Page 3 of Claiming Lyla

Robert smirked, seemingly confident his words had hit their intended target. He swaggered as he closed the final steps between them.

"You're mine,” he snarled, his gaze boring into hers, “and I'm not leaving this clearing without you. So, accept it and your new place. Under me, bitch."

A low rumble started in Duncan's throat, the wolf becoming harder to control; especially, with his mate threatened. But he shouldn't have underestimated her.

She spat in Robert's face and shook the sleeves loose from her wrists, displaying the faint markings displayed there, holding them high for everyone in the clearing to see.

"I will never be yours. I'd rather die first. I'm claimed."

Duncan's wolf preened at her acceptance of the bond, yet the human side suspected she’d only said the words to get out of the tight spot they were in. He would only trust her claim when she was fully mated, bitten, and covered in his scent, not to mention far from this area and safe.

Robert lifted a fist, but before he could land it, Duncan stepped in front of her, catching the man’s hand with his own, easily holding it in place. Robert's second advanced a few steps, but Duncan snarled and the beta froze.

"You dare strike a woman, another alpha's mate?” Duncan bit out. “I sanction you and your pack in the name of the Council."

Silence reigned, everyone frozen in shock. Even Robert stiffened, his hand still held inside Duncan's grip. Lyla sucked in a breath behind him but didn't move from the safety of her position. Damn, he hadn't planned on playing the Council card, not until he had more support on the ground, but that could take several hours, even days, and Lyla needed him now.

Robert lifted his chin. "I challenge you for your mate."

The words weren't unexpected, and Duncan had every right to reject him, but he didn't feel like watching his back every day and night for the next several days, or longer. He wanted this over. "To the death. And only between us. Your beta stays out of it."

A sly smile stretched across Robert's face. "My beta ensures you don't cheat. Too bad you don't have one."

"Says the guy who hunted down and terrorized an innocent woman to forcefully mate her. I don't have a lot of faith in your definition of cheating. No claws or fangs. Human only." He looked around the clearing. "And I do have a second. Lyla."

Not only did Robert looked surprised but so did Lyla. She recovered quickly.

Duncan dropped Robert's arm and deliberately turned his back, leading Lyla a few steps away.

"What the hell are you doing? He won't act honorably. He never has," she whispered, even though everyone in the clearing could probably hear her.

He shrugged. "Worried about me, sweetheart?"

"I just don't want to be claimed by that asshole."

He scowled at her lack of faith. "I don't plan to let him win. I have plans for you and me later, and it doesn't involve anyone else in this vicinity. But first, we need to take out any enemies. Who else is a danger?"

She blinked, not expecting him to ask her opinion. Then she quickly scanned the wolves milling about. Robert and his beta were glaring at them from the opposite side of the meadow, Robert pumping himself up like an overjacked meathead, while the four other alphas were gathered quietly with their betas and speaking amongst themselves.

"Lyla, I need you to watch my back in case anyone else makes a move against me. I'll handle Robert and his beta. But if the others get involved, you run. I have help coming, but they won't be here in time. Get to Atlanta. Trust Ryan Cooper. He'll protect you." He subtly gestured to one of the four remaining alphas, his undercover backup.

She scowled. "No way. You named me as your second. We're in this together. And if we're truly mates, then we live or die together. I won't abandon you. So, we start the way we mean to go on. Or do you mean to shuffle me off when I'm not convenient?"

Shit.This was not the time to have this fight. He pulled up his sleeves to show the matching mating marks. "I'm in this for the long haul. But there are too many. I want you to survive. By any means."

"I won't survive if you die. We may not have completed the mating, but we're in it together now." She gave him a quick kiss, and the flare of heat that flashed through him reminded him what he was fighting for. "I don't know the others. Robert and his betas are the only ones to worry about, for now. Destroy them, and we'll discuss this whole Council thing later."

He grinned and headed for the circle.

Chapter Three

Lyla clenched her fists by her side and silently cursed her brother, not for the first time. Of course he wasn’t here to see the damage his insane dictates or reckless actions had caused, not that he would have cared one way or another. He only cared that she would no longer be a thorn in his side and he could tighten the bonds around the pack, strangling them with his control. Who would the weaker members petition for support? While a part of her worried about the pack, right now, she had bigger issues to be concerned about, namely her own future and the risks this wolf was taking on her behalf, a wolf who believed he was her mate.

And she was beginning to believe it too.

She had the same markings developing on her wrists and the burning urge to go to him. When she publicly acknowledged the claim, her wolf settled inside her after pushing wildly at her skin, clawing to get to him the minute he had stepped into the clearing. Arousal had spiked, overwriting fear, and both parts of her had wanted to soften, launch herself at him and lick him up from head to toe. But a small part of her reminded herself of the damage an alpha could do a female and she had resisted. Barely. But now, as he pulled off his t-shirt, revealing a broad chest and strong, defined muscles that begged for her to trace with her fingers, tongue and claws, she could barely remember why she had waited.

Robert snarled across the clearing, also having pulled off his shirt, only he wasn’t as handsome, or maybe it was his less than stellar personality reflected on the outside. He had clearly not spent as much time in wolf form because some of his muscle had turned to fat. Shifters, as a rule, didn’t tend to go soft unless they didn’t shift much since turning and running through the woods and hunting, as their other half required, burned so many calories. But like her brother, Robert apparently was an alpha who preferred to sit and let others do his work for him, even when shifted. That didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. He was cruel and sneaky, preferring to take shortcuts and win through nefarious means and she wouldn’t put it past him to have more wolves in the woods to back him up or a plan to help take down Duncan and the rest of the witnesses should things go against him.

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