Claimed By Her Step Brothers; Theirs To Own

Episode8

CHAPTER EIGHT

~~XAVIER ASHWOOD~~

I reached her door in a blur, the wood groaning as I threw it open. The sight inside turned my blood to slush.

Freya was sprawled on the cold marble, a splash of dark blood staining the floor beside her head. Luka let out a roar in my mind, a sound of pure, unadulterated rage.

He did it. Damien had struck. Even after I’d claimed her for the Academy, the Alpha had decided a dead daughter was better than an alive one.

I dropped to my knees, my fingers pressing into the soft skin of her throat. I held my breath. One second. Three. Five.

Then, I felt it. A pulse so weak it felt like it’ll flicker out in seconds.

"She’s alive," I growled, the sound vibrating in my own chest. I looked up at the maid. "Get the healer. Now! If you aren't back in two minutes, I’ll take your head as a down payment for hers."

She didn't wait to be told twice. Her footsteps faded into a frantic rhythm down the hall.

I gathered Freya into my arms. She was terrifyingly light; fragile.

I laid her on the bed, her dark hair fanning out against the white silk. Despite the blood on her chin, she looked hauntingly beautiful. A feeling I didn't recognize tightened in my chest.

Pity. In a single night, she had been hunted, humiliated, rejected, and now, poisoned in the house that was supposed to be her sanctuary.

A heavy, raspy breath at the door made me snap my head around. Quinn stood there, his knuckles white, his face a mask of jagged fury.

"What have you done to her?" he demanded.

"Right question, Wrong Person, Quinn. Ask your idol of a father. He’s the one who serves hemlock for dinner."

"Step away from her, Xavier." It wasn't a request. It was an order.

I didn't move. "The girl has been poisoned in this house. My concern is for the healer, not your temper."

Quinn took a step forward, his energy radiating off him like heat from a furnace. "I said, get your hands off her."

I straightened slowly, meeting his gaze with a lethal calm. "You spent the last hour trying to please the Alpha by succumbing to throwing her into the dungeon. Now you’re acting like her guardian? Which is it, Quinn? Are you finding it hard to get a footing?”

"It doesn't matter what I did!" Quinn spat. "You don't touch her. You stay back."

I tilted my head, my lips curling into a grimace. "Why are you so protective of a girl you claim to despise?"

~QUINN~

The question hit me like a physical blow. How could I tell him? How could I explain that the Moon Goddess had played the ultimate, cruelest joke by linking my soul to the daughter of the woman who destroyed our family?

"I'm the one who brought her back!" I shouted, the lie tasted lame on my tongue. "If I’d let her run in the woods, she’d be free. She’s my responsibility."

Xavier squinted at me, his eyes searching for the truth I was burying. "You should have let her go, then. You hate her mother. You despise her existence. Why does her life concern you, brother?"

I had no answer. The arrival of the healers saved me from the interrogation.

"Tend to her," Xavier barked. "She must live."

I watched as the healers worked. Freya’s lips had turned a bruised, sickly purple.

"It's wolfsbane," the lead healer whispered, his face pale. "This strain is designed to kill slowly. To make it look like a heart failure. Her reaction is... unusual. There shouldn’t have been any signs at all until death”

"Get the antidote!" I snarled, moving to the edge of the bed.

"Lord Quinn, the antidote is rare. It only grows in the Riverside Pack lands. It would take three days to fetch and distill."

"You have one hour," Xavier rasped, his voice sounding like grinding stones.

"An hour? That's impossible!" the healer stammered. "The ride alone—"

I surged forward, grabbing the healer by the front of his robes. I didn't care about geography. I didn't care about logic. All I could hear was the stuttering, shallow breath of the girl on the bed.

"I am not asking for a lesson in botany," I hissed. "If she stops breathing, you will follow her into the dark. Do you understand?"

The healer nodded frantically. "There is... there is a neutralizing tonic. It won't cure her, but it will stall the spread. I have the ingredients in the infirmary, but someone needs to get there and back in seconds.."

"Then find him" I hissed impatiently, releasing him