Claimed by the Alpha and the Vampire Prince: Masquerading as a Man

Reed POV:

I came here again for one reason.

One thing only.

Something that would make my wolf hate me forever.

Kill my mate.

He didn’t know that’s why we came back.

He was just wagging his damn tail, metaphorically speaking, thrilled we’d get to see her again.

Our mate.

The weak, pathetic human mate.

Already, she’s turned my wolf into a lovesick mutt.

Disgusting.

My plan was simple: end her life, and then deal with my wolf later.

I’d try to reason with him — convince him it was better this way. That she wouldn’t survive in our world. That she didn’t belong. That she would be safer dead than caught in the middle of what we are.

But everything went to hell the moment I stepped inside and saw him with her.

The leech.

Blaze.

Too close.

Too comfortable.

Too fucking familiar.

My wolf lost it.

Now he wants to rip the vampire’s head off.

And see? This is why I wanted to kill her in the first place.

Before she came into the picture, Blaze and I had something like peace.

An understanding.

We stayed out of each other’s business, didn’t poke the sleeping beasts in one another.

It worked.

But ever since she showed up — this human girl — it’s like all hell broke loose.

We can’t breathe the same air without wanting to rip each other apart.

A human.

A fucking human was about to start a war.

Because she’s mine.

Because she’s also his.

And that — that’s the part I can’t figure out.

What the hell did she do to him?

Blaze doesn’t care about anyone. Not wolves. Not humans. Not even his own kind.

But her?

He looks at her like she’s the last drop of blood in a dying world.

It’s obsession. Madness.

And it’s dangerous.

Because now, if I kill her — and I still plan to — I’ll have more than just my wolf’s wrath to deal with.

I’ll have to go through Blaze too.

Which means I either walk away and lose her to that bloodsucker...

Or I kill her — and prepare to go to war with both my wolf and a vampire who would burn down the world just to keep her breathing.

Either way, I lose.

And yet, I can’t bring myself to stop.

Because every time I look at her — soft, fragile, painfully human — I want to protect her just as much as I want to destroy her.

And that? That’s the worst part.

Because it means I’ve already fallen.

And I don’t know if there’s any way back.

The next thing I fucking hate about this whole mess?

She makes me lose all sense of reasoning.

Here I was, in the middle of a heated back-and-forth with Blaze — Blaze — arguing over who did what for her like some pathetic schoolboy.

I actually caught myself bragging about bringing her a heating pad.

And painkillers.

Painkillers, for fuck’s sake.

What. The. Hell.

If my father ever got wind of this?

Yeah... we both know how that would end.

Badly. Violently. Shamefully.

And it wasn’t just that. No. She had me turning into something worse.

A possessive, jealous, unhinged bastard — and that infuriated me even more.

I haven’t even marked her yet, and she’s already under my skin.

What happens if I do mark her?

Will I even survive it?

Blaze, of course, kept pushing — demanding to know why I was so invested in this "silly little human" when I’d spent my entire life openly despising their kind.

He doesn’t know.

He can’t know.

Because if Blaze finds out she’s my mate, he won’t hesitate to use it against me.

To break me.

Again.

And that’s just another reason I fucking hate her.

She’s fragile.

Too fragile. Too soft. Too human.

If anyone learns the truth — that she’s mine — using her to get to me would be so damn easy.

At least if she were a she-wolf, she could fight back.

She could hold her own.

But her?

She’s a walking weakness.

And still... I can’t stay away.

I want to bury this truth so deep even the gods can’t find it.

But every time she looks at me with those wide eyes, clueless to the chaos she’s unleashed in me, it becomes harder to pretend.

Harder to resist.

Harder to not fall apart.

"She’s mine, Reed. Go get yourself another human if you’re suddenly into them," Blaze snapped, his voice low and lethal. "Leave mine alone."

Mine.

The word grated against my bones.

From where I stood, I could hear her moving around the kitchen, probably trying to find something to eat — blissfully unaware that we were both one second away from ripping each other apart for her.

"I don’t take orders from bloodsucking bastards," I hissed back, jaw clenched. "And I don’t want any human — I want this one."

I stepped forward, voice a low growl now. "Why don’t you go get yourself another walking blood bag and leave what’s already mine. I’m guessing you saw the master-slave mark on her neck, yeah? So fuck off. She’s claimed."

That wiped the smirk off his face for a second — just a second — before he threw his head back and laughed.

Cold. Mocking.

Like I was some naïve kid who didn’t know how the world worked.

"Yours?" he echoed with a crooked grin, that smug vampire gleam in his eyes.

"I’ve already owned her in ways you haven’t," he said slowly, savoring every poisonous word. "When she was fresh. Untouched."

My stomach twisted. My wolf stirred — no, snarled — inside me, rage rising like wildfire.

Blaze leaned in, like twisting the knife deeper.

"Guess she’s mine already. Body. Blood. And soon enough, I’ll own her soul too. She was so easy to ruin."

Then came the final blow — voice soft, deadly.

"I don’t think the Alpha King’s heir wants a mate that’s already been tasted, marked, and claimed by a vampire." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

No.

No, he was lying.

He had to be lying.

She was pretending to be a boy back then.

He couldn’t have... he couldn’t have known. Couldn’t have touched her like that. Not without knowing.

But my wolf wasn’t buying any of it. He was thrashing inside me, pure fury, demanding answers. Demanding blood.

I couldn’t think.

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t even see straight through the haze of red boiling in my vision.

The next second, I was already moving — fast, faster than I’d intended.

Storming toward the kitchen, kicking the door open so hard it cracked against the wall.

She was there.

Sitting at the counter.

Eating fucking pancakes like nothing had happened. Like her very existence wasn’t currently tearing apart centuries of fragile peace between species.

I froze.

Heart pounding. Wolf howling. Mind screaming one question over and over.

Is it true?

Did he...?

Did Blaze touch her?

Claim her?

Did he fucking ruin her before I even realized she was mine?

She looked up, startled by my sudden entrance, a piece of pancake halfway to her mouth.

Eyes wide. Confused.

Innocent.

Gods — please let him be lying.

Because if he wasn’t... I wouldn’t be able to stop my wolf from tearing Blaze apart.

And worse — I wouldn’t be able to look at her the same again.

"Tell me he’s fucking lying," I growled, gripping her arms tightly — not enough to bruise, but hard enough that my control was hanging by a thread. My wolf was clawing inside me, frenzied and furious.

"Tell me he hasn’t put his filthy hands on you. Tell me he hasn’t touched you like that."

Her eyes widened, not with fear, but with fury. And then she did something that made my stomach churn — she glanced over my shoulder, to where Blaze was lounging against the kitchen doorway with that same damn smirk on his face. The kind of smirk that makes you want to wipe it off with your fist.

"He’s lying," she said finally, her voice tight.

Relief nearly staggered me.

But it didn’t last.

Because Blaze — that fucking parasite — was suddenly there. One second leaning, the next a blur of movement, and now standing beside us, too damn close.

"Tell him the fucking truth," Blaze snarled, voice low and venomous. "Tell him how you moaned my name, how I made you scream in ecstasy."

That was the last straw. For her.

Before I could even react, Clare’s fist flew — a clean punch straight to his smug fucking nose. The crack echoed in the kitchen, followed by her shrieking:

"You did something to me! You bit me — made me want you! And now you dare to stand here and ask me to admit to that? To say I moaned your fucking name?"

Her words were pure fire, fury radiating off her in waves.

She didn’t stop there.

She launched herself at him, fists flying, kicks landing — wild and reckless and glorious. Sure, her strikes lacked the force to actually hurt a vampire like Blaze, but that didn’t stop her.

Didn’t deter her.

And for a split second, he cowered.

Blaze fucking cowered — arms raised to block the punches she rained down on him like a human whirlwind of righteous wrath.

I should’ve been smug.

But I was too busy being numb.

Blaze had used his bite. That explained it. Vampires could drug humans with their saliva, clouding their minds, twisting their desire. Make them feel willing — make it seem like consent.

A tactic they’d mastered over centuries to cloak predation in pleasure.

Some say it’s more "elegant" than the way wolves take their prey. But there’s no nobility in it.

Wolves were different. We didn’t pretend. We chased. We cornered. We conquered.

And yeah, maybe that was its own kind of savagery.

My kind revels in the struggle — they savor resistance, not in spite of it, but because of it. They call it the thrill of the hunt, as if that makes it any less monstrous. Even when the outcome is inevitable, they take pleasure in watching their victims fight, knowing full well they never stood a chance.

But right now?

Watching her lose it — not afraid, not broken, but enraged — made something inside me twist painfully. Because she hadn’t just been violated. She’d been robbed. Of her mind, her body, her control.

And that realization burned.

Then — clang.

A pan smashed into the side of my head.

"What the hell!?" I snarled, turning to face her.

But she wasn’t done.

"You... you aren’t any better, you fucking beast!" she shouted, voice cracking under the weight of her rage.

And then — bam — the frying pan hit me square on the shoulder.

For a moment, all I saw was red.

How dare a mere human strike me?

The heir of the Alpha King — hit with a pan by a girl who barely reached my chest.

My wolf growled, pacing in my mind. Not in anger... but restraint.

He wouldn’t let me react.

Wouldn’t let me lash out.

Because she was our mate. Our broken, hurting, furious mate.

"What the hell did I do?!" I snapped, arms raised as another spoon clanged off my side.

"You forced yourself on me, Reed!" she screamed, voice cracking.

The words stopped me cold.

Like ice water dumped straight down my spine.

"You’re all fucking monsters!"

And then came the storm.

Spoons. Forks. Anything she could grab. Flying through the air, some hitting Blaze, others pelting me. And still — she cried. Not weak, but devastated. Not small, but shattered.

I didn’t move.

I didn’t dodge.

I let every damn piece of metal bounce off me because I deserved this.

Because deep down... I knew.

We’d all crossed a line.

Blaze, with his bite and manipulation. Me, with my rage and control.

We hadn’t protected her.

We’d cornered her.

And now she was fighting the only way she could — throwing pans, screaming through sobs, and finally giving voice to all the terror and confusion she’d been holding inside.

And I’d never felt more powerless in my entire life.