All Chapters of Too Late To Claim Me: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

I stared at him, my mind struggling to keep pace with what he was telling me. A stranger. A man I'd known for barely a week, whose full name I'd only learned from a badge clipped to his coat. And he'd gone this far to shield me from exposure, without asking a single thing in return until now."Why?" I asked again, quieter this time, some of the fight draining out of my voice. "Why would you do that for me? People don't just do that. Not for strangers."Something flickered behind his eyes, old, sad, worn smooth by time the way grief eventually gets worn smooth, softened at the edges but never fully gone. "Because I've been in your position before. I know what it's like to hide who you are. To live terrified that someone will find out and use it against you." His jaw tightened, and for a moment the calm, careful doctor's mask slipped just enough for me to see something rawer underneath it. "I couldn't let that happen to you. Not when it was in my power to stop it."Tears pricked at my ey

"Are you coming back?" Caelum asked, tilting his head up at Dr. Nolan. "After you check on Mummy?""This evening," Dr. Nolan said. "I have a few more patients to see first. But I'll swing by before I leave for the night.""Okay." Caelum nodded like he was filing the information somewhere important. "I'll wait here. We can talk about birds.""I'll look forward to it."Dr. Nolan straightened, and his eyes found mine, holding there a beat longer than the moment strictly required. Something passed behind them I couldn't quite read, not quite a warning, not quite tenderness, something caught in the space between the two."I'll be back this evening," he said, out loud, for the room. "Rest, Ms. Vance. You need your strength.""I will," I said, my voice softer than I meant it to be.Caelum waved with his whole arm, nearly falling off the bed with the effort of it. "Bye, hero doctor!""Goodbye, little man." He paused at the door, hand on the frame, and turned back one last time. "Ms. Vance?""Y

After Caelum had fallen asleep again, worn out by the excitement of the day, Dr. Nolan and I sat in silence.The room had gone dim, lit only by the soft glow of the monitor beside my bed, its steady rhythm the only sound besides our own breathing. Caelum was curled on his cot across the room, stuffed wolf clutched to his chest, breathing slow and even, blessedly unaware of the conversation about to happen a few feet away from him."There's something I've been meaning to tell you," Nolan said finally, breaking a silence that had stretched long enough to feel deliberate.My heart rate ticked up. "What is it?"He was quiet a moment, eyes fixed on his own hands like he was deciding how much of this he actually owed me. "The reason I recognized you, it wasn't only because you're a werewolf. It's because I've been tracking the Order for years. And I know they're hunting someone carrying the Silverwood bloodline."The blood drained from my face. "How do you even know that name?""Because they

AriaThe figure stepped into the moonlight, and for one breathless moment, I had thought that I was looking at a ghost.He was tall and broad-shouldered, with his face half-hidden in the shadow. He held himself, like a man who'd spent his entire life expecting to be attacked."Who are you?" I called out, trying to keep my voice calm. "Why did you bring me here?"The figure didn't answer."Who are you?" I called out again, my voice sounding steadier and calmer than I felt.The figure didn't answer. He just simply turned and began walking away, he then disappeared into the shadows of the ruins."Wait!" I rushed forward, my heart pounding fast. "Please, I just want to talk!"But he kept walking, his footsteps were silent on the broken stones. I followed him, my legs carrying me forward before my mind even could catch up."Please," I called out again. "I already came all this way. I just want to know who you are. Please I just want to know what you know."There was still no answer. The f

I drove home in a daze, lucky I didn't put the car in a ditch somewhere along the way.His words wouldn't leave me alone. They played on a loop, over and over, louder than the road noise, louder than my own thoughts trying to argue back.You're weak. Foolish. Desperate.Your mother was just like you. She died because she was too foolish to see the trap. Just like you didn't see this one either.My knuckles had gone white on the wheel. Every muscle in my body ached from hours of chasing a shadow through wilderness that never seemed to end, but the physical pain was nothing next to the hollow ache sitting in my chest.I'd been played. Used. Led on a hunt by someone who wanted nothing more than to watch me unravel.And I'd walked right into it, eyes wide open, like I hadn't learned a single thing in five years.Like mother, like daughter.The thought made me want to scream into the empty car.I pulled into my driveway as the first gray light of dawn crept over the horizon. The house sat d