Chapter 7: The King’s Claim
944 Words
The silence in the room was absolute, broken only by Caleb’s ragged gasping as he clutched his bruised throat. I didn't feel pity for him. I felt... nothing. And that was the greatest victory of all.
Silas didn't wait for an invitation. He swept Leo up into one arm and Jax into the other, looking at them with a fierce, terrifying pride. Maya, the little firecracker, simply grabbed the hem of Silas’s expensive overcoat, looking up at him with wide, curious eyes.
"We are leaving," Silas stated. It wasn't a request.
"Your Majesty," a pack elder stuttered, bowing so low his forehead touched the floor. "The... the plague. Our people are still dying. Dr. Vance is the only one who—"
Silas’s golden eyes snapped to the elder. "Then you had better pray she feels generous. My mate and my children will not stay another second in this filth-ridden territory where they were once insulted."
He turned to me, his hand finding the small of my back again. The heat was unbearable, a branding iron of claim. "Aria. My jet is ready. Or do you wish to stay and watch this Alpha crawl some more?"
I looked at Caleb. He had managed to stand up, leaning against a medical cabinet. His eyes were red, filled with tears of pure, unadulterated regret.
"Aria... please," Caleb wheezed. "I was wrong. The Goddess... she must have punished me by making me blind. Don't go with him. You’re a Blackwood. This is your home."
Silas let out a low, predatory growl that made the glass windows in the infirmary rattle. "She is a Queen of the Lycan Throne, you pathetic pup. She was never yours to keep."
"Let’s go, Silas," I said quietly. "I've done what I came to do. I’ve stabilized the worst cases. The rest is up to their own doctors and the medicine I left behind."
I walked past Caleb without a second glance. As we exited the pack house, the entire Blackwood Pack was lined up outside, hundreds of wolves bowing in the mud as the King passed. Five years ago, they had cheered at my rejection. Today, they didn't dare to breathe in my presence.
Silas’s mobile command center—a luxury trailer the size of a small mansion—was parked at the edge of the forest. Inside, it was all black leather, polished chrome, and the scent of him.
Once the doors closed, Silas set the boys down. "Go explore the back cabin. There are gadgets and sweets. Jax, don't take apart the communication array."
"No promises!" Jax yelled as the three of them scurried away, remarkably comfortable in the presence of the world’s most dangerous man.
Then, there was only silence. And Silas.
He turned to me, his presence filling the room. He didn't say anything at first. He just stepped into my personal space, forcing me to back up until I hit the cold surface of a marble table. He caged me in with his arms, his face inches from mine.
"Five years, Aria," he rasped. His voice was a dark, velvet caress. "I’ve searched every corner of this continent for the girl from the woods. I thought you were a dream. A hallucination brought on by the fever."
"I wasn't a dream," I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. "I was a girl who had lost everything and didn't want to be found."
"You took my heirs," he growled, his hand reaching up to tangle in my hair, pulling my head back slightly to expose my neck. "You took yourself away from me. Do you have any idea what the Lycan King does to people who steal from him?"
"I didn't steal them. I protected them," I snapped, meeting his golden gaze with my own. "I didn't know who you were, Silas. I only knew that I was a rejected wolfless girl with a target on her back. Would you have believed me back then? Or would you have taken my babies and thrown me aside?"
Silas’s expression softened, but only for a fraction of a second. He leaned in, his nose brushing against the sensitive skin of my neck, inhaling deeply. "I would have crowned you the moment I felt your scent. I would have burned that pack to the ground for touching a hair on your head."
His lips brushed against the hollow of my throat, right where my pulse was jumping. "You’re not running again. You’re coming back to the Capital. You will take your place by my side."
"Is that a command, Your Majesty?" I challenged, though my breath was hitching.
"It's a promise," he whispered against my skin. "I’ve spent five years in the dark, Aria. Now that I’ve found my sun, I’m never letting the world go dark again."
Just as he leaned in to kiss me—a kiss I knew would shatter my last defenses—his satellite phone rang.
Silas swore under his breath, pulling back just enough to look at the screen. His jaw tightened.
"What is it?" I asked.
"My scouts," he said, his voice turning cold. "They’ve found something in the Blackwood territory. Something you missed, Doctor. The virus... it wasn't just in the pack house. There’s a lab in the old mines. And they found Elena’s signature on the entry logs."
My blood ran cold. Elena wasn't just a jealous b***h. She was a biological terrorist. And if she was working with the mines, she wasn't working alone.
"Stay here with the children," Silas commanded, his Alpha eyes glowing. "I have a pack to purge. And this time, there will be no survivors."
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