An Alpha's Claim

Light

J shivered as she woke, a cold draft carrying through the room. It was still dark out judging by the lack of light coming in around the edge of the curtains, but dawn was on its way, the sky slightly lighter than she remembered.

She winced as she sat up, her body protesting at the movement. Something had woken her, but Callie slept soundly at her feet. Carefully, quietly, J stood up and stepped over Callie, heading for the front door. She slipped out into dawn's first light with a quick glance back at Callie's sleeping form.

Stood on the front steps of Saf's house, J stretched high into the sky, her joints cracking as a mixture of relief and pain flooded her body. She studied the grey coloured morning, looking for any sign of what might have woken her.

It took her a minute, her human eye's scanning shadows for movement, until she located the four pairs of eyes watching her. Her body automatically tensed as she fought the sleep cloud gripping her brain to locate the knives on her body. Ankle. She'd grab that one first, the one on her shin at the same time.

Not for the first time, she cursed herself for wearing these jeans as it made it harder to get to the blade sheathed to her thigh. The one tucked into her waist band was still there though, as her fingertips brushed the hilt of the blade. If they attacked, she'd be ready.

They stalked forward as one, eyes intent on her, but paused at the edge of Saf's garden. One black, two brown, one blonde. "Black Oath," she whispered in recognition as the mist from her breath curled in tendrils above her head.

The wolf at the front, the brown one, nodded his head. Why they'd woken her, or if they had, J didn't know, but something like panic slid up her spine. Why did this pack seem to mean something to her? Why was she drawn to it like this?

Clamping down on the myriad of reasons her brain supplied, J cooly shoved her head to the right, "get out of here. I told you I'd see you in the morning."

She didn't wait for their response, and instead headed back into the house. J paused, her hand on the door as the sound of joints snapping and bones popping caught her attention. When she turned back around, Trevor was in his human form but his eyes still glowed wolf.

"You have company," his gravelly voice informed her, before he transformed back into his wolf and led the pack away.

J's heart hammered in her chest as she hurried back into the house, expecting...what? An ambush? The Blazer pack trying to take Callie? She had no idea.

What she hadn't expected, was to find Saf leaning against her kitchen counter, watching J from over the top of a bottle of beer.

The woman only nodded at J, as J slammed to a halt. She stared at her friend for a few, long minutes. Her brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun, strands of hair escaping as though she'd slept with it like that. She wore a tatty pair of jeans, a t-shirt with a jagged rip across the top of her left arm, suggested she'd fought someone at some point. Her eyes, although watching J intently, looked tired.

Sparing a glance at Callie, who slept entirely unaware of the predator only a few feet away, J moved across the living room and into the kitchen. She leant on the opposite counter to Saf and stared at her friend for a moment. The two women watched each other carefully.

After three minutes and no words, J huffed and narrowed her gaze on Saf. "I was expecting you to be here when I got back." She didn't mean the bitter tone to her words, but she'd missed Saf.

"So, what? You're the only one allowed to leave?"

J flinched, the words hitting her harder than she'd let Saf see. J hung her head and when she looked back up, some of the hate had ebbed from Saf's gaze. "I'm sorry I left, I l-"