Todos los capítulos de Claimed by Alpha Xorax and his sons: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

Asher’s POV“I… I was just sorting the alcove, My Prince.”My tongue felt thick and useless. My back was flat against the cold mahogany. Vaelin hovered over me, trapping me there. His thumb pressed harder against my jaw.Then the heavy doors at the far end of the war sanctum burst open.“My Prince!” A Citadel scout stood in the doorway, breathless, dripping sweat. “Urgent rider from the Western border! The Eastern vanguard has breached the outer river gates!”Vaelin didn’t flinch. But the cold around him shifted into something lethal and military. He straightened to full height. Hand left my jaw. He stepped back and smoothed the dark leather of his tunic. His eyes never left my face.“Put the case back on the shelf, boy.” His voice dropped to a smooth dangerous whisper that barely carried. He leaned in once more. Breath brushed my cheek. “Leave us. But do not think for a second that this is over.”“Yes, My Prince.”I jammed the brass case back into the shadows behind the ledgers. The

Asher’s POVI shoved a chunk of cold salted meat into my mouth and barely chewed before I swallowed it down.I was sitting on a low wooden crate in the dark back alcove of the servant kitchens with my knees pulled up against my chest. Beside me Lyra sliced thick slabs of bread, but my head was somewhere else entirely, wandering through the cold narrow stone conduits mapped out on Vaelin’s blueprint.Every detail was burned into my brain. The turn past the wine cellar. The rusted iron grate behind the laundry chutes. The secret spiral staircase that bypassed the main guard posts and dumped straight into King Alpha Xorax’s private quarters. It was perfect. It was the key to putting a blade through his throat if I lived long enough to walk those tunnels without getting caught.But Vaelin’s eyes kept flashing in my mind. The way he had towered over me in his war sanctum, thumb digging into my jaw, breath brushing my ear before the scout interrupted us.He knew I was searching for somethi

AsherPOVThe blood on my neck had barely dried before Kaelen reluctantly let me leave his private suite to wash in the lower servant quarters.The moment my feet touched the cold stone floor of the servant halls, the silence was immediate and deafening.The lower hall slaves and kitchen workers stood frozen along the corridors, staring at me as if I were a ghost, or a monster. No one met my eye. No one dared to step into my path. Word of what I had done to Garrick in the cellar had spread like wildfire, and the visible, fresh bite mark standing out on my collarbone only made it worse. To them, I was no longer just a wolfless slave. I was a dangerous, unpredictable curse who had the two most powerful princes in the Citadel tearing each other apart.I reached the basin area and splashed cold water over my face, scrubbing at the dried dark iron of Vaelin’s bite."Asher."I turned to see Lyra standing in the doorway, holding a bundle of towels. Her gray eyes weren't filled with the usua

Asher’s POVKaelen walked me all the way back to the servants’ wing. His hand stayed on my back the whole time. Every footstep echoed off the vaulted stone. Stewards stopped mid-task. Guards stared. Scullery maids pressed themselves against the walls and watched us pass in silence. A High Alpha prince walking a wolfless slave through the Citadel, wearing a custom crimson silks was not something this court was used to seeing, and the quiet that followed us felt thick enough to choke on.At the threshold of the lower quarters he stopped and turned to face me.“Get some rest, Asher,” he said, soft. “Tomorrow is the festival. The entire court will see where you truly belong.”Then he turned on his heel. The crimson mantle snapped behind him as he disappeared into the upper hall shadows, and I was alone again.The next morning I didn’t leave my room, and for some reason, Count Malakor didn’t send for me. Lyra was nowhere to be seen, and everyone was already busy with preparationsHours pa

Asher’s POVKing Alpha Xorax didn’t just walk down the stone catwalk. He glided. Black mist of shadow magic pooled under his iron boots and swirled with every slow step, like the air itself was rising to carry his weight.I held my breath. My fingers dug into the velvet of my trousers. In my head I had always pictured a monster. Scarred. Withered. A twisted old tyrant whose ugliness matched the magic he used when he tore my wolf out of me years ago.I was wrong.When Xorax stepped onto the high dais and the torchlight caught his face, my heart stopped.He didn’t look like a dying king. He looked like a third brother to Vaelin and Kaelen, a High Alpha frozen in his absolute prime. He had Vaelin’s sharp jaw and Kaelen’s dark striking features, but his skin held a pale marble sheen untouched by sun. Black hair spilled over a collar of bear fur. His eyes were a terrifying shade of gold that burned like twin dying stars.So this is him, I thought, bitter ice flooding my veins as I locked