Claimed By My Alpha Stepbrother.

42

Azriel

My mind completely short-circuited.

"Kade?"

It was unbelievable. He should have been dead. How was he...?

He took a slow step forward out of the shadows, and it was him. The same jawline, broad, imposing shoulders, and that faint scar running down the left side of his neck from our sparring session three years ago.

But he looked different. The fierce, disciplined soldier I had fought alongside for years was gone. His posture was loose, and when he tilted his head, the silver light struck his face, and my stomach plummeted into a bottomless void.

His eyes were completely dilated, swallowed by a dark, swirling abyss that confirmed what I refused to believe. He was also an experiment.

The two men by his side, Jaxon and Marcus, looked even more different.

"How..." I lost my confidence. "How are you alive?"

I could have sworn I had seen their dead bodies in Bogotá. I didn't remember much, but the horror I'd felt when I saw those bodies sprawled around was something I'd never forget. There was no way I was mistaken. I'd held his body and wailed over it for hours, and now he was standing here? Were there experiments reviving dead bodies now?

But even then, Millbrook was thousands of miles away from Bogotá. How the f**k had their bodies gotten dragged here? It made no sense.

Besides, they didn't look completely animalistic like the starved creatures we had encountered in the slums. They weren't crawling on all fours or weeping from the madness.

They seemed more stable and human.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, stepping fully in front of Seraphina. "How did you get to Millbrook?"

Kade let out a harsh, dry scoff that vibrated with a low, unnatural rumble. His dark eyes didn't even look at me. Instead, they landed directly on Seraphina, and I could smell the sudden spike of adrenaline in his scent.

"I guess you still like playing the savior, Azriel," Kade sneered, his voice a gravelly, distorted echo of the man I used to know. "Still pretending you're better than the rest of us, when you're the worst."

"Answer the question, Kade," I growled, stepping closer to him.

"What?" Kade thundered, his upper lip curling back to reveal fangs. "Sad to see we're alive?" He scoffed. "Your whole plan got ruined?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What the f**k are you even...?"

"You abandoned us in Bogotá," Kade snapped. "Left us to rot in the dirt while you ran off to save your own skin. And now? Now we find out you've been hiding the cure this entire time?"

I raised my brows, more confused than I'd ever been in my life. "The cure? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me!" Kade yelled, his dark eyes flashing with sudden, violent craziness. He pointed a trembling, scarred finger past my shoulder, directly at Seraphina. "Her. We know what she is. We know what her blood can do. You kept her for yourself while we've been burning from the inside out every single day!"

A toxic wave of possessiveness exploded through my veins, wiping out any lingering pity or shock I had for my old squadmates. I didn't care how they survived Bogotá. I didn't care how they were standing there.

I reached back, grabbing Seraphina’s waist and tugging her forcefully against my spine, completely cloaking her from their sight.

"I didn't abandon you in Bogotá," I replied, my voice dropping into a low, cold tone. "I also don't remember what happened after the plan went wrong. But I know this—I didn't leave anyone behind willingly. And I don't know anything about a damn cure." I bared my own teeth, my brown eyes flaring to life in the darkness. "The only thing I know is that Seraphina belongs to me. She stays with me."

Behind Kade, Jaxon and Marcus let out simultaneous growls of defiance. Their bodies hunched over, their hands dropping toward their weapons, the primitive instincts of the wolf completely overtaking their military discipline.

"She can't belong to one person!" Kade thundered, his voice booming through the narrow alleyway and shaking the loose plaster from the walls. His chest heaved violently as he glared at me through the dark. "She belongs to all of us! She is the only thing that can stop the madness, Azriel! We are all the same, and we have a right to her!"

I snapped. A loud, deep, monstrous roar came from me. The very ground we stood on rumbled, and Jaxon and Marcus violently flinched, stumbling backward as their eyes widened in terror. Their knees buckled, and they flopped down to the floor.

It was the ultimate sign of submission.

I stepped forward, closing the distance between Kade and me until we were inches apart. Looming over him, my brown eyes burned into his dark ones.

"Listen to me very carefully, Kade," I whispered, every single word laced with a deadly promise. "I was your commander in Bogotá, and I am your commander here. If you think for one second that you can lay a single finger on her, I will remind you exactly why I was chosen to lead that squad. I will tear you apart piece by piece, and I won't leave enough of you to be resurrected a second time."

Kade stood his ground for a fraction of a second, his jaw tight. Then he let out a low, ragged snarl, his chest violently heaving as he fought against the instinct to submit to my authority.

For a terrifying moment, I thought he was going to act. I was ready to rip his head off.

But then, the dark, manic fire in his eyes flickered. He looked at my hands, curled into rigid fists that were already vibrating with adrenaline. He looked back at Jaxon and Marcus, who were still trembling in the shadows.

With a bitter, venomous sneer, Kade slowly took a step back, retreating into the deeper shadows of the archway.

"This isn't over, Commander," Kade rasped, his voice dripping with malice as his form began to melt back into the darkness. "You can't hide her forever. The whole city knows she's here. And we aren't the only ones hunting."

Without another word, he turned and vanished into the labyrinth of the slums, Jaxon and Marcus scurrying silently after him like ghosts into the night.