Filed to story: Claimed By My Fiance's Alpha Brother (Callie & Cameron) Book PDF Free
His face lit up with triumph, and he took a step closer, already reaching for the zipper of my dress. “That’s more like it, my dear. I knew you’d see reason eventually.”
The moment his sweaty hands touched my skin, I moved.
My fingers closed around the wine bottle’s neck, and I swung it with every ounce of strength I possessed. The heavy glass connected with Harold’s skull with a sickening crack that echoed through the small room like a gunshot.
Harold’s eyes went wide with shock before rolling back in his head. He toppled backward like a felled tree, his soft body hitting the floor with a wet thud that shook the entire house.
“SERAPHINA!” Elizabeth shrieked, lunging toward me with her claws extended.
But I was ready for her. As she reached for me, I caught her wrist and twisted, using her own momentum to spin her around. Then I sank my teeth into the soft flesh of her forearm, biting down with all the fury of years of suppressed rage.
Elizabeth’s scream was like breaking glass as my teeth found bone. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, but I held on, grinding my jaw until I felt something give way beneath my teeth.
“You little animal!” she gasped, trying to shake me off. “You savage little -“
I released her arm and shoved her away from me with enough force to send her stumbling into the wall. Harold was groaning on the floor, a trickle of blood running down his forehead from where the bottle had connected, but he was still breathing.
I didn’t wait to see if either of them would recover enough to stop me.
I ran.
Out of the bedroom, down the hallway, through the living room where my childhood nightmares still lingered like smoke. I burst through the front door and into the cool evening air, my heart hammering against my ribs as adrenaline flooded my system.
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely get my keys into the car’s ignition. Behind me, I could hear Elizabeth’s voice rising to a hysterical shriek as she called for help, probably for Harold rather than for me.
I gunned the engine and tore out of the driveway, gravel spraying behind my tires as I put as much distance as possible between myself and that house of horrors. In my rearview mirror, I could see Elizabeth standing on the front porch, clutching her bleeding arm and screaming something I couldn’t make out over the roar of my engine.
I drove without really seeing the road, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles had gone white. My whole body was shaking with the aftermath of violence and terror, and I could still taste Elizabeth’s blood in my mouth.
I was halfway back to Silver Moon Harbor when my phone rang.
The sound cut through my panicked thoughts like a knife, and I fumbled for the device with trembling fingers. Ophelia’s name flashed on the screen, and relief flooded through me. She would have picked up Adrian from school by now. Everything would be fine.
“Ophelia?” I answered, barely keeping my voice steady.
“Callie!” Her voice exploded through the speaker, sharp with panic and terror. “Where are you? Please tell me you picked up Adrian early today!”
My blood turned to ice in my veins. “What? No, I… Why? What’s wrong?”
Ophelia’s voice was rising to a frantic pitch. “The school said Adrian was picked up by someone!”
Valerie’s POV
The drive toward the territorial borders felt endless, made worse by the constant chatter coming from the back seat. Adrian had been asking questions nonstop for the past hour, his little voice bright with excitement and hope that made my teeth clench with irritation.
“Are we almost there? When will I see my daddy? What does he look like? Does he know about me?”
Each innocent question was like fingernails on a chalkboard. I glanced in the rearview mirror at the child strapped into Marco’s old car seat -a pathetic piece of safety equipment that had seen better days, much like everything else in my miserable life. Adrian’s dark curls were messed from leaning against the window.
“Soon,” I said tersely, not bothering to hide my annoyance anymore. “We’ll be there soon, and then you can ask him all the questions you want.”
Adrian bounced excitedly in his seat, pressing his small hands against the window as we passed increasingly sparse neighborhoods. “Will he like me? Mommy says I’m a good boy. I can tie my shoes now, and I know all my letters!”
“I’m sure he’ll be… thrilled,” I muttered, pressing harder on the accelerator. The sooner I finished this unpleasant task.
The residential areas gradually gave way to industrial zones, then to empty lots and finally to the wild forestland that marked the outer boundaries of our territory. This was as far as I could go without crossing into rogue territory -dangerous, lawless land where pack protection didn’t extend and anything could happen to an unwary traveler.
Perfect for my purposes.
I’d heard the reports over the past few months about increased rogue activity in this area. Lone wolves and outcasts who’d been banished from their packs, desperate and dangerous, with nothing left to lose. They wouldn’t hesitate to attack anything they perceived as weak or vulnerable.
Like a four-year-old child who hadn’t even had his first shift yet.
“Aunt Valerie?” Adrian’s voice had grown smaller as he noticed the changing landscape outside his window. “This doesn’t look like where people live. Where are we going?”
“We’re almost there,” I said, pulling off the main road onto a dirt track that led deeper into the forest. The car bounced and jolted over the uneven ground, and I could hear Adrian’s confused whimpering from the back seat as branches scraped against the windows.
“I don’t like this place,” he said, his voice trembling with the first hints of fear. “It’s scary. Can we go back to Mommy now?”
“Not yet,” I said, my voice sharp enough to make him flinch. “We have something important to do first.”
The dirt track ended in a small clearing surrounded by thick forest on all sides. Perfect. Remote enough that no one would find him quickly, but not so deep that I’d get lost trying to find my way back out. I put the car in park and turned to face the child who was looking at me with growing uncertainty.
“Alright,” I said briskly, unbuckling my seatbelt. “Out you get.”
“But where’s my daddy?” Adrian asked, his eyes darting around the empty clearing. “You said he was here.”
“He’s waiting for you in the forest,” I lied smoothly, getting out of the car and opening his door. “Come on. He’s been waiting a very long time to meet you.”
Adrian hesitated, his small hands gripping the edge of his car seat. “I don’t see anyone. And Mommy said I should never go into the forest alone.”
“You won’t be alone,” I said, my patience finally reaching its breaking point. “Your daddy will be there. Don’t you want to meet him?”
The child’s desperate desire to find his father won out over his caution. He unbuckled himself and climbed out of the car, his small hand reaching automatically for mine.
I led him to the edge of the forest, where the trees grew thick enough to block out most of the late afternoon sunlight. The air was cooler here, carrying the earthy scent of decomposing leaves and something else -something wild and predatory that made my wolf pace uneasily in my mind.
“He’s in there?” Adrian asked, staring into the shadowy depths between the trees. “It looks really dark.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, crouching down to his level and speaking in the same sweet tone I’d used at the school. “Your daddy loves playing hide and seek. He’s waiting for you to find him.”
I guided him several steps into the forest, far enough that he wouldn’t be visible from the clearing but not so far that I’d have trouble finding my way back. When we reached a small cluster of fallen logs, I stopped.
“There,” I said, pointing deeper into the forest where the shadows grew thickest. “I think I see him! Do you see that movement between those trees?”
Adrian squinted into the darkness, hope and fear warring on his small face. “I… I don’t see anything.”
“Look harder,” I insisted, already backing away from him. “He’s there, waiting for you. Go find him!”
“Wait!” Adrian turned toward me, panic flickering in those distinctive blue eyes. “Don’t leave me! I want to go with you!”
But I was already moving, my high heels clicking against the forest floor as I hurried back toward the clearing. Behind me, I could hear Adrian calling out -first to me, then to his imaginary father, his voice growing smaller and more frightened with each passing second.
“Aunt Valerie! Come back! I can’t find him! AUNT VALERIE!”
By the time I reached my car, Adrian’s voice had faded to a distant cry echoing through the trees. I slammed the door and started the engine, the sound drowning out whatever final pleas he might have been making.
The phone rang just as I reached the main road, Elizabeth’s name flashing on the display. I answered immediately, eager for good news.
“Please tell me you have her locked up somewhere,” I said without preamble. “Because I just finished handling my end of the bargain, and I want my money.”
“We have a problem,” Elizabeth’s voice came through the speaker, tight with rage and something that sounded like pain. “That little bitch attacked us! She hit Harold with a wine bottle and bit me -ACTUALLY BIT ME -and then she ran off!”
I nearly swerved off the road in shock. “What do you mean she ran off? How could you let one omega overpower both of you?”
“She fought like a rabid animal!” Elizabeth shrieked. “Harold’s unconscious, bleeding all over my carpet, and my arm looks like it was mauled by a wolf! We had to call an ambulance!”
“That’s my money bleeding all over your carpet!” I shouted back, my voice rising to match hers. “Do you have any idea what I just sacrificed to make this work? What I had to do?”
“I don’t care what you had to do! Harold might not even want her anymore after this! He’s talking about pressing charges, about how dangerous she is -“
“Then MAKE him want her!” I interrupted, rage making my voice crack. “Tie her up, drug her, I don’t care what you have to do! But I am not walking away from this empty-handed!”
Cameron’s POV
The border situation was spiraling out of control. Patrol reports were stacked on the hood of my jeep like poker cards after a bad hand, each one detailing another rogue attack, another probe at our defenses. Three days of this shit, and my patience was wearing thinner than paper.
“How bad?” I asked Marcus as he trudged toward me, blood trickling from a fresh cut on his cheek.
“Could be worse.” He wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, leaving a red smear across his knuckles. “Three guys got banged up pretty good, but nothing that won’t heal. Problem is, the bastards are getting cockier.”
I grabbed the map, stabbing red pins into each attack location with more force than necessary. The pattern that emerged made my jaw clench. These weren’t desperate rogues looking for easy prey -this was organized. Calculated.
“They’re testing us,” I muttered, connecting the dots with my finger. “Hit and run, hit and run. Never staying long enough for a real fight.”
Marcus nodded grimly. “Every damn time, it’s the same thing. They come in hard, make noise, then vanish the second we show real teeth. Like they’re learning something.”
“Learning what?”
“How fast we respond. How many wolves we send. Which routes we take.” Marcus’s expression darkened. “Alpha, somebody’s mapping our defenses. This isn’t random violence -it’s reconnaissance.”
The implications hit me like ice water. Organized rogue activity meant someone with serious resources was planning something big. Someone who wanted to know exactly how to hurt us when the time came.
I was about to order additional patrols when a sound drifted through the trees that made every hair on my arms stand at attention
Crying. A child’s crying, high and desperate and absolutely terrifying in this desolate wilderness.
“Did you hear that?” I asked Marcus, my entire body going rigid with alertness.
His eyes widened as the sound came again -closer now, more distinct. “That’s… that’s a child, Alpha. Out here in rogue territory.”
