Claimed By A Midnight King

Chapter 15

Dominic’s PoV

The parchment in her hand felt like a lit fuse. I stared at the charcoal—stained fingers holding the ledger, the heavy realization crashing over me.

Elder Jarek had keys to the obsidian deep cells. He was down there right now, completely alone with the Sun clan's lead chemist.

My human instinct raged against the reality of the situation—that the daughter of the man who slaughtered my family was standing in my Archives, wearing my mantle, uncovering a security breach my beta, Silas had missed.

But my wolf was utterly captivated by her brilliance.

She protects the pack, my beast purred, his issues growl echoing inside me.

I snatched the parchment from her hand. My calloused fingers brushed against hers, and the mate bond ignited instantly— a desperate, maddening heat through the freezing room. I stepped back instantly, grinding my teeth as I forced myself to bury the feral instinct to pull her closer.

“Silas!” I barked, my voice vibrating with lethal intent.

From the dark corridor outside, Silas appeared like a ghost, soundless and unreadable.

“Elder Jarek”, I said, handling the ledger to Silas. “His personal squad is manning the Western postern gate tonight. And has the keys to the chemist’s cell”.

Silas’s metallic silver eyes widened as he scanned the smudged parchment. He dropped the ledger and drew his blade. “Jarek is a hardliner, Alpha. He hates the Sun clan more than anyone. You think he planned to kill her then transport her body back to her clan?”

“I believe Jarek believes he is doing what is best for the vanguard”. I snarled. “Evenif it means going behind my back to execute her”.

I moved toward the iron door.

“Lock the girl in. We are going to the deep cells”.

“No!”

I stopped in my tracks. The single word was spoken quietly, but it hit the air with a heavy weight. I turned my head, fixing Vivian with a glare that made string and seasoned warlords bare their throats.

“This is not a negotiation, Valerius”, I warned, deliberately using her fathers name to keep the wall of hatred intact between us.

Vivian stepped around the massive oak table, my heavy dark fur dragging on the floor. She looked impossibly fragile, but her stormy eyes were completely fearless.

“Sofia Thorne is the lead chemist of the Sun council”. Vivian said, her voice ringing with cold logic. “If Jarek opens that cell, she obviously wouldn’t just surrender like that. She will use her chemical dampeners. One which targets a wolf’s hearing and sense of smell. You will run blindly into a trap and be paralysed before you even draw out your swords”.

She took a step closer. Her scent quickly wrapped around my throat. The scent of rain and her newly awakened wolf.

“You need me Alpha”, she stated calmly. “I know her poison”.

Every instinct in my body screamed at me to leave her in the warm tower, to keep the fragile, magickless girl safely locked behind iron doors. But she was right. If Sofia dropped her poisons in the tunnels, my warriors would be slaughtered.

“If you fall behind”, I warned her, my voice dropping to a dangerous rasp. “I will leave you in the dark”.

I strode out of the archives, Silas and Vivian close on my heels. We hit the Spiral stairs at a rapid pace. But as we rounded the final stone archway leading to the Lower levels, two figures blocked our path.

Elder Kael leaned heavily on his iron tipped staff, his scarred face drawn tight with worry. Standing perfectly upright was his daughter, Vespera.

Vespera was the picture of the Northern aristocracy. She was slim in a way that made her look delicate at first glance, but there was nothing fragile about her. Long dark hair spilled down her back in soft waves.She wore a deep midnight blue dress, a collar of white fox fur framing her sharp, beautiful features.

We had grown up together in the courtyard of this very citadel. Everyone thought she was incapable of smiling until they saw her with me. For twenty years,Kael had gently but persistently groomed her to be my Luna. An alliance that would unite the Eastern ridge and the high throne. She was fierce, loyal to her father, and deeply obsessively in love with the idea of putting in the Northern crown.

“Domini”, Kael said, stepping forward with a heavy sign. The old man looked exhausted. “I tried to talk Jarek down, but he left the war room in a fury. He is convinced that keeping the Solari women alive will make us look weak “, Kael stated,his face reading with worry. “He only wants to protect the pack, Alpha, but I fear his methods—“

Kael’s words died in his throat as his eyes shifted behind me.

Vespera’s eyes followed her father’s, and instantly her face hardened into a mask of pure venom.

She was looking at the tiny, pale Solari maid standing in my shadow, shivering inside the heavy folds of my personal Alpha mantle.

“What is that doing out of its cage?”Vespera demanded, her voice losing its smoothness, deepening into a possessive snarl. She stepped toward me, her hand reaching out to touch my arm—a deliberate territorial claim.

“And why is the traitor’s daughter wearing your furs, Dominic?”

My jaws clenched. I didn’t have the time or the patience for Vespera’s jealousy, nor could I explain the feral, agonising instinct that had forced me to wrap Vivian in my scent.

“Step aside, Vespera, I commanded, my voice flat and devoid of warmth. I didn’t remove her hand, but my body remained as rigid as stone.

“Alpha ,please,” Kael intervened gently, placing a calming hand on his daughter’s shoulder to pull her back.

“Jarek is volatile tonight. Do not bring the girl down there. If he sees her, it will only provoke him further. Let Vespera escort the prisoner back to her cell. I will come with you to the dungeons to reason with Jarek”.

It was a reasonable request from elder Kael trying to prevent a bloodshed. But as Vespera looked at Vivian, her eyes flashing with a cruel, vindictive promise. My wolf violently slammed against my ribs. My beast didn’t care that Vespera was a childhood friend. It only saw a predator eyeing its prey

“No one touches her”, I growled. Power bled from me so violently the air itself seemed to thicken. Even Silas retreated a step. I looked dead into Kael's eyes, softening my tone just enough to acknowledge his council. “Jarek has the keys to the chemist. Vivian knows her clan's poison. So she stays with me “.

Vespera’s face flushed with rage and humiliation. “You would trust the words of a Solari rat over your own council? Over me?”

“I trust the survival of my packs over politics, vespera”, I snapped, stepping past her.

“Silas, take the vanguard. We move”,

I didn’t look to see the fury radiating from the lady of the Eastern ridge. I reached back, my large hand wrapping securely around Vivian’s frail waist, and pulled her into the freezing dark of the lower levels.

The descent into the mountain’s bedrock was a plunge into a frozen tomb. The torches down here were unlit, the air smelled of damp earth.

When we finally reached the entrance to the cells, the heavy iron vault door was hanging wide open.

Silas held up a fist. We stopped.

The scent of fresh blood hit my nose before I even saw the bodies.

Two of Jarek’s personal guards were lying face down on the stone floor. I released Vivian’s hand, drawing my swords, and crouched beside the nearest guard. My amber eyes pierced the gloom. His throat had been slit. But the cut wasn’t rough. It was a perfectly clean, surgical strike from ear to ear.

“Did the chemist do this?” Silas whispered, his twin blades ringing softly as he checked the pulse of the second body.

Vivian knelt beside me, her knees hitting the freezing stone. She didn’t flinch at the gore. She learned close to the wound, her nose crinkling in concentration.

“No”, Vivian murmured, looking up at me, her grey eyes wide in the dim light .

“Sofia hates the smell of blood. She prefers using poisons. A blade is too messy for her”.

My blood ran cold. Jarek’s own men, slaughtered at the cell door. If Jarek was down here acting on his own misguided senses of duty, why were his loyalists dead?

Unless Jarek hadn’t opened the door at all. Unless someone had beaten him to it.