An Alpha's Claim

Pack

She watched him with mild curiosity, the locket in her hand branding her skin. She didn't flinch or let him know about the pain radiating up her arm. She did it to remind herself to control her wolf, to destroy the idea that he was her moon mate. Her wolf was wrong. He'd died long ago. This was just her wolf overreacting to leaving Cassidy. He couldn't be her mate. Couldn't be.

She waited patiently for him to ask his favour,  but it seemed that he was done, for now.

She let the locket fall from her palm onto the ground and rocked back on her heels. He watched her, calm radiating from him though she knew it was a lie.

"I need to keep moving." She reminded herself as much as him.

He watched her closely, "why are you leaving your pack? Is it because of Caine's wolves? You thought I was one of them."

She pinned him beneath her gaze, her wolf told her that she should trust him with the news of Cassidy's pregnancy, but the human in her would not risk it.

"Yes." She answered quickly, knowing that she technically wasn't lying. She was leaving in order to get Caine's wolves away from her pack, not to run away from them. Though she wished she could.

"I could kill them?" He offered it so casually, so openly that it would have been easy to assume he was talking about something mundane.

J's wolf, however, didn't see it that way.

She hadn't truly acknowledged the depth of her wolf's involvement with Caine's pack. She couldn't remember Caine's last moments, not in detail, not yet. In truth, her wolf had taken over, J too lost in thoughts and memories to react when she'd found him. Her wolf had killed Caine and for the first time ever, J had no control over her.

Ever since then, if she was honest, something had changed. Her control wasn't what it had been. Her wolf was....blood thirsty. J always had been too. She'd been raised by a monster and become a monster herself, she knew that, knew it when she saw the fear in Cassidy's eyes - knew it the day Leah was shot and J had seen nothing but red as she abducted the shooter and set about tearing him into pieces. She always had been, and always would be, a monster, but J and her wolf had always shared that - they'd done those things together.

These days, once J was in wolf form, J slipped away and disappeared into her subconscious. By the time she was back in her human form there'd be a pile of dead bodies and a skip in her step.

It was tiring.

It was scary.

Logan's face was blank, patient. He was being earnest, offering her a simple solution to a complex problem. He had no idea who she was or what her situation was, but even still he offered to help her. To take on a wolf pack in her defence. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. He had offered to kill wolves that belonged to her. To her wolf.

That thought alone was enough to trigger her wolf. Before J could stop it, her wolf lunged for the surface, eyes blazing and claws piercing her finger tips. She growled so low and with such deadly force that J feared she may kill Stalker-wolf on the spot.

Sensing he was out of his depth, he held his hands up in front of him and stepped back, dropping his head and exposing his neck slightly. He was submitting. Letting her wolf know that he was no threat, but for the life of J, she could not figure out why.

He wasn't weak. Wasn't unable to challenge her. Her wolf still hadn't decided who was the most powerful out of them both and yet when she challenged him, he pulled away. For someone with a wolf that sick, it shouldn't be possible. His wolf should instantly react to any threat - especially one from a wolf that belonged to him. Her stomach rolled, he could not be her mate.