Todos los capítulos de The Alpha's Regret The Enemy's Claim: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 6

The moon chose me for him, but he said my name like it was a mistake.I stood in the center of the Iron-Claw Collective's pack hall with three hundred wolves watching, the air thick with the scent of pine and old blood. Torches flickered along the stone walls, casting shadows that jumped and danced across the faces of the pack. My hands were steady, but my heart was not.Ezekiel Cross stood across from me, tall and broad-shouldered, his silver-gray hair cropped short and his gray eyes cold and distant. He looked everywhere except at me.I had spent twenty-two years being invisible, twenty-two years being useful, twenty-two years watching people look through me like I was part of the furniture. And now the moon had chosen me for him.Elara Fritz.The name echoed through the hall, but it didn't sound like him. It sounded rehearsed, hollow, like he had practiced this moment alone in his chambers.I waited. The bond pulled at my chest, a tug I had felt from the moment I walked in—the warm

The fire crackled in the hearth. I sat in the chair Xavia had pointed to, my hands resting on my knees, my nails still digging into my palms. His coat was still wrapped around my shoulders, heavy and warm, and the scent of ozone and wet slate clung to me like a second skin.My body was exhausted, but my mind was racing. The bond hummed in my chest, a constant reminder that I was sitting in an enemy fortress, drinking from a bottle he had given me.Xavia stood across from me, his back to the fire. The flames cast shadows across his face, making him look even more unreadable. He had been watching me since we walked in—not staring exactly, but studying, like I was a wound he was trying to diagnose."You're shaking," he said.I looked at my hands. They were trembling against my thighs. I pressed them flat and forced them still."I'm fine.""You're not." He walked to the desk and pulled open a drawer, taking out a small glass bottle filled with dark liquid. "Drink this."I stared at it. "W

Three days passed—three days of training, of aching muscles and bloody knuckles. Three days of Xavia pushing me harder than I thought I could go, and three days of the pack watching me like I was a disease they were waiting to see spread. They did not trust me, and I could not blame them. I did not trust me either.But I kept going, because stopping meant giving up, and I was done giving up.On the fourth morning, I woke to a knock on my door. I opened it to find Callum standing in the hallway, his face grave and his eyes sharp and assessing."Alpha wants you," he said.I followed him, getting used to these summons. We passed through the training grounds where wolves sparred in pairs, their grunts and the crack of wood against wood filling the air. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window as I walked past. I looked different than I had a few days ago—harder, more alert.He led me not to the training grounds or the study, but to the entrance hall. The fortress doors were wide op