All Chapters of CLAIMED BY THE FOUR ALPHA BROTHERS: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Calla's POVIt seemed like Draven almost didn't make it, as he quickly rolled out of the giant's way just in time as it slammed down its enormous hand, which kicked up a storm of dust and ash all around it.The woman from that basin chamber responded swiftly, as she put her hands up high, before a rush of light in a form of silver shot out from it like a beam and went towards the giant's forearm which didn't have a lot of effect on the body made out of combined bone and stone of the giant but instead it only left a shallow line of scorched skin on the giant who didn't appear to be hurt."It's nowhere near enough," she panted, staggering backwards with her failed effort. Shaking her head, she didn't even think of what strength she could muster up. It wouldn't be anywhere near enough to even touch this as it'd existed so long ago. She collapsed, the heavy feeling of what was happening pressing her down until her knees shook with the lack of it."Don't even think about doing it by yourse

Calla's POVNobody so much as stirred for the time it took the last ringing note to stop echoing against stone, and I used every second of that stillness to turn and sprint. Not toward Draven, however.Past him, my shoulder catching the doorframe just hard enough to trigger a new surge of agony through the tender stitch still closing underneath my collarbone, and through my dazed ears I heard my name, ragged and disbelieving. But he didn't grab for me, didn't chase, just stood frozen in that open cell door like the ground under his own feet had finally given out the way mine had three years ago.I climbed two stairs at a time up the emergency well alongside the cell block; the cell blocks themselves were blissfully clear as of yet. The tumult unleashed in the main hall, wherever that was located thanks to Nyx’s scream-whatever that could have achieved, either way-hadn’t filtered down yet, not here. My skin itched; the old current still hummed and sparked beneath my flesh as though

Calla's POVI crossed the room before Jade had even finished the sentence, snatching the phone out of her hand with fingers that weren't entirely steady.The message sat there, ordinary in every visible way, a client inquiry template like a hundred others probably sitting in that inbox, except for the subject line, which read, plainly, without embellishment: For the attention of Calla Rhys, regarding a position within the firm."That's not possible," I said, reading it twice, three times, just waiting for the words to rearrange themselves into something less impossible. "I haven't applied anywhere. I don't even have a resume put together yet. We were literally just talking about building one.""I know." Jade's voice had now gone tight, careful, already reaching for the phone to scroll further down the message. "Which means whoever sent this either already knew you'd end up here tonight, or……. they've been watching this apartment a lot longer than either of us wants to think about."

Calla's POVI read the text three times before my hands stopped shaking enough to type anything back."Prove it," I sent, thumb hovering over the send button a full second before I actually let myself commit to it. "Prove you actually have her."The reply came back faster than felt natural, like he'd been waiting with the phone already in hand.A photo loaded a moment later, grainy, low light, and my stomach dropped the instant it resolved.Nyx, unmistakably Nyx even stripped of her usual polish, sitting in what looked like a plain wooden chair, hands bound loosely in front of her.Mascara tracking down both cheeks in a way that told me whatever had happened to get her into that chair, it hadn't been gentle."Oh, my god." Jade leaned over my shoulder, staring at the screen with an expression caught somewhere between horror and reluctant satisfaction. "They actually have her."Another message followed the photo. "She's been talking. More than she probably should, given who she's st

Calla's POVI sat with that photograph in my lap for longer than I should have, staring at my mother's smiling, impossibly young face until the numbers on my monitor blurred into meaningless shapes.He knows you're here.Four words. No name associated with either half of that sentence, no way to know if he was talking about the ash-entity or Mara, or the dead man whose testimony I’d watched explode on a burning hillside, or someone else I had not yet met. It was the vicious beauty of the whole setup I realised as I sat there with my coffee cooling next to a pile of onboarding paperwork I hadn’t touched in ten minutes. Whoever sent this knows exactly how many candidates that single pronoun could apply to, and had chosen it deliberately, precisely because the not-knowing would do more damage than a name ever could. “You okay?”One of my coworkers, someone with a kind, uncomplicated smile, the one with nothing sharp hidden behind. Paused at the edge of my desk, with a couple of folde