Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 192

Simon had cleared me for discharge three days ago, but he hadn’t really let me leave, not fully, and certainly not in any way that mattered. I had technically been out of the infirmary, but I wasn’t free.

I had been steeping in Richard’s suite with simon in the guest suite next door under the pretense of recovery, though we both knew Simon had arranged it so he could monitor me around the clock.

He came in twice a day without knocking, checked my pulse, my temperature, and the tremor in my hands, and asked me questions I couldn’t always answer, what day it was, how many fingers he was holding up, whether I remembered what I had eaten for breakfast.

Once, he pressed a stethoscope to my chest and stared at

the wall for a full thirty seconds without saying a word, and the tension between his eyebrows was the only clue that something had shifted, because he hadn’t smiled since.

The room was dark now, lit only by the faint golden light spilling in beneath the door. The curtains were drawn and the windows sealed, and Richard was asleep beside me, his breathing even and steady. I knew he was asleep because I had been watching him for what felt like hours, wide awake but unmoving, suspended somewhere between rest and vigilance.

Or at least, I thought I hadn’t slept.I didn’t remember sitting up or pushing the covers aside or moving to straddle him, but my knees were already pressed into the mattress on either side of his waist, and my palms were braced beside his head like they belonged there. The heat of his skin bled through the blankets, but mine felt dull and out of sync, as if my nerves were receiving their signals with a delay.

A sound slipped into the quiet. It was faint, metallic, and oddly deliberate, a high, tight tone threading itself through the stillness like a wire being drawn taut. Like bells. My mind tried to rationalize it, to tuck it into the background and dismiss it as harmless, but my body moved on its own. My spine stiffened, my breath slowed to a near stop, and my limbs chilled like the blood had retreated from them entirely.

Three notes sounded, one long, one steady, and one dissonant, and with each one, my head turned, first to the left, then center, then right, as if someone had pulled an invisible string.

My face slackened, my thoughts thinned, and when I looked down at Richard, I didn’t see the man who had known me or the one who had shielded me with equal parts caution and care. I didn’t see the person whose touch craved, whose absence tore something open in my chest. I saw a pulse point, a vulnerable stretch of skin, and the target was meant to eliminate.

I tried to scream, but I couldn’t feel my mouth.My hand moved like it had done this before. I hovered it over his lips with the cold precision of someone who had decided this was necessary. I wasn’t reaching for connection, 1was calculating where and how to end him.

I’m going to hurt him, I realized, and though some part of me knew it, I still couldn’t stop.

I pressed down.

His breath caught beneath my palm, his body shifted, and his eyes opened.

He smiled, confused and soft, and the innocence in his expression hit harder than any blow. He thought I was touching him with love. His lips parted to speak, probably my name, and his hands moved gently up my thighs, coaxing rather than resisting.

Then I slammed his head sideways into the pillow.

The dull thud cracked something inside me, but I still couldn’t pull back. My knees locked over his hips, and my posture turned rigid and controlled, because I moved like someone trained for this.

He didn’t yell or strike out, he just grunted and reached for me again, his voice breaking with disbelief as he called my name.

I wanted to stop, but my body didn’t care.

I twisted his wrist. It gave with a pop, and the sound of it, soft and breakable, made my stomach lurch.A growl ripped through the room. The door slammed open, and even before I turned, I could smell the hallway, metal, ozone, adrenaline, and the faint undertone of panic.

“Don’t touch her!” Richard’s voice cracked like lightning.”

Nobody lays a hand on her!”

The guards hesitated, though one didn’t.

The bell sounded again.

Three notes. Left, center, right.

My head moved with the rhythm, and my body followed.

Claws, my claws, sliced through the air and into flesh before I even realized they’d extended. I felt skin tear beneath my hand, and the hot pulse of blood rushing out hit me just as the scent exploded into the room.

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