Claimed by the scarred Alpha

CHRIS

The second I stepped out of Lucian’s quarters, the euphoria of feeling without constriction was already flooding back into my throat, and I understood exactly what that meant.

The spell was gone.

I didn’t waste time testing it again and again. Saying Séverine’s name and the Archambault family name again and again.

After that, I didn’t stop to marvel at the fact that I could finally form words without invisible fingers closing around my windpipe. I ran instead, straight through the corridors of the estate, grabbing the first sentinel I passed and demanding to know where the Alpha was.

"His study," the man said, startled by the state of me.

I went there directly.

Two sentinels stood outside the door, and when I tried to push past them, they blocked my way with the ease of men used to keeping people out.

"The Alpha is in a meeting," one of them said. "With a sentinel officer and the Beta."

"Well that Beta is my father," I said, "and I’m bringing him and the Alpha news."

They didn’t budge, so I raised my voice, loud enough that it carried straight through the door, loud enough that whatever careful, private conversation was happening on the other side had no choice but to acknowledge the disturbance.

"I said I bring news for the Alpha!"

My father was the one who came to check.

He looked surprised to see me, then almost immediately annoyed, the two expressions warring across his face before annoyance won out entirely.

"You should leave. Right now, Chris."

"I’m doing this for the family," I said, standing my ground. "For you. I have information, and it can’t wait."

"What is it about?" a voice said from inside.

I pushed past my father before he could stop me and found Margaux’s father standing near his desk, a letter clutched in one hand, his face red with a fury I’d never seen on him before.

I half wondered if this was the right time. I couldn’t tell what this was about and how that could affect how he received the information I was about to feed him.

My father followed me in, clearly furious himself.

"Chris, this is not the time for your foolish games," he said. "We have a traitor to catch."

"I visited Valcourt," I said louder than him while ignoring him entirely, "recently with my sister. Today I learned the man that we married her to is none other than Étienne Archambault."

My father’s eyes went wide.

"What?" Both him and the Alpha said it at the same time, nearly overlapping.

"It’s true," I said. "And he’s out for revenge."

I could feel the momentum building behind my own words now, something desperate and righteous carrying me forward.

"I didn’t see it fully while we were there," I continued. "But Margaux was different. Something was wrong with her the entire visit. And she sent me a message afterward. She told me she’s being abused."

My father’s expression hardened into something colder.

"Chris," he said, "if this is about your obsession with the Alpha’s daughter, this is not the time for these kinds of games."

"I do love her," I said, and the admission came out easier than I expected, like it had been sitting right beneath the surface for years, waiting for permission to finally show itself. "That’s exactly why I can’t stand by and let this happen. We thought this was simply a political marriage. Rocky, maybe, given the circumstances. But this is so much worse than that."

I looked between them.

"I don’t know how he wormed his way into Valcourt’s bloodline. Maybe he tricked the aging Alpha somehow. But he’s an Archambault. Margaux told me herself. That made me read the files and realize she is danger. She wants to be saved. She said he’s getting into her head. Making her believe she’s insane."

"If that were true," my father said, "she would have called her own father for help."

"I apologize for this, great—" my father started, addressing the Alpha directly, ready to smooth this over the way he always did whenever I became inconvenient.

I cut him off.

"I am not insane," I said, "and I will not be silenced. My silence is exactly why she was taken from us in the first place by that insane man. Margaux couldn’t call anyone else because she believes everyone else already sacrificed her for the sake of peace. I and my sister have been the only ones who has advocated for her. The only one who has fought for her. Protected her. So no... I will not be silent. Not ever again."

My father’s hand came up fast, aimed at my face, the same way it had a dozen times before whenever he decided I’d overstepped some invisible line he’d never bothered to explain.

I caught his wrist before it landed.

I watched something crack across his expression, shock bleeding into something almost like fear, like he hadn’t expected me to have it in me anymore, and honestly, neither had I, until the moment my fingers closed around him.

"Enough," the Alpha said, his voice cutting through the room like a blade.

We both froze.

He set the letter down slowly, his hand trembling slightly with barely restrained fury.

"First," he said, "I was tricked by that bastard Lucian, playing me for a fool for years while he orchestrated goddess knows what behind my back. And now, apparently, a rogue with a legitimate grudge against this entire family is married to my daughter, currently controlling an entire enemy pack from the inside." His eyes swept over both of us, hard and unyielding. "I do not fucking think so."

I let go of my father’s wrist, satisfaction curling warm and vindicating in my chest despite everything else happening around me.

Finally, someone was listening.

I thought about Margaux’s face the last time I’d seen her. Her selling the pretense that she was fine and big a victim of fucking Stockholm syndrome.

She needed me.

She had always needed me, even back when she was too polite, too dutiful, too afraid of disappointing her father and this pack to admit it outright.

I would give her what everyone else in her life had failed to give her.

Someone willing to burn everything down to keep her. Safe.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!