{"canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/","locale":"en","type":"work","data":{"title":"Claim Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/","isbn":null,"heat":5,"year":2016,"seriesTitle":"Capture Me","seriesOrder":3,"worldName":"Zaires Dark Contemporary","tropes":[{"slug":"captivity","label":"Captivity"},{"slug":"criminal-underworld","label":"criminal-underworld"},{"slug":"dark-romance","label":"Dark Romance"},{"slug":"dark-captor-captive-romance","label":"dark-captor-captive-romance"},{"slug":"enemies-to-lovers","label":"Enemies to Lovers"},{"slug":"forced-proximity","label":"Forced Proximity"},{"slug":"found-family","label":"Found Family"},{"slug":"hurt-comfort","label":"hurt-comfort"},{"slug":"morally-gray-antihero","label":"morally-gray-antihero"},{"slug":"obsessive-possessive-hero","label":"obsessive-possessive-hero"},{"slug":"protector-romance","label":"protector-romance"},{"slug":"revenge-and-retribution","label":"revenge-and-retribution"},{"slug":"sibling-rescue-and-reconciliation","label":"sibling-rescue-and-reconciliation"},{"slug":"spies","label":"Spies"},{"slug":"spy-romance","label":"spy-romance"}],"summary":"She’s on the run.\n\nYulia Tzakova’s freedom comes at a heavy price. Her former captor dominates her dreams, and survival consumes her waking moments. She may have escaped, but she’s far from safe.\n\nIn the shadowy world of spies and betrayal, nothing is what it seems.\n\nHe’s obsessed with getting her back.\n\nLucas Kent’s rage knows no bounds. The danger of his job occupies his days, but hunting down Yulia is what he lives for. When he finds her, she’ll never escape again.\n\nHe’ll do whatever it takes to keep her.","pitch":"Claim Me by Anna Zaires is a 2016 romance. Tropes: Captivity, criminal-underworld, Dark Romance, dark-captor-captive-romance, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Found Family, hurt-comfort, morally-gray-antihero, obsessive-possessive-hero, protector-romance, revenge-and-retribution, sibling-rescue-and-reconciliation, Spies, spy-romance. Heat 5/5. Book 3 of Capture Me.","publisher":"Mozaika Publications","originalTitle":"Claim Me","englishUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/","chapters":[{"index":1,"title":"1","summary":"Lucas Kent reels from the news that his captive, Yulia Tzakova, has escaped from his jungle compound the moment he left for Chicago. While his guards Eduardo and Diego were distracted by a poker game, Yulia concealed tools to cut her restraints, knocked out guard Sanchez, and vanished into the forest. By the time Lucas arrives at Esguerra's Palos Park mansion to coordinate security, Yulia has already commandeered a delivery van in Miraflores, leaving her driver stranded on the road. Lucas spirals between fury and a raw sense of betrayal, convinced Yulia played him from the start—even as a fragment of doubt lingers about her whispered confession of love. With her heading west toward her lover Misha and the search widening, Lucas must rally his team to recapture her before she disappears for good.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-2"},{"index":2,"title":"Yulia","summary":"Fresh from escaping Esguerra's compound, UUR agent Yulia Tzakova races against time through Miraflores, Colombia, her every move shadowed by the threat of recapture. After a tense emergency call warning her handler Obenko to vanish, a suspicious gas station attendant forces her to flee, abandoning her compromised van for a stolen farm pickup she hot-wires with shaking hands. As she tears toward Bogotá, the adrenaline of freedom collides with raw, confusing memories of her captor Lucas—whose baffling tenderness and cruel words have left her emotionally unmoored. Torn between relief and a dangerous longing for the man who broke her, Yulia grips the wheel and vows to move forward, even as the question of Lucas's true intentions lingers like a threat in the rearview mirror.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-3"},{"index":3,"title":"3","summary":"Lucas wakes Friday consumed by fury and a throbbing headache after another sleepless night spent tracking his escaped prisoner, Yulia, whose absence haunts every thought. When Rosa, the compound’s young maid, asks to see Chicago with him, he reluctantly agrees, seeing a chance to clear his head. Their drive downtown is filled with her eager chatter, a stark contrast to his brooding silence as he checks his phone obsessively for news of Yulia. At his meeting with portfolio manager Jared Winters in a sleek downtown tower, Lucas dismisses the man’s assumption that Rosa is his girlfriend, clarifying she is merely his temporary companion for the morning. The chapter closes with Lucas still trapped in the vise of his failed assignment, the unresolved search for Yulia pressing down on him even as he plays the role of a wealthy gentleman in the Windy City.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-4"},{"index":4,"title":"4","summary":"Yulia Tzakova, a fugitive agent, navigates the crowded Villavicencio marketplace disguised as a teenage boy to meet Obenko's Venezuelan contact, Contreras. After a tense rendezvous, they drive toward the Venezuelan border in a van, but exhaustion and paranoia weigh on her as Esguerra's men close in—her face is already plastered at every crossing. When an unexpected roadblock halts their progress twenty miles from safety, panic erupts. With no time to waste, Yulia crams herself into a cramped wooden crate in the van's rear, fighting pain and claustrophobia as checkpoint guards approach. The chapter ends on a razor's edge: the van doors swing open while she lies trapped inside, her survival hanging on whether the crate conceals her from prying eyes.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-5"},{"index":5,"title":"5","summary":"Lucas meets with his portfolio manager Winters to discuss liquidating equities and shorting a tech stock based on insider tips, their fund shielded from SEC scrutiny by inside contacts. Afterward, he takes Rosa shopping on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, though his mind stays fixed on Yulia, who has vanished and may already be fleeing abroad to her lover Misha. A message from Diego confirms their stolen truck was found near Granada and roadblocks are up, but Yulia remains at large. Consumed by possessive fury, Lucas emails hackers investigating UUR, vowing to track her down no matter the cost and ensure she never escapes his grasp again.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-6"},{"index":6,"title":"6","summary":"Yulia emerges from a cramped smuggling crate after being transported across the Venezuelan border, her muscles cramping but her escape from Esguerra secure. Driver Contreras delivers her to a remote airstrip where UUR operative Obenko has arranged a private jet bound for Kiev. At the aircraft entrance, an armed guard demands a security code, triggering a moment of acute paranoia—eliminating her would silence the UUR secrets she carries just as effectively as rescue protects them. After she provides her identification number and is verified, she boards the plane, greeted by her true patronymic, Yulia Borisovna. The chapter closes with her secured for transport to Kiev, the immediate danger of capture lifted but the larger threat of exposure still unresolved.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-7"},{"index":7,"title":"7","summary":"Lucas struggles with Yulia's escape to Venezuela and a possible private flight to Mexico, directing his team to breach Ukrainian intelligence files to trace her UUR network. Meanwhile, he coordinates a massive security operation for Esguerra's wife Nora's twentieth birthday celebration at a downtown Chicago nightclub, stationing snipers and guards while he monitors the entrance from his car. Consumed by jealous rage at the thought of Yulia with her lover Misha, Lucas is jolted from his fantasies when Esguerra texts that Nora and Rosa have been attacked at the club and Rosa abducted, forcing an immediate shift from surveillance to rescue.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-8"},{"index":8,"title":"8","summary":"Yulia arrives at a Kiev safe house after being extracted from Colombia by the UUR, the Russian intelligence agency she serves. Though physically safe, she is gripped by anxiety and a hollow ache for her captor, Lucas Kent, which she desperately tries to deny. Under grueling interrogation by her boss Vasiliy Obenko and two senior agents, she recounts her escape, her psychological torment at Kent's hands, and the woman Rosa who aided her. The session exposes her emotional vulnerability—she admits she confided in Kent about a traumatic nightmare involving her trainer Kirill, compromising UUR security. When she warns that Esguerra's organization poses an existential threat to the agency, Obenko dismisses her for the day, leaving Yulia more isolated than ever as the danger looms.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-9"},{"index":9,"title":"9","summary":"Chapter 9 opens with Lucas coordinating the rescue of Rosa, a club worker violently attacked by the sons of crime boss Patrick Sullivan. When Nora—Esguerra's pregnant wife—tries to help, she suffers a miscarriage from the trauma, deepening the stakes. Lucas shepherds the shaken Rosa to safety while the team captures the attackers' teenage cousin Jimmy, and traces the getaway SUV to the Sullivans, a powerful local family with a history of predatory violence. Esguerra suppresses his grief to focus on protecting his inner circle, postponing direct vengeance against Sean Sullivan to first secure Nora and her family at the estate. The chapter ends with Lucas preparing for an inevitable war against the Sullivans, fueled by rage and the echoes of a past tragedy involving Yulia.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-10"},{"index":10,"title":"10","summary":"Yulia wakes from nightmares of Lucas and her brother Misha in a safe house, eleven years after a fateful promise. At dawn, she confronts her boss Obenko, desperate for proof that her sister's family is safe and begging to glimpse Misha from afar. But Obenko shuts her down cold: her recent failure on the assignment already forced Misha to change schools and abandon his friends, and their agreement forbids any contact. Stung by guilt and the memory of six years in Moscow Prison, Yulia argues that she's earned a look, not an approach. Obenko remains immovable, dismissing her to an eleven o'clock debriefing. The chapter closes on unresolved tension—Yulia trapped between her loyalty to The Agency and an ache for the brother she's forbidden to see.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-11"},{"index":11,"title":"11","summary":"Lucas coordinates the morning's cleanup while nursing a quiet bond with Rosa, who bears visible bruises from her ordeal. When their CIA contact Frank alerts them that an artist's sketch of their group is circulating in a local FBI office—traced to an escaped Sullivan brother—the team realizes Patrick Sullivan is coming for blood. They race to evacuate Nora's parents from their Oak Lawn home with a heavily armed convoy, Lucas driving the limo while Rosa rides up front. As they speed away, Rosa confesses her desperate need to witness justice against their enemies, and Lucas vows to honor it. But the promise is cut short when a cavalcade of cars appears in the rearview mirror, gaining fast on the narrow highway—the Sullivans have found them, and the chase begins.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-12"},{"index":12,"title":"12","summary":"Yulia jolts awake from a fevered nightmare that drags her back to a childhood of terror: her mother's fading lullaby, her little brother Misha being dragged away by a cruel headmistress, and a suited man offering an eleven-year-old girl a chilling proposition into \"the program.\" In the dream's feverish grip, she finds desperate comfort in Lucas, their intimacy burning away the cold until his voice cuts through with a warning. She gasps awake in the gray light of a safe house bedroom, heart hammering, to find Vasiliy Obenko watching her with cool detachment. Reassured that her sleep-talking betrayed nothing, she clings to the thin blanket—but the memory of the bruised legs, the black-eyed boys, and Lucas's fading form leaves her breathless with the unresolved ache of a past she cannot escape and a protector she has yet to fully trust.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-13"},{"index":13,"title":"Lucas","summary":"Lucas pilots an armored limo through a relentless highway ambush, ferrying Julian Esguerra, Rosa, and Nora with her parents while Sullivan's forces swarm in fifteen vehicles. Racing past a corrupt police blockade, the convoy trades fire with grenade launchers and automatic weapons, losing SUVs to explosions but holding formation through sheer tactical precision. Reaching a private airport hangar, they face a final stand against armed reinforcements pouring from an SUV, counting down the attackers one by one before a searing blast rocks the building, sending Lucas flying through the air as the chapter ends on a knife-edge cliffhanger.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-14"},{"index":14,"title":"14","summary":"Yulia endures a second brutal debriefing as Obenko and two agents interrogate her about her two-week captivity with Lucas Kent, Esguerra’s second-in-command. They press for intimate details of her relationship with her former captor, suspecting she may now be working for him as a double agent. Yulia stonewalls, refusing to surrender the private moments and promises she shared with Lucas, even as Obenko warns that betrayal would mean death at their hands. After the agents leave, Yulia retreats to her room numb and hollow, realizing she might die not by enemy hands but by her own colleagues after surviving Russian prison and Esguerra’s compound. Only the memory of Lucas, thousands of miles away, can stir her frozen heart, leaving her suspended between survival and surrender.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-15"},{"index":15,"title":"15","summary":"Lucas Kent wakes in the wreckage of a Chicago hangar, his consciousness split between present danger and a haunting memory of Afghanistan eight years prior, where his best friend Jackson died in an ambush ordered by their own commanding officer. Now, after a coordinated assault involving corrupt police and the Sullivan crime family leaves their convoy burning, Lucas fights through searing pain to protect Julian Esguerra and his wife Nora. Joined by Rosa, who seeks brutal vengeance for her own trauma, the group captures Patrick Sullivan and his last remaining son, Sean. In a visceral act of retribution, Rosa executes Sean while Esguerra eliminates Patrick, leaving the hangar silent except for the crackling flames. As they retreat to their plane, Lucas is left grappling with survivor's guilt and the bitter knowledge that in their world, justice leaves only ash and unanswered questions about the corruption that fuels it.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-16"},{"index":16,"title":"16","summary":"Lucas Kent recuperates at the Compound from cracked ribs and burns sustained in the Chicago firefight, grappling with the loss of seventy men and the media fallout from the battle. While reviewing security with his guards Diego and Eduardo, he learns that Rosa, the maid, visited his house the day before they departed—raising suspicions that she aided Yulia’s escape. Though he dismisses her as the culprit to protect her from scrutiny, Lucas resolves to watch her closely while prioritizing the cleanup of Sullivan’s remnants in Chicago. Alone in his room, his grief and fury over Yulia’s disappearance twist into obsessive longing; clutching the book she last read, he vows to reclaim her, the chapter closing on his unshakable, consuming need.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-17"},{"index":17,"title":"17","summary":"Yulia Tzakova, an agent for UUR, receives a new assignment from Obenko: assume the identity of American grad student Mary Becker and seduce Turkish official Ahmet Demir in Istanbul. Distressed by betraying her feelings for Lucas Kent and guilt over her brother Misha's disrupted life, Yulia secretly plans to defect, keeping romantic heat minimal. Using a GPS chip in Obenko's phone, she abandons the mission and stalks him through Kiev for two days to locate Misha. Her pursuit leads to a remote warehouse where she discovers a UUR training facility—and the shocking truth that her rapist Kirill is alive, training teenagers including her brother, now called Zhenya. The chapter closes on Yulia's horrified realization that Obenko lied about Kirill's death, trapping her between revenge and protecting Misha.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-18"},{"index":18,"title":"18","summary":"Lucas reports to Esguerra that the bloody cleanup of Sullivan’s crime remnants is complete and the CIA has agreed to release Nora’s parents from protective custody, though a corrupt Chicago police chief has been permanently silenced. Esguerra, still raw from Nora’s miscarriage, works nonstop to cope, and Lucas notices a jarring softness in his boss when he speaks of family—a change that feels both tender and unsettling. When hackers pinpoint a UUR black site twenty-five kilometers north of Kiev, Lucas sees his chance to confront Rosa, the maid who once betrayed him. Masking his rage with charm, he lies that he has located the fugitive Yulia and plans to hunt her immediately, watching Rosa’s face for signs she will warn the enemy. Though her concern for his healing ribs stirs a flicker of pity, Lucas leaves barely restrained, the hunt intensifying.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-19"},{"index":19,"title":"Yulia","summary":"Yulia stumbles upon a nightmare made real when she discovers her brother Misha—presumed lost—being conditioned by Kirill into a weapon. Paralyzed by shock, she flees through the compound as Misha and Kirill give chase, bullets shattering the air around her. Despite her desperate sprint toward the escape car, she is overpowered and captured, leaving her at Kirill’s mercy. The chapter crackles with dread as old betrayals resurface: Obenko’s lies about Kirill’s death weigh heavy on her mind, while the terrifying implication that her own brother has been turned into a conscienceless killer drives the stakes to a fever pitch. Yulia’s capture marks a brutal cliffhanger, leaving her fate—and Misha’s transformation—hanging in the balance.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-20"},{"index":20,"title":"20","summary":"Lucas confronts Esguerra over his plan to pursue Yulia to Ukraine, revealing his intent to track and keep her against her will, and threatening to kill her lover Misha. Esguerra reluctantly permits the mission, reminding Lucas of Yulia's betrayal. Lucas assigns Thomas to surveil Rosa while he's away, then contacts Russian official Buschekov for entry assistance, only to be refused. He turns to Peter Sokolov, Esguerra's disgraced former security consultant, who finally responds agreeing to help. With Diego and Eduardo briefed and gear loaded, Lucas prepares to fly to Kiev, driven by obsession and a need for vengeance as much as rescue. The chapter ends with the team poised for departure, the pursuit of Yulia about to begin in earnest.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-21"},{"index":21,"title":"21","summary":"Yulia awakens handcuffed in an interrogation chamber, her former mentor Kirill looming over her with predatory intent. She dissociates to survive his touch, shutting down until her brother Misha appears—revealing that Vasiliy Obenko has been training the boy as a spy while feeding him lies about Yulia being a traitor. Obenko confronts her with the GPS chip she planted, offering an ultimatum: resume her work for UUR by morning or die. Confined to a freezing cell, Yulia weighs her options between compliance and flight, only to be violated again by Kirill in the dark, her trauma response unable to save her this time. The chapter closes on her trapped between betrayal and imminent death.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-22"},{"index":22,"title":"22","summary":"Lucas leads a covert recon with Diego and Eduardo at a remote UUR black site in rural Ukraine, using a remote data skimmer to hack their systems from the woods. While mapping the facility's cell-like rooms, they discover Yulia imprisoned in one cell—and spot a guard beginning to assault her. Ignoring his throbbing rib injury, Lucas abandons the data-gathering plan and orders Eduardo to plant explosives for an immediate assault, racing to intervene before it's too late. The chapter shifts from tense surveillance to urgent rescue as feral protective fury surges through Lucas upon recognizing the blonde prisoner.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-23"},{"index":23,"title":"Yulia","summary":"Yulia awakens to find herself trapped in a cell with Kirill, who subjects her to a brutal assault. Fighting to stay conscious, she endures the attack until the facility comes under heavy siege. Seizing the chaos, she strikes him with a debris-laden brick, wrestles his gun away during a violent struggle, and shoots him as the ceiling collapses around them. Racing through the basement, she finds her brother Misha alive but traumatized by the deaths of Uncle Vasya and Agent Mateyenko. With attackers closing in and gunfire echoing above, Yulia hides her brother in a cell and prepares to make a desperate last stand with the weapon.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-24"},{"index":24,"title":"24","summary":"Lucas storms a UUR stronghold basement to rescue Yulia from her captor, battling operatives and racing through a dark cell block despite a gunshot wound. He finds Yulia in her cell, but she attacks him in terror until he subdues her, revealing their violent history with her brother Misha—whom he nearly kills before realizing the familial connection. When Lucas discovers Yulia was assaulted by Kirill, rage and protective instinct collide with an unexpected surge of desire as he holds her trembling in his arms. Though Yulia claims she severely wounded Kirill, the attacker escapes in a waiting SUV, leaving Lucas vowing vengeance as he refuses to let Yulia out of his sight again.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-25"},{"index":25,"title":"25","summary":"Yulia wakes concussed and disoriented in Lucas Kent's bed at Esguerra's compound after he rescued her from her brother Kirill's violent attack in Ukraine. Naked beneath the sheets—he undressed and washed her while she was unconscious—she grapples with the humiliation and the dawning realization that her captor is also her savior. When Dr. Goldberg reveals Lucas is nursing cracked ribs he refuses to rest, Yulia's concern deepens. Then Lucas brings her brother Michael, handcuffed and sedated, into the room for a five-minute reunion—their first contact in eleven years. As Yulia clings to the fragile hope of reconciliation, the unspoken threat of Lucas's protection hangs over them: cooperate, or face consequences. The chapter ends on this charged pause between captivity and fragile familial bonds.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-26"},{"index":26,"title":"26","summary":"In the raw aftermath of a violent attack, Lucas Kent orders Dr. Goldberg to implant tracking devices in the injured Yulia while she’s sedated, his fury over the escape of her attacker Kirill boiling over into cold, possessive calculation. Trapped in a private bedroom, Lucas’s rage simmers as he confronts the devastating truth that his jealous obsession—fueled by the mistaken belief that Yulia’s companion Misha was her lover—nearly cost her life. Now certain that Misha is merely her teenage brother, Lucas grapples with the damage his possessiveness has wrought, yet resolves with chilling certainty that Yulia will never slip away from him again. The chapter crackles with dark romantic tension as Lucas transforms his guilt into a vow of permanent captivity, leaving the reader breathless with the weight of his unyielding devotion.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-27"},{"index":27,"title":"27","summary":"Yulia finds herself confined in a stark room with her fourteen-year-old brother Mikhail, whose resentment over her abandonment of their orphanage years ago boils over into bitter accusations that she caused their uncle Obenko's death. When their captor Lucas enters with Dr. Goldberg bearing surgical syringes, the confrontation escalates violently: Lucas seizes Misha in a chokehold to force Yulia's compliance with tracker implant surgery. Despite her terror and physical pain, Yulia submits to the needle insertions along her spine and underarm to protect her brother from immediate harm. The chapter closes on a note of helpless captivity, as Yulia endures the violation of her body while her brother watches, their sibling bond strained by years of separation and the immediate threat of their captor's cruelty.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-28"},{"index":28,"title":"28","summary":"Lucas interrogates Yulia's brother Michael at his compound, establishing dominance through threats while the boy plots revenge over his uncle's recent death. After Dr. Goldberg completes the surgical insertion of tracking implants into Yulia's neck and back, Lucas finds her recovering from the procedure. Despite her visible injuries and trauma, an intense physical attraction overwhelms his restraint. He brings her to release through intimate contact, then claims his own satisfaction, marking her as his possession. Though Yulia taunts him with her body to reclaim agency, Lucas asserts control, refusing intercourse until she heals. They fall asleep entwined, his obsession with permanently keeping her close now enforced by technology rather than chance, closing on his vow that he will never lose her again.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-29"},{"index":29,"title":"29","summary":"Lucas wakes feeling triumphant after recapturing Yulia, but his calm shatters when he suspects Rosa, Esguerra's maid, of aiding the prisoner's escape. Dragging Rosa to his boss's office, he interrogates her at knifepoint until Nora bursts in and confesses that she—not the maid—orchestrated Yulia's flight, claiming she was disturbed by Lucas's brutal treatment of the captive. The revelation stuns both men and forces Esguerra to confront his wife's hidden moral code while Lucas grapples with the possibility that Nora's confession is either genuine guilt or cunning manipulation. The chapter closes with Lucas leading the terrified Rosa away to be guarded, leaving the question of who truly betrayed whom unresolved and the compound's violent undercurrents fully exposed.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-30"},{"index":30,"title":"Yulia","summary":"Yulia wakes in Lucas Kent's compound, her body mapped with bruises and three tracker implants sewn into her skin—constant reminders that escape is impossible. A concussion and a savage beating from Kirill leave her face swollen and her throat raw, yet the memory of last night's violation lingers like a bruise she cannot see. When guard Diego offers breakfast and vague comfort, Yulia's thoughts turn to her brother Misha, now held elsewhere in the compound after her defection from the UUR led Lucas directly to him. Trapped between guilt and helplessness, she swallows pain pills and retreats to bed, conserving her strength for an uncertain confrontation. The chapter closes on her fragile resolve to endure, while the threat of what Lucas might do to Misha hangs unresolved over the household.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-31"},{"index":31,"title":"31","summary":"Lucas returns home to find his captive Yulia feverish and injured after her violent confrontation with Kirill, whose pursuit he has escalated through European contacts and hackers. While Dr. Goldberg diagnoses a severe flu compounded by trauma, Yulia fixates on seeing her brother Misha, whom Lucas is using as leverage to ensure her compliance. In a charged shower scene, a fever-delirious Yulia attempts to sexually appease Lucas out of fear that he will harm Misha otherwise; instead of taking advantage, Lucas rejects her advances and reassures her of her brother's safety, choosing to nurse her through the night. The chapter closes with Lucas tending to Yulia as her fever spikes, his possessive devotion sharpening amid the unresolved threat of Kirill and the fragile promise of reuniting Yulia with her brother.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-32"},{"index":32,"title":"32","summary":"Yulia wakes from a feverish haze to find her captor Lucas has become her devoted nurse, forcing fluids and tending to her every need while refusing to leave her side. As days blur together, his possessive guardianship curdles into something darker when he bathes her and feeds her by hand, his arousal palpable even as Yulia succumbs to exhaustion. When she finally summons the strength to see her brother Misha, the reunion turns tense as she tries to expose the lies of Vasiliy Obenko, only for Lucas to violently eject Misha when the conversation threatens Yulia's fragile recovery. Though she confirms Misha is safe with his adoptive parents, Yulia realizes the boy cannot stay in UUR's orbit—she must find a way to return him to the family he loves before Lucas's control tightens further.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-33"},{"index":33,"title":"Lucas","summary":"Lucas returns to find Yulia fragile yet sleeping, her fever recurring despite her delicate recovery from Kirill’s assault. Torn between his role as a dispassionate caretaker and his overwhelming desire, he tends to her with a cool towel, holding her through the night to ease her nightmares. Over the following days, as her appetite returns, Lucas transforms the kitchen into his classroom, cooking nourishing meals while managing the compound’s security operations. When Diego reports on the new trainees and the delicate situation with Nora—the maid under house arrest for saving Rosa—Lucas’s focus sharpens on the looming questions he must ask Yulia once she’s strong enough. As her fever finally breaks and she dozes peacefully in the library, Lucas steals away to complete his rounds, anticipating their first normal meal together and the fragile hope of healing.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-34"},{"index":34,"title":"34","summary":"Yulia awakens in Lucas Kent's library to find Nora Esguerra, the arms dealer Julian Esguerra's wife, standing over her. Nora demands that Yulia claim Rosa acted on her orders when helping Yulia escape, threatening gruesome violence from Julian if she refuses. The conversation reveals Yulia was once assigned to assassinate Julian, and Nora coldly implies that Yulia's safety depends entirely on Lucas's protection. As Nora departs, Yulia realizes she is trapped between powerful enemies, with her only shield being the ambiguous loyalties of the man who keeps her on his estate. The chapter crackles with psychological tension and unspoken threats, establishing Nora as a formidable player in the dangerous game surrounding Yulia.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-35"},{"index":35,"title":"35","summary":"Lucas returns home to find Yulia, visibly weakened by illness, attempting to cook; insisting she rest, he prepares a meal and gently coaxes her into revealing the traumatic truth behind her imprisonment. As a child, Yulia traded her loyalty to the UUR for her brother Misha’s safety, only to later discover he had been recruited and trained by the sadistic Kirill. Now sufficiently recovered to speak, Yulia confesses she had planned to disappear forever using agency-issued identities—until she fell in love with Lucas. The chapter closes with her fleeing to the bedroom after the confession, leaving Lucas grappling with the revelation while intense desire and protective fury simmer between them.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-36"},{"index":36,"title":"36","summary":"Yulia barricades herself in her bedroom after confessing her feelings to Lucas, overwhelmed by shame and the knowledge that he views her as property rather than a partner. When Lucas breaks through the door, their confrontation escalates into a raw, emotionally charged encounter where fear and desire collide. Despite her terror of his captor status—reinforced by the tracker implants monitoring her—Yulia finds herself unable to resist the potent chemistry between them. Lucas, an arms dealer's second-in-command, vows to protect her and her brother, blurring the line between possession and care. As they consummate their relationship with feral intensity, Yulia's confession of love triggers a possessive claim that leaves her questioning the dangerous power he now holds over her heart and freedom.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-37"},{"index":37,"title":"37","summary":"Lucas wakes beside Yulia after an intimate night, wrestling with guilt over taking her too soon yet reveling in the certainty that she truly loves him. When she wakes without relapse, he begins cooking breakfast, but their tentative peace shatters when she asks to see her brother Misha. Though he initially wants to send Diego, Lucas decides to escort her himself, publicly claiming her as his to protect her from the compound guards whose comrades died in the plane crash she survived. During their walk, he confronts her about Rosa’s help in her escape, learning that Rosa acted on orders from Nora—Esguerra’s wife—handing Yulia a razor blade and intel about guard schedules. The revelation that UUR’s betrayal runs deeper, combined with Lucas’s simmering possessiveness and Yulia’s fragile freedom, leaves the chapter hanging on the unresolved tension of who can truly be trusted.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-38"},{"index":38,"title":"38","summary":"Yulia navigates the charged reunion with her younger brother Misha at the Esguerra compound’s training field, where the fourteen-year-old is competing in a brutal push-up contest among guards. Lucas asserts possession with a public kiss that mortifies both siblings, cementing Yulia’s captive status even as she acknowledges genuine desire for him. The conversation detonates family secrets: Misha reveals he chose to join UUR himself after his late Uncle Vasya disclosed Yulia’s covert life and his own adoption, shattering her belief that she alone bore the sacrifice of their bargain. He confesses he helped capture her at a warehouse without recognizing her, while she explains she only followed Obenko hoping for a final glimpse before defecting. As Misha’s protective fury flares at any suggestion Lucas coerces her, Yulia admits her willing involvement, leaving the siblings bonded by fragile trust yet trapped by tracker implants and the unresolved pressure of whether Misha will be sent home or kept in the life she sought to shield him from.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-39"},{"index":39,"title":"39","summary":"Lucas confronts Esguerra over Yulia's whereabouts, asserting his claim to her while the crime boss demands she stay away from him. After Diego escorts Yulia's brother Michael away, Lucas carries the exhausted Yulia home, where she voices her fear that their relationship cannot survive the violence of their world. During dinner, she begs to send Michael back to his adoptive parents, but Lucas refuses, revealing that Operation UUR is systematically eliminating agency operatives and that Michael's safety depends on remaining hidden. When Yulia protests the slaughter of innocent agents, Lucas coldly insists that no one in their business is innocent, citing the forty-five men killed in Chicago. The confrontation escalates into raw physical passion as Lucas pulls Yulia against him, desperate for intimacy amid the bloodshed, but she resists his kiss, her tears a silent testament to the moral chasm between them.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-40"},{"index":40,"title":"40","summary":"Yulia grapples with crushing guilt as she realizes her captor Lucas is eliminating her former colleagues, a violence she both fears and, darkly, craves. Trapped in her kitchen, their animosity ignites into a ferocious, possessive encounter where pain and pleasure blur. Lucas demands she surrender completely, promising to erase her obsession with her former trainer Kirill by claiming every part of her. Though the intimacy leaves her physically shaken and emotionally raw, she finds an unexpected refuge in his brutality, using it to drown out her trauma. When he withdraws just short of her limit, offering tenderness instead, Yulia is left disoriented—confronted with a captor who seems to understand her darkness better than she understands herself, and a promise that threatens to unravel her last defenses.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-41"},{"index":41,"title":"41","summary":"Six weeks into her captivity, Yulia settles into a fragile domesticity with Lucas Kent on Esguerra's compound, trading isolation for pampered comforts and dangerous intimacy. While she worries constantly about her brother Misha falling victim to Esguerra's hatred or the war in Ukraine, her heart betrays her captor: when Misha directly asks if she would leave, she admits she wouldn't. The tension fractures when Misha reveals he overheard his uncle Obenko planning to murder Yulia and claim she fled with her lover, then confronts her about the abuse she suffered at Kirill's hands—a truth Lucas carelessly shared with the fourteen-year-old. Rather than deny it, Yulia confirms her trauma, asserting her role as Misha's protector and rebuilding their bond amid the estate's lingering threats.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-42"},{"index":42,"title":"42","summary":"Lucas confronts Yulia over revealing her brother Misha's trauma to him regarding their abuser Kirill, sparking a tense argument that dissolves into passionate reconciliation in their shared home. As they navigate domestic intimacy, Yulia confesses her birth surname—Molotova—and reveals with haunting clarity that she killed a dying man during her assassin training. Their probing conversation shifts to past lovers, igniting fierce possessiveness in Lucas until Yulia confirms he is her only chosen partner beyond her forced assignments. The chapter culminates in an intense intimate encounter where they exchange declarations of eternal devotion, leaving Lucas feeling, for the first time, emotionally complete and whole.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-43"},{"index":43,"title":"43","summary":"Yulia reflects on her intense, possessive bond with Lucas, her captor, which she privately frames as a \"pseudo-honeymoon\" sustained by both physical passion and growing emotional intimacy. When Lucas finally opens up, he reveals the traumatic origins of his brutality: avenging his friend's murder in Afghanistan, then being disowned by his parents who deemed him \"rotten to the core.\" To fill her idle days, Yulia discovers a talent for cooking, secretly feeding the compound guards until Lucas forbids it. Her frustration boils over when she challenges his ownership of her, reminding him of her university degree and years as an international spy. Enraged by her defiance and jealous of her past, Lucas asserts absolute possession, threatening to cage her permanently. That night, he restrains her with handcuffs and a blindfold, subjecting her to an intense scene of power and surrender that leaves her emotionally shattered yet fully claimed, cementing her submission to his will.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-44"},{"index":44,"title":"44","summary":"At breakfast, Lucas watches Yulia with quiet intensity, reassuring her that while he owns her, he will never harm her—a promise that offers fragile comfort. Their domestic routine shifts when Yulia begins cooking for the compound guards, rapidly transforming into a thriving restaurant operation that earns thousands daily. When Lucas deposits over forty thousand dollars into a Cayman Islands account opened in Yulia's name, she dares to ask if he will ever free her; his vehement refusal sparks an obsessive, possessive declaration interrupted only by the sudden appearance of Julian and Nora Esguerra. The chance encounter ends in a tense standoff between the two men, leaving Yulia with the chilling certainty that the next meeting will end in bloodshed.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-45"},{"index":45,"title":"45","summary":"Lucas confronts his boss Esguerra over the escalating danger to Yulia, whom Esguerra blames for the deaths of dozens of men and resents for running a popular cafe on his estate. When Lucas refuses to abandon her, he proposes a radical solution: leaving the compound to become Esguerra's international partner, negotiating a fifty-fifty profit split on new ventures in exchange for Esguerra's promise never to harm Yulia or her family. Back home, Lucas reveals their plan to relocate to Europe or the Middle East together, offering Yulia safety away from the compound's tensions while vowing to protect her forever. The chapter closes on a passionate kiss as they prepare to leave within the month.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-46"},{"index":46,"title":"46","summary":"Yulia spends her final month at Esguerra's compound running the cafe and preparing for a life-altering move. While Lucas works around the clock establishing manufacturing in Croatia and purchasing a cliffside fortress in Cyprus, Yulia grapples with the surreal reality of her captivity transforming into devotion—tracker marks still visible, yet her heart increasingly belonging to her captor. As she hosts a farewell barbecue for the guards who've become her unlikely friends, she confronts the bittersweet truth of her impending separation from her teenage brother Misha, who's returning to his parents after UUR training. The chapter culminates in a poignant woodland encounter with Rosa, the maid who once helped her escape, whose confession about a misguided crush on Lucas forces Yulia to articulate the messy, possessive reality of her own relationship. Heat level simmers beneath the surface as Yulia fears happiness is too fragile to last.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-47"},{"index":47,"title":"47","summary":"Lucas flies Yulia and her brother Michael to Kiev to reunite them with his adoptive family before their inevitable separation. After eliminating the last known UUR operatives and bribing officials to ensure safe passage, the group arrives at a nondescript apartment building where Michael's parents live. The reunion turns deadly when the adoptive parents are discovered wearing explosive devices, and Kirill Ivanovich Luchenko—the fugitive trainer Lucas has hunted for weeks—emerges to gloat that he found them first. With bombs strapped to the hostages and the building rigged to blow, Lucas must freeze his protective instincts and negotiate with the man who once traumatized Yulia, while Michael watches his sister's safety hang in the balance. The chapter ends with Lucas trapped between rage and restraint as Kirill's ultimatum hangs unspoken.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-48"},{"index":48,"title":"48","summary":"Yulia faces her darkest hour when her sadistic former trainer Kirill Luchenko seizes her brother Misha’s parents in a hostage standoff, armed with a UUR dead-man detonator and a silenced pistol. Trapped in a fifth-floor hallway, she watches her protector Lucas surrender his weapon and step into the line of fire, prepared to sacrifice himself to buy time. Desperate to spare the innocent couple, Yulia provokes Kirill with vicious taunts about his past genital injuries, deliberately exposing herself to his gun. When the shot finally rings out, she collapses with only one thought: that Lucas and Misha survive. The chapter ends on a devastating cliffhanger as her captor’s rage reaches its lethal peak.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-49"},{"index":49,"title":"49","summary":"When a shot rings out during a tense confrontation, Lucas lunges to stop Kirill from detonating a device, engaging in a brutal fight to protect Yulia. Despite taking severe blows, his rage fuels him to overpower the attacker, only for Kirill to seize a dropped weapon and aim at Lucas's head. In the nick of time, Yulia's brother Michael fires, saving Lucas's life and neutralizing the threat. Lucas then discovers Yulia lying unconscious among shattered glass, bloodied but alive with a faint pulse, bringing a moment of fierce relief. However, the victory turns hollow when he realizes Michael has also been wounded, and he cannot locate Yulia's injury. As Yulia's eyes flutter open to witness her brother's condition, Lucas faces the unresolved question of whether they will all survive the night.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-50"},{"index":50,"title":"50","summary":"The chapter opens in the bloody aftermath of Kirill's ambush, where Misha throws himself in front of a bullet meant for Yulia, taking the wound to his shoulder while she splits her head on a shattered mirror. As they speed to a Swiss clinic, the true cost unfolds: Misha's adoptive father Viktor suffers a shattered kneecap that may leave him with a permanent limp, and the Rudenkos' apartment is revealed to have been a covert UUR safe house where Kirill hid. Misha, unshaken, confesses his wish to join Lucas's organization. When Lucas offers Yulia two million dollars, bodyguards, and freedom from their violent world—confessing he loves her and cannot bear to trap her—she breaks down in a panic attack, then refuses to leave. Their emotional standoff resolves in a passionate reunion that seals their bond as they choose to face the future together.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-51"},{"index":51,"title":"BONUS EPILOGUE: NORA & JULIAN","summary":"Julian Esguerra stands helpless in a Swiss clinic hallway as his wife Nora labors two weeks early, his protective rage barely contained until the cries of their newborn daughter shatter the tension. When the tiny girl—2.7 kilograms of dark hair and blue eyes—is placed in Nora’s arms and begins feeding instinctively, Julian is transfixed, overwhelmed by a love that makes him more possessive than ever. Named Elizabeth “Lizzy” in honor of a past loss, the baby transforms Julian from a feared cartel figure into a trembling new father who vows to surround her with trackers and bodyguards. A chance hallway meeting with Lucas and Yulia—now reconciled enough for civil congratulations—closes the chapter on a note of fragile peace, as Julian whispers promises of devotion to Nora and their miracle child, the family’s story just beginning.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me/#chapter-52"}],"recapLocales":["en"],"indexable":true}}