All Chapters of Claimed by the Ruthless Alpha: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Celeste’s knees buckled the moment the vision released her.Kaelan caught her fully against his chest, one strong arm locked around her waist, the othercradling the back of her head. The heat of his body seeped through the thin fabric of herdress, but for once the mate bond’s pull felt distant, drowned out by the terror still flashingbehind her eyes.“Celeste,” he growled, voice low and urgent. “whats wrong? Hey!”She clutched his tunic, her fingers digging into the fabric as she fought to steady herbreathing. The garden around them, the winter roses, the stone fountain, the cold mountainwind felt suddenly too small, too fragile. Like it could burn away at any second.“Fire,” she whispered, the word scraping out of her throat. “Ravencrest was burning. The skywas red. Two moons… in the daylight. Wolves were screaming on both sides. And you…”Her voice cracked. “You were standing in the middle of it all. Smiling at me.”Kaelan went rigid. His arms tightened around her, almost pain

The days after the midnight meeting in the northern tower passed in a strange, heavy quiet. Celeste moved through Ravencrest like a shadow caught between two worlds. She no longer spent all her time locked in her room, but she also didn’t seek out company. Instead, she wandered the quieter parts of the packhouse, the small library with its dusty scrolls, the healing wing where her mother worked in tense silence, and the walled garden where winter roses still clung stubbornly to life. Kaelan gave her space. Or at least, he tried to. He was never far. She would feel the mate bond tug gently whenever he entered the same wing. Sometimes she caught glimpses of him standing on a balcony overlooking the training grou

The council meeting had been a waste of time. Kaelan sat at the head of the long obsidian table, fingers drumming once against the arm of his chair as the elders droned on about border patrols and supply lines. Their voices blurred into meaningless noise. His mind was elsewhere else. Specifically, two floors up in the eastern wing where Celeste was likely still standing against that corridor wall, cheeks flushed and grey eyes wide with conflicted desire. He could still feel the ghost of her skin beneath his knuckles. Still smell the faint trace of lavender and smoke that clung to her. The mate bond pulsed relentlessly in his chest, a living chain that grew tighter every hour he spent near her. And he was fucking losing his mind trying to hold back. 

Thorne’s POV The cave smelled of damp earth, woodsmoke, and the faint metallic tang of fear that no one wanted to name. Thorne Cael Voss sat on a cold, flat rock near the central fire, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared into the flickering flames. The new scar running the length of his forearm pulled tight every time he flexed his fingers, a permanent souvenir from the day Ravencrest’s wolves had torn through Silvermere like a blade through silk.  The firelight danced across his golden skin, highlighting the fresh lines of exhaustion and grief etched into his face. The golden boy who once led with easy smiles and unshakable confidence was gone. In his place sat a man carved by betrayal, loss, and a guilt that gnawed at him every waking hou

Maera’s hands trembled as she folded another simple tunic into the small leather satchel. The room was dimly lit by a single lantern, casting long shadows across the walls. She moved with the efficiency of someone who had spent years preparing for the worst. A cloak. Dried herbs for healing. A small knife wrapped in cloth. A few coins she had managed to hide since their capture. Every item felt like another crack in her already fracturing heart. She had sworn she would never run again. Yet here she was, packing in the dead of night, ready to drag her daughter back into the shadows where their bloodline had always lived, hunted, hidden, and afraid. The vision Celeste described earlier that day still echoed in M