Huntress Claimed

by Eva Brandt

  “Thank you,” I replied. “I appreciate it.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. I’m not doing anything special. You’re my Alpha’s mate. Of course I want to help you. But for the record, once some pups show up in your family, I expect to be invited to the birth.”

  She said the words as a teasing joke, but to me, they almost sounded like a threat. The idea of a pregnancy hadn’t even crossed my mind and that was, in hindsight, very stupid of me.

  “W-We haven’t discussed that yet,” I stammered.

  “I’m sure you will after they officially claim you,” Gypsy replied. “Don’t worry about it now. It’ll happen, but only when you’re ready.”

  She was trying to be reassuring, but it wouldn’t have worked if she hadn’t decided to add something else. “Werewolf males can control this sort of thing, you know. You can’t get pregnant unless certain conditions are met and you’d know if that had happened.”

  I wanted to ask her what she meant, but I decided against it. Maybe I’d ask my lovers about it later, since it was a conversation we needed to have anyway. “Thanks,” I told Gypsy. “I’m not ready to be a mother right now, but maybe later… I think I’d like that.”

  “Well, the best way to prepare for that is right here,” Sandra said. “Gypsy, would you mind?”

  She pointed in the direction of the still unconscious young werewolf. Gypsy chuckled. “Got it. Don’t worry. I have this.”

  With that, she dragged the shifter away, leaving me alone with Sandra—or as alone as we could be in the massive cavern, still in full view of the other werewolves. “Well then,” Sandra said once Gypsy was gone. “Shall we begin?”

  * * *

  Ulysses

  Every muscle in my body hurt. I dragged my aching form through the lair entrance, with Xander and Byron by my side.

  I hadn’t been in so much pain since the demon’s attack and that should have scared me. It didn’t. Instead, all I felt was a sense of elation. After today, we would be one step closer to truly making Imogen ours and keeping Daimon Rossi from her forever.

  We looked forward to making our way to our quarters and finding Imogen there. It was not to be. We’d barely entered the corridor when we realized Gypsy had been up to some mischief in our absence.

  “Imogen isn’t here,” Byron said. “Where could they have gone?”

  “Easy enough to find out,” Xander replied. His voice remained calm, but I could tell he was irritated. He hadn’t ordered Gypsy to stay inside with Imogen and I suspected he wished he’d been more specific.

  Gypsy and Imogen had made no attempt to hide their trail, so Xander didn’t even have to use his mental connection to the pack to find our errant mate. Within less than a minute, we realized where she had gone. The training den.

  “We should have known she’d find it eventually,” Byron grunted. “I suppose it was only a matter of time.”

  “Maybe this is a good sign. It’s better than her hiding from her skills.”

  Or so I liked to think. Imogen’s continuous refusal to accept her new self wasn’t helping her. At the same time, I couldn’t blame her for her wariness. It was a complicated situation, but I hoped that the gift we’d brought her would make things better.

  Like we expected, we found Imogen in the training room. She was sparring with Sandra, although Sandra was notably careful, not pushing her as far as she could have.

  At first, Imogen moved a little clumsily, but then, her training kicked in. Her muscles remembered everything she had learned, even if she hadn’t done much in terms of practice since her arrival here. She pivoted on her heel like a dancer and directed a flawless roundhouse kick at Sandra’s head. It was so fast that Sandra couldn’t duck and she had to shift to avoid being hit.

  The air around Imogen blurred. Energy crackled under her skin. I didn’t know if Imogen realized it, or if Sandra and the others did, but I saw it as clear as day. I knew it wasn’t normal. Huntress or not, Imogen shouldn’t have been able to move so quickly.

  We’d already known she was no longer strictly human. We’d seen evidence of it ever since she’d started living in the pack. She’d used some of her newly acquired powers several times—but never like this.

  Xander must have realized what was going on because he cleared his throat and stepped in. “Genny, hey! What are you up to, love?”

  There was no visible sign of apprehension. Even my subtler demon skills couldn’t detect anything except the pure joy of being reunited with our mate. But not everything was about skills and in my heart, I knew Xander’s casual demeanor was a lie.

  Imogen didn’t notice, or if she did, she let it go. As Sandra moved back, Imogen turned toward us, a small, sheepish smile on her lips. “Training. Sandra has agreed to give me a hand. I’m a bit out of shape and I can’t afford that.”

  “I can’t argue with you there,” Byron replied. “But you should have just asked us. It would be much more fun for us to train together, wouldn’t you say?”

  Also, if we trained her ourselves, we’d be able to better gauge the full extent of her abilities. We couldn’t do that in front of the whole pack. They might have accepted Imogen, but they wouldn’t so eager to embrace her differences.

  To this day, the union didn’t realize the true source of my Omega abilities. Xander and Byron were the only ones who knew and they had kept the secret. But even so, something about me had always made many of the older werewolves wary. They sensed my inner darkness, even when I tried to hide it. For many years, I’d lived in fear that the truth would be discovered.

  It hadn’t happened, and Imogen would never have to face that fear either. We wouldn’t allow it. With some luck, our plan would help us with that.

  “We had a surprise for you, if you’re up to ending the training session early.”

  “A surprise?” Imogen repeated, obviously interested. “What is it?”

  “It wouldn’t be a surprise if we told you that, would it?” Xander replied, smirking. “Sandra, we’ll be stealing our mate. Carry on.”

  Sandra shifted back into her humanoid form and winked. “Of course, Alpha. Have fun.”

  She hadn’t noticed anything abnormal about Imogen. Was I just jumping at shadows then? No, I had to trust my instincts on this one.

  Byron picked Imogen up and carried her out of the training room. Together, we made our way back to our quarters.

  Imogen didn’t protest being manhandled. She relaxed in Byron’s embrace, by now used to our tendency to want to hold her all the time. “Does this mean you’ll tell me what you were doing this morning that was so important?” she asked.

  “We were always going to tell you,” I replied. “But like Xander said, we couldn’t ruin the surprise before it was ready.”

  Also, if she’d known about it, she might have had an issue with it, which we just couldn’t allow. This was something we believed in, but I didn’t fool myself. She’d grown up as a human and our traditions would probably seem barbaric to her.

  We were willing to adapt to her likes and dislikes, of course, but some things were just necessary.

  By the time we got to our room, Imogen was vibrating with excitement. Maybe on some level, she’d sensed our anxiety, although she hadn’t understood its source. As Byron placed her on the couch, she tapped her knees with her fingers, almost frantic. “So is it ready now?”

  I leaned forward and brushed my lips over hers in a kiss. “Yes, although we’ll have to explain it a bit.”

  As I spoke, I produced a small wooden box from my pocket. Byron and Xander mimicked me. We all opened our boxes at the same time, displaying their contents.

  Imogen’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand.”

  I extracted the four sharp fangs from inside my box. “These are my canines. Xander just pulled them out half an hour ago.”

  “I did it for Xander and Ulysses helped me out,” Byron added.

  “We want you to have them.”

  “You want me to… have your
fangs,” Imogen said slowly. So far, she hadn’t freaked out, which was a good sign. “But why? Don’t you need them?”

  “Yes, we do, but we spent the rest of the time while we were away forcing the canines to grow back,” Xander explained. “We have new fangs now. As for why we want you to have them… It’s a symbol of our bond.”

  We were supposed to put them all in a necklace, so Imogen could wear them wherever she went. But we hadn’t wanted to just dump the idea on her without explaining. No matter how hard she tried, she hadn’t fully adjusted to our way of life yet and it was our job to not push her too hard.

  Imogen guessed what we had in mind, but her reaction was nothing like what I’d expected. “You want to make them into a necklace, right? We can do that. But I want something else too. I want you to pierce my ears.”

  Imogen had never worn earrings. Such adornments just got in the way in battle. Werewolf females didn’t use a lot of jewelry either. Bonding necklaces were the sole exception, before they were crafted wide enough to adjust to our transformations.

  Suffice to say, Imogen’s request took us completely by surprise. Imogen might not need to transform, but she’d been training earlier. It was strange that she’d suddenly decide to use earrings, when she’d never done it before.

  “Are you sure, Genny?” I asked. “They might get in the way.”

  “They won’t,” Imogen insisted. “Besides, I have a good feeling about this. I think… I think this is the way we’re supposed to do it.”

  She looked at the fangs and that was the moment when I understood. By piercing her ears, Imogen would be taking one of our body parts inside her.

  Werewolves wouldn’t normally do that, because their biology had trouble adjusting to someone else’s blood and bones. But Imogen wasn’t a werewolf.

  “Are you okay with it?” she asked, almost shyly.

  Were we okay with it? Moon help me, I hadn’t realized how much the thought appealed to me until she’d mentioned it. “Absolutely,” I croaked out, my voice so husky it was barely recognizable. I had no desire to hurt her, not even a little, but some things went beyond pain. Besides, I trusted Imogen to decide what she wanted for her own body.

  “Do you want to do the piercings now?”

  Imogen nodded. Her pulse escalated, but she didn’t shy away. Her eyes were glowing with visible enthusiasm.

  For her, this was important, almost as important as the claiming bite. We hadn’t thought she truly understood our ways. Once again, we’d underestimated her.

  In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have had to wait. We could have just fulfilled Imogen’s wish in a heartbeat. But we didn’t live in an ideal world and the piercings needed to be done with care.

  Byron went to the healing chamber and retrieved a set of sterile needles. We didn’t use needles a lot in healing, but we had them on hand anyway, just in case. Meanwhile, we washed our hands and each individual fang. With great care, we put together two earrings using two fangs from each of the piles, leaving the remaining ones for a smaller mating necklace.

  It took over half an hour for us to finish our task. Imogen watched us patiently. She stopped fidgeting, as if the knowledge of what would happen had given her peace.

  Her calm encouraged me and when I returned to her side, my hands were steady. I extracted a thin needle from the pile brought by Byron and heated it in my hand using my demonic magic. It took some concentration. Despite being half-demon, I wasn’t very good at energy projection.

  But heating a needle didn’t require a great deal of expertise and I made do. When I was confident that everything was ready, I placed the needle against Imogen’s earlobe and pushed.

  The metal tip easily slid through her flesh. Blood bloomed over the edges of the wound. Imogen didn’t flinch, but I did. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  “Go on,” Imogen said. “The other one too. Don’t worry. It barely hurts.”

  It was probably true. Imogen had been a huntress and she’d experienced far worse things that a simple piercing. In fact, underneath the scent of blood, I sensed… arousal? Yes, she was definitely aroused. I smelled it on her so clearly and wondered how I’d missed it in the first place.

  Now smiling, I pierced her other ear. Once again, she didn’t move, but the addictive scent of her need for us thickened even more. “You really want this, don’t you?” Xander asked.

  “More than anything,” she replied. “I want to belong to you.”

  She didn’t need to go through all this to belong to us. We already belonged to one another and we had even before we’d met. But reasserting and enforcing our bond was important and I couldn’t have denied her even if I’d wanted to.

  In the end, I decided to not say anything at all. There were so many things on my mind, so many doubts still haunting me. But I didn’t want them to ruin this beautiful moment.

  With Xander and Byron’s help, I slid the earrings into the tiny holes and placed the necklace around her throat. The moment we were done, she let out a slow breath, as if an invisible burden had vanished off her shoulders.

  “That feels nice,” she whispered. “Like you.”

  I couldn’t help but smile back. “Good. That way, you’ll always know that we’re here for you. That you’ll never be alone again.”

  Imogen’s happy expression faltered. When she looked at me once more, I saw a dark shadow in the depths of her beautiful eyes. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve all this. It still feels like it’s too much. I just wish I could pay you back in some way.”

  “Genny, mate bonds don’t work like a trade,” Xander replied. “The four of us happened to meet in unfortunate circumstances. But in the long run, we’re partners. That’s the way it works. You need to give yourself time. You don’t have to hurry to pay us back or anything like that. Your mere presence means more for us than you’ll ever know and in time, we’ll build on that.”

  That seemed to make sense for Imogen, but she was still a little nervous. She toyed with her new necklace absently, as if taking comfort in its simple presence. She bit her lower lip in hesitation, her body vibrating with a mix of anxiety, need, and relief.

  We’d decided to be as patient as possible with her. We’d known we needed to claim her soon, because the demon had made it too dangerous for us to wait and prolong our courtship. But at that moment, as I watched her clinging to our fangs, I knew that even if Daimon Rossi hadn’t been an issue, she would have still been too much of a temptation for us to resist. She was so beautiful it hurt and I ached for her.

  Leaning over, I crushed my mouth to hers. This time, the kiss was nothing like the gentle one I’d given her earlier. It was an explosion of passion and savagery. My feral nature responded to her and my wolf howled at the back of my mind. “Claim her. Claim her. She’s yours.”

  Xander and Byron had the same idea. “Bedroom,” Xander growled. “Now.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. It was difficult to tear myself away from her sweet lips, so I didn’t. I picked her up in my arms, still brushing kisses over her lips, her cheeks, her ears, and her neck.

  It only took me a couple of seconds to carry her to the bedroom, but by then, she was already gasping and moaning. “Come on. Please… Please, fuck me.”

  I placed her down on the mattress, urgency swelling through me like a monstrous beast. I didn’t bother to take my clothes off the old-fashioned way. Instead, I just shifted, ripping straight through the material. Right now, I couldn’t have cared less about the state of my wardrobe.

  Xander and Byron were faster than me. While I’d been distracted by Imogen, they’d gotten rid of their clothes. Together, they pounced on our mate and got her naked too. In no time at all, Imogen was left wearing only our necklace.

  It suited her. I wanted to parade her like this in front of the pack, to show them all that this perfect female belonged to us. But my need to hoard her body and attention was stronger.

  Lust flared around Imogen like an i
nescapable aura. It echoed the desperation building inside me. I met Xander and Byron’s eyes and saw my own heart in their gazes.

  This was it. This was the moment when we would finally claim our mate.

  Chapter Three

  Imogen

  From the moment we’d met, Xander, Byron, and Ulysses had always been intense. I’d have liked to say that I’d loved it from the beginning, but the truth was that, at first, it had scared me. When I’d woken up in the werewolf lair for the first time, I’d had a panic attack so strong I’d destroyed furniture.

  That memory seemed so distant now. I couldn’t imagine what I’d been thinking at the time. As I watched my lovers join me in bed, I craved that intensity, that wild nature that was always hidden underneath the surface.

  They’d torn their own fangs off, for me. I was wearing them now, a true brand of ownership, a reminder that I belonged here, with them. But I wanted more. I needed them in every possible way.

  There was just one thing left that was bugging me. Even through the haze of my desire for them, the memory of Xander’s words stayed with me. Our relationship would be a long-term partnership, he had said.

  If that was the case, I had to stop being so selfish. I had to think about them more. They might claim my presence was enough of a reward for them and maybe it was true. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do more.

  And so, when the three of them reached for me, I shied away. They froze, just like I’d known they would. “Genny?” Byron asked. “Is anything wrong?”

  The underlying hint of concern in his tone made me feel a little guilty. I was blowing hot and cold, since not a minute ago, I’d asked them to fuck me. But I needed something else before we could get to that.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” I told him. “I just want… I want you to be together too.”

  They stared at me like they didn’t understand what I was asking. I didn’t look away. Xander frowned, seeming genuinely confused. “But… we are together.”