Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 178

178 /231

Amelia

Vasha waited for me in a chamber carved entirely from obsidian, lit only by the soft blue glow of floating glyphs that rotated above the floor in a slow, deliberate circle.

The space wasn’t still; it pulsed with a coiled, almost living stillness, as if it were holding its breath and watching me breathe.

It smelled like ash and old parchment, like the inside of a sealed tomb that hadn’t been opened in centuries. I wasn’t sure if I had walked here or if I had been pulled, but I knew I hadn’t come by choice. My thoughts were splintered and scattered, like shards of glass suspended in fog. Every second seemed to slip sideways. I remembered arriving, but I couldn’t say from where. I remembered screaming, but I didn’t know when or why.

She didn’t rise. She just turned her head slightly, studying me with a gaze that made my skin tighten and crawl.

There was nothing soft or nurturing in it. She looked nothing. like Serena, but the posture was so familiar it made my chest ache.

The stillness, the weight, the gravity of her presence. It was like they had once been part of the same whole, two sides of the same blade honed for different purposes.

“You look like her, you know,” she said. It wasn’t a compliment, and it wasn’t kind. “Before she ruined herself.”I didn’t know how to respond. My mouth felt sealed shut, and when I tried to gather my thoughts into something usable, they dissolved before reaching the surface. There were questions that should have been pounding at my skull, but they kept slipping through the cracks. They didn’t feel like mine anymore.

“Do you remember what I told you?” she asked, standing with deliberate grace. Her voice was patient, like this was a ritual she had practiced a hundred times.

“‘… I think so,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if the words were true.

“You always say that. And then I have to start again.”

She stepped closer and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Her fingers lingered at my temple. The gesture was gentle. Almost maternal. Her hand moved to adjust my collar, smoothing it with practiced care, as though she were tucking me into bed.

“But I don’t mind,” she said softly. “It just means you’re still fighting it. That means you’re strong.”

She gave me a sad smile, one that looked like it hurt her to wear. “We’ve had this conversation many times, sweet one. You always resist it at first. But you always come back to me.”

She began to move around me, not touching, just orbiting, as if I were something delicate, something fragile. She didn’t speak in commands this time. Her tone was low,almost affectionate. Like she had learned the cadence that made me listen. Like she had studied the cracks in my mind and knew exactly how to slip inside.

“She betrayed her bloodline,” Vasha said. Her voice was even, without judgment. “She mated with a werewolf. She was meant to lead us, not throw herself away. Not choose the animals over her own kind.”

wanted to scream that Serena had loved me, that I had been safe with her, that she’d once looked at me with something warm in her eyes. But even those memories didn’t feel real. They weren’t solid anymore.

They drifted in and out of reach, like radio static, blurred around the edges, like half-remembered dreams that might not have happened at all.

Had I known her?

“She could have raised a queen, someone born to lead, someone with a bloodline meant to be honored, not hidden. But instead, she buried you in the dirt, far from your own kind. She stripped you of your name, your birthright, and the purpose etched into your bones before you even took your first breath. All because she was afraid. Not for you, for herself. She was afraid of what you were meant to be.”

My knees wobbled. I reached out and caught myself on the obsidiar wall. It was cold. Grounding.

“She protected me,” I said, though it came out like a question.

“She protected herself,” Vasha replied. “She couldn’t control you, so she gave you away. To the wolves. To be shaped into something smaller, something obedient.”

She stepped forward again, silent and slow, and gently pressed two fingers to my temple, the pressure light, but it anchored something inside me and pulled it loose all at once.