Page 54 of Claimed

“Oh, dear,” Elena says. “How dare I be disrespectful while thousands die. I suppose I better be polite…”

Anya enters the room, and everybody falls silent. We don’t like to discuss this in front of her, not because she is weak-minded, or lacks opinions on the matter, but because she has been through more than enough. She comes to my side and I scoop her up into my lap, wrapping my arms around her snugly.

“What are you talking about?” She asks the question with a slight smirk, probably because we all look a little guilty at her arrival.

“Nothing.”

“Sport.”

“Vampires.”

Three different answers come at the same time.

Her smirk grows. “I bet only one of those is true, and I know which one,” she says. “The vampires are really a problem now, huh? Every time I look at my phone, there’s another reel with someone getting gutted. It’s kind of fucked up. I feel like we should do something.”

“Yes,” Elena mutters to the bottom of her glass. “It is fucked up. If only someone could do something.”

Anya

There’s so much tension in the place at the moment. Vlad and Alexei and Elena and I spend the evenings together on occasion, but I don’t think we’ll be doing that as much from here on out. Elena has been cantankerous all evening, and Vlad has been doing his best to take her into some kind of hand, but she is harder to handle than anybody expected.

“I say we attack,” Elena says, swaying unsteadily. She puts her hand out to catch herself, but unfortunately what she reaches for is a good foot or two further away than she imagines it to be. She tumbles onto the carpet in a surprisingly slow and elegant fall, then sits up and finishes her drink, which somehow mostly remained in her glass.

“Haven’t you had enough to drink?” Vlad sighs the question as he helps her up from the floor.

Alexei’s brother is a lot like him, but slightly more studious and thoughtful. Where Alexei gives orders, he has more of a tendency to ask questions.

“She’s had enough to drink,” Alexei says, decisive.

“You don’t get to tell me when I’ve had enough to drink,” Elena slurs.

“He does, actually, pet. He is alpha, remember? I think it’s time you went to bed,” Vlad interjects. He gets up and does his best to usher her out of the room without further drama, but there’s been enough theatrics that the mood lingers for quite some time.

Alexei declares he is going to bed not long after, and I dutifully trail after him. He does not like me out of his sight.

We are on the way to our room when he remembers something he has to tend to. “I will be along shortly,” he tells me. “Go and wait for me.”

“Yes, my alpha,” I say, perhaps a little too dutifully. I earn myself a questioning look for my tone. He knows I’m not the kind to go around sounding overly demure. The look he gives me tells me that tonight is not the night to fuck around unless I want to find all the way out. Having already found out many times before, I am not interested in getting my ass whipped because he is mad at Elena. I know she’s been getting under his skin lately. She’s passionate and knowledgeable, and she challenges him. I’d almost be jealous, if it wasn’t for the fact that Vlad and Elena are clearly fated mates.

“I mean, yes,” I say, withering under his glare. “I’m going.”

“Good.”

Alexei turns on his heel and goes off to do whatever alpha business he has to attend to. I continue my way, when I am accosted by none other than the woman herself.

Elena pulls me to the side, into one of the castle’s many little nooks. She must have gotten away from Vlad. She still stinks of drink and desperation, both of which are very unlike her.

“The alpha won’t forgive me for saying this to you,” she says. “But someone has to. The war is going to claim the lives of thousands. We are safe enough here, but out there, people are dying. Wolves are being taken. There’s blood in the streets.”

I feel the weight of her words, and also the crushing anxiety of feeling somehow responsible, but also entirely powerless in the matter.

“What can we do to stop it?”

“We can let the vampire go.”

“The vampire?” I am confused. “What vampire?”

“Dom is in the dungeon. Alexei did not kill him. Decided to keep him prisoner instead. An ancient can and will take control of the vampire situation. We need to let him go. You need to let him go.”

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