Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 165

The rally had gone better than anyone expected, but the quiet that fellowed wasn’t clean. It buzzed with uncertainty, fractured by reactions that hadn’t had time to land until now. We’d stood in front of them with proof, with history, with unity, and stitl, by morning, there were murmurs spreading across the edges of camp.

Some said I’d been created in secret, not born. Others whispered about bloodlines and curses and whether the Council would use this to strip protections from any future hybrids. A photo of my eyes reflecting red in the plaza lights had made it to one of the influencer gossip accounts, twisted with just enough color correction to make me look fully vampiric. They didn’t see hybrid. They didn’t see wolf. They saw something other.

I didn’t engage. There were more urgent things to handle.

I walked the shelter rows myself, checking the rotation sheets and inspecting the temporary radio lines. Each tent had a cot, fresh blankets, and a flash-printed instruction card laminated in three languages. Every evacuee would know where they were and what they were allowed to ask for.

I signed the muster rosters and tested the relay comms twice before heading back to base.

Richard was already there, shoulder to shoulder with Nathan and Emma in front of a projector wall. Evacuation grids lit the room in pale blue. He traced his finger overthe weakest zones, double-checking fallback routes and cross-verifying each channel.

Simon passed me on the way in, arms full with three medkits and a portable cooler.

“Transit nodes are stocked,” he said. “Antidote kits are at every quarter mile. No one’s dying on our watch.”

I nodded, grateful. He looked exhausted but alert. We all did.

Liora was in the archive chamber, finishing her sworn video statement. She wore her formal robes for the recording, the Mooncut crest embroidered on the collar.

Her voice was firm, her words careful as she authenticated the charter and confirmed the identity of Serena as the Mooncut-bearer. She used my full name. Twice.

By the time I got back upstairs, the wind had shifted.

Training rotations were still scheduled, and I threw myself into them with sharp focus. I was stronger now. It wasn’t just instinct or adrenaline. It was precision. I could feel energy snapping through my limbs before a strike. I saw faint outlines of motion before my opponent moved. The instructors noticed, but didn’t say anything.

I didn’t either.

Toward the end of the second round, I heard my sparring partner’s heartbeat before she advanced. I pivoted just before she struck, not because I saw her muscles move,but because something inside me had already known.

Her wrist stopped an inch from my face. She blinked. I blinked.

The air was thick with frost despite the late season. I pushed through it, arms and tegs fluid, breath steady. At the end of each form, the blood in my mouth pulsed hotter. Something deep in me uncoiled when I moved like this.

Across the room, Richard watched.

He had just arrived for final inspections, clipboard still in hand, but he wasn’t reading it. His jaw was tight. One hand curled around the edge of the clipboard. His breathing had changed.

I finished the final series and turned toward him. That’s when he abruptly handed off his notes to Emma and said something low.

Then he left. He didn’t move briskly or with frustration. He left quickly and without explanation.

I followed.

I said nothing as I trailed him into the east corridor, down past the side offices and into the lower-level equipment storage. The lights hadn’t been turned on yet. The motion sensors activated as we walked through.

He pushed open the supply door and stepped inside. I followed without hesitation.The door clicked shut behind him, and for a split second. stood there, confused. He hadn’t looked angry when he walked out, just… intense. Focused. But he hadn’t said a word to me, and I thought maybe I’d done something wrong.

Then I saw it. The unmistakable bulge pressing against the front of his pants, straining beneath the fabric as he turned toward me. My stomach flipped.

“Oh,” I whispered aloud, just before he reached me.

His hands grabbed my waist like he couldn’t stop himself.

His mouth found mine, hard and hot. There was no hesitation now. His hand slipped beneath my shirt, fingers splaying against the bare curve of my back as he pulled me into him like he’d snap in half if he didn’t.

“You don’t know what you look like out there,” he said into my mouth.

I exhaled against his throat. “You think I don’t feel it?”Chapter 305

His grip tightened. He walked me backward until my hips bumped a padded bench, and I sat without needing to be told. He dropped to his knees in front of me, pushed my thighs apart, and tugged down my training pants in one smooth motion.

I braced on the bench with one hand, the other sliding into. his hair as his mouth met me. The pressure of his tongue made my spine arch. I was still flushed from the exertion of training, muscles tight, breath uneven. The floor was cold under my bare feet.

He licked into me with purpose, moving with steady pressure and rhythm, unhurried but intense. His thumbs kept my thighs wide. When I shifted, he growled and pulled me closer to the edge, sucking hard.

That night, when I curled up beside him in our bed, I could feel something inside him pulling back. Not from me, but from the fear of losing what he’d built.

“You think they’re going to choose David?” I asked, my voice low in the dark.

He stayed quiet for a long moment before answering. ”

They might.”

I turned on my side and touched his jaw. “And what if they do?”

He exhaled slowly. “Then they do. And I lose. Andsomeone else takes the title.”

“That doesn’t make you less of a leader. It doesn’t make you less of who you are.”

His mouth twisted faintly. “It makes me a liability. To you.

To all of this. If I can’t protect it, why am I still here?”

“Because you built it. Because it exists because af you.

Even if they take the crown, they can’t take that.”

He didn’t answer, but he reached for my hand and held it against his chest.

1 kissed the scar on his shoulder.

He closed his eyes.

And finally, he slept.