CLAIMED THEN CAST ASIDE

🌗Chapter Eleven – The Moon’s Bargain

The air in the estate felt heavy.

Not with heat, but with something else—pressure, like the whole place was holding its breath.

Selene could feel it in her bones.

Her wolf was awake again.

Not fully—yet—but enough to make her skin tingle and her senses sharpen. Every sound was louder, every scent stronger. The steady heartbeat inside her belly was now a constant presence in her mind.

She hadn’t felt this connected to her wolf in months.

Not since she’d been marked.

Richard noticed too. She caught him watching her during breakfast, his green eyes following the way she moved, the way she kept glancing toward the windows as if measuring the distance to freedom. He didn’t know her wolf’s strength returned faster under the pull of the moon. He thought her defiance was just nerves.

He was wrong.

Selene was on her way to the kitchen when she heard it—Zara’s low, sharp voice echoing from Richard’s study. She stopped just outside the door. The wood was thick, but her wolf-hearing picked up every word.

“You’re running out of time,” Zara said. “If Kael finds her before you’ve secured her, he’ll tear this place apart.”

“I told you,” Richard replied, his voice tight, “she stays here until the baby is born. After that, we’ll decide what to do.”

“You think you have that kind of control?” Zara scoffed. “You’re holding his mate. And you think he’s just going to wait around?”

“She’s not his anymore,” Richard said. “She’s mine now.”

There was a pause. Then Zara’s tone turned cold. “Don’t fool yourself. That child isn’t yours, and you know it. But you also know you can’t let it go. You’re using her—fine. But you’d better be sure you can keep her.”

Selene’s nails dug into her palm.

Her wolf wanted to burst into the room and rip into them both. But she forced herself still. This was the first real proof she’d heard that Zara knew everything—including the truth about the baby.

Back in her room, Selene leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

She could still hear Zara’s voice in her head.

The truth was, wolves didn’t just conceive easily. Not without intention. Not without the mate bond.

And Selene had been marked by Kael.

Marked—and claimed—in a way that left no doubt to either of them who she belonged to. That night had changed her body in ways she didn’t fully understand. The healers in her pack used to say that when a wolf is marked by their true mate, nature bends to them. The bond runs so deep that even the smallest chance at life becomes real.

That’s why she was pregnant now.

That’s why, no matter how much Richard tried to claim her, nothing could change the fact that this child was Kael’s.

That night, Selene began testing her boundaries.

She pretended to sleep early, then listened carefully to the guards’ footsteps outside her door. There were two who switched shifts every four hours. One had a limp in his right leg; the other hummed under his breath when bored. She memorized those sounds.

She began looking for blind spots—hallways with no cameras, shadows in the courtyard, places where the floor didn’t creak. She found three possible escape routes, though all of them would require speed and timing she didn’t yet have.

Her wolf pressed against her skin, eager for the full moon when her strength would peak. Selene whispered to her in the dark. Not yet. Wait.

By the next evening, the pull was stronger. She felt it in her blood, in the way her body seemed to hum under her skin. The child inside her was still, as if it too felt the weight of the approaching moon.

At dinner, Richard barely spoke. He seemed distracted, checking his phone every few minutes. Selene noticed the faint scent of another man’s cologne clinging to him—one she didn’t recognize.

Her wolf didn’t like it.

Something was coming.

The next morning, Selene heard the sound of engines in the courtyard. She moved to the window, careful to stay hidden behind the curtain.

Two black SUVs had pulled up. The first man to step out was tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in dark clothes that fit too well to be casual. He moved like a predator—slow, certain, watching everything.

Selene’s stomach tightened.

Victor.

Zara stepped out of the second SUV, her heels clicking on the stones. She greeted Victor with a kiss on the cheek, lingering just a second too long for it to be friendly. Richard came out to meet them, and the three spoke quietly.

Selene couldn’t hear their words from this distance, but her wolf could sense the intent: danger.

By afternoon, the estate felt different. More guards. More closed doors. The scent of Victor’s cologne lingered in the halls now, faint but sharp.

Selene kept to herself, pretending to read in her room while her mind worked through escape plans. But now she had a new problem—Victor didn’t come here for nothing. If Zara brought him in, it meant her sister’s plan was moving faster.

By evening, she confirmed it. Passing by Richard’s office, she caught a few words through the half-closed door:

“…watch her closely,” Richard said.

Victor's voice replied, smooth and deep. “I always do.”

Zara’s laugh followed. “You’ll get your chance soon enough.”

That night, after the guards changed shifts, Selene slipped quietly down the back staircase. The air outside was cool, carrying the scent of damp earth and distant pine. She walked toward the garden, careful to stay in the shadows.

For a few minutes, she simply breathed—trying to calm the restless thrum of her wolf. The moon wasn’t full yet, but its pull was stronger than ever. Her muscles felt coiled, ready.

Then she heard it.

A voice, low and calm, from the shadows near the hedge.

“Your sister says you’re mine now.”

Selene froze.

Adrian stepped into the moonlight, his hands in his pockets, his smile slow and dangerous. “I don’t mind,” he added, eyes sweeping over her. “You’re prettier than I remember.”

Her wolf growled inside her, but Selene stayed still. One wrong move and he’d know exactly how close she was to breaking free.

Adrian tilted his head, watching her in silence for a long, heavy moment.

Then he stepped closer.

“Tell me, Selene…” His voice was like a blade sliding against silk. “Do you know what happens when the moon rises and you have no one to protect you?”

Selene’s heart pounded.

She didn’t answer.

Because the truth was—she did know.