All Chapters of Save Me, Claim Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Tessa POV The water ran red.It trickled down my arms in thin, winding streams, spiraling along the curve of my wrists before vanishing into the drain. Steam curled around me, thick and suffocating, but I didn’t move. The scalding spray beat against my skin, raising angry welts where bruises had already begun to bloom.I braced my hands against the cold tiles, sucking in a sharp breath as pain flared through my ribs. He hadn’t held back tonight.I pressed my forehead against the wall, squeezing my eyes shut as memories of the last hour clawed at me.The way his fingers had dug into my arms, his breath reeking of whiskey as he hissed insults into my ear. The sharp crack of his palm across my cheek, the way I had crumpled to the floor without resistance. I never fought back anymore. Not when I knew it would only make it worse."You should be grateful I even keep you," Callum had sneered, looming over me. "A weak little thing like you would be nothing without me."I had stared at the flo

Tessa POVI couldn’t breathe. Not because the room was too crowded, not because of the heavy perfume hanging in the air.It was him. Dorian.Even after he disappeared into the crowd, the weight of his gaze lingered. Something shifted inside me the moment ours eyes met. A crack in the fragile world I had built around myself.I shouldn’t have looked at him. I shouldn’t have let myself feel anything.But now? Now I was trembling.I clenched my fists, forcing myself to stand tall. It was just a moment. A glance. A fleeting interaction with an Alpha who held no significance in mylife. And yet… I felt marked.Branded by the memory of golden eyes that had seen through me.“Tessa.”The sharpness of my name pulled me back, Callum’s voice laced with irritation.Iturned just as he stepped in front of me, his fingers curling around my wrist. Not enough to bruise - yet. But the message was clear. Mine."Are you deaf?" he hissed, his voice low enough that no one else could hear. His thumb dug into

Tessa POV The morning light was cruel.It filtered through the blinds like thin blades of gold, slicing across my skin, revealing every bruise he left behind. I moved slowly, my body stiff, aching from the night before - each movement a quiet reminder of how much I stopped feeling like a woman, like a person, and more like a thing to be hidden, controlled, used.The mirror was a liar.I stared at my reflection, dabbing concealer over the bluish bloom of a bruise just beneath my cheekbone. Another layer to hide the thin cut across my jaw. The one on my ribs - just beneath the edge of my dress - would remain unseen. I made sure of it. I always did.The room smelled like my lavender foundation and iron.I winced as I pulled my dress up over my shoulder. The deep burgundy fabric clung to me like a second skin - elegant, tailored, something any she-wolf would’ve been proud to wear to a formal meeting with an Alpha.But on me, it felt like armor. Thin, fragile, and barely covering the battl

I stood frozen, my wrist still held in Alpha Dorian’s grasp.His touch wasn’t cruel. It didn’t bruise. But it didn’t yield either.He stared at me in the moonlight, his golden eyes burning with a quiet authority that rattled my bones. There was no smugness in his face. No pity. Just that same calm certainty that made me feel both safer than I’d ever been - and more trapped than ever."You’re already mine."The words rang through me like a tether snapping tight."No," I whispered, though my voice betrayed the hesitation behind the word. "You can’t just claim me. I didn’t agree to anything...""You ran," he said simply, cutting me off. “From him. Toward me.”"I didn’t know you’d be here," I said, trying to twist out of his hold again. “I was running for myself.”"And yet,” he murmured, stepping closer, “here I am.”I hated the way my breath hitched. Hated the part of my wolf that stirred under his voice - not with fear, but with instinct. Recognition. Submission. Safety.He tilted his he

Dorian POVShe looked at me with those wide, haunted eyes - and for a second, I forgot how to breathe.Not because she was beautiful. She was, in a quiet, understated way. But because of what I felt.The moment her wolf stirred, even briefly, the bond between her and that buried part of herself sent a ripple through the very air around her.And my wolf - Kael - responded like someone had struck a match."There she is", Kael growled deep inside my mind. "Faint... but there."I held still, watching Tessa as she blinked and tried to make sense of what she'd felt. Her lips parted, her breath quick and shaky, her fingers curling slightly like she was afraid the feeling might vanish.She had no idea how strong she truly was. Or how broken."She's not whole.""I know.""But she could be. With time."I didn’t answer right away. I wasn’t ready to admit what was clawing through me.It wasn’t just protectiveness. I’d felt that before - for packmates, for warriors, for Elara. This was different.