Page 4 of Shadow's Claim

The darkness moves faster than I can.

Shadow demons don't need to run—they travel through darkness itself, bending shadow to allow impossible speed. I hear nothing behind me, no footsteps, no breathing, just the oppressive silence of shadows growing denser, colder, more purposeful.

When I finally risk a glance over my shoulder, my worst fears materialize.

Lord Kael Nightshadow himself is tracking me, his four arms extended as he manipulates darkness to flow around him. His massive form glides through the shadows rather than runs, each movement fluid and predatory. Those glowing purple eyes fix on me with terrifying focus, growing larger as he closes the distance between us with effortless precision.

This isn't random. He wasn't just in that courtroom by coincidence. Something about me caught his attention before the blackout, before he could have detected my failing suppressants. What did he see? What triggered this focused pursuit?

I push harder, lungs burning as I sprint toward the distant safety of human sector lights. The warmth beneath my skin deepens to a persistent ache, the first traitorous hints of slick beginning to form despite my desperate control. Shadow demons can smell omega pheromones from impossible distances—my body might as well be screaming its secrets to him now.

I'm still twenty yards from the boundary when something cold seizes my ankle.

I crash down hard, palms scraping against broken concrete as a shadow tendril solidifies around my leg. Before I can scramble up, more tendrils materialize from the darkness, wrapping around my wrists and waist with impossible strength.

"Impressive," comes a deep voice that seems to resonate directly in my bones. "Most humans would have taken the obvious routes."

Kael materializes fully before me, shadows coalescing into solid form as all four powerful arms extend to pin me against a crumbling wall. His glowing purple eyes illuminate my face with eerie light, casting sharp shadows across features I can no longer control.

The shadows around us grow impossibly dense, temperature plummeting until my breath clouds before me. His massive head lowers, nostrils flaring as he inhales deeply near my neck where the silver pendant rests.

"Your papers say beta," he growls, voice vibrating through my chest like distant thunder. "But there's something else beneath those chemicals you've been taking."

I feel the silver pendant growing warm against my skin—the emergency dose of suppressants activating in response to my elevated body temperature, a last-ditch defense against detection. But it's far too late. Kael's enhanced senses have already pierced my chemical shield, his head tilting with predatory curiosity.

"Interesting," he murmurs, one finger tracing the edge of the pendant. "Standard black market suppressants don't mask pheromones this effectively. Your protection is... specialized."

When I try to break free, more shadow tendrils extend from his form, wrapping around my limbs with increasing pressure. Not enough to bruise—yet—but the message is unmistakable.

"No one runs in my territory without a reason," he says, voice dropping to a dangerous tone that sends ice through my veins despite the growing heat in my core. "Especially not an unregistered omega."

His fourth hand finds the hidden pocket in my uniform where I keep my resistance communications device. The sleek black rectangle looks impossibly small in his massive palm, dark against darker as he examines it with clinical interest.

"Now we discover what other secrets you're hiding, little translator."

The city-wide power outage takes on new meaning—not random failure but deliberate trap, with me as the unsuspecting prey. I've walked straight into a security operation targeting resistance operatives, and my crumbling suppressant coverage has revealed the bonus prize of an unregistered omega.

As he lifts me effortlessly, my body begins to betray me further, responding to his alpha pheromones with another unwelcome rush of slick between my thighs. I feel it happen—the humiliating evidence of omega biology overriding conscious thought, preparing for an alpha claiming I've spent years fighting to avoid.

Kael's nostrils flare again, purple eyes brightening with cruel satisfaction as he detects this ultimate betrayal. "Your body reveals truths your words hide," he says, his voice dropping to a register that makes something primal inside me shiver with unwanted response.

I try to project defiance, but fear overwhelms it. Not just fear of punishment or interrogation, but the deeper terror every unregistered omega lives with—the knowledge of what happens to us when captured. The breeding facilities. The claiming. The loss of self.

The shadows around us deepen into absolute darkness, preparing to transport us both to wherever he intends to conduct his interrogation. His massive form presses closer, four arms creating an inescapable cage of muscle and shadow-matter.

"The tribunal will be particularly interested in your resistance connections," he says, shadows beginning to envelop us both. "But your omega status takes priority under Conquest law."

The last things visible before darkness swallows us completely are his glowing purple eyes, fixed on mine with the absolute certainty of a predator who knows his prey cannot escape.

CHAPTER3

CAUGHT IN DARKNESS

The darkness swallowsus completely as Lord Kael Nightshadow initiates shadow transport. It's not movement as humans understand it—more like reality folding inward, our bodies passing through dimensions humans weren't meant to experience. My stomach lurches, brain struggling to process sensations it has no framework to interpret.

Then we materialize in a chamber I immediately recognize from resistance intelligence briefings—one of the specialized interrogation rooms beneath the Midnight Courts. A place humans enter but rarely leave.

Kael releases me so suddenly I stumble, my legs unsteady after the shadow transit. Four massive arms move in precise coordination, activating systems embedded in the walls. Light blooms—not the harsh illumination of standard interrogation chambers, but a soft purple glow that casts everything in twilight shadows.

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