All Chapters of Claimed by my Sister's Fiancé : Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

MARCUS POV"You're the first person I've met in considerable time who hasn't immediately asked me a single question about my former crown. I confess, I find that rather refreshing."I said it to the woman across the small café table, having met her entirely by accident three weeks earlier during my latest, aimless travels through a coastal territory I'd never previously had reason to visit as King."Should I have asked," Marisol Vane said, amusement evident in her voice. She shared a surname with women from my own complicated history, though she assured me, laughing, that the two families had never once crossed paths. "I confess I didn't recognise you until my sister mentioned it rather excitedly after our first coffee together.""Most people recognise me rather quickly," I admitted. "It's part of why I find myself so genuinely enjoying your company. You simply talked to me. About books, about the harbour, about your considerable frustration with the local fishing quotas. Nothing abou

ELIRA POV"Callum's daughter arrives next week. Silas has started actually smiling at breakfast, which Eleanor tells me hasn't happened with any regularity in roughly thirty years. And apparently Marcus has fallen thoroughly, completely for a bookshop owner three territories away who has absolutely no interest in his former crown whatsoever."I delivered the update to Kian over dinner, genuine delight evident in my voice at the sheer, unexpected warmth of it all."It's rather remarkable," Kian said, "watching an entire household of people who spent years quietly supporting our own family's chaos finally, one by one, building their own genuine happiness.""I think that's rather the point of everything we've built here," I said. "It was never only ever about our own family surviving. It was about creating a place where genuine connection eventually became possible for absolutely everyone who chose to stay close to it."Callum's careful nervousness in the days leading up to his daughter'

WREN POV"You must be the new recruit. Denna tells me you climbed the eastern ridge in a storm during your certification trial without a single word of complaint. Either remarkably brave or remarkably foolish, and I haven't quite decided which yet."I said it to the tall, sandy haired man waiting in the operations yard, his gear already properly organised with the particular meticulous care that told me considerably more about his character than any written recommendation could have managed."Fraser Buchanan," he said, offering a firm handshake. "And I'd say a bit of both, honestly. My grandfather always claimed a Buchanan never once backed down from a proper challenge, foolish or otherwise.""That sounds like exactly the kind of family motto that gets people killed in this line of work," I said, though I found myself already warming to his easy, unbothered humour."Aye, well, we're also stubborn enough to survive most of our own foolishness," Fraser said, grinning. "Four generations

SILAS POV"I've served this household for the better part of thirty five years. I've broken up conspiracies, buried loyal men who died protecting people they barely knew, and stood beside three generations of Ashgrove Alphas through crises I once believed might genuinely end this family entirely. I have never, in all that time, been quite this nervous about anything."I said it to Selene, both of us standing at the same quiet garden bench where we'd first properly reconnected the previous year, a small velvet box weighing considerably heavier in my jacket pocket than its actual size should have reasonably allowed."You're going to have to actually say whatever's making you this nervous eventually, Silas," Selene said, warm amusement evident despite the genuine tenderness in her expression. "I confess my own patience has limits, even for a man I've grown to care for quite so considerably."I drew a slow breath, thirty five years of careful, disciplined composure suddenly feeling entire

WREN POV"Say it again. Slower this time, because I want to be entirely certain I heard you correctly."Fraser's voice had gone tight, careful, and I felt my own pulse spike as Denna repeated the report a second time, considerably grimmer than anything our network had faced in the two years since I'd formally taken command."A landslide, roughly forty minutes ago, buried the entire lower ridge trail through the Umbral pass," Denna said. "Corvina's youngest brother was leading a survey team through that exact corridor. Three wolves confirmed missing, and Callum's satellite feed shows the weather closing in fast enough that we've got maybe two hours before visibility drops to nothing."I felt my stomach drop, and beside me, Fraser had already gone still in the particular, focused way I'd learned meant he was calculating risk rather than simply reacting to it."Corvina's brother," I repeated. "Does she know yet.""She's the one who called it in," Denna said. "She's asking for you specifi