Filed to story: Claimed By My Fiance's Alpha Brother (Callie & Cameron) Book PDF Free
“Where. Is. My. Son.” Each word came out sharp as broken glass.
“Adrian? Oh, he’s fine. Probably.” Her laugh was light and musical. “I really couldn’t say for certain, though.”
I had to grip the edge of a nearby desk to keep from collapsing as the implications of her words hit me like physical blows. “You left him somewhere? Valerie, he’s four years old! Where did you take him?”
“Now, now, no need to get hysterical,” Valerie said. “I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually. Children usually do, don’t they? Well, most of them anyway.”
“I’ll kill you,” I whispered, my voice carrying every ounce of maternal fury I possessed. “I will tear your throat out with my bare hands and watch you bleed to death if anything happens to him.”
“Such violence! Really, Callie, motherhood hasn’t improved your temper at all.” Valerie’s voice was positively dripping with false concern. “But don’t worry -I might be willing to tell you where I left the little darling. For a price, of course.”
“What do you want?” The words tasted like ash in my mouth.
“Marriage, of course. Harold is quite generous -he’s even willing to raise that little bastard as his own.”
“I already told you no,” I said, my voice growing stronger with each word. “I’m not marrying anyone, especially not that disgusting pig.”
“Oh, but you are,” Valerie said. “Because if you don’t show up at the Knight house within two hours, ready to apologize and accept Harold’s generous proposal, well… let’s just say little Adrian might have a very lonely night in the big, scary forest.”
The phone went dead, leaving me staring at the screen in complete silence. For a moment, I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything except sit there as the full horror of the situation crashed over me.
Adrian was alone in the wilderness somewhere, probably terrified and calling for me. And the only way to get him back was to sacrifice myself to Harold’s disgusting hands.
I was fumbling for my car keys when I heard the sharp click of heels against marble floors. I looked up to see a familiar figure approaching through the school’s main entrance, and my blood turned to absolute ice.
Valerie stepped through the doorway like she owned the place, her blonde hair perfectly styled and her designer outfit immaculate despite the late hour.
“Hello there, sister,” she purred, stopping just close enough that I could smell her expensive perfume mixed with something else. “You look absolutely terrible. Really, Callie, you should take better care of yourself.”
Callie’s POV
My hands curled into fists at my sides as rage built in my chest like molten lava. “Where is my son, Valerie?”
“Oh, Adrian?” She examined her perfectly manicured nails with theatrical indifference. “I’m sure he’s around somewhere. Children are so adventurous at that age, aren’t they? Always wandering off, getting into places they shouldn’t.”
The casual cruelty in her voice made something snap inside me. I lunged forward, my hands reaching for her throat, but Valerie was ready for me. Her fist connected with my cheek with enough force to send me stumbling backward into the wall, stars exploding across my vision.
“Now, now,” she said conversationally, shaking out her hand as if hitting me had been nothing more than swatting a fly. “Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. You know what Mother wants. Just come home, marry Harold like a good little omega, and I’ll tell you exactly where to find your precious bastard.”
“Never,” I spat, tasting blood on my lip.
Valerie’s laugh was like breaking glass. “Oh, but you will. Because the alternative is so much worse.” She moved closer, her voice dropping to a whisper that somehow made it ten times more terrifying. “Do you know what happens to little boys lost in the forest, Callie? The border territories are crawling with rogues these days. Hungry, desperate wolves who wouldn’t hesitate to tear apart anything weak and helpless they happened to find.”
She grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back with vicious force, making my scalp burn with pain. “Your little boy is somewhere in rogue territory right now, Callie. Probably scared, probably crying for his mommy. And every minute you waste here arguing with me is another minute he’s alone out there with the monsters.”
“Let go of me!” I tried to wrench free, but her grip was like iron.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” she hissed in my ear, her breath hot against my skin. “You’re going to come with me right now. You’re going to drive to Mother’s house, get on your knees, and beg Harold’s forgiveness for your earlier tantrum. You’re going to marry him tonight, right there in Mother’s living room, and you’re going to be grateful for the opportunity.”
The images her words conjured made me physically sick. “You win,” I whispered. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just tell me where he is.”
“That’s better.” Valerie said with satisfaction, finally releasing her brutal grip on my hair.
*Fight!* Ayla’s voice was sharp with desperation. *We can’t let them win! Not when Adrian needs us!*
She turned to get the car, but paused at the doorway to deliver one final blow. “Oh, and Callie? When you’re lying under Harold tonight, when he’s grunting and sweating on top of you, just remember -this is exactly what you deserve. This is what happens to omegas who forget their place.”
I pushed away from the wall, ignoring the pain in my ribs and the throbbing in my head. My wolf was stirring with a strength I’d never felt before, her presence growing more solid and fierce with each passing second.
*She threatened our pup,* Ayla’s voice was a growl of pure menace.
She moved faster than I expected, her hand shooting out to grab my wrist with bruising force. “You don’t have a choice, you pathetic little -“
That’s when it happened.
The rage that had been building in my chest exploded outward like a dam bursting, and suddenly there was something else sharing space in my body. Not just Ayla’s voice in my mind, but her actual presence, her wild strength flooding through my muscles like liquid fire.
“You threatened my son.” I said, and my voice was different now -deeper, carrying an undertone that made Valerie’s eyes widen with alarm.
I looked down at my hands and gasped. My fingernails were elongating into claws, sharp and deadly, while my canine teeth felt longer and more prominent in my mouth.
“What the hell -” Valerie started to say, but I was already moving.
My hand closed around her throat with superhuman strength, lifting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing. Her eyes bulged with shock and terror as her feet kicked uselessly in the air.
“Where. Is. My. Son.” Each word came out as a growl, my voice distorted by the changes happening to my vocal cords.
“The… the border forests!” she gasped, clawing at my hand with her manicured nails.
I threw her across the hallway with enough force to send her crashing into the trophy case, glass exploding in all directions as she crumpled to the floor. Blood trickled from numerous cuts where the shards had found their mark.
Valerie tried to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood on the polished floor, but I was on her before she could make it more than a few feet. I grabbed her ankle and dragged her back, ignoring her screams of pain and terror.
“You want to play games with my child?” I snarled, my elongated claws digging into her leg hard enough to draw blood. “Let me show you what happens to bitches who threaten wolf pups.”
I flipped her onto her back and wrapped both hands around her throat, my newfound strength making it absurdly easy to pin her struggling form. Her face was turning purple, her eyes rolling back as she fought for air.
*Kill her,* Ayla’s voice urged in my mind, wild with bloodlust. *She threatened our pup. End this.*
Part of me wanted to. Part of me wanted to squeeze until her struggles stopped, until she paid the ultimate price for endangering my son.
But somewhere in the red haze of rage, a smaller voice whispered that Adrian needed me alive and free, not locked away for murder.
I released her throat and she gasped desperately for air, her chest heaving as she tried to fill her lungs. Before she could recover enough to fight back, I grabbed her head and slammed it against the floor.
“If I ever see you near my son again,” I whispered, my face inches from hers, “I will finish what I started here. Do you understand me?”
Valerie managed a weak nod, blood trickling from her nose and mouth. Her perfect makeup was ruined, her designer dress torn and stained with her own blood.
The changes to my body were already beginning to reverse “my claws retracting, my teeth returning to normal, the supernatural strength ebbing away like a tide.
As I took a step toward my car, the adrenaline that had been holding me upright suddenly abandoned me completely. The pain from Valerie’s blows hit me all at once -my ribs screaming from where she’d punched me, my head throbbing from where it had connected with the wall, countless cuts and bruises from our violent struggle.
“I need…” I started to say, but the words dissolved into nothing as my legs gave out beneath me.
The last thing I remembered was hitting the cold floor of the school hallway, Ophelia’s figure and her voice calling my name as everything faded to black.
Cameron’s POV
The taxi ride to Callie’s apartment felt like the longest twenty minutes of my life. Adrian had finally stopped crying, but he remained pressed against my side like a small, warm anchor, his tiny hand clutching my shirt.
“Mr. Cameron?” he said quietly as we pulled up to the modest brick building. “Is Mommy going to be okay?”
“She’s going to be fine,” I assured him, though my chest tightened with worry I couldn’t quite suppress. “Your mommy is very strong.”
Ophelia answered the door before I could even knock, her dark hair disheveled and her eyes red-rimmed with exhaustion and stress. She looked like she’d been running on pure adrenaline for hours.
“Thank God you found him,” she breathed, immediately reaching for Adrian and pulling him into a fierce hug. “I was so scared, little man. Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, Aunt Ophelia,” Adrian mumbled against her shoulder, his voice muffled but steady. “Mr. Cameron found me in the forest and brought me home.”
Ophelia’s eyes met mine over Adrian’s head, gratitude and something deeper shining in their depths. “I can’t even begin to thank you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “When I realized he was missing…”
“Where’s Callie?” I asked, scanning the small apartment for any sign of my mate.
Ophelia’s expression darkened. “Unconscious in her bedroom. I found her at the school -she’d been beaten pretty badly.”She’s running a fever, probably from shock and exhaustion. I was just about to run to the pharmacy for antibiotics and pain medication.”
My wolf snarled at the thought of someone hurting Callie, but I forced myself to remain calm for Adrian’s sake. “Go,” I said, gently touching Ophelia’s shoulder. “I’ll stay here with them until you get back.”
After Ophelia left, I found myself alone in the tiny apartment with a four-year-old who was clearly trying very hard to be brave despite everything he’d been through. Adrian sat on the edge of the couch, swinging his little legs and stealing glances at me like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of having a stranger in his home.
“Are you hungry?” I asked, realizing I had absolutely no idea how to care for a child. “I could… make something?”
Adrian’s face lit up with cautious hope. “Could we have mac and cheese? That’s my favorite.”
How hard could mac and cheese be?
Twenty minutes later, I stood in Callie’s tiny kitchen surrounded by what could only be described as a culinary disaster. Somehow, I’d managed to burn water -actually burn water -while simultaneously overcooking the pasta until it resembled mushy cardboard and creating a cheese sauce that had the consistency of rubber cement.
“Mr. Cameron?” Adrian’s voice drifted from the doorway, where he’d been watching my attempts at domestic competence with the fascinated horror of someone witnessing a train wreck in slow motion. “I think the pot is smoking.”
Indeed it was. Thick, acrid smoke was rising from the saucepan where I’d attempted to create what the box had optimistically labeled “creamy cheese sauce.” The smell was somewhere between burned milk and melted plastic.
“Okay,” I said, waving a dish towel frantically at the smoke detector that was now beeping with the persistence of an angry bird. “New plan.”
I turned off all the burners, opened every window in the small kitchen, and turned to face Adrian with what I hoped was an apologetic smile. “What do you say we order pizza instead?”
Adrian giggled -the first genuinely happy sound I’d heard from him all evening. “You’re not very good at cooking, are you?”
“Apparently not,” I admitted, running a hand through my hair and leaving it more disheveled than before. “I’m better at ordering people around than I am at making food.”
