The Defiant Claim - The Claim: Book 2 [LGBTQ+]

Mik could smell Sam as soon as he pulled open the door to the combat training room. Anxiety and fear tainted his fragrant aroma, making Mik’s stomach churn as his muscles stiffened.

He froze, his head buried in the curve of Nikki’s neck. He had her pressed against the closed window, the drawn curtains bunching around them, parting more in the middle to illuminate Nikki’s golden hair he had pulled free from her ponytail.

Since Monday morning, he casually revealed his intentions with her. He let his hands roam where they pleased across her sculpted body. Simple gestures at first related to hand-to-hand combat training—touching of hands, arms, elbows, and shoulders as they practiced position and form. He grew bolder as she accepted the placements of his hands and he moved down to hips and thighs, finishing with a gentle slap on her ass.

She squealed in surprise, but the flash in her eyes and dilation of her pupils spoke volumes. She smirked, rolling her shoulders back and attempting to resume their training as if he had no effect. The lingering scent of her arousal could not be as easily brushed off.

It didn’t make him as hard as he used to get around females. Or as hard as Sam made him get these last few weeks.

He was fucking starving. Sam was smelling more and more appealing and Nikki less and less. She had all the right parts, but Sam just had to look at him from across the cabin and Mik had to take a cold-as-fuck shower.

The first time Mik kissed Nikki, it was disappointing. Disappointment was an understatement.

It didn’t get much better on Tuesday either. He had all the right moves. Pinned her down and groped her while kissing her, but his cock shriveled up more. She smelled amazing and ready to be fucked, but he pulled away and called it a day, hopping in the shower and silently screaming in frustration.

That morning, he thought if he teased the curve of her neck where mates placed their mark, he’d feel something in his shorts... Nothing. The more he seemed to pursue her, the more his body rejected her.

But Sam caught him.

Sam caught him red-handed, face in her neck, her legs wrapped around his hips.

Unforgivable.

Sam ran out as Mik pried himself away from Nikki and was met with a snarl and a fist in the face.

Instinct drove him to blindly swing back as pain blasted through his skull. Instead, he was met with another blow to his gut, knocking the wind out of him as he fell to his knees.

“What the fuck, Nikki!” he heard over the ringing of his head and wheezing of his lungs. “You’re supposed to bait him! Not fuck him with your clothes on!”

“Can you blame me? I haven’t fucked in months! Females have needs too! Besides, he wasn’t getting anything up! He’s all talk and tongue but can’t get a stiffy—”

“Dammit! I don’t need to know that!”

Mik was starting to come around over their bickering, still gasping and wheezing as he wiped the blood from his broken nose. “The fuck? She was baiting me?”

The male—Mik could only assume as Sam’s best friend, Cameron, as he recognized his scent—snarled at him. “No surprise you took a fancy to our strongest female warrior—and the best baiter we have. Alpha was right about you. You’re trash. Bottom of the barrel scum.”

He grabbed Mik by the throat, his fingers tightening around and the tips of his nails biting into the tender flesh. His raging amber eyes glared into Mik’s. “You don’t deserve him,” he whispered. “And if it weren’t for the fact that you’re his mate, I would have killed you on the spot. You’re pathetic. Pitiful. Disgusting. You don’t deserve to live.”

He threw Mik down on the floor, bashing his elbow and knee as he gasped for air.

“Not to mention, he’s a terrible fighter,” Nikki piped up. “I mean, if I wasn’t supposed to bait him, I’d have his ass in a sling by now. Slow, poor form, hands were all over the place—”

“You’re not helping, Nikki,” Cameron growled.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced out the window. “Just saying. I did my job. Looks like I’m not getting laid anytime soon now either. Fuck. I’m so horny.”

“The world doesn’t fucking revolve around you.”

“It would be nice if I could get some fucking dick! All the good ones are mated!”

“Boo-hoo. Get your ass up, Mik. We gotta go find Sam.”

Mik was still trying to get enough air into his lungs. His chest burned, his stomach ached, and his neck and face hurt like a bitch. Damn, this male knew how to throw a punch! “Leave him. I fucked up. He won’t want to see me. Probably won’t want to see anyone.”

“Yeah well, we can’t do that. He’s on suicide watch now.”

“What?” Mik’s eyes shot up to meet Cameron’s glaring down at him.

“Oh, don’t you know?” Cameron’s voice had taken on a mocking tone. “Your mate has a history of suicidal tendencies. He can’t be left alone now. If you were half the fucking mate you should be, you’d know that. Now get your ass up so we can get back to Sam before he does something he’ll regret.”

Clutching his stomach, Mik pushed himself up from the floor with a grimace. “Fuck.”

“There’s be none of that now,” Cameron grunted. “Come on. Move your ass.”

“Uh, guys...” Nikki said from her stance before the window. “Your boy went in the opposite direction of their cabin. He’s already cleared the valley and I just saw him cut through the trees.“Cameron swore as he strode to her side to peer out the window. “Where?”

“Southwest—over there,” she pointed.

“Where the fuck is he going? Shit. Come on, Mik. We gotta hurry.”

Anxiety tinted Cameron’s scent as he brushed past Mik and out the door.

Still clutching his stomach, Mik dragged his sorry ass to the door before looking back once more at Nikki. He couldn’t believe he fell for the bait. Nevertheless, he had to get the last word in. “I’m not a terrible fighter. I was going easy on you.”

“Bitch, please,” she retorted. “I’m one of the top warriors in this pack. I went easy on you. Best way to gain the upper hand is to mislead your opponent to inflate their ego. Hook, line, and sinker.”

Before he could respond, Cameron shouted from the bottom of the stairs, “Come on, Mik!”

Grumbling, under his breath, Mik turned away from her and hurried down. Tap out. Find Sam.

Cameron was impatiently waiting for him, his arms crossed and his foot tapping on the ground. “Okay, so here’s the deal. I don’t know what’s going on in Sam’s head or where he’s going. So if you give even one flying fuck about him, you’ll work with me in finding him. But if you make a break for the border, the patrol wolves will hunt you down. They will crush you and they won’t be as nice about it as I was when I took you down. Then they will drag your ass back to Alpha to deal with you—and if you think he’ll go easy on you then, you got another thing coming. You hear me?”

Mik grunted. What choice did he have? One way or another, he knew he was going to have to face Noodin soon. His chance at having a peaceful discussion, however, was unlikely now.

“Alright, then. Let’s go. Sam went that way,” Cameron pointed to the southwest.

Wasting no time, Cameron stripped down and piled his clothes next to the door before shifting into his gray and white wolf and taking off across the valley. Mik followed his lead after stripping down and shifting into his silver-gray wolf.

They sprinted across the valley, Mik trying to keep up, as Cameron was surprisingly faster. Cameron broke through the treeline fifty yards ahead of him. Sam’s scent lingered on the soil and the tips of bushes reaching out across a narrow worn path. His clothes were scattered as he stripped while running and shifting. Mik paused next to Sam’s shirt and sniffed it. A whimper falling from his chest as an ache seized him from within.

Fuck.

Where are you going, Sam?

I’m sorry...

Cameron barked at him to keep up.

Tearing himself away, Mik picked up his paws and sprinted after Cameron, their noses to the ground and following Sam’s lingering scent trail. Cameron was about a hundred yards ahead of him now. Mik couldn’t see him but his scent was strong and fresh. He followed both through the forest, racing forward as fast as he could in hopes of catching up. All the while, Sam’s face plagued his mind. The look of shock and betrayal was a short narrow blade repeatedly stabbing into his chest. Over and over, he saw Sam’s face in his memory. All the smiles of gratitude, the deep blushing of his cheeks, his blue eyes finding the courage to meet his...

Sam deserved better. Mik knew he wasn’t right for Sam. He knew he’d only hurt him.

Was he really a suicide risk? How could he be suicidal?

The very thought of Sam hurting himself or attempting to take his life... Mik couldn’t believe it. Sam was a soft male, but he was strong. Stronger than Mik gave him credit. He put up with so much of Mik’s shit. It didn’t seem like Sam to try and kill himself. He was so full of life and... love.

And you don’t deserve any of it, Mik growled to himself.

Losing sight of Cameron, Mik paused at a creek to lap some water, catch his breath, and sniff around for the trail. The mud on the bank on the other side held both sets of paw prints. After taking a few deep breaths to try and alleviate the pain in his chest, he sprang forward, following Sam and Cameron’s trails.

A gradual incline in the forest made it that much harder for Mik to catch his breath. He’d been running at full-speed for almost half an hour. How much farther could Sam be? The earth was getting rockier. In some spots, his claws scraped against slabs of rock with gnarled tree roots curling above the dirt cracks between the slabs. He tripped over a few uneven rocks and roots, stumbling around and crashing against tree trunks, narrowly cracking his skull against the pointed trip of a rock jutting out of the ground.

The smell of water saturated the air and he pulled it greedily into his starving lungs. Panting, he looked ahead and saw the forest thinning as the earth grew rockier. As the trees fell away behind him, he saw Cameron ahead, shifting into his human form—with Sam standing, naked, at the top of the rocky hill a hundred and fifty yards away, his back to them.

Sam.

Pausing in his tracks, Mik swayed with exhaustion and relief at the sight of him. They found him. Everything would be okay. Mik was scared shitless about confronting Sam after being caught with Nikki—but they found him, he was okay, and that was all that mattered.

He heaved a sigh, his muscles quaking. What should he do now? What should he say to Sam? Would Sam even listen? Talk to him? How could Sam even look at him now?

Struck with the image of Sam’s horrified face half an hour ago, Mik sank to the earth.

He’ll never look at you the same way again.

You never deserved a mate as gentle and caring as him.

You selfish shithead.

“Sam!” Cameron cried out and when Mik looked up, Sam was gone.