn't he?""Shut up, Ashford. Just keep moving. You’re lucky the Sire didn't finish what he started with your brother Draven. You're still breathing.""Why did you stop dragging me? Are you tired of hurting me already?""I'm not a monster, kid. I just follow orders. Besides, how did a devil like Gideon Ashford father someone as small and broken as you? You can't even hear the sirens when they go off.""I... I can't understand you when you look away. Is the First Lord watching this? Does the sky always look this dark from the Hollow Pit?""Forget the sky. Get inside the cell. I’ll make sure someone throws a scrap of bread your way. Move it, Obi.""It’s so cold in here. My skin feels like it’s on fire but I can’t stop shaking. Is this another fever?""So, the Ashford boy is a ghost in his own head? He truly can't hear a word?""That’s the word from the Syndicate scout

C4

Obi's looking like a corpse again, isn't he? He's barely breathing over there in the corner of the Hollow Pit.""I told you, the kid was born a runt. Gideon’s bad blood. He’s shivering like he’s in the arctic, but the cell is like a furnace tonight. I'll give him forty-eight hours, max.""Think the Sire wants him dead? He’s been down twice this week. If the lungs don't give out, the infection will.""If Cassius has any sense, he’ll put a bullet in the Ashford boy’s head and end the misery. It’s a waste of a cell. My family spent ten years in the gutter because of the Black Eagle, but even I feel sick looking at that skeletal thing. He’s a walking ghost.""Yeah, well, ghosts don't pay debts. Let him rot. It’s more than the Ashfords gave our people when the Yellow Teeth were running the streets. Let’s get a drink; the runt isn't going anywhere but the morgue.""Go ahead, Malakai! Cut me! You’re still a dog in a suit! I’m Draven Ashford! I’ll burn this city with you inside it! AHHHH!""K

C5

"I’m begging you, Cassius, show some mercy to Master Obi! He has endured enough at the hands of his own blood! Please, let me go to him! Let me be in the Hollow Pit with him so he isn't alone in the dark!""You want to rot in a cage for an Ashford? Get up, Amira. Your loyalty is misplaced. I don’t care about your tears or the sob stories regarding the Duke’s parenting style. He was a Prince of the Black Eagle. That makes him my enemy.""Sire Cassius, Tavian is here. He says it’s urgent. Step aside, woman.""What is the status, Tavian? Did the Enforcers secure the perimeter?""Forget the perimeter for a second, Cassius. The boy is out cold. He’s unresponsive in the cell.""What do you mean 'unresponsive'? Did someone touch him without my orders?""No, he’s just fading. His system is crashing. He won't survive the night unless we bring in Elder Nnamdi Vale or a proper Syndicate doctor. He’s circling the drain.""Obi! No! Sire, please, save him! He’s innocent! He shouldn't have to pay fo

C6

"I am not letting him wear this filth, Selah. It’s a death sentence for his dignity. Look at this—it’s nothing but thin lace and shame! Obi is a man, not a toy for the Shadowfang Syndicate!""He’s whatever the Sire says he is now, Amira. You think the Black Eagle showed us mercy when we were the ones in the dirt? Put it on him or I’ll tell Malakai you’re obstructing Syndicate business. You know how he handles 'obstructions'.""Obi is sick! He has a fever! How can you stand there and talk about orders when he can barely lift his head?""Tell him to find his strength, then. Because if he’s naked when Cassius walks in, it won't be the fever that kills him. That’s what all of us had to do to survive Gideon’s reign—we learned to serve. Now it's his turn.""You were the Duke's favorite once, Selah. You of all people should know he had nothing to do with his father's cruelty!""And yet, I was the one covered in soot while he was the one in silk. Now the silk is gone. Make sure he's ready. Th

C7

"Obi Ashford? Is he still breathing or did the fever finally take the last of that Black Eagle pride?""He’s in your Suite, Cassius. Amira brought him in an hour ago. He’s out cold on the sofa. Looks like a discarded doll someone forgot to throw away. He’s skin and bone, Sire.""I don't have time for a dying boy. Tavian, keep the Enforcers on the perimeter. I have to scrub this street filth off me before I even think about dealing with Gideon’s mistake. Tell the doctor if the runt dies before I get back, it's his neck.""The doctor says he’s stabilized, but his heart is weak. He’s a runt, Cassius. He doesn't have the constitution of a soldier. He shouldn't even be alive after a week in the Hollow Pit.""He’s alive because I haven't given him permission to die yet. Now get out. I need ten minutes of silence and a hot shower.""Don't take too long, Sire. Malakai is waiting for you in the Pit. He’s been 'playing' with Draven Ashford for three hours. He’s starting to get creative.""I’m c

8

You actually believe your father’s way was the right path? Look at you, Cassius. Your old man was a fossil, a relic of a time when 'honor' meant something. In this life, honor is just a word weak men use before they get a bullet in the brain. He was too soft for the Ashfang Dominion, and that’s why the Black Eagle tore his world apart.""My father died with his dignity, Draven. Something you won't understand while you’re shackled to that chair.""Dignity doesn't put food on the table or fear in your enemies' hearts. But speaking of deaths... I remember exactly how my father handled Leana. The way her name tasted in his mouth before he ended her. It’s a pity, really. I heard she was carrying the next Okoye heir. A little prince for your fallen Syndicate.""Keep her name out of your mouth, Draven. You’re playing with fire you can't extinguish.""Oh, did I hit a nerve? My father told me all about it. She kept screaming for you, Cassius. She begged and pleaded while he took a blade to her

9

I thought you’d never stop working, Cassius," Selah said, her voice dropping into that rehearsed, sultry lilt as she set the silver tray on my mahogany desk. "I’ve prepared a vintage blend and some small bites. You’ve been staring at those blueprints for thirty-six hours. Even a Sire needs to breathe."I didn't look up. My eyes were burning, tracking the logistics of the Ashfang Dominion’s new ports. Selah moved like she owned the air in the room, her silk slip dress shimmering—a far cry from the rags she wore when I pulled her out of the basement of the Black Eagle’s old estate. For three years, she’d been the only constant in my bed, leading the Syndicate’s staff to treat her like the unspoken Queen of the underworld. They whispered that she’d be the one to wear the Okoye diamonds one day.In this life, heirs were a necessity. My first wife and my unborn son had been butchered by the Ashfords, and the chance of finding another partner who understood the weight of the Syndicate was a

10

Get that rag on your back and move your feet, Ashford, before I let the boys use your skin for target practice."I didn't argue. I just gripped the stiff, oil-stained canvas tunic Bian threw at me and pulled it over my head. It smelled like old sweat, rust, and the metallic tang of dried blood from whoever had worn it before me, but I kept my mouth shut. My fingers were still trembling from the fever, but I forced myself to fold my silk shirt and slide it into the rusted locker."The shift doesn't end until the sirens wail at dusk," Bian told me, her voice dropping as she checked the corridor. "And that’s only if the floor manager gives the green light. If he says you stay, you keep shoveling coal into the furnace lines. You get me?""I get it," I whispered.When we stepped out onto the foundry floor, Dalia was already waiting, pacing like a caged animal. She locked her sharp, hateful eyes onto me, but I immediately looked down at the concrete. I knew the protocol. In the Shadowfang S

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