All Chapters of Claimed by the Ruthless Alpha Prince: Chapter 191 - Chapter 200

THE FIRST NIGHT of rounds isn’t terrible.The second is harder.By the third, exhaustion is a living thing inside me, clawing at my bones.Seth has me scheduled every single night. I walk the perimeter from midnight to dawn, then report for my regular duties with the Queen at seven in the morning. I’m getting maybe three hours of sleep total, if I’m lucky. And even that precious time is plagued with nightmares that jerk me awake, gasping desperately.The herbs Selene gave me sit unused in my pocket. They would knock me out for six hours, but I only have three. I can’t risk oversleeping and missing my duties. Can’t risk Seth having one more reason to question my loyalty.So, I don’t take them. And I don’t sleep. A week in, I’m barely functional.My hands shake when I grip my sword. My reflexes are half a second too slow. The world has taken on a hazy, dreamlike quality that makes me question what’s real.“You look like death,” one of the other guards says during a shift change.“Thanks

I sit in the shadows of Daciana’s quarters, watching her sleep. The room is lit by a single candle, which casts flickering light across her pale face. She looks smaller somehow, curled on her side beneath the thin blanket, her breathing shallow and uneven.She’s growing fragile. Day by day, I watch her fade, and it tears something vital inside me.Her brow furrows suddenly, lips parting on a silent gasp. Her fingers curl into the sheets, knuckles white. I recognize the signs immediately. A nightmare taking hold, pulling her into whatever darkness haunts her sleep.I lean forward, extending my hand toward her. Magic flows from my fingertips, gentle as moonlight, wrapping around her consciousness like a protective cocoon. It’s an ability few possess, this capacity to touch another’s dreams, to soothe the troubled waters of their mind. I learned it years ago, practiced it in secret, never imagining I’d use it like this.For her.The tension bleeds from her features. Her breathing evens o

But I know. The scent, faint as it is beneath the rot and blood, tells me everything. This is the one who hurt her. The one whose poisoned claws tore into her flesh.I think of the female alpha, one of the wild wolves that follow Daciana. The desperate way she clawed at my door, her whines frantic and urgent. I think of how I found Daciana, her body so cold, so badly injured, her blood everywhere. Too much blood. Far too much for anyone to survive.But she survived. Barely.Rage, white-hot and consuming, floods through me.I reach down, my claws extending, and plunge my hand into the corpse’s chest cavity. Its ribs crack under the force. My fingers close around what’s left of the heart, cold and lifeless, and I rip it free. It turns to paste in my grip, oozing between my fingers. I crush it completely, watching the remains fall to the forest floor like mud.“Let the animals have him,” I say coldly. “His face is beyond identification anyway.”Aaron and Ferin exchange glances but say no

KIERAN“Or you’ll be killed while they’re targeting her.” I let that sink in. “I didn’t come here for politics. I didn’t come here for alliances or trade agreements or diplomatic favor. I came to warn you because a prophecy revealed that the true queen would be murdered. That’s it. That was my only purpose.”“Until you saw Daciana,” Astra says.“Until I saw Daciana,” I confirm, my voice becoming rough. “Now, I have a stake in this. I cannot allow this prophecy to be fulfilled. At any cost.”Lucian’s eyes narrow.“Can prophecies be changed?”The question surprises me. Most people accept prophecies as immutable fate. But Lucian is asking if they can fight it.“Yes,” I say carefully. “But it’s not easy. Prophecies are like rivers. They have a natural course they want to follow. You can build dams, redirect the flow, but the water still wants to go where it was meant to go. It takes tremendous effort and constant vigilance to change a prophecy’s outcome.”“But it can be done,” Astra says

DACIANAI stumble backward, nearly tripping again.“I’m so sorry! I’ll just… I’ll wait outside!”I practically run from the bathroom, cheeks blazing, heart thundering so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t burst from my chest. In the main room, I press my back against the wall and try to remember how to breathe.What the hell is happening to me?I’m a trained warrior. I’ve killed enemies without flinching. I’ve stood beside the Queen and never wavered. But five seconds in that bathroom, and I turn into a blushing, stammering mess?The image is seared into my mind. His shoulders. The defined muscles of his stomach. How his damp skin gleamed like bronze in the light filtering through the window. The scars that marked him—proof of battles fought and survived.And… other things. Things I definitely should not be thinking about. Things that make the heat pool low in my belly and my wolf stir restlessly beneath my skin. I didn’t know men could be that… big! I’ve never seen—My face burns even hot