Claimed By The Fallen King Novels & Stories

I nudged the fabric I had found at them, staring at each of them " The last we know is that she rolled off the cliff, or she was shot, we searched everywhere, but we couldn't find her. We might have lost not just the last of the Marcover blood but my heir as well, the reason why we had to do all of this" " No," one of them shook his head, not believing it. " We have to be hopeful and..." The door cranked open, revealing Lexis whose face gave me the answer. The despair on them told me it had been futile. " We found these clothes." he placed them on the table. " It belongs to the queen, and we can't say if she is alive or dead."

I collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. “Not everything is worth crying over,” one of the older women said gently, trying to console me. “And you shouldn’t believe everything that woman says.” She paused before adding, “Only those who haven’t shifted are brought here.” I looked at her through my tears, my body trembling. I stayed there on the cold floor until midnight, regret weighing heavily on my heart. I cursed myself for allowing the king to take my virginity. Perhaps that was all he had wanted from me.

Certain. This might be the craziest decision I've ever made. But it feels right. The King dies at dawn. We're all there. Watching as he takes his last breath. "I'm sorry," he says to me at the end. "For your pack. For everything." Then he's gone. The guards look at me. Waiting. "I choose Caius Thorne as King," I say clearly. "And I claim Damon and Kieran as my bonded princes. All three stay. All three rule."

Ancient beyond measure, beautiful in the way predators were beautiful, eyes that held centuries of cruelty and calculation. She smiled when she saw us, the expression showing pleasure rather than surprise. "Dante Russo," she said, her voice carrying power that made the air feel heavy. "The hybrid king who thinks he can challenge a thousand years of vampire supremacy." "You knew we were coming," I said, already calculating escape routes and finding none that didn't go through forty soldiers. "Of course I knew." Morgana stood gracefully from her throne. "Did you really think Sophia's infiltration went undetected? That I wouldn't notice a hybrid spy among my recruits?"

Wearing a crown made of bone and silence. A voice rose behind her. “Your Majesty.” She turned. Soldiers knelt in rows that stretched endlessly into smoke. They were waiting for her command. And she understood instantly— this was her. Not this moment. Another life. Another Aria. A queen forged in war instead of prophecy. Her throat tightened. She opened her mouth— and the world shattered again. She stumbled. Air rushed back into her lungs violently. King’s hand was on her arm instantly, steadying her before she fell completely.

“I didn’t want it. For years, I ran from it. I thought if I stayed small, if I stayed quiet, the King wouldn’t find me. I was wrong.” She paused, letting that sink in. “The King is dead,” she said. “I killed him. With Kael at my side. With all of you behind me.” The bond flared warm at her chest. “But his heirs aren’t done,” she said. “Sera and Orin escaped today. They’ll come back. With more mercs, more magic, more blood. They’ll try to burn Blackthorn to the ground just like Aldric did.” Fear flickered through the crowd. Elena felt it.

"You have two choices, Cassie. You can leave here tonight as the girl who got publicly dumped and humiliated by a scumbag or you can leave as the girl who upgraded." "Upgraded? You are more like a downgrade Dom." Cassie repeated flatly. "Ouch…" "I'm not lying. You are the rogue of the house, why should I be glad I am ending up with you?" "Well I wasn't the one who just got dumped, sweetheart. You dodged a bullet and you're worried about the reputation of your saviour?"

"—my cousin serves in the east guard. Says the King put down that uprising near Thornfield without losing a single man of his own." "I heard it was six villages that rose up against the crown that year." "Eight. And he was barely more than a boy himself when it happened." The first girl lowers her voice, though not enough. "They still tell it like a warning, out that way. Don't test him twice. He only lets you make one mistake." "He was crowned young too," the other girl says. "Younger than us, probably, the year his father died." The grinding stops for a second. Neither of them says anything else about that.

It fell into the snow in a heavy heap, a discarded symbol of the tyranny that had hunted me since birth. "We are not rebels," I said, baring my fangs slightly as I looked down at the fallen crest. "The King is a usurper who stole the throne from the hybrid line. We are not hiding in these mountains waiting for his executioners to find us again. We are marching to take back what belongs to my blood."

Kade's hand dropped from my face, the softness gone in an instant, replaced by the coiled readiness I recognized from every crisis since I'd arrived. "What does it say?" I asked, my voice steadier than I felt. The guard hesitated, glancing at Kade like he needed permission to answer, and Kade's single nod was all it took. "It says Rurik knows about the rumors circling the court," the guard said. "And he intends to make sure everyone believes them — starting with proof that the King's human bride isn't safe inside these walls, no matter how many declarations he makes in a feast hall."