His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Claire’s POV

The drive home was silent, but it wasn’t the peaceful kind.

It was the heavy, pressurized silence of a storm cell moving in.

Elijah sat in the passenger seat, his jaw clamped shut so tight I could see the muscles twitching in his cheek.

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His scent had changed-it was no longer the warm, comforting forest of pine and rain. Now, it was sharp ozone and cold iron.

He was vibrating with a need to hunt.

Every time I glanced over, his eyes were fixed on the road ahead but I knew he wasn’t seeing the pavement.

He was seeing Mason Reed’s smirk.

He was

seeing the

way

that monster had looked at me-like a piece of meat he was waiting to spoil.

“Elijah,” I said softly, reaching out to touch his arm.

“Don’t,” he rasped. His voice sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass. “If you touch me right now, Claire, I’m going to lose it. I can’t… I can’t calm down.”

I pulled my hand back, my heart giving a sharp, protesting thud The monitor on my wrist buzzed-a subtle vibration warning me that my heart rate had spiked past 110 bpm. I ignored it.

I had to be the anchor. If I drifted, he’d sink.

“He was baiting you,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “He wanted you to swing. He wanted you to tear your stitches or aggravate your neck so he could finish what he started on the ice.

“He looked at you,” Elijah growled, finally turning his head. His eyes weren’t blue anymore. They were a molten, predatory gold.

“He touched my shoulder and looked at you like you were his next target. I should have ripped his throat out in front of the chemistry lab. I don’t care about the cameras.”

“I care,” I snapped. “I care because if you go to jail or get exiled, I’m left here alone with people like him. Is that what you want?”

That hit home. The gold in his eyes flickered, receding just enough for the human to peek through.

He let out a long, shuddering breath and leaned his head back against the headrest, closing his eyes.

“No,” he whispered. “That’s the last thing I want.”

When we got into the house, the tension didn’t dissipate. It just hoved to a different room.

Ethan was in the kitchen, leaning over a topographical map of the territory spread across the island.

Felix was there too, looking uncharacteristically somber. The moment we walked in, Ethan’s head snapped up.

He didn’t need us to say a word; he was an Alpha. He could smell the confrontation on us.

“Why,” Ethan began, his voice dangerously low, “does the house mell like a Reed just spat in our faces?”

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Chapter 214

Elijah didn’t hesitate. “Mason’s back at school. Suspension didn’t hold.”

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Ethan’s hand clenched into a fist, the map beneath his knuckles rinkling. “But the Council said two weeks. Minimum.”

“Apparently, the Reeds have friends in higher places than we thought,” Felix added, his voice tight. “I just got a text from one of the guys still on campus. Mason’s been reinstated. ‘Administrative error,’ they’re calling it.”

The air in the kitchen suddenly felt like it was being sucked out of the room.

My chest tightened, a familiar pressure building behind my ribs I reached for the counter to steady myself.

“Claire?” Ethan’s voice softened instantly. He was across the kitchen in two strides, his hand steadying my elbow. “Sit down. Now.”

“I’m fine,” I lied, though the world was starting to go a little fuzzy at the edges.

“You’re not fine. Your heart is skipping,” Elijah said, his anger momentarily replaced by a sharp, piercing fear. He pushed

past

Felix and grabbed a chair, forcing me into it. “Dad, look at her. She’s gray.”

“It’s just… it’s just the stress,” I panted, trying to force my lungs to expand. “Reed… he was in the hallway. He purposely ran into Elijah. He’s trying to start something.”

Ethan turned his gaze to Elijah. “And what did you do?”

“I didn’t

nim,” Elijah said, though the effort to stay calm was clearly costing him. “Claire stopped me.”

Ethan nodded slowly, a dark, calculating look crossing his face.

“Good. Because if you had attacked him on school grounds, the Council would have used it as an excuse to move against us. They’re looking for a reason to claim the Hales are ‘unstable’ leaders.”

“So we just let him walk around?” Elijah demanded, his voice rising. “We let him smirk and threaten Claire while I’m stuck in a neck brace? That’s your plan, Alpha?”

The shift in the room was instantaneous. Elijah had just challenged his father in a way that was nearly unheard of in pack

culture.

Felix took a step back, his eyes wide.

Ethan didn’t roar. He didn’t shift. He simply stood up to his full eight, his presence expanding until he seemed to fill every corner of the kitchen. “My plan,” Ethan said, his voice a calm, terifying rumble, “is to ensure this pack survives. Mason Reed is a pawn. His father is using him to draw us out. If we strike now we look like the aggressors. We wait.”

“I’m not waiting,” Elijah muttered, turning to walk away.

“Elijah! Sit. Down,” Ethan commanded. It wasn’t a request; it was an Alpha’s order.

Elijah’s knees buckled slightly as the power of the command hit him. He didn’t fall, but he was forced to stop. He stood there, his back to us, his shoulders shaking with repressed fury.

“I am your father before I am your Alpha,” Ethan said, his voiceftening just a fraction. “And I am telling you that you are not in any condition to fight. You are healing. Your focus is Clair Your focus is making sure she stays calm so her heart doesn’t give out because you’re being a hothead.”

Elijah finally turned around.

The

anger was still there, but it was tempered by a crushing weight of guilt.

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Chapter 214

He looked at me-sitting in the chair, clutching my chest, struggling for air-and I saw his heart break.

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