Page 20 of Claiming Claire

CHAPTER 11

JACE

I made it a point to be more of a mate for Claire, even if I wasn’t fully trusting her yet. I would get there, eventually. Hopefully. One day.

I wasn’t as touchy as my other mates, but I didn’t think she really wanted me to be. I was her alpha, I command control and obedience. But, I did make it a point to communicate with her and to be around instead of completely avoiding the situation. She seemed to genuinely care for my men, a fact that caught me off guard. And well, them? They were utterly enthralled with her, sniffing around her each chance they got, always in her space.

Could I blame them? No, not really. This morning as I left the house, I had to force my wolf away from her. She was close, my wolf could sense it, and that fact alone made it nearly impossible to leave. When I did finally manage to drag myself out of the house, my wolf only let me go a couple miles before he forced me to pull to the side of the road, the pain of his struggle too much to bear.

I tried to wait out his despair. I tried giving him time. But all he wanted was his mate; a fact I couldn’t ignore any longer. I wasn’t sure really what my plan was because having sex with Claire was a one-time thing. Since the night she became my mate, on the rare occasions I allowed myself by my mates to sleep, I had only watched. Maybe some touching. But I hadn’t allowed myself to have sex with her, not until I knew I could fully trust her.

I was pulling my truck around, getting ready to drive home when I felt a sudden pain hit my body. My wolf whined, knowing his mate’s body was in distress, and only we could relieve her pain. My palm came down hard, hitting the steering wheel and making the horn honk as I let out a string of curses.

I already knew the truth. “If I go back, I won’t be strong enough or resist the call.”

My voice echoed off the empty cab of the truck, no one around to offer me advice on what I should do. Why wasn’t there a handbook for situations like this? Maybe I should call Gabriel? Or Laden? Or Vix? But odds were, they would already know. Their bodies would have felt the shift in their mate’s body from any distance, their own wolf dragging them home, the sacred scent that only we as her mates could smell, enticing us into a state of arousal before any of us even touched her skin.

The few miles back to the house felt like they dragged on and passed too damn quickly all at once. I pulled up and parked, a little shocked to see an unfamiliar car parked on our lot. Claire hadn’t mentioned having company, a fact that brought my suspicions back to the surface.

How convenient was it to have company suddenly show up the first day that all the men went back to work? The timing was suspicious, to say the least.

I got out of my truck and quietly closed the door, taking slow steps toward the house, straining my ears to catch the words that were streaming out of the open door. Claire’s voice sounded shaky as she said, “He’s a good man.”

My hackles began to rise, suddenly worried that I misjudged the situation. My worry was only confirmed when I heard Lester’s angry voice scream, “He’s a disgrace to his father’s name!”

I stepped slowly along the wall, not willing to be seen by Lester until I was ready to make my presence known after the situation was assessed. They spoke more, Claire’s words were hardly audible. My worry began to rise. Did she sound weak? My wolf wanted to spring forth, but the man in me knew that slow was the only way to keep control.

“I’m not leaving my mates.” She made a gasping sound, and my heart sped up with panic.

“You will do as I say because you belong to me!” Lester’s voice sounded crazed like he was past the point of angry, and he no longer had his control.

“No.” Claire’s word sounded rough, but she said it with confidence.

I was almost to the door, just another few feet. “No?” He paused, “Then you belong to no one.”

The words stalled, but slight sounds of movements, a struggle, filled my ears, and I could wait no longer. Both man and wolf sensed the danger in the air, smelled the desperation and fear our mate felt, and nothing would have been able to stop us from protecting her.

I turned into the doorway, fury engulfing me. Lester, Claire’s own father, stood with Claire against the wall, his fingers wound so tight around her neck that her face was beginning to take on a greyish purple hue and her eyes were red. Her hands fell to her side as she lost her strength, unable to struggle any longer against her former alpha’s power.

My beast and man both roared, sprinting forward at the sight of our mate in despair. My claws extended out of my hands as I reached for Lester, sinking them into his shoulder as I pulled back. I caught him off guard, and he released his hold on Claire, whose limp body slumped to the ground.

Spinning around, Lester snarled, his teeth bared as he reached a claw at me. He missed, giving me an opportunity to duck low and grab hold of his waist, then push forward until he was slammed into a wall. I slammed him three times before he got the opportunity to swipe his claw into my side, the pain causing my hold to falter.

“You think you can beat me?” He grunted, and he lunged forward, forcing my body backward and out the door and into the porch’s post.

I arched my back, using my legs to kick his body off mine. “I can sure as fuck try.”

He laughed, straightening his body to his full height, which was still shorter than me. “You’re weak, like your father. He tried once to best me, to take my pack from under me, but I refused to relinquish control.”

I shifted on my feet, ready to move any way my body needed to. “Someone needed to take control of your pack, he was the only one brave enough to try.”

He growled, low and menacing. “You can’t keep her. I won’t let you.”

“I don’t think you can stop me. Claire’s already mine,” I declared, “I would never give her back. You don’t deserve her.”

I heard a gasp from the doorway, a shaken Claire stood watching over us, her throat red and her face wet from tears. Fuck, maybe I didn’t deserve her either. But I had to be the better of the two options, or at least I would spend the rest of my time on this earth proving I could be.

With a low, threatening growl, her father’s wolf emerged tearing his clothes from his body, my own wolf following, until we were two feral creatures, fighting each other for life and in my case, love. Our bodies tangled together, our claws slashed, our teeth nipped, the whole outside world ceased to exist as I fought my real enemy, the man who murdered my father and minutes earlier, tried to take my mate, too.

My back was pinned to the ground, his massive paws holding me down as he bared his teeth, his snout dripping with drool and blood, his eyes set on murder. He leaned down, I shifted my head to the side, barely missing his teeth from my throat. I tried to push, but I was weak, both of us were. Our energy expended in a match of equal strength.

A sound behind me made him freeze. I breathed deep, knowing my other mates were here and they would protect Claire, then I pulled my strength, using every ounce I had left, and flung the wolf off me. His body slammed into a tree with a yelp, before he slumped down. I stalked forward, my senses on alert, prepared to fight if the wolf sprung up, but he didn’t.

He lay on the ground, his hind leg bent at an awkward angle as he whimpered when I came into view. My mouth salivated at the thought of taking life, my jaw opened, my head leaned down. “Stop!”

I froze at my mate’s raspy voice. She fell to her knees beside me, unafraid of the damage my wolf could do to her and wrapped her arms around my pelt. “Don’t kill him. He’s still my father.”

My wolf growled into the face of the other wolf, threatening him to not move before turning to Claire, nuzzling her neck, assessing her damage. He wanted revenge, and I felt the same. But our mate was crying as she held on to my pelt and we couldn’t bring ourselves to disappoint her. With one last menacing growl, I shifted, scooped Claire up into my arms, and walked away, leaving my mates to deal with Lester.

---