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

Pain constricted across Sam’s chest as Mik cleaned the bloodstains from the blanket in the bathroom.

They set Mik up? His best friend and Alpha? Why? How could they do that?

When Mik emerged from the bathroom, his palms were wrapped in gauze. He marched to the storage closest and pulled out a spare blanket. His nose wrinkled when he sniffed it as he brought it over. “It’s a little musty. I’ll wash it tomorrow.”

“You’re lying,” Sam accused.

Mik stared at him for a moment, his eyes calculating as they hardened at the accusation. “About what? Those so-called friends of yours? You weren’t there. They told me it was a set-up. They wanted to see me fail.”

Sam shook his head. “I... I don’t believe it. They wouldn’t do that. They all wanted to see us come together and work through our issues and be happy. Alpha encouraged me to be patient because he suspected you’d been abused by your crazy father.”

“My father killed Noodin’s sons and would have killed all of them too if he got the chance. Did he tell you that? Did he tell you that he can’t stand to look at my face either?” Mik growled, tossing the blanket at the foot of the bed. “Noodin’s had it in for me since the beginning.”

“Yes, I know all that. And I know he’s struggling to give you the benefit of the doubt. To give you a chance to start over as my mate.” Sweat gathered as Sam’s body trembled in anxiety. “Everyone has tried to give you a chance. I know that. They wouldn’t—”

“I’m not lying!” Mik snapped. He snatched the phone from the bedside table and tossed it against Sam’s side next to his hand. “Call your fucking alpha and find out for yourself.”

Sam winced as Mik stormed across the cabin and slammed the front door shut. Fear and anxiety coiled around his chest as he squeezed his eyes shut. Why would they set Mik up with a baiter if they were also encouraging their relationship? Did they want to see Mik fail? He knew it would be hard for anyone to accept his mate given that he attacked the pack. He knew Mik would have been locked up—or worse, killed—had he not been Sam’s mate. But to set him up behind their backs while also encouraging their relationship to their faces? He couldn’t help but question which was true. Or were they both true? Were they both being tested in some way?

His fingers curled around his phone but he couldn’t bring himself to swipe his finger across the screen and call Alpha.

Things had been getting better. They were communicating better. Mik accepted his Klinefelter Syndrome and lifted the weight off Sam’s shoulders. They had begun sharing the bed together at night, Mik holding him and making Sam feel special and needed and cherished. The birthday party went well with only one little awkward glitch.

Why did Mik have to ruin their good day? How long did he know about this? Why was he bringing it up now if he’d known about it for a while? More importantly, what were they going to do about it? Sam didn’t want any more confrontations but in order to get to the truth and work through this, he knew he was going to have to face Alpha and Cameron about it—and soon.

Minutes passed as Sam struggled to regain composure. Thoughts and feelings of betrayal collided together as he dragged air into aching lungs and exhaled shuddering breaths. He swiped his finger across the screen numerous times but always froze as he debated calling Alpha. Mik wanted him to call. Left him to find out for himself what the truth was if he wouldn’t believe him.

Sam didn’t want to believe Mik was telling the truth.

Why would the people who love him set up his mate without thinking about how it would affect Sam? Did they ever believe their own words of hope and encouragement for him? Or had they always suspected that Sam would never be good enough for a female-loving male?

Mik returned half an hour later. “Did you call him?”

Sam winced at his dark tone.

Snarling, Mik slammed the door, leaving Sam alone again.

Coward.

He knew he was. He always had been. No matter how hard he tried, he was never brave enough.

A few stray tears finally broke free, sliding down his cheeks and burning a trail of betrayal.

Fifteen minutes later, Mik returned, kicking off his boots and shoving wood into the stove before lighting it up. He blew on his hands, no longer wrapped in gauze, and held them up to the heat without even glancing Sam’s way.

Sam hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

“They’re on their way. We’re going to deal with this bullshit,” Mik grumbled.

“Now?” The whine in his voice only made him feel more pathetic.

Mik turned to him, leaning his hip against the counter. “Yes. Now. You asked what was bothering me at the party, so we’re going to deal with it now.”

Anxiety twisted and coiled, causing a whimper to surface.

Mik growled. “Stop it.”

“I’m not like you. I can’t handle confrontation.”

Mik’s eyes darkened. Stomping to the edge of Sam’s bed, he snatched Sam’s chin between his thumb and fingers and tilted his head up so Sam was forced to meet his gaze. “No one said challenges were easy. Who told you that you couldn’t become a nurse?”

Sam whimpered. “No one.”

“No. You told yourself you couldn’t become a nurse. What changed your mind?”

“You.”

“No. You did. I only validated what you already knew. That it didn’t matter what your sex was, it was whether or not you were a fit for the job. Not everyone can handle that kind of work.” Mik released his chin. “The training was a challenge too, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“And how did you handle it?”

“Um... I worked hard?”

“That’s right. You worked your ass off every day. I watched you flourish. I saw your face light up as you met each challenge you confronted head-on. You dove into your studies, welcomed each new challenge along the way. You never backed down. You got anxious before exams but you never lost sight of the big picture. You pushed forward and persevered.”

Mik swallowed as salt prickled Sam’s eyes, burning the back of his throat.

He remembered those days. Those long, exhausting—but exhilarating—days of working and studying from sun-up until sun-down. Mik was always there—albeit emotionally distant, but supportive nonetheless. Cooking and cleaning for them. Ensuring he took proper breaks.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Sam uttered in a whisper.

“Yeah, but you put in the work. You met your challenges. I just fuck everything up.”

“That’s not true. You make mistakes, but you don’t fuck everything up. Besides, studying to become a nurse is different than confrontations.”

“You still had to confront yourself and challenge the voice in your head holding you back. One small step at a time. Nothing is easy at first, but with each challenge you meet, they get easier in time. I know this is a big one and it’s going to hurt, but I think it’s needed.”

Mik turned away when a knock sounded at the door. A flush of warmth mingled now with Sam’s anxiety as Mik went to answer it. He greeted Alpha and Cameron curtly as they entered with Luna as well.

Slipping out of her boots and thrusting her coat in her mate’s arms, she hurried across the cabin to Sam’s side and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. “Are you okay, Sam? You look warm.”

More heat filled his face. “I’m okay. You didn’t have to come, Luna.”

“Of course I had to come. I have your back one-hundred percent.” She made herself comfortable on the bed with Sam and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Besides, Mik invited me too.”

Sam’s face fell as he glanced between Luna Aki and the males in the doorway still taking their coats and boots off. “He did?”

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t in on it. I found out after everything happened.”

“You were too ill back then,” Alpha Noodin told her as the males shifted closer but still remained in the kitchen as it had the most space available for them to gather in the tiny cabin.

“Excuses, excuses,” she huffed, cuddling into Sam and pressing her nose to his hair.

“Let’s get this over with so I can get back to my mate. Olivia’s still adjusting to pack life and gets nervous after dark. It’s not good for her health and the pup’s,” Cameron muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at the floor.

Mik nodded. “I called you all here so Sam can hear the truth. Let me start by saying that I take responsibility for my own actions. I was wrong to pursue Nikki. But you were wrong in setting me up.” Mik directed his accusation at Alpha before turning to Cameron. “And you were likewise wrong for being in on it. You guys call yourselves Sam’s friends, and yet you did this to him. You all knew about his past—more than I did. Yet it didn’t stop you from preventing what happened.”

Stepping directly in front of Alpha, Mik said, “You warned me. Day one at the training center: you warned me. You told me you had eyes everywhere. I heard your warning but didn’t listen. I fucked up. I let my guard slip when Nikki was the only one to inform me about cleaning off the exercise equipment after each use. I slowly pursued her, remembering your words to me earlier. Later, I disregarded them, believing that in time, I had a shot with her to get what I thought I needed.”

Sam’s stomach churned and he whimpered. Sweat began to break out as nausea crept up his throat. Luna shifted her position to hold him and rub his back.

Mik turned to him. A focused hard look set on his face. “I’m sorry, Sam, but that’s the truth. I was wrong. I was wrong in my thoughts and in my actions. I fucked up. I don’t want any of that anymore, but that doesn’t change what I did and what happened.” Mik turned back to Noodin and stepped further into his space. “But friends don’t set up their friends for failure. I don’t give a fuck what any of you think of me, but I won’t tolerate frauds who say they care about my mate and set me up knowing how it would devastate him. That’s my issue with you two here.”

“Cameron didn’t know what was going on until the day before we told Sam,” Alpha told him. “I asked him to be there to support Sam, knowing that Aki was unwell and would need my support as well. As my mate, I couldn’t keep this from her even though I knew it would devastate her too. She loves Sam like a son and had she been well, would have gone for your throat. I thought Sam would do one of two things: run to us for support or run home—in which case, Cameron was to support him as I couldn’t be in two places at once. But Sam took us all by surprise that morning and had you all not found him sooner, I’m sure he would not be with us today.

“Nevertheless,” Alpha’s stare forced Mik to take a step out of his space, “yes, it was a calculated test. As you have been told before, Nikki always had that timeslot at the gym to train. When you started to approach her, she reported back to me—as did my other eyes at the gym. I could have told her to disengage or reassign her training schedule—or I could allow it to play out and let you reveal who you really were. Were you loyal to Sam? Could you be trusted to be alone with other wolves—especially an unmated female? As I told you, she was instructed to play along with your lead and forbidden to initiate herself.”

“But if you truly cared for Sam, you wouldn’t have done that,” Mik insisted. “You would have told her to stop or approach me yourself. You risked Sam’s life to prove that I couldn’t be trusted and it gave you a reason to lock me up—or kill me if Sam had died. As you’ve said, you can’t have a threat like me in the pack.”

“Where would you be now if I hadn’t initiated the test?” Alpha asked. “If I had told Nikki to disengage or change her training time? Or if I had confronted you myself and told you to stop? Would you have listened?”

A growl rumbled from Mik’s chest as Alpha began to slowly circle him.

“Of course you wouldn’t have listened. You said so yourself while Sam was in his coma. You were blind. You didn’t see what you had until you almost lost it. Had I not tested you, you would have continued down the same path you were on, wouldn’t you? Training to one day be strong enough to challenge me. Find a suitable female to stand by your side and lead with you. Build an army within my own pack in secret as well, perhaps? How much greater would you have hurt Sam going down this path? You told me all I needed to know the first moment we met. Your mind was set on destroying me and taking over. Avenging your father and family whose lives I took for the betterment of both packs. What of Sam? Would you have ever set aside your pride for him? Your revenge and aspirations? How many months would you lead him on in your pursuits? Years? Would you have ever let him into your heart had I not risked everything to open your eyes?”

Sam was shaking. Luna pressed him to her breast, rubbing his back as she tried to ease the pain and anxiety gripping fiercely to him.

Silence held in the air. The longer it lasted, the more Sam’s heart ached. The harder it was to breathe.

“You’re right.” Mik lowered his head and inclined his neck to Alpha.

Sam couldn’t look at him anymore and buried his face in Luna’s shoulder as tears fell down his cheeks. He felt Mik’s eyes burn into the back of his head for a second before the front door opened and closed with a slam.