Too Late To Claim Me のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

The cabin sat forty miles north of the nearest town, folded into trees that didn't show up on any map. I'd bought it for exactly this, a last resort, and never once believed I'd actually need it.Mara was already there when I pulled in, headlights sweeping across the dark porch, Caelum asleep in his car seat with his stuffed wolf tucked under his chin. She met me at the car with a look that asked a hundred questions she knew better than to say out loud in front of him."He didn't ask much," she said quietly, lifting him carefully so he wouldn't wake. "Told him it was a surprise trip. He believed me.""Of course he did." I took him from her arms, his weight familiar and grounding against my chest even half-asleep, the one solid thing in a night that had otherwise come apart at every seam. "He believes everything I tell him.""That's not a bad thing, Aria. Not really.""It is when I keep lying to him, every single day, about something this big."Inside, the cabin smelled like dust and pi

We stayed in the cave four hours. Cold, damp, cramped. Caelum fell asleep in my lap, worn out by adrenaline, while Mara and I sat watching the entrance for any sign they'd circle back."Who could be doing this," I said finally. Not really a question. Mara didn't treat it like one."Do you think it's my stepmother?" I pressed. "She hated me my whole life, even before I left. I used to think it was jealousy. Now I think it might have been something closer to fear.""You think she sent them.""I don't know what to think anymore. The attack on my company. The leak to Sterling. Now this." I looked down at Caelum's sleeping face, his breathing slow and even against my arm. "If she knows about him, if she's known this whole time, she's never going to stop until she has him."Mara was quiet a long moment. Then: "You need to go to Crestwood.""What?""Not with him. Never with him. But you need to go. Find out who's behind this and end it before whoever it is gets close enough to try again.""I

Unknown POVThree hours later, I watched her walk out of the packhouse.Her face was pale, I saw that much even from a distance, but her spine hadn't bent an inch. She held herself like a woman who'd gotten exactly what she came for, chin still lifted, steps unhurried even as the guards at the door watched her go with open suspicion."Ma'am." One of them stepped forward. "Alpha Remus asked that we escort you to your car.""I know the way out." She didn't break stride.He fell back. Smart of him.“She thinks she's safe now.”She was wrong. And she'd just handed me the one piece of information she couldn't afford to give away.I let her get into her car. Let her pull out of the gate, engine low, tires crunching gravel. Then I shed my skin for fur and went after her.She was careful, I'll give her that much credit. Mirrors checked every few seconds. Two sudden turns that led nowhere, meant only to catch a tail. A route that doubled back on itself twice before straightening out again, like

The door to the Alpha's office opened, and every wall I'd spent five years building came down in a single breath.He looked different. Older, in the way that made him more devastating instead of less, faint lines at the corners of his eyes, his jaw sharper, his hair cropped shorter than I remembered. But it was him. The same man who'd stood in my room with his back to me and called our bond a mistake. The same man who'd pressed an envelope into my hands and said, “Don't come back.”“He looks like nothing happened,” my wolf snarled, low and furious. “He looks untouched. How dare he.”I stood without meaning to. My legs simply decided for me. And for one unbearable second I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't do anything but watch his eyes sweep over me and find absolutely nothing there. No recognition. No flicker of memory. Nothing.“That's what I wanted,” I told myself. “That's exactly what I wanted.”It didn't feel like what I wanted."Ms. Vance." He extended his hand like I was

The negotiation stretched into the next hour, careful words traded back and forth like currency neither of us wanted to spend too freely.“You’re asking for exclusive trade rights along the eastern route,” Remus said, tapping one finger against the desk. “That’s a significant concession.”“It’s a fair concession, given what I’m offering in return.”“Which is?”“Vance Properties’ silence.” I let that sit a beat before continuing. “And our discretion. I have relationships with three other packs in this region who would very much like to know if Crestwood is quietly absorbing its neighbors. I haven’t told them anything yet.”His eyes narrowed. “That sounds like a threat, Ms. Vance.”“It’s an incentive, Alpha. There’s a difference, if you’re willing to see it.”He studied me for a long moment, and I made myself hold still under it, made myself breathe evenly even as my pulse hammered somewhere behind my ribs.“You negotiate like someone who’s done this before,” he said finally.“I’ve had f