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

Cracking open his eyes in the dim lamplight, Sam drew in a deep breath. Mik’s scent surrounded him and it was a struggle to lift those heavy lids when that smell lulled him back into a comfortable and peaceful sleep.

Mik’s warm body was wrapped around his. His face buried in the crook of Sam’s neck. His exhalations fanned across Sam’s flesh. His shirt was still open with Mik’s arm draped across his torso.

He couldn’t get a good view of Mik’s sleeping face, but he felt the contentment, the peace, the comfort of him radiating off.

How long had he longed for this? To share a bed with Mik. To wake up in his embrace. To find peace and comfort in the arms of his mate. To be kissed and feel loved.

There was no love in their first kiss months ago. It was as Mik had said: It was the matebond. There was no love, no intimacy, only lust, power, and dominance. This time, Mik kissed him slowly. There was a tenderness in his caresses that brought tears to Sam’s eyes. There was so much emotion that he couldn’t handle it and Mik didn’t mind. He wiped the tears away, brushed his lips across his cheeks and eyelids, threatening more tears to fall.

It pained Sam to be unable to reach up and touch the thin beard along Mik’s jaw. He wanted to touch and feel Mik under his fingertips too. To communicate his feelings in something so simple and subtle.

He couldn’t believe that he told Mik about his Klinefelter’s, and he couldn’t believe that Mik didn’t care. The truth generated more understanding than Sam thought possible. Such a weight had been lifted, but at the same time, there was fear lingering under the surface.

Everything seemed too good to be true. It wouldn’t last. It couldn’t last. Mik would grow frustrated with him. His eyes might linger...

Mik stirred next to him, releasing a soft groan in his ear. A nose followed by his coarse beard brushed lightly across Sam’s neck, making him shiver. An inkling of desire swept over him as Mik’s nose continued to brush up and down his neck, inhaling his scent and exhaling with a rumble from his chest.

“That’s better. What’s got you so nervous? Me?” Mik’s voice rumbled, a deep tremor edged in sleepiness. His lips pulled into a grin against the curve of Sam’s neck and shoulder, the place where mates place their mark.

Swallowing with difficulty, Sam realized how dry his mouth was. A need he hadn’t felt since his fall stirred in his pants. At least those muscles still worked. “Maybe.”

“Why? I won’t bite... yet.”

Teeth grazed over the sensitive skin in the dip of his shoulder. Heat so intense and shocking, Sam gasped while Mik groaned. Fiery energy shot down to his groin and his hips bucked. His spine bowed. His fingers fisted the bedsheet as his toes curled. His heart strained in his chest, beating hard and fast as he struggled to get enough air into his lungs to meet the increased demand.

Mik, likewise, was struggling next to him. Growls reverberated within his chest as his hot breath panted against Sam’s shoulder. A thick haze of lust proliferated the air as it poured forth from both of their pores as Mik jerked away. His hand covered his mouth as dilated averted their gaze.

Staggering to his feet, Mik stumbled to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

Sam stared up at the ceiling. His heart raced, pounding against his ribs while his lungs burned with exertion.

What just happened? Was Mik serious or just teasing? Did Mik tease? Was he capable of that?

What happened in those two months he was sleeping?

Sam could hear Mik muttering curses to himself before the shower turned on. Not long after, he dropped the F-bomb loudly. Water must be freezing. They’d be lucky if they even got warm water out of those taps with the storm threatening to cut off power from the generator.

What time was it? How long had they been asleep?

Sam’s stomach growled loudly.

Mik was right. It sucked being completely dependent on another for everything. Sam wished he had the strength to get up and make themselves something to eat—even if he burnt it to a crisp. He wanted to go back to being normal—or as normal as things could be.

He swallowed, his neck burning with the memory of Mik’s teeth. Confusion swirled within him as he tried to understand what it all meant.

Two and a half months ago, he would have given anything for this kind of physical intimacy.

But two and a half months ago, Mik had given this kind of physical intimacy to another instead.

He closed his eyes and saw that green-eyed female staring back at him over Mik’s shoulder.

Even after everything Mik had done and said in the last week since they had agreed to try again, Sam was scared. Mik had lied to him before, how could he be sure he wasn’t lying again? What if his kisses meant nothing to him? What if it was all the matebond screwing around with their emotions and primal needs to mate and seal the bond to unite their souls? Was Mik serious about not caring that Sam had Klinefelter’s?

He released a shuddering breath that had caught in his throat. Shaking his head, he opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. Stop it. Mik wouldn’t have kissed you like that if it didn’t mean something.

Conflict rippled within him as Mik turned off the shower and emerged a few minutes later in the clothes he’d been wearing before.

“Hungry?” he grunted as he tromped toward the kitchen.

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’m starving.”

Mik pulled out some leftover chicken soup from the fridge and put it on the stove to heat up. He fed the oven a few more pieces of wood to warm the cabin up before coming over to the bed.

“Any idea what time it is?” Sam asked as Mik pulled the blankets away and gathered Sam in his arms. He could see from the windows that it was pitch black outside.

“No clue,” he muttered as he lifted Sam and set him in his wheelchair.

“My phone should be around here somewhere. Battery is probably dead though,” Sam told him as Mik buckled him to the chair and put his hands on his lap and his feet on the footrests.

“Think I left it on the dresser.” Mik straightened up once Sam was secure and checked on the soup on the stove before returning to the bed at the other end of the cabin to look for his phone.

After shuffling around through the dresser and bedside table, Mik found Sam’s phone and charging cable. “It’s dead,” he announced as he returned to the kitchen. He plugged the cell phone into the outlet on the wall above the counter next to the stove to charge and went back to attending to the soup. Once the phone had enough power to turn back on, Mik checked the time. “Almost midnight.”

“Okay,” said Sam. “What day is it?”

Mik returned to stirring the soup. “December twenty-third. Twenty-fourth in less than ten minutes.”

Sam’s mouth fell open. “What? You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

“Dude, your birthday was yesterday! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mik shrugged. “What difference does it make?”

“Because it’s your birthday!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mik muttered.

Sam stared at his back. Sadness fell over him at how little it mattered to him. “Why don’t you care?”

Mik turned and furrowed his brows at him. “Should I?”

Sam looked him up and down. “Don’t you celebrate your birthday?”

“No.” Mik turned away to grab two bowls from the cupboard.

Sorrow filled him as he watched Mik scoop soup out of the pot and into one of the bowls. What kind of a life had he lived where he didn’t even celebrate his birthday? As Mik pulled up a chair and sat in front of him with a bowl of soup, Sam asked, “Not even as a pup?”

Mik blew on the steaming spoonful before lifting it to Sam’s mouth. “Not that I recall.”

Sam’s heart clenched. While his parents hadn’t been the best to him, they at least threw him birthday parties as a pup and invited all the other pups of the pack over for fun and games. He’d gotten presents and blew out candles. It wasn’t until he turned ten that things started to go sour. His brother Andrew still insisted on celebrating and throwing him a party but fewer friends showed up each year until the parties stopped altogether after his death. His idea of a party after that was cake, board games, and a few presents with Luna, Alpha, their son, and Cameron. That was all he needed and wanted back then.

“Sam?” Mik’s eyes caught his when Sam drifted off in his thoughts while Mik was still holding the spoonful of soup out for him.

“I may have had a sucky childhood, but at least my birthday was celebrated,” Sam mumbled before accepting the food.

“As long as you’re alive and with me, that’s good enough for me,” Mik said, looking down at the soup and scooping up more.

While Mik fed him, Sam started planning. It may be late, but he was going to call in a favor and throw his mate a birthday party.