Page 55 of Claimed

I draw in a breath of shock. Why would Alexei keep Dom here? What an insanely dangerous thing to do! I thought he was dead! Alexei promised me he was dead.

“Stop looking confused. He lied. That is what men do when they want to control a woman,” she says bitterly. “Forget how you came to know this information, and be glad you know it. It means you have the power to make this all stop.”

“I do?”

“The vampire sees you as family. He will listen to you. He’s deep underground, in the farthest reaches of our dungeons, but I can tell you the way. I can get you the keys. And I can ensure surveillance is off while you’re down there. But you have to be the one to free him. You can talk to him. You can beg him for his forgiveness…”

“His forgiveness?” Again I am confused. Again I am entirely unaware of what has been going on beneath my criminally ill-informed nose. I am starting to feel like little more than a sex toy. Someone fucked and bred, but not trusted with any real information.

“They’ve been using the UV against him,” Elena says. “He’s been kept in a state of constant regeneration, wounded and then healing again and again. He’s likely to be enraged. The pain he has suffered…”

“Is probably nothing compared to what he was doing to those wolves in the basement.”

“You sound just like Alexei,” she says, her face twisting in frustration. “Neither one of you will listen to the slightest bit of sense. I am telling you, Anya. The vampire needs to be released.”

I shake my head. “No, sorry, Elena. I can’t. I mean, I won’t.”

There’s every chance he would take me prisoner again, and I do not want that. Elena’s treatments seem to have weakened his hold, and if he is weakened and in pain, it might just be that he doesn’t have the energy to control me anymore. But it’s not worth the risk.

“People are dying,” Elena hisses. “We have to do something.”

“We should listen to Alexei,” I say. “He is alpha. These decisions are his to make.”

Her expression is one of deep disappointment. “I thought you had more in you,” she says. “I thought you were a wild, rebellious young mate—someone who could balance Alexei, steer this place in a more modern direction. But maybe you were never anything more than a spoiled, selfish runaway.”

I know she’s not really angry with me, but her words still hurt.

“I’m going to bed now, Elena,” I say. “I think it would be best if you did the same.”

“Sleep well, knowing that hundreds will die tonight because of your inaction,” she hisses.

I do not know how to respond to that, so I say what has been taught to me is the most devastating letter to anybody impassioned.

“K.”

CHAPTER 19

It is very, very late by the time Alexei comes to bed.

“Alexei?” I say his name as the mattress dips next to me.

“Mmm?” He is sleepy, right on the verge of passing out. So am I, in truth. I have been quite tired since my return from the vampire’s lair. Getting over traumatic events takes time, and everything that has happened since I met him has been somewhat traumatic in one way or another.

“You killed that old vampire, right? The one who took me?”

“Yes,” he says. “Of course.”

I feel my stomach tighten as I register what I know in my gut to be a lie. Elena might have been drunk, but in vino veritas. She was telling the truth. I’m sure of it. And that means Alexei is not. He’s lying to me.

Perhaps he senses my tension, because instead of going straight to sleep, he rolls over and holds me tightly. “You are safe now,”he murmurs in my ear. “You’re never going to be taken from me again. I can promise you that.”

I don’t want to tell him what I know. I don’t have the energy to call him out, and I have some shred of hope that maybe, just maybe there is some good reason for all of this.

Alexei growls softly against the back of my neck and I smile as the pleasant chemicals run through me. I let myself relax into his arms, trusting him somehow with my body even though my mind is now set very firmly at odds. I don’t know why he’s lying to me about Dom, but I know he will always protect me. That is how I am able to snuggle up into his arms and close my eyes, trusting him to take care of me as he always has.

I wake up perhaps an hour later, maybe just thirty minutes. It is impossible to say, except that Alexei is leaping out of bed and shaking me awake as he does it. There’s an alarm going off on a small box next to the bed, a red light and a small siren wailing in a very irritating way.

“What’s happening?” I ask him the question as my eyes feast on his naked, muscular form. Alexei at any hour is a handsome beast.

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