Claimed by My Beastly Husband

Chapter 1 – The Beastly Proposal

Seraphina’s hands trembled as she clutched the porcelain teacup, its delicate rim pressing into her fingers. The steam rose, fragrant and soft, but it did nothing to calm the storm inside her chest. Her mother’s voice—sharp, commanding, and unbearably final—echoed through the drawing room.

“You will marry him, Seraphina. There is no other way.”

The words struck like a hammer. Seraphina’s head snapped up, emerald eyes flashing with disbelief. “Marry him?” Her voice cracked. “You can’t be serious. He’s—he’s a monster!”

Across the polished table, her father shifted uncomfortably, avoiding her gaze. His silence was more damning than his wife’s words. It confirmed what Seraphina feared: this was no negotiation. This was a sentence.

“The Beast,” they called him. Kael Arden. His name carried weight in every whisper, spoken in awe or terror, depending on who dared utter it. Some said he’d killed a man with his bare hands. Others swore he ruled not just with wealth and power, but with shadows—merciless, unrelenting, untouchable.

And now, unbelievably, her family wanted to give her to him.

Seraphina’s heart thundered. She forced her voice into a calm, defiant edge. “You’re selling me.”

Her mother’s lips pressed into a thin line. “We are saving you. Saving this family.”

The truth spilled out in fragments—debts they could no longer hide, enemies closing in, reputations hanging by a thread. Kael’s proposal—or rather, his demand—had come at the perfect time. Marry Seraphina, and the Ardens would secure her family’s protection, wealth, and status. Refuse him, and ruin awaited them all.

Seraphina’s throat tightened. Her life, her freedom, her carefully nurtured dreams of choosing love on her own terms—torn apart by signatures on a marriage contract.

“I won’t,” she whispered, but her voice faltered.

Her father finally spoke, weary and defeated. “You must, Seraphina. There’s no choice left.”

No choice. The words rang louder than her heartbeat. She wanted to scream, to fight, to run—but the walls of her family’s estate closed in around her, suffocating her will. She saw it in their eyes: they had already decided. She was nothing more than a pawn to be placed in the Beast’s hands.

That evening, Kael himself arrived.

The great doors opened to reveal him—a towering figure draped in black, shoulders broad, his presence filling the room before he even spoke. His gaze swept over Seraphina, piercing, unreadable, and something inside her stuttered, recoiling even as it sparked with a dangerous curiosity.

He was beautiful in a savage way, all sharp lines and restrained power, but there was no softness in him. Only intensity. Only danger.

Her mother curtsied. Her father bowed. Seraphina stood rigid, refusing to lower her head. If he thought she would cower, he would be mistaken.

“Seraphina,” he said, voice low, velvet wrapped in steel. “You know why I’m here.”

Her chest tightened. “To claim something that isn’t yours.”

For a flicker of a moment, his lips curved, not quite a smile—more like the acknowledgment of a challenge. “Not yet mine. But soon.”

The air between them crackled. He stepped closer, and she could feel the weight of him, the power radiating off his body like heat from a fire. His eyes locked on hers, unyielding.

“You don’t want this,” she whispered, though the certainty in her tone faltered.

“You’re wrong,” Kael said, his voice dark and certain. “I want exactly this. You.”

Her pulse skipped. His words were not a request. They were a declaration.

Seraphina wanted to hate him. She wanted to recoil from the intensity of his gaze, from the certainty in his voice. And yet, a treacherous part of her felt the pull—the way his presence consumed the space, the way his authority seemed unshakable, the way he looked at her as if she were already his.

Her fists clenched at her sides. “And if I refuse?”

Kael tilted his head slightly, studying her like a predator might study prey. His voice was calm, but it carried a weight that made the room itself feel smaller.

“You won’t.”

And in that moment, she knew he was right. Not because she would surrender willingly—but because the chains of family duty had already bound her, leaving her with no escape.

Her heart hammered, her lips parted, but no words came. For the first time, Seraphina felt the full truth of the stories whispered about Kael Arden. He was not just a man. He was a force. A storm. A beast.

And soon, he would be her husband.

Seraphina barely remembered the rest of the evening—the signing of papers, the exchange of false pleasantries, her mother’s satisfied sighs. Her body moved, her hand scribbled a signature, but her spirit felt trapped in a cage that was quickly shrinking.

When Kael finally left, he didn’t say goodbye. He didn’t need to. His parting glance was enough—a look that promised possession, a look that told her she belonged to him already.

Seraphina pressed a trembling hand to her chest as the door shut.

Her life had been claimed by the Beast.

And nothing would ever be the same.