A Wolf's Pride

by Jennifer T. Alli

  “Ryan,” Chloe asked confused and afraid. “What’s going on?”

  “Chloe!” he howled.

  “Ryan, what’s happening? Tell me.”

  He roared again, his vocal cords changing, making his voice rougher. “Angel, please…” He trailed off in an angry snarl, unable to communicate with her anymore as his vocal cords completed the transformation from human to wolf.

  “Please what?” she demanded, her heart racing for an entirely different reason now. She had never seen Ryan in so much pain. Even when his organs had literally been hanging outside of his body he had borne the pain silently. He continued howling and her pulse leapt. “I’m going to get a doctor,” she sobbed. “Please, just be okay until I get back.” Pulling herself free of his body, she rolled off the bed and onto her feet.

  His agonized howls died the instant their bodies separated and she turned to look at him again. The shakes that had been savaging his body were gradually dying down, his claws receded and the fangs in his mouth once again became normal length teeth. His eyes opened, any traces of amber gone as he looked at her with honey brown eyes.

  “I’m sorry angel,” he apologised. “I scared you.”

  She threw herself onto him, the relief flowing from her almost tangible. Her knowledge of werewolf physiology was non-existent, her experiences with it traumatic and Ryan’s howls of pain had reminded her of when she had thought he was dying. She couldn’t lose him. “Ryan, are you okay?” Her hands ran over the length of his body, searching for some sort of visible wound.

  “Yes angel, I’m fine. I swear.”

  She stopped her investigation, sitting up beside him. “Then what just happened?”

  “The instinct just happened.”

  “The instinct? I thought that was what helped you guys survive, it just tried to kill you.”

  “No, it was punishing me. I was about to break one of its laws. An unbreakable law as I well know.”

  “What? Making love to me? Is what we just did so bad? A crime?”

  Hearing the uncertainty and sadness in her voice, Ryan sat up and gripped her hands tightly within his own, peppering her much smaller hands with warm kisses. “No Chloe, it’s natural for mates to come together like this.”

  “Then why was it punishing you?” she demanded.

  “Because you’re human and I haven’t claimed you properly.”

  “Claimed?” she ran the word over her tongue. “I’ve heard that word before.”

  “Yes. I tried to claim you at the last full moon remember?”

  “I remember trying to run you over,” she mused, suddenly unable to meet his gaze as she remembered her actions that night. “I remember that horrible cave, I remember you being a wolf in the morning and refusing to talk to me. I don’t remember any claiming.”

  “We never actually got to the claiming part. You left.”

  “Because you refused to talk to me,” she retorted, unapologetic over her actions.

  “They were all necessary steps towards a successful claiming.”

  “So we have to do this claiming thing before we can make love without you being in excruciating pain?”

  “Yes.”

  “So what does it involve?”

  “It involves everything that happened that night plus one additional step before we can be together fully. You have to run and I have to catch you. There’s nowhere I wouldn’t go to catch you, I love chasing you. The last full moon was amazing. Once I’ve caught you I have to show that I can provide for you, keep you safe. We managed to do all of that but we didn’t complete the last step.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “You have to spend an entire day with me when I’m in my wolf form and you can’t leave me Chloe. You have to stay by my side no matter what happens. If you don’t then the claiming fails and we have to try again.”

  “Everything? Including the part where I tried to run you over?” she laughed.

  Apparently he didn’t see the joke if the stern look on his face was anything to go by. “There will be no more attempts to run me over.”

  “I know. I can’t bear the thought of you in pain. I won’t try and do that again, unless you really, really deserve it.” Leaning forward, she placed a gentle kiss to his lips, her eyes watching him carefully as she pulled away in case anything happened to him. “Why can’t we just get on with it? You know, like normal people?”

  He sighed. “Chloe love, do you remember I once told you that werewolves used to bite their mates and turn them into what we are?” She nodded in agreement. “Well once wolves were sure that their mates weren’t going to turn into werewolves, they didn’t see the point in telling them what they were at all. But they found out and once again the continued survival of our species was at risk. Mates were dying. The instinct changed. Now if our mate’s human then she has to see us, know what we are and accept us. When you left during the last full moon, the instinct took it as a sign of rejection and the claiming failed.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly in anger. “This claiming involves sex right?”

  “Yes. Once we’ve gone through all the steps then, I can claim your body properly and make love to you all night. That’s when I’ll bite you and mark you right here. After that, you’ll be mine forever, nothing will ever separate us again.” His hand caressed the side of her neck already imagining his mark embedded against her skin.

  “I can’t believe you try to sleep with me when I was furious with you! You can be such an idiot. There are meant to be limits to stupidity you know?”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that you were mad at me.”

  “There you go again, breaking any and all limitations that I thought nature imposed on stupidity. Even though you’re the most emotionally redundant man I’ve ever met, I’m going to forgive you because you may be an idiot, but you’re my idiot.”

  “Possessive,” he purred, pulling her against his naked chest. “I like it. That’s all I ever want to be. Yours.”

  She remembered the damp cave Ryan had made her sleep in that night and her body shivered in response. “Do we have to go back to that horrible cave?”

  “The claiming has to outside angel. You need to run and I need to catch you.”

  “We can do that indoors,” she protested.

  “I need the moon.”

  “So we have to wait until the next full moon before we can do this. That’s ages away.”

  “We don’t have to wait for the full moon. I’m thankfully not that restricted but I need something. There’s an animal living inside of me Chloe, I need to be outside, the claiming can’t happen within these walls. It’s a very private thing. There’s too much help here for it to work properly. I have to show that I can take care of you, alone.”

  “You do take care of me Ryan.”

  “Thank you love but I have to prove myself and the best way to do that is outdoors. Besides, I can’t spend a day as a wolf inside the estate. It would drive me mad. These stone walls would seem like a cage. I’m sorry angel but this is the way it has to be.”

  “I don’t know what you’ve done to me,” Chloe began, “but whenever I look at you I seem to fall into those big brown eyes of yours and I find myself agreeing to all sorts of things that I know I’ll later regret. Nevertheless, I’m going to do it again. We only have to do this outdoor claiming thing once right and then we can be together like normal people right? Indoors?” Ryan nodded enthusiastically, hoping this was headed where he thought it was. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered to herself. “Fine, if your claiming needs to happen outside then we’ll go outside. See how much I care for you, I’m willing to put myself through that hell so that we can be together. I must be insane. When should we start? Tonight?”

  “No.”

  “What?” she questioned confused by his refusal. He was still hard with desire despite the minutes that had passed. Didn’t he want this? Didn’t he want her?

  “There’s something I need to
do before I can claim you. It’s important.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a secret.” He jumped from the bed, a wide smile plastered on his face. “Wait for me angel. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that he was gone, rushing to dress himself as he went.

  Chloe’s mind was still racing as she sat naked on the bed. What could have been so important that he would run out on me like that? I guess I’ll soon see. With Ryan there’s no point in even trying to guess. I’ve never met anyone as unpredictable as him…but I guess it’s just one of the things I love about him.

  Chapter Forty

  Chloe had never thought of herself as a particularly obsessive person but it seemed to be the only word that fit her at the moment. The object of her new-found obsession? Ryan. Not only did he have the ability to drive her crazy when he was around her, it appeared that he could still do it when he was nowhere near her. It had been three days since she had last seen him but those three days may as well have been three months in her mind. After being in his presence almost constantly since she had arrived his absence was all the more pronounced.

  She stood alone within the room, staring out of the large window into the dark night sky wondering how long she would be alone. Her hands were clenched tightly against the wooden barrier that prevented her from falling. She didn’t even entertain the thought that something could happen to her again. Ryan had gone to extreme lengths to protect her while he was away though she wasn’t sure exactly how far the protection extended past the walls of the suite. Trusted guards were at the door twenty four hours a day according to Sebastian and he would be on call whenever she needed him. She had barely resisted the urge to scoff at that, remembering when she had run through the halls screaming his name at the top of her lungs to no avail.

  Though she had become more comfortable within the walls, she was still reluctant to push the boundaries of her security and instead had opted for self imposed exile. Though there were benefits to being alone, it also had its downsides. It was far too quiet in her self imposed confinement, even when the room was filled with loud children. Alex and Erica visited often, bringing with them what seemed like an entire nursery. Dylan and Wyatt, who she had since learnt were Erica's siblings, not her children played loudly but it wasn’t the same as Ryan’s loud roars filling the room. Nothing was the same since he’d left. There were moments when she entertained the idea that he’d left her because he was secretly disgusted by what he had seen the day he’d left. Those thoughts were however, immediately banished by remembering the heated words he’d spoken to her. Ryan thought she was beautiful, he would come back.

  For someone who was as exhausted as he was, Ryan moved on surprisingly silent feet as he walked back into the rooms he shared with his mate. For three days he had pushed himself above and beyond his limits, working around the clock in preparation for this night. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten since he’d left his mate but despite the exhaustion that made his limbs feel so heavy, he was smiling. Tonight was the night he had been waiting for since before he had even seen Chloe’s face and now that he knew who she was he couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. Tonight he was going to claim his angel, his mate. Her intoxicating smell was heavy in the air and he breathed deeply, savouring the scent he had missed since he’d been away. He walked towards her, his step sure and without hesitation. He would always be able to find his way back to her. Moving quickly, he pulled her back flush against him and held her tight.

  “Chloe,” he growled as he rubbed his lightly stubbled cheek against the soft, silky strands of her hair.

  His unnatural warmth seeped into her and she instantly relaxed in his embrace, all traces of tension leaving her in an instant. His breath feathered over her skin as his head came to rest in the crook of her neck and her body shivered slightly in response. Though her body’s extreme reactions to his had at one point frightened her, it was welcome after his long absence.

  “I missed you,” he purred, placing light kisses against the side of her neck. “Did you miss me?”

  She nodded, lifting her hands and placing them atop the solid muscle of his forearms, another step to keeping him in place. “Where did you go?”

  “There was something I had to take care of.”

  “For the claiming?”

  “Of course. There’s nothing else that could keep me away from you for so long. I did the best that I could in the short time I had but I had to come back today. I don’t think I can take it any longer. I need to be with you. I need to claim you.” His hips rocked against hers, forcing her to notice the hard length of his erection.

  “Today?”

  “Yes.” His grip tightened before he continued almost as though he expected her to try and escape. “You haven’t changed your mind have you?”

  A faint smile crept across her lips, apparently she hadn’t been the only one worried about rejection. “No, nothing could be further from the truth. I missed you too. Don’t go off like that again.”

  “Never. Being away from you for just these few days has been a true test of willpower. I only managed it because I knew I was working towards a goal, you.” He paused for a moment, revelling in her scent before continuing. “Chloe, are you ready to do this?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have to warn you, I might seem more aggressive tonight. My wolf and I will be merging. Don’t be afraid of me.” There was an undertone of fear in his request as though he expected her to run from him once again when she saw the darker side of his nature.

  “I’ve been through this part remember? I know what you’ll be like and I could never be afraid of you Ryan. Never.”

  Closing his eyes, he let any lingering doubts fade away. He had waited long enough, it was time to claim his mate. “Let’s go angel.”

  Releasing her from his iron grip, he turned her round to face him, kissing her hard and fast, with all of the pent up desire he’d had to suppress while away from her. Their tongues clashed as they both sought to taste more of each other. Their hands were frantic, pulling at clothes in a desperate attempt to reach skin. Their moans of pleasure were quickly coupled with groans of frustration. They weren’t close enough, they could never be close enough.

  He pulled away abruptly, grasping her hands before leading her from the room and down the halls. She should have been nervous, apprehensive at the idea of what was about to happen, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Excitement filled her, nervous anticipation thrumming through her veins the closer they got to the door. Since the first day he had left, she’d been planning this night in her mind, leading herself through exactly what would happen and after long talks with Alex and Erica she knew exactly what she was going to do. Ryan’s never going to know what hit him.

  “Are you ready for this Chloe?”

  The sound of his voice snapped her out of her mental musings and she was surprised to see that they were already outside. Her eyes scanned their surroundings struggling to see through the night. After a few moments had passed she gave up, realising that continuing was futile, instead letting Ryan guide her through the darkness. He stopped in front of what she vaguely recognised as a car and she smirked in approval. Things were already going to plan.

  “Get in angel,” he growled. Already his voice was deeper, rougher, the sound washing over her like an aphrodisiac.

  Following his instructions, she opened the door and lifted herself in. His mouth opened as if to speak but she cut him off before the words could leave his lips. “I know Ryan. Seatbelt.” She buckled herself in and watched as he stepped back from the car.

  The transformation began to wash over him and she watched with vivid fascination as he began to shift in front of her very eyes. He turned to her, his amber eyes wild with desire and need, his beautiful mouth contorting into a deadly muzzle and bellowed, “Run!”

  His imperious command snapped her out of the daze she had fallen into and she sprung into action, pushing hard on the accelerator and speeding i
nto the distance. She had a plan and for Ryan she was determined to see it through to completion. The rough terrain was covered easily beneath the wheels of her 4x4, the bright headlights enabling her to see. Her heart was racing as she drove, checking constantly in the mirror to see whether Ryan was right behind her. Satisfied that there was enough distance between them she turned sharply, it was time to implement the first stage of her plan. Her foot never eased from the accelerator pedal but as the car drove on, crashing through all it came into contact with, she began stripping. She pulled her jumper over her head, momentarily blinding herself before rolling down the window and throwing the cloth into night. She continued on for a moment, looking down at her shirt in contemplation for a moment trying to decide just how far she was going to go with this.

  “I’ve started now,” she decided. “I might as well go all the way.” The shirt was removed in the same way as the jumper and thrown out of the window as well. Removing her trousers took a little more skill but she eventually managed it, throwing them out of the window. Dressed in nothing but her underwear, Chloe smiled. The trail had been set, now it was time to implement the next stage of her plan.

  She drove straight for a few moments before turning sharply and going back the same way she had come a safe distance from her original path. The drive to her next location was hectic but she soon made it to the stream. The water was deep in certain places, but she managed to cross without much difficulty. Upon reaching the other side, she stepped out, shivering instantly. While the air had been cool when she was clothed, practically naked it was almost freezing and for a moment she contemplated backing out of the next stage of her plan. Shaking off the indecision, she walked into the stream, wading through the water until she reached a section that was deep enough for her to drench her entire body in water. Soaked through to the skin, she trudged back to the car turning the heating on full blast as soon as she was safely inside.