Todos os capítulos de Claimed By The Beast: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 5

I was knee deep in mud that was colder than it had any right to be, the wet seep of it soaked my pants, biting into my knees as if the forest itself was trying to tell me I didn’t belong here. Twilight curled through the forest in thin ribbons, the damp air curling at the back of my throat like a name I should not speak. My brush scraped at the filth and grime that had clung to the slab throughout the years, revealing a clean polished jet of black stone. Strange symbols lined its edges etched with cold veins of petrified light. My breath caught as I ran my gloved hands through it, relishing the chill I felt."Doctor Vance!"I nearly jumped at the sound of my assistant's voice as he slid down the shallow trench at my side. Mud clung to his pants in thick ropes as he landed next to me, his eyes wide with the thrill of youth."There's something beneath the slab, doctor," He whispered, his voice shaking with a strange emotion as his eyes locked onto the dark object nestled between the ro

The first thing I became aware of was the cold, the pervasive cold that seemed to come from the very stones, which didn’t seem to have felt the warming touch of the sun in centuries. It wormed its way through my bones, along with the stench of iron and blood. Worse still, the acrid fragrance of dead flowers clung to the air like perfume from a grave.The wolf man tossed me to the floor roughly, and I landed on my knees, pain blooming from my wrists and up my shoulders. I bit my lip hard to keep from crying out, not giving these savages the satisfaction of knowing I was hurt.Slowly and carefully, I pushed myself up until I was looking into the cavernous hall. My heart pounded frantically in my ears.The hall was huge, the ceiling lost in the smog of the torches, which made the air look like liquid gold. Odd, jagged bones littered the floor, their canines glinting, their skulls pierced by arrows and ancient steel. Rows of human skeletons, grotesquely posed in death, stood along the far

Sleep was a country I could not cross.I lay on the furs still clothed, the filth of the excavation clinging to me like a second skin. The fire had burned low, glowing faintly red now, along with the candles, like a dying heartbeat. Far off in the castle, some distant, deep part of it, a wolf was howling, weaving nonsensical patterns of sound in the night, and I sat up, my heart pounding in my ears in frantic rhythm. I was tired, but my mind refused to still, spinning through images of golden eyes and a deep laughter that had sounded like both a threat and a surrender. I had to move, to delude myself into thinking that I still had some fragment of agency. The chamber revealed more of itself as I paced the limit of my chain. Shelves bowed under the weight of ancient books, there was a writing desk in one corner, with dried ink pots and black feathers, a suit of armor atood silence in the alcove, its wolf shaped helm watched me with hollow eyes. Behind the hearth was a tapestry, va