All Chapters of CLAIMED BY THE FOUR ALPHA BROTHERS: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

Calla's POVThree days into the distance, I was curled up in a chair in my own apartment, the one Calix had tried to buy for me without asking, actually mine now and earned fairly, heat spilling across the wood floor in a way that even I knew was obscene considering what was going on just outside these walls.I didn't turn on the television once in all the time I had been in here.Hadn't looked at my phone more than a few times a day on purpose, making myself sit with it when ordinarily, I would have been doing something with it, or doing something and expecting the need of it before the feeling of it fully came into existence.For the first time in longer than I could remember, there was no one else's fear in this room, only my own, and even it was quieter here, easier to contain without four other people's stares fixed on how I was holding it.Jade had sent two brief text messages, simple comments, not asking for a single thing in return, and Renee sent one email with a tentative upd

Calla's POVI left Knox's workshop lighter than I'd felt in weeks, some old weight finally set down, and by the time I reached my car I'd already decided who was next. Not because guilt told me to. Because I actually wanted to.In the meantime, the night still burned warm in my heart.Knox's voice in the workshop glowed, three years of safety finally giving way to a more natural and honest connection between us.I had yet to tell anyone else. I did not need to rush. That was mine to keep for a little while longer before it became something the house would have an opinion about.I sent Calix a message before I talked myself out of it.'Are you free tomorrow? Just us. No crisis, no meeting. I want to have a real conversation.'His reply came within a minute. 'Yes. Anywhere you want.'We met at a small cafe halfway between his office and my apartment. Neutral territory, nothing about it at all connected to the house or the family or the past three weeks.He was already waiting when I wal

Calla's POVI agreed to meet with Daven for the first time since I'd stormed out with a duffle bag, meeting him in his study rather than somewhere neutral.I wanted to see what he really did while working, not the impotent fantasy of what he did to avoid me."Thanks for coming," he greeted, rising when I arrived, and this time contained a certain written politeness that always reminds me of Calix back at the cafe."I'm not here for thanks."I sat on the other side of the desk, straightening my back, leaving my old posture to languish in my head where it belonged."I'm here to ask you some questions. I want answers, not intentions disguised as progress.""Ask me anything.""I mean it, Daven. Don't answer the way you'd answer the council. Answer the way you'd answer someone who could actually walk back out that door if she doesn't like what she hears.""I understand the difference." He held my gaze, steady despite the visible effort it cost him."What have you actually changed since the

Calla's POVI asked Soren to meet me at the small park near the hospital, somewhere neutral, somewhere that belonged to neither of our lives entirely, finally ready to sit with the weight of what he'd told me on that terrace instead of just carrying it silently."Thank you for asking me here," he said, settling onto the bench beside me, careful distance between us that felt respectful rather than cold. "I wasn't sure you would, after everything.""I almost didn't," I admitted plainly, still watching him. "I had your number in my phone for two days before I sent the message.""What made you finally send it?""I got tired of carrying the question around in my head, like it was something we ought to be hashing out together, not something I figured out all by myself and then called you to give you the answer." "I needed some time to think about it, not just get it. I want to ask you something, and I need you to answer it honestly, even if it's a little hard to get out.""Okay.""What woul

Ronan's POVI called Daven, meaning to give him a five-minute update, the kind I'd been giving weekly since the rescue. And forty minutes later we were still on the phone, both of us apparently more starved for a normal conversation than either of us wanted to admit."Nyx still isn't speaking," I said, walking around the room, phone glued to the side of my face. "She's not refusing exactly. But she ain't saying a word. She eats. She sleeps. She stares at the person watching her like she's sorting something out.""Do you think she's protecting somebody?" Daven asked, his tone focused because he was still speaking his thought process while trying to solve the problem."Perhaps. Or perhaps silence has become her last remaining power in that room, and she isn't willing to relinquish it unless she has a good reason for it." I rubbed a hand over my jaw. "I've offered her things. Better conditions, information about Mara's whereabouts, even a conversation with Calla if she wanted one. Nothi