An Alpha's Claim

Found

"Logan," J chastised as she swatted his hand away from her side.

For a few brief, blissful moments, she walked through the forest back towards where the rest of their pack waited, until his hand once again began to snake its way around her waist, his breath hot and heavy in her ear.

"Come on, they won't miss us."

J rolled her eyes, biting her lip to stop herself from smiling. Fixing a stern look on her face, she pushed away and turned around to face him, hands on hips, "no. We need to get back. To-"

Memories of blood and pain flickered through her mind. The pain she'd endured; the pain she'd caused. Two sides of a heavy coin, taking its toll on her mind. She had her wolf though. That was what was important. She had her wolf back. She was going to survive.

Survive and live and love – love the man before her who currently looked like she'd kicked his puppy because she wouldn't indulge him.

She was going to have the chance to spend the rest of her life with him, to bare the child she'd imagined all those weeks ago.

Be it a reaction to her pain, her helplessness, or a slow reaction to the mating bond – either way, her wolf was back. And J wanted to shout it from the roof tops.

She also wanted to see her pack, to meet them in their wolf forms – in her wolf form. She wanted to run free, unabashed, across the forest and feel the wind whistle through her fur. Most importantly, she wanted to live.

She smiled at Logan's pained face and slowly sauntered back towards him, his hungry eyes devouring every inch of her naked body. Pressing herself against him, she shamelessly matched his hungry gaze with one of her own, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged his head down towards her.

One kiss. Then another. He tried to deepen it, but she pulled away, "later," she promised with a sensuality she'd never known she was capable of.

Turning away with a giggle, she only had time to squeal as a growl from Logan had him chasing after her.

Back towards their pack they raced, in human form this time. J giggling the entire time.

*

Logan watched her run, his wolf watching her too. His wolf had given him control, but he lingered too close to the surface.

He was over the moon, his mate was alive – she would survive, but he couldn't ignore that growing darkness, the heavy weight of reality sitting on his shoulders. His wolf paced within him, hungry – starved even, for the scent of blood, the feel of it. He wanted to tear, destroy and revel in the misery of it. He was so very, very broken.

But for now, for now he would pretend everything was fine – and instead, he would cling onto the warmth of his mate. The golden glow of her.

As he chased her through the forest, drawn forward and renewed by each spurt of giggle from her chest, Logan thought back to the first time he'd seen her kill. So dark, so strong – she'd killed without question and without regret.

It was different now. She was different now. She was the woman he'd found dancing under the moonlight.

She could still kill, still maim with the best of them, but there was a tinge to her – one that didn't enjoy the bloodshed like Logan now did. She was better, he realised, healing – from whatever had given her the need for blood in the first place, from whatever had sent her down such a dark spiral. She was recovering from it.

And with every ounce of his being, Logan hoped he could too. That he, just like Jos', could pull himself out of the depths of his own darkness and walk in the light with her again.