An Alpha's Claim

Mine

Silence. So much silence.

J's breath was the only noise in the decaying room. She couldn't smell anything beyond the damp stench filling her nose. She was sure though, that he was here. Somewhere.

Having no concept of the size of the room or his location in it, made the darkness even more disorientating. She could lean out and graze his face, or she could be metres away. She slowly felt up the wall, searching for a light switch. Her hands traced exposed brick, catching on the sharp edges until finally, there. A box; smooth with corners. A smile spread across her face as her finger curled around the switch and flicked. Nothing happened.

She cursed. A chain rustled.

J froze, her heart thudding in her chest as the chain moved again. Wherever he was, he was alive. A low hiss of silver against skin – a noise that J knew too well, filled the room and made anger bubble in her core.

He was hurting, her mate was hurting. Trying to dampen her anger, she drew in a small breath, "Logan?" She tried again.

This time it wasn't silence that greeted her, but a long, loud, deadly growl.

The noise washed over her, bathing her in its anger. Logan's anger.

Her pulse beat wildly beneath her skin, she hadn't quite believed it, not until that noise. Not until she heard him.

He sniffed, loudly. Once, twice, three times and then the chains rattled and jarred as though he'd darted forwards. His growl was louder this time, more ferocious. She could hear him fighting against the restraints, baying for her – alive or dead, she really wasn't sure yet.

"Logan, please," she whispered, wishing he could just magically recognise her and become his normal self – that she could too. Not for the first time, she was reminded of how much easier this would be if she had her wolf's eyes. At least then she could see him.

Deciding that she had to move from the door at some point, and clinging onto the hope and promise that Logan wouldn't hurt her, she took a step further into the room, but froze as the chains began whining in protest as he fought against them. The growling hadn't stopped but seemed to grow even louder.

Looking into a wall of darkness, J was entirely disorientated, he could have been right behind her, right in front of her. Was that his breath across her neck, or just a cobweb? She growled in frustration and took another step.

"Logan," she tried again, hoping for...what? For him to recite love poetry in response? She got another growl. She guessed that would have to do for now.

This was ridiculous, she reasoned, Logan would never hurt her. Right?

She took another step.

Too close.

The chains whined, pulled and a claw swiped out, she couldn't see it coming, just managing to nick her thigh. She called out and slammed her hand over the shallow wound, taking a few limping steps back. She couldn't see how bad the cut was, but she told herself she couldn't feel bone, so that must be good, right?

She ground her teeth together as she tore her jumper off and clumsily wrapped it around her leg, pulling it tightly until a scream tore past her lips. A commotion at the door caught her attention, but she heard the chains move again and snapped her gaze back to the blackness in front of her, where somewhere Logan lingered.

He'd hurt her.

He'd drawn blood.

"L-Logan, please. It's J, please, come back." It occurred to J, that they'd only really met once. Sure, he'd stalked her for a while – a long while as it turned out, and OK, she'd probably shared more with him over those two days than she ever had with anyone up until that point, but even still, moonmates or not, they didn't really know each other.

Yet, he'd risked his life for her. And here she was, risking her life for him.

"Log-" She hadn't even finished before his growl swept across her skin, a howl mixed with the growl and somewhere, somewhere deep inside her, she felt something answer.

It was just like the first time she'd met him, a sweeping, unrelenting need that encapsulated her entire being and had her taking two steps forwards before she realised what she was doing.

He sniffed again, catching both her scent and her blood and he went nuclear. She could hear his unrelenting battle against the chains. Heard the metal groan and twist. Smelt the loose dust in the air as a smattering of raining rock hit the floor. J knew before it happened that the chains were about to break, that he was about to be set loose.

And she probably would have been scared, should have been scared, may have even tried to run for her life, had she not been able to make out one word between the growls that filled the room. A word, she realised, that he was repeating on a loop.

"Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine."

The brick work crumbled and disintegrated as the metal twisted and worked lose, sending a heaving alpha-predator barrelling towards J.

***
A/N

Ohhh! Will J be able to save Logan??

Is there anything left to save?

You'll find out tomorrow.... ;)

Thank you, once again, for reading, commenting and voting - it means so much to me to know that people are enjoying this!

Also, I will just take this moment to announce that there will be a third and final book in the Rootbridge pack series, and it will be called: An Alpha's Revenge

Coming soon...

(That's right, the end is nigh!)

V_F