Claimed By A Midnight King

Chapter 6

The cold from the North didn't just make me feel cold; it went deep into my bones. I sat on the floor of the dark cell, hugging my knees to my chest, while my torn dress did nothing to help with the icy cold.

A wave of anxiety surged through me, tightening my chest. I placed a hand on my stomach; it was beginning. The faint, disorienting hum at the back of my head started creeping in. Sofia had warned me about this since childhood: void-drift.

It’s a mental and physical affliction that strikes those without a wolf. Without the blue tonic to calm my nervous system, the drift would unravel my sanity. “Please,” I murmured into the empty, dark room, my voice shaky. “I just need a drop.”

The black iron vault was too loud.

I pressed my palms against my ears, but it didn’t help. I could hear the thumps of the guard’s heart in the hallway. I could hear the scrapping of the mouse two floors up. It felt like a chaotic symphony. That made my brain feel like it was going mad.

Sofia..

The name flashed through the fog in my mind. For years, she had been the one to bring me the small pewter cup every morning. She told me I was sick. She told me my blood was too thin to handle the Sun's light.

“Drink, Vivi”, she would whisper, her green eyes cold as she watched me swallow the bitter blue liquid.

I stared down at my hands, they were shaking. Not from fear, but from a strange energy that felt like needles under my skin..

It had been nearly a week since my last dose. I had fully expected my stunted, defective wolf to wither away and die without Sofia’s medicine.

Instead, the exact opposite was happening. The hollow emptiness inside me didn’t feel like it was dying this time—it felt like it was waking up. It felt starved.

I pulled my knees tightly to my chest, burying my face in my arms as Damian’s face flashed in my mind. His betrayal still stung. Still stung like a sharp blade piercing my heart, bleeding every blood dry.

For ten years, he had left the Sun clan to treat me like dirt—like a worthless, weak daughter of the traitor gamma. Yet, he himself had never let me out of his sight . He guarded me with an obsession, suffocating intensely that I had stupidly and foolishly mistaken for love .

“You are mine Vivian”, He used to whisper in the dark, his golden eyes burning with terrifying possessives.

“No one else will ever touch what is mine”.

Sitting here in the dark of the Butcher’s citadel, all the memories suddenly felt different. Damian hadn’t been looking at me the way a king looks at a woman he loves. I don’t know much about love , but I know there should be kindness in the eyes when a man looks at a woman he loves. He had looked at me the exact way he looked at his vault of Solari weapons—terrified someone might steal his property.

The heavy door shrieked open. The sound made me flinch, as the loud sound hit my eardrum.

Dominic Vane stepped into the room. He had stripped off his heavy furs, wearing only a dark sleeveless tunic that showed the white scars criss crossing his forearms.

He carried a heavy wooden bucket and a brush with bristles.

He dropped the bucket. The soapy water splashing on the floor.

“Get up!!” he commanded. His voice was a low vibration that rattled my teeth.

I didn't move. I couldn't.

I just stared at the bucket, my breath shaking. “It's too loud”, I whispered.

Dominic's gaze sharpened. He moved closer to me, and I caught his scent—like pine, and something metallic. “The North doesn't have time for drama, Solari”,he said as he grabbed my arm. With one powerful pull, he lifted me from the floor.

“You’ve been moping in the shadows for three days. It's time to start pulling your weight”.

He shoved the brush into my hand. It felt impossibly heavy.

“What is this? I grasped, my throat feeling as if I'd chewed glass.

“Penance”, Dominic said, his face inches from mine.

“My fathers blood is in the mortar of this citadel. My brother’s names are carved into the memorial stones in the hall outside. You are the daughter of the man who opened the gates for the slaughter. You will scrub the blood stones. Every inch. Until the stone is as white as your people lie”.

I glanced at the brush and then back at him. The bond between ignited—a fierce, electric heat that made my skin tingle. Part of me wanted to shout for him to step back; another part longed to melt into the comfort of his embrace. The contradiction made me nauseous.

“I didn’t open any gates”, I said, my voice taking on a tense tone. “I was just a child , scrubbing floors when your father died”.

“And you’ll be scrubbing them while I rule”, Dominic hissed. He grabbed my jaw, his thumb digging into the bone.

“Do you think I care about your excuses? I see the coward who traded our lives for a Sun clan title”.

“Then kill me!!” I shouted, the sound echoing. “If I’m such a monster, why am I here? Why aren’t I on a pike at your gates”.

Dominic’s grip hardened. His eyes dropped to my mouth, and for a moment the hatred in his eyes faltered. It was replaced by a raw starving hunger that scared me more than his rage.

“Because the Moon is a cruel b***h”, he whispered, his voice cracking. “She tied my soul to a traitor’s brat. I can’t kill you without feeling the blade in my own heart, Vivian. But don’t mistake that for mercy”.

He pushed me towards the bucket, and I stumbled, my knees colliding with the cold stone floor.

“Scrub!”, he commanded sternly. “If there’s even a single spec of dirt left on those stones by dawn,I’ll let Silas take over your interrogation. He has no concerns for fated bonds”.

As he began to walk away, he paused at the doorway. There stood Silas in the shadows of the corridor, his silver eyes locked onto me with an unsettling gaze that sent a chill down my spine.

“Alpha “, Silas said softly. “The girl is trembling . It’s not fear. But her scent… her scent is shifting”.