Claimed by the Mad Lycan King

When you were used to the dark, the lights hurt.

When you had been mistreated for too long, kindness felt like a trap.

When you expected the worst, genuine care felt suspicious.

And that was how Raine felt sometimes when she was with Zade. She felt as if she were waiting for the moment when he would snap at her and stop being nice.

Dark thoughts were playing in her head, messing with her mind whenever Zade touched her gently and spoke to her so softly. Seara waited for him to get tired of her.

There was also a time when he looked as if he were going to snap; he looked angry, and his murderous intent suffocated Seara whenever she brought up something that she couldn’t remember a moment later.

But then, Zade would say that he was not mad at her. He was upset by the story she told him, so she tried to remember what it was to avoid making him angry again.

She tried to dig into the story she told him only a few minutes earlier, but she couldn’t remember.

Zade was kind, but Seara was waiting for him to stop being kind because she felt unfamiliar with it. She was used to looking for familiarities, since they gave her comfort, while kindness was... strange.

”No!” Seara screamed in Zade’s face. ”Stay away from me! Get out! Get away from me!” She pushed Zade away and even scratched his cheeks.

She couldn’t shift into her beast, but her nails still needed to be clipped, so they drew blood on Zade’s cheeks. Thankfully, his healing ability could heal the wounds almost instantly.

However, Seara was being erratic today. She was fine this morning, but in the afternoon, she was restless and didn’t want to be touched by anyone, not even Zade. She wanted to be left alone, and now she hid under the hospital bed, refusing to come out.

”I will leave, but you need to get out of there, Seara,” Zade said sternly, which made Seara flinch, but she glared at him from under the hospital bed. Her long hair had become disheveled again.

”No! Out! Out!” Seara screamed at the top of her lungs. She became even more panicked when a doctor entered the room with two nurses.

With how small the room was, their presence made it too crowded.

It was a good thing that Rio, the doctor, noticed Seara’s distress, and he asked the two nurses to leave the room as he approached Zade.

”We need to let her be alone for now,” he said in a reassuring tone. ”Let her calm down.”

Zade wanted to reject that, but in the end, he stood up and left. There was a surveillance camera in this room, so if Seara was trying to do something dangerous, he would know immediately.

Meanwhile, even when everyone was already out of the room, Seara still stayed under the hospital bed for some time.

”What are you doing down there, Seara?”

Seara was startled when she heard a sweet voice that called her name. How could she know her name? Seara lifted her head and saw a beautiful woman in a white dress, wearing a nurse’s uniform and smiling at her brightly.

Her hazel eyes lit up, and her long auburn hair was tied up on top of her head.

”Get out,” Seara growled at her. ”Leave me alone.”

”Are you sure you want to be left alone? Or do you want someone to stay even when you push them away? Just like what you did to Zade?” She chuckled when Seara pressed her lips tightly. ”Come, get out from there... Do you know how to draw?” she asked all of a sudden. ”I am good at drawing.”

That woman then stood up, and out of curiosity, Seara crawled out from under the bed and watched her take a notebook from the table and a pen.

”Do you want me to draw a cat?”

***

Zephyr opened his eyes and nudged Brigid’s cheek to make sure that she was sleeping. She was indeed sleeping and didn’t even stir when Zephyr got out of the bed and walked out of the room.

There was no one at home; that was why Brigid could take Zephyr. As her parents had retired from the pack’s duty, they lived in a separate house. Here, Brigid lived only with Silas.

Thankfully, Silas was on night duty; as the gamma, he was in charge of the warriors and security around the pack.

If only he had been here, he would have learned that a Lycan had slept with his baby sister. Well, in Zephyr’s defense, he was not the first man to climb Brigid’s bed. It was not like Silas’s sister was saving herself until she found her destined mate.

Brigid had told Zephyr that at the end of this corridor was her adopted sister’s bedroom. That night, when Zephyr found Brigid passed out at the exit of the bar, he brought her to the nearby inn, and she whined about Seara in her drunken state.

After that, Zephyr managed to get some information about Seara. The rumor was not true; it was Alpha Daven who had cheated on her with Eudora, and now Brigid and Eudora had fallen out. Brigid vented her annoyance at Zephyr.

Well, needless to say, Zephyr had his way around women. He had his own charm to make other people feel safe opening up to him.

But from time to time, Brigid would change the narrative and put the blame on Seara.

”See? I sacrifice my body to gather information for you; you had better treat me well, Zade, and stop causing trouble.” Zephyr stretched out his body. He didn’t have a complaint, though. He liked this kind of mission.

Once Zephyr reached the room at the end of the corridor, he immediately realized that the room had turned into a storage room, even though it seemed that Seara’s personal belongings were still inside.