Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 214

It started with a blur, too fast and too close, the kind of shift in energy that makes your skin prickle before your mind even catches up. One second I was reaching for a second sleeper, still humming with leftover resonance, and the next there was a sound like ripping fabric and a sudden burst of movement behind me. I turned just in time to catch the glint of metal, a blade aimed straight at my head. The knife wasn’t ceremonial, ornate, or sharpened for show, just clean, narrow, and deadly, a weapon meant purely for killing.

The vampire moved like he had already committed to this fight. There was no warning, no posturing, no demand for surrender. Just raw panic burning behind his eyes and a brutal, practiced precision that said he wasn’t new to violence. His lips curled back like he expected fangs to meet him, like some part of him had already decided I was the threat, and that the only way he left this alive was if I didn’t.

I ducked low, not elegantly, but with enough force to slam my shoulder into his gut and knock the wind from his lungs. He let out a strangled grunt as we hit the ground, hard enough to jar every bone in my body.

My knees scraped against the broken pavement, and his blade nearly caught my arm, but i kept moving. I rolled away, came up on one knee, and caught his wrist before he could reorient. My fingers locked tight around his hand, not to break it, but to redirect and contain. I met his eyes and held them.

“Stop,” I said. The word came out steady, carried both through my voice and the resonance I pushed outward. It wasn’t an order or a threat, but an invitation to see the truth.

He froze, lips parting slightly. His voice trembled. “I saw your eyes.

You’re one of them.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m not Dominion. I’m trying to stop this.”

His jaw clenched. “They said the Bridge would come from within, thatshe’d smile while we turned on each other.”

Before I could respond, I heard the sharp rhythm of boots approaching across stone, each step deliberate and heavy with intent.

“Step away from her,” Richard said. His tone was cold, lethal, and unmistakably final.

The vampire’s eyes widened, His grip faltered. The knife clattered to the ground. He didn’t run or speak again. He simply stepped back, his shoulders slumping with shame. Richard didn’t even acknowledge him.

His focus was entirely on me.

He reached me in two strides, his hands sweeping over my arms and down my sides, checking for wounds. It wasn’t panicked, just focused.

It was controlled urgency, the kind that came from fear buried deep enough not to show on the surface.

“I’m okay,” I said, keeping my voice low and softer than I intended. I needed him to believe it.

His hands paused at my collarbone. “He touched you,”

“He didn’t hurt me. He thought I was one of them.”

Richard didn’t answer. His eyes didn’t leave mine. He stepped in closer, so close I could feel the heat coming off him. His hand slid behind my neck, fingers curling lightly, and he leaned in until our foreheads nearly touched.

“You scared me,” he whispered, his voice rough and quiet.

I swallowed. I felt the tension in him, every muscle poised, like he didn’t know whether to hold me or to drag me somewhere safe. “Then don’t leave me alone.”

His mouth twitched. It wasn’t quite a smile and not quite a plea, but something tense that passed between us.Behind us, the signal began to rise. I could feel it crawling up my spire. pressing in from the edges of the district.

Richard turned his head toward the ridge. “We need to fall back.”

“No.”

He looked at me again, sharper now, his restraint slipping.

“Amelia,

”

“You know I’m right. If I leave now, they’ll all go under. I can stop it, but only if I stay.”

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