The Night He Claimed Me

Chapter 10: Fire And Shadows

The storm outside had turned violent, with lightning flashing in jagged bursts across the sky and rumbles that shook the walls of Blackstone Estate like some drum of war. But inside, the real storm Charles and Kade was about to erupt. Charles's body pressed against mine, solid, unyielding, his chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths. I could feel every sinew, every muscle coiled and ready. The tension in him was electric, a predator at the edge of a kill. “You’re trembling,” he murmured, one hand sliding to the small of my back, fingers pressing into me with possessive force.

“I-I'm not,” I whispered, but the truth came out in my shallow breaths, in the warmth flooding my cheeks and between my thighs.

He smirked, dark and knowing. "Yes, you are. And I like it."

A shiver ran through me, not entirely from fear. My pulse spiked as his hand slid around my waist, pulling me flush against him. Heat radiated from him, overwhelming, intoxicating.

Kade's presence at the end of the hallway hadn't gone away. I could feel the tension crackle like lightning between the two men. In that instant, however, Charles didn't care about Kade. Not yet.

His lips brushed my ear, and his voice was low and rough. "If he touches you, Hale, I swear…

The threat was there, raw, lethal, and something coiled deep inside me. Desire. Fear. Both mingling, impossible to separate.

The words were barely out of my mouth before Charles turned to Kade once more, and the shadows in the room seemed to coalesce, wrapping around him like living armor. His fingers didn't move from my waist, pressing me against him, anchoring me even as his eyes blazed with fury.

Kade smirked, stepping closer. “She’s responding to you, isn’t she?” he taunted. “The way she’s pressed to you… the way her body… bends…”

I gasped, but Charles's hand tightened on my hip, and the heat of him against me made my breath catch.

"I don't care what you see," he growled, leaning in close so that our foreheads touched. His voice dropped to a whisper, audible only to me. "She's mine. Do you understand?"

“Yes,” I breathed, trembling in every sense-my body, my mind, my heart.

His lips brushed my jaw, tracing a line that made my knees weaken. His hands moved lower, sliding over my hips to draw me impossibly closer. My heart hammered, and desire flared like wildfire.

“Kade will learn soon enough,” Charles whispered, his teeth grazing my ear. “No one touches what's mine. Not ever.”

I shivered at his words, at the heat of him, at the promise of ownership that sent chills and fire through me at once. His thumb brushed my hipbone, tracing a path that made my stomach twist in anticipation.

“You’re…” I gasped, words failing me, caught between fear, heat, and something raw I couldn’t name.

“Yes,” he said, his lips just above mine. “All of it. Mine. Every inch, every thought…”

Before I had a chance to reply, Kade sprang forward, but the moment was broken and Charles was quicker. Shadows burst from his fingers and hit Kade, sending him backward. The force pushed me harder against Charles, my body against the heat of his.

I pressed my hands against his chest, feeling the rapid thrum of his heartbeat beneath his skin, the heat radiating off him. Desire coiled tight inside me, mingling with fear, excitement, and something deeper-ownership, possession, the unrelenting pull of this dangerous, powerful man.

Charles bent his head, brushing his lips against mine in a ghost of a kiss-possessive and demanding, yet teasing. I ached with want, and I leaned into him, letting the storm that was building between us mirror the one outside.

He drew back far enough to whisper, his breath hot against my lips, “You feel it too, don’t you? The pull between us, the fire?”

“Yes,” I said, my voice shaking. “I feel it.”

His smile was dark and dangerous, filled with something primal. "Good. Because tonight… little bird… you're not leaving my side."

The shadows around us writhed, twisting, as Kade pressed his attack again. But Charles's hands one still at my waist, one now threading into my hair held me fast. His lips grazed my neck, teeth brushing my skin just enough to make my breath catch.

"Focus on me," he whispered, his voice low and commanding. "Feel me. Let nothing else touch you."

And I did. Every nerve, every pulse, every heartbeat was consumed by him. His dominance, his heat, his shadow wrapped presence everything that terrified and thrilled me locked me in a storm I couldn't resist.

Kade's voice came from the hallway, rage bleeding into the words. Yet it barely penetrated the haze of heat and desire that wrapped around me, anchored by Charles's body, his hands, his lips.

He tilted my chin up, his gaze locked onto mine, his eyes dark with intent and fire. "I claimed you when you came into this house," he whispered. "Tonight… I'm reminding the world and Kade Mercer of it."

The shadows twisted around him, around me, and even the storm outside seemed to answer.

I trembled, not with fear alone but with anticipation. My pulse thundered, my body screamed for him, desire and danger danced together, and I knew I didn't want to escape either.

Charles pressed his forehead to mine. "Mine, Hale. Only mine."

And in that moment, I knew: No matter the storm, no matter Kade, no matter the darkness surrounding us, I belonged to him.

And he would burn the world down to keep me.