All Chapters of CLAIMED BY THE FOUR ALPHA BROTHERS: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Daven's POVThe screen didn't get any easier to read the second time.I found her. It's Mara.Four words. And somewhere behind me I heard the door to Jade’s building shut close. Soft. Intentional. The sound of Calla giving neither of us more or less room than we required and not an inch more. She hadn’t turned back when she went in. I understood why. There wasn’t an iteration of my face at this moment that would have made lingering out here any less awkward for either of us. I stayed there long enough that the lamp above me hummed and flickered once; a moment after that I felt my own name flutter in my chest, nestled beside hers as if it belonged there the whole time and I just hadn't noticed before.Mara.A legal consultant. The woman that sat at the dinner table I can remember for the past decade, mute at the side while holding a bunch of paperwork that no one else wanted to read. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask why a woman so adept at finding things had never actually found anyt

Calla's POVThe hammering started before I'd even reached the gate.I recognized it in the way you feel about a missing tooth with your tongue even before you know you’re looking, an unconscious little mechanism within me already braced for a break room ambush or a curt hallway apology that did not materialize. Merely the sliding doors on an ordinary lobby, ordinary sunlight, three strangers in smart business wear looking at their phones as if this was a building where never anyone had suffered a thing.It ought to have felt like a relief. Primarily it was.However, there remained, beneath the relief, another thing and thin and bizarre and nearer to suspicion, as in this job, three weeks in, I had discovered, quiet mornings at all times really meant everyone was just trying harder to be quiet.Steady, unhurried, and I stood there a second longer than I meant to, keys to nothing in my pocket, just listening, because some small stupid part of me had already guessed who it was before I'

Calla's POV"Since I was nineteen" wasn't an answer. It was a door standing half open, and I'd spent enough of my life learning not to walk through doors men left half open on purpose that some old, tired part of me almost let it go right there.I didn't."That's not what I asked." I kept my hand where it was, close to his on the beam, close enough that the warmth under my own skin hadn't faded yet, just sat there low and patient like it was waiting to see what either of us would do about it."I asked what it means. Nineteen years old is a fact. It's not an explanation."Knox didn't pull his hand back this time. That was new, or at least new enough that I noticed it happening, the two of us standing there with matching scars close enough to touch and neither of us moving away first."Don't have one," he said. "Not a real one. I've had three years to think about it and the truth is I've got nothing better than a guess, and I'm not going to stand here and hand you a guess dressed up li

Calla's POVThe pain woke me up before my alarm did, which was how I knew, somewhere underneath the part of me still trying to argue otherwise, that this had stopped being something I could out-stubborn.It was the heat, first of all. Not normal heat-not the slow ache of a bruise finally declaring its presence, either-but a definite throb that was sharp when I drew a breath and even worse when I let it out, expanding outward in invisible lines from the scar under my collarbone that I could have traced with the edge of my finger, had I only been brave enough to actually touch the damn thing.But I wasn't, hadn't for three consecutive mornings, and couldn't bring myself to do so, not with it getting worse and not better.I managed breakfast by mostly keeping my left arm by my side and my expression mostly placid.Jade wasn't fooled for longer than it took her to hand me a mug of coffee and observe me trying to hold onto the handle when my fingers weren’t really gripping properly anymore

Calla's POVTwo people. One room. The same impossible mark under two different sets of skin, neither with a word to account for it.I watched Soren's hand remain clamped flat against his own collar, his jaw muscle pulsing, and the world held its breath as he fought for composure.Jade was as still in her seat as I was. The nurse who'd been in on a routine check had taken half a step toward the door, looking at Soren through wide, astonished eyes that battled with professional training.“Soren,” I managed, forcing myself to speak his name a second time, softly, the sound less a demand now than a desperate plea. He seemed to be grappling with a shadow he hadn't let surface in a long time. “Talk to me. What is that?”He didn't respond immediately. Instead, he slid the collar of his white coat open a few inches, his fingers trembling ever so slightly more than they had a moment ago against mine, and there it was. Clear and undeniable. A silver-veined scar, raised in the same impossible pa