Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 11

The door to the storage room creaked shut, and I didn’t dare to breathe until I heard Andrei’s footsteps retreat. Even then, I stayed still for several minutes, tucked in the narrow passageway between the walls, my arms wrapped protectively around my belly.

Damon’s hand rested lightly on my shoulder. “He’s gone.”

I exhaled, shaky and silent. My body slumped forward slightly, the tension leaving my limbs in waves. My heart, though, thundered on, unwilling to settle.

“He was so close,” I whispered.

“I know.” Damon’s voice was tight with restrained anger. “Too close.”

He helped me up, guiding me back to the adjoining room – the one I’d been hiding in before Grace opened her mouth and nearly destroyed everything.

The panic had been instantaneous. The moment we heard footsteps, Damon swept me through the back hallway just in time, stuffing me between a stack of dusty crates and old linens while Grace tried to stall.

It didn’t matter that the room Andrei entered had nothing but cobwebs and mildew. Just hearing him say my name

it had shaken something loose in me.

“Natalia?” Damon’s hand tightened around mine. “Are you listening?”

I blinked up at him. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” he growled. “He’s hunting you. She almost–Grace–almost handed you to him on a silver platter.”

I didn’t respond. My fingers curled over my abdomen instead, rubbing small circles against the tension there.

He noticed. “You need to rest.”

“I need to keep moving,” I corrected. “This isn’t working. We can’t just play hide and seek forever.”

I meant it. My child deserved more than this fear in every footstep, hunger gnawing at me in the middle of the night, uncertainty clinging to my bones like smoke. Andrei wouldn’t stop. I saw it in his eyes when he stepped into that hallway.

The desperation. The grief. The determination.

Grace’s screams echoed through the walls, interrupting my thoughts.

“She’s still arguing?” I asked quietly.

Damon’s mouth was set in a hard line. “Locked her in the east wing.”

I stared at him. “She loves you.”

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“And she almost got you killed.”

“She didn’t mean to. She’s scared.”

Damon’s silence said enough.

I didn’t press further.

But even in my unease, a bitter truth clawed at the back of my throat: we were running out of time. Sooner or later, someone would slip up. I couldn’t risk my child’s safety on someone else’s panic. If I wanted to survive give my baby a chance – I had to disappear entirely.”

So I became someone else.

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The Omega uniform was plain: brown skirts, a faded apron, no embellishments. Damon helped me get the herbs I

to mask my scent. needed from the apothecary – crushed thistleleaf and grayberry root

I soaked small cloths in the mixture and tied them around my wrists, ankles, and neck. The smell made me gag, especially with my heightened senses, but it worked. I blended in.

I had to. Andrei and Lilith were still staying at the packhouse, Andrei refusing to leave until he found me and Damon refusing to kick him out so as not to start an interpack war.

No one looked twice at me as I swept through the halls, scrubbing floors, serving meals, hauling laundry. I became a ghost–silent, unseen, useful.

At night, I collapsed onto the thin mattress Damon found for me behind the laundry building. It wasn’t much, but it was hidden and dry. Every night I wrapped my arms around my growing stomach and whispered promises to the child inside.

I will keep you safe. I will give you peace. I will find a way.

And every day, I hid.

Until the morning the Gamma spotted me.

A

“You,” he barked, pointing a meaty finger my way. “You. You’re small–light. You can clean the Alpha’s room. The others are scrubbing the kennels.”

My pulse skittered. I bent my head in submission, just like the other Omegas did.

“Yes, sir,” I said, careful to keep my voice breathy and small.

As I climbed the stairs toward the Alpha wing, the air grew thinner – heavier. The walls here were polished, the windows large. It wasn’t the first time I’d walked this hallway, but it was the first time I did so unrecognized. Unwanted. Unnamed.

I stood outside his door for a long moment before opening it.

The scent hit me first – Andrei. Cedarwood and steel, old leather and something darker. Something familiar. It

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sank into my bones before I could stop it.

I slipped inside and got to work, starting in the far corner. I scrubbed slowly, methodically, trying to make no sound. But as I worked, I overheard the voices from the balcony. I risked a glance.

Andrei stood at the railing, his back to the door. His shoulders were tight.

Beside him, his Beta spoke low. “You look like hell.”

“I feel worse.

“We’ve searched every packhouse, every checkpoint. If she were out there-”

“She is,” Andrei snapped, his voice hoarse. “I know it. My wolf can feel her. It’s like… like a thread that won’t break. She’s close.”

“She’s hiding from you,” the Beta said more gently. “After what happened… Natalia probably doesn’t trust you. Not after the divorce. Not after Lilith.”

At the sound of my name, I curled in tighter behind the writing desk. I couldn’t look away now. Every word dug

into me.

“I never wanted it to end that way,” Andrei said, his voice low. “And now she’s out there, pregnant and alone. What kind of monster does that make me?”

My breath hitched.

“She’s strong,” the Beta replied.

Andrei shook his head. “Even the strong need help sometimes.”

I had to press a hand to my mouth to keep from making a sound.

Then the door opened.

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