Primal Claim

by Marie Johnston

  “I can’t do this to you.”

  “Do what?” she asked, thoroughly confused.

  “You’re so small. I’ll hurt you or the baby with my inexperience.” He jumped to his feet, covered himself with his shorts and slammed out the door into the pouring rain before she could utter a word of objection.

  Chapter Seven

  Mercury ran straight up the hill behind his cabin, noting with dismay that the rain was washing her scent off him. His mate. His mate he couldn’t trust, but wanted with every fiber of his being. The last couple of weeks had been torture. His only respite were the nights sleeping under the stars, with the door between them to mute her intoxicating orange blossom scent.

  His bare feet pounded the worn path that led from his cabin to the shifter he sought out. He knew the way by heart.

  Chest heaving, need and regret pounding through him, rain running in rivulets down his chest, he pounded on the door.

  It swung open and the attractive blond female that answered stepped aside for Mercury, who stopped on the welcome mat and went no further.

  She shut the door behind him, concern on her face. “Let me get you a towel, Wildling.” Striding away with her unhurried gentle sway, her bare feet under her simple shift barely made a sound.

  Relieved, he could sense they were alone. This was not something he wanted another pair of sensitive ears to overhear.

  Handing him the towel, she stood back with her arms crossed, giving him time to dry off. Her eyes took in his disheveled form from head to toe. He could imagine what her intuitive gaze picked up on: distrust, fear, sexual frustration, and worst of all – insecurity.

  “Come. Let’s have some tea and talk.”

  Irina Bellamy was like a surrogate mother to him. When Master Bellamy rescued Mercury all those generations ago, he brought the wild-eyed Mercury to his home where his formidable, patient wife taught Mercury the beginnings of how to live like a human who can shift into a wolf, not like he’d been living – a wolf that can turn human.

  They formed a close bond during those first few years and although it felt it like he never saw her anymore, despite their relatively close living arrangement, she was the only one he wanted to go to with personal troubles. His most trusted advisor on all things female.

  Smelling dandelion tea, Mercury was taken back to his early days with the older female. When he first came to the Guardian pack, she was a maternal figure for many of the shifters in the pack. Guardians were the only family to each other, entering training after puberty, and with their way of life, tragedy had often struck. It created a strong bond of brotherhood and mates were often a part of the connection.

  Master Bellamy had brought Mercury back to Guardian camp and Irina immediately opened her heart to embrace the wild shifter and help him adapt to the human world. From there, he formed his own connections with the other shifters, the strongest with his partner of almost a century, Bennett. Things were good, he was learning, they weathered some hard times, and then tragedy struck the Bellamys eventually causing Master Bellamy to hand over commander reins to Fitzsimmons, and Irina to withdraw slowly over time.

  The move to West Creek seemed to be the final straw. Becoming a recluse in her own cabin, she no longer cooked for them or encouraged drop-in visits. The Guardians moved on, dealing with the world in their own way. Mercury doubted even Irina and Master Bellamy's paths crossed much, and that was highly unusual for a previously closely-mated couple. A couple that had weathered centuries together and mentored young shifters through tragic events, they were devastated by a tragedy that not even their love for each other could repair.

  "Are you well, Wilding?" Irina asked, maternal concern highlighting her words.

  Mercury shook his head. "It's her."

  "Ah," she nodded slowly, staring blankly at her hands wrapped around her mug. "How do you feel about her?"

  Lifting one muscled shoulder in a half shrug, Mercury didn't know where to start. "Crazy."

  A small smile lifted the corner of Irina's mouth. "That's a start."

  "I want her. So bad. I almost took her tonight. I've wanted to claim her since I laid eyes on her, since before I scented my young within her. But I was afraid I would hurt her and the baby."

  Irina pursed her lips and gave Mercury a considering look, then chuckled softly, "Unless you're picking her up and throwing her across the room, you're not going to hurt her. You've seen enough sexual encounters to know that human women don't break. But that's not really the problem, is it?"

  "No."

  A stretch of silence followed, the rain continued to pour outside. Irina waited.

  "You don't trust her."

  Mercury shook his head, staring dismally at the cabin floor.

  "For many that wouldn't matter," Irina prodded gently.

  "No. It wouldn't."

  They sat again in silence.

  "She's hiding something. From me and from the others. I can barely keep myself away from her. Her scent drives me crazy. If I claim her it won't matter what's she's hiding. I'd destroy anyone who tried to hurt her. No matter who it is. She'd own me."

  Irina wouldn’t need him to go into specifics, he was confident she picked up on the unspoken truth. He'd turn against his own pack even as she was knifing him in the back.

  “Have more faith in yourself, and your brothers. They will protect you, even if it’s from yourself.”

  Mercury mulled her words over. Irina was right. If only it was the only fear that drove him from his mate’s warm and willing body.

  "What else is bothering you, Mercury?" It was a tense question, as if she knew the direction this conversation was going to was a dark place she didn't want to ever visit again.

  Irina could read him all those years ago when he struggled to learn words, and even worse, pair them with human emotion. She was astute enough to read into a sudden, frantic visit about his pregnant mate.

  "What if we do mate and all that, but something happens to the baby?"

  Irina's face turned to stone, color leeching slowly from her features. Mercury would agree when those close to him claimed he was dense when it came to feelings, but even he knew this topic was devastating. But there was no one else he could turn to.

  "Well," Irina said flatly, "if you mate and she's not a traitor and the babe is yours and..." she paused for a deep, cleansing breath, "and the child is ripped away,” her voice cracked, “then by whatever is holy in your life, don't abandon her to deal with the emptiness alone."

  "I would never do that," Mercury said, horrified at the thought of leaving Dani to suffer the loss of a child on her own.

  "A male's need for vengeance can override good sense. Remember that." Irina abruptly stood up, walked to the door and opened it, looking expectantly at Mercury, an obvious sign it was time for him to go.

  He stepped out, the porch overhang protecting him from the downpour. The hair on his arms stood up and his sensitive ears honed in on sounds he could make out between the thunderclaps.

  Dani! Leaving his shorts in a pile on the Bellamy's porch, he let his beast break free. The giant black wolf tore into the night.

  Completely taken aback, Dani scrambled for her clothes as soon as the door swung shut. She knew he didn't stop at the porch to turn in for the night. He was gone.

  Realistically, she knew she shouldn’t go after him. It was storming and she didn't have the enhanced senses or speed of the shifter she was searching for. But fuck it, she couldn't just sit in the cabin waiting for him to return at his leisure. And when he did, it would be most likely to not explain what made him run, after giving her the most earth-shattering orgasm a human body could tolerate.

  Getting her clothes right side out and back on, she paused only to grab one of his black waterproof jackets from the tiny coat closet by the front door and throw on her running shoes. She headed out into the rain, the hood from the too big coat giving her ample protection, for her head at least. Her shoes and lower legs would quickly be soaked.
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br />   Carefully running to the back door of the lodge, she peeked in without opening the door. It would draw too much attention and Mason the asshole always seemed to be lurking around the corner waiting to get a shot at insulting her when Mercury wasn't close enough to hear. She never said anything, just ignored the disturbed shifter. But damned if she'd be to blame for causing tension between two Guardians. It would just cast doubt on her intentions.

  Turning to face the dark surrounding woods in the pouring rain, she stopped to think. She always saw Bennett head off to the right and that was the most logical place Mercury would go. They had that bromance thing going on so who else would he talk about girl troubles with?

  Dani had never been to Bennett's cabin. It was tucked so far back into their surroundings, she could barely make it out on a clear day. The cabins were meant to be individual dwellings for Guardians and their families, so they weren't built on top of each other. Making her way in the dark, she headed back in the direction of Mercury's cabin, and then veered off in the dark in her best guess of the direction of Bennett's residence.

  Her feet squished through the grass and dirt between the trees. She could only see as far as the next flash of lightening, which helped ensure she didn't smack face first into any trees or low hanging branches.

  Several minutes passed and Dani was breathing hard, slipping and sliding along the upward slant of the landscape. She had to be almost there. Frustrated, she stopped, waiting for several lightning flashes to sight the area around her. It all the looked the same. Dark tree after dark tree. Fuck! Was she lost?

  Officially soaked from the knees down, water streaming off the edge of her hood, a chill was starting to work its way into her that had little to do with being out in the rain and more to do with being lost while Sigma was out looking for her. She should've asked Cassie to pick up a flashlight because she'd rather have that then fresh underwear right now.

  "Mercury!" She'd rather have all the Guardians clued in to their couple drama than have any Agents find her out here, alone and unarmed.

  "Mercury!" Should she turn around and head back? How did she know she went in a straight line in the first place? Was she even close to a cabin?

  A low chuckle rumbled through the rain behind her. Dani spun around with a gasp.

  "Well, well, well. Little Red Riding Hood lost in the woods. Couldn't find Grandma's house?" Mason asked, a wicked sneer pulling at his sensuous mouth.

  Not knowing what to say, Dani kept quiet. He could probably hear how hard her heart was beating. She thought Sigma finding her was bad. At least they would keep her alive for the baby. With Mason, she wasn't so sure.

  “You passed right through our security barriers, human. Mercury hasn’t claimed you yet, or marked you, and I set them up so you could leave whenever you wanted. I just need to make sure you don’t come back.”

  “Why do you hate me so much?”

  Mason gave a nonchalant lift of his shoulders. “It’s not you personally. It’s your humanity. We don’t want it in our bloodlines. Purity is our key to strength. First Jace mates with a human, and brings her to live with us no less. But he’s not a born Guardian, so I overlooked it. She’ll meet with a tragic accident soon enough.”

  Dani’s mind raced. Her body felt like it should run, attack, something. Her mind told her that Mason was revealing way too much and she needed to pay attention. It also told her that he didn’t intend for her to survive this encounter if he wasn’t monitoring his words.

  “But then you show up and a Guardian chooses you, a human, for his mate,” Mason continued. “And even worse, you’re going to reproduce and dull his lines. The purity of his power is staggering, though more than a little unfocused. We can’t have human taint on it.”

  Pulling a gun out of his waistband, he pointed it at her.

  She licked dry lips, “So that’s it. You’re just going to shoot me and think they won’t know. We might not be mated, but Mercury will hunt you down.”

  “Sorry sweetheart. I got this off a Sigma recruit. It’ll look like I came up on the scene, and saw you trying to get back to Sigma, but they took you out rather than letting us have you.”

  When he raised it a little higher to pull the trigger, she blurted, “I wish you dropped the gun!”

  A momentary WTF look crossed his face before disbelief when the pistol ripped out of his hand and hit the ground.

  Mason pinned her with a stunned look. “You shouldn’t be able to do that.”

  Her triumphant moment was only fleeting.

  He held eye contact. “Just stand there while I kill you with my bare hands,” he growled, using his compulsion on her.

  Her body stilled as if frozen to the ground. No, no, no! She had to defend herself.

  Mason lunged, bringing his hands up to wrap them around her throat. With a hard mental twist, she undid his compulsion and kicked out. Her soaked foot hit him squarely in the abdomen and she ducked under his reach, dancing out of the way.

  “Wha-” she heard as the breath whooshed out of him. “You shouldn’t be able to do any of this,” he gasped, but quickly spun grabbing her arm and pulled her to him. She kicked and hit, but he was ready for her attack and the soggy ground gave her little purchase for fighting.

  Dani was turned until her back was against his front, with his elbow locked solidly around her throat, air was getting squeezed out of her, none able to return. She kept kicking back and jabbing him with her elbows, but the mountain of steel holding her didn’t budge.

  I wish he’d drop me! her mind cried. His grip loosened for a split second, allowing her to draw in just a little air, but he recovered quickly fighting off her wish.

  Her short life had started flashing through her mind when it stopped on this morning. Rain pelted her face, and while his clothing seemed to resist the soaking, hers did not. She was slick and slippery and it was still pouring. Her strength was waning, but unlike Kaitlyn’s final effort, hers would be fueled by the panic of knowing she wouldn’t come back from strangulation.

  Twisting her feet back to hook behind his legs, extra strength poured into her movements as she jerked his feet out from under him.

  He toppled back in surprise, his arm loosening around her neck enough for her to slide out and roll away. Springing up into a fighting crouch, she faced him.

  Mason recovered nearly as fast as she did and was on his feet, lunging for her again, when a blast rang though rain-laden air and he went flying backward, a gaping hole in his chest.

  Dani’s eyes widened, hope surging through her. Had Mercury found her?

  “Silver. Gets ‘em every time.” The familiar female voice was definitely not Mercury’s.

  Hope died a slow death within Dani. She searched through the dark trees and saw Agent X with her shoulder propped against a tree trunk. Her vivid green eyes flashed with their predator’s gleam, her usually crazy hair laid flat by the rain, with streaming rivulets of water running down her ivory face.

  “Nice shootin’ Biggie.” X nodded to Agent E, who was somewhere behind Dani. “Gotta say, Doll, that baby’s giving you some fierce shifter juice to face off against a Guardian.”

  Dani still couldn’t see E, but knew he was getting closer.

  “What did she do to my baby, X? What did Madame G do?” Dani tried to get some information before she faced another struggle. Her body was aching from Mason’s attack, her throat raw, and now she was facing two Agents. Not just any two either. Two that knew her abilities and taught her what little she knew.

  A look of dismay highlighted X’s beautiful features. “Of course she did something, Doll. She’s tied to the baby somehow, like a really wicked fairy godmother.”

  “How do I get her out of me?”

  “And why would we tell you that?” E’s deep timbre came from right behind her.

  She spun around. He held no weapon anymore and wasn’t crouched to attack her. His hands were tucked into his waistband like they’d all just met to chat in the middle of the dark wo
ods during a major storm.

  “Because not even you two would want to see an innocent baby used this way. Of all people, you know what she’s capable of.”

  “Madame G’s depravity surprises me sometimes, I have to admit. But no one knows what she’s really capable of,” X informed her, then cocked her head at Dani. “Or why.”

  The wind suddenly picked up, tearing through the trees, strong enough to lift soggy leaves and broken branches. Dani felt the sting as they pelted her legs and face.

  “Uh oh,” X’s eyes glinted in the dark. “Who let the dogs out?”

  Wind and rain whipped around Dani’s face. Mercury was on his way. She could feel him in the power flowing around her before she heard the howls buffeting through the wind.

  Agent E moved to grab her from behind and she ducked and spun out of his reach, slipping easily away since he couldn’t get a good purchase on her slippery, wet coat. Although they wouldn’t kill her and would try not to hurt the baby, she was at a definite disadvantage with the slick ground, her human eyes having trouble making out the Agents.

  It was like a sixth sense kicked in, along with her previous training. She couldn’t see X or E very well, but she felt where they were and guessed their moves before they were made. Over and over, they lunged in for her and Dani spun, kicked, jabbed, and danced out of their reach. Much of it was her previous training with these very Agents, the rest though...

  She heard Mercury’s howl in the wind. He was only seconds away.

  The two dangerous Agents made one final attempt to grab her and haul her away. They’d have to run and run fast. It wasn’t just Mercury coming to her rescue. More howls filtered through the wind.

  X’s strong hands wrapped like steel around Dani’s wrists, trying to twist her around while E was targeting her feet. Both Agents had bindings of some sort and Dani had to keep out of them.

  When she felt hard metal close around one wrist, she reacted, “I wish it’d fall off.”

  The cuffs slid off. Dani sprang out from between a startled X and a crouching E, landing poorly and losing her footing. She twisted her body as she fell, using the motion of a front roll to carry her even farther away the Agents.