A Wolf's Pride (28 page)

Catch her
Ryan.
The wolf instructed.

Catch
her,
he murmured in response. Ryan and his
wolf had always been close but it was showing more than it usually
did. Already his mind and the wolf’s were merging, melting into a
unified mindset dedicated to one thing alone, getting their
mate.

He ran off
again, the focus of his thoughts limited to Chloe alone. Nothing
else mattered. He had to get to her. His legs pounded against the
earth, leaping over rocks, using tree trunks as springboards in
some places all the while moving closer to her. When he eventually
caught up with her, she had gotten further away than he had
initially anticipated. Her jeep was slower than it had been when
she had tried to run him over but the path had disappeared and the
terrain had become rougher, harder to cover. If she hadn’t been in
an off road vehicle she wouldn’t have made it this far.

Leaping
towards a tree, he tensed his muscles as soon as he hit the hard
bark and jumped off it, transforming as he flew through the air,
hurtling towards Chloe’s car. He landed with a loud thump on the
roof and gripped the material with sharp claws to stay in place.
Moving slowly, he dangled his head over the side and tapped the
glass lightly. “Chloe love stop, I’ve caught you now.”

The window
rolled down. “Fuck you!” she swore before rolling the windows back
into place.

“
She wants to
be difficult? Doesn’t she know that all she’s doing is making me
want her more? Whoever explained the claiming to her didn’t do a
very good job.” Digging his claws harder into the material, he
began carving away the roof of the soft-topped car. Once he was
finished, the material flew away with the breeze, allowing Ryan to
fall into the car. “You’ve done well love. Thank you for such an
exciting chase. If I’m honest I didn’t think it would be like this
with a human mate. You’ve proved me wrong and far surpassed my
expectations but it’s time to stop now. I want to get you to where
we’ll be sleeping for the night and I don’t think you’ve eaten
since this morning.”

“
What are you
talking about?” she shrieked pulling the car to a grinding halt.
Now that he was in the car with her there was no point in trying to
run, he clearly hadn’t intended to let her go in the first place.
“Why do you keep tormenting me like this? Giving me something that
makes me happy only to snatch it away. You can’t play with people’s
emotions like this.”

He frowned in
confusion. “I’m not playing with your emotions. Come, we’re
leaving.”

“
No. I’m tired,
I ache and I’m hungry. I don’t want to go anywhere with you in my
condition.”

“
Did I really
hurt you that badly?” he asked, his eyes wandering to the chafed
skin at her wrists.

Her head fell
to the steering wheel in exhaustion. It had been a long day and she
was drained. She had never fought so hard for so long in her entire
life. The skirmishes she had had with her brothers when they were
young had in no way prepared her for the problem that was Ryan.
Every word that she had spoken to him was true. She was tired. The
day had been an emotional rollercoaster, from happiness to
frustration to excitement to apprehension and then to blistering
anger. She couldn’t remember the last time she had gone through the
emotional spectrum so thoroughly. She ached. Fighting against
someone who was so much stronger than she wasn’t only tiring, it
was painful. She was hungry. She had eaten nothing but the
breakfast Ryan had prepared for her that morning and her energy
reserves were drained.

Ryan slipped
out of the car, moving quickly to the driver’s side. His mate
needed him, nothing else was important. Opening the door, he pulled
her out and into his arms. He barely resisted the urge to scold her
again for not wearing a seatbelt. She was tired, he could feel just
how exhausted she was, it was as if the feeling had settled deep
into her bones. Lecturing her at that moment wouldn’t help her. He
took off running once more, determined to get her to the safety and
shelter of the cave he had prepared for the claiming.

The journey
was quick, his body spurred to even greater speeds by his mate’s
needs. The candles that he had lit in the natural alcoves that
afternoon were still burning brightly and he smiled. He didn’t need
the light to see but Chloe did. After ensuring her safety by
locking her into their rooms that afternoon he had prepared the
large cave for her arrival. A pit had been dug in the centre of the
room for a fire for warmth, a cooler filled to the brim with food
he himself had prepared lay beside it and a simple fur bed
constructed at the far wall. Chloe shivered slightly in his arms
and he rushed to gently lower her to the bed before turning his
attention to starting a fire.

The warmth
from the flames soon spread to heat Chloe’s body and Ryan smiled.
Her eyes had been closed but as she warmed they opened. She scanned
her surroundings, eyeing him with anger and distrust before moving
on to take in the rest of the cave. Her breath hitched, her eyes
widened and then she screamed scrambling backwards against the wall
in fear.

“
Chloe, love,
what’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong?”

“
What have you
done?” she shrieked. “Why have you brought me
here
? There are limits to cruelty,
Ryan, and you are going above and beyond. I can’t stay here, not
with them. They’ll crawl all over me. Ryan, please, please don’t do
this.”

“
I don’t
understand, Chloe.”

“
The insects,
Ryan. The insects. They’re everywhere!” she screamed.

Ryan sprang
into action as soon as he understood what the problem was,
remembering his mate’s almost unreasonable fear of insects. His
eyes scanned the cave and he quickly located and removed the source
of her fear. “It’s ok now love, they’re gone.”

“
Why are you
doing this?” she sobbed. “I thought you cared about me.”

“
I do care
about you, Chloe, more than anything.”

“
Then just let
me go home. Let me leave.”

“
You know I
can’t let you do that,” he growled, moving to sit beside her. “I
can’t let you go. I need you.”

His voice was
so earnest that Chloe had to look at him. His eyes were the eerie
shade of amber that she was coming to associate with his possessive
outbursts and she breathed a sigh of relief. It was only when his
eyes were their soft brown that they had the power to hypnotise her
and convince her of almost anything. Knowing Ryan, he would try to
persuade her that she had no reason to be angry and she needed to
hold onto her rage, it had been well earned. “You don’t need me,
Ryan and I most definitely don’t need someone like you.”

“
You’re angry
about something, what is it? Tell me so I can make it
better.”

Chloe sighed,
“If you don’t know what you’ve done wrong then I’m not going to
tell you. You should know. An apology means nothing if you aren’t
even truly aware of why you’re giving it. It means you’re only
saying it because I want you to, not because you really mean it.
Besides, there isn’t anything you can do to make what you did
better.”

“
Forever is a
very long time to stay angry love and that’s what we’re going to
have together.”

“
Maybe you
don’t know much about the fairer and clearly more clever sex. A
woman like me,” she instructed, “under the right circumstances can
keep a grudge for a very, very long time, we have elephant like
memories when it comes to things like this. Trust me, what you’ve
done definitely qualifies as the right circumstances.”

“
Chloe,” he
groaned only to be interrupted before he could begin his
plea.

“
Just answer me
this Ryan, are you going to let me leave this place?”

“
No.”

“
So you expect
us to stay here for the night?”

“
Yes.”

“
Is there
anything I can do or say to make you change your mind?”

“
The moon is
full Chloe, even if I wanted to let you go, it’s too late now.
We’re going to go through with the claiming.”

“
Right, well
I’m exhausted and I want to sleep.” Ryan inched closer, draping an
arm around her shoulder but she quickly shoved him away. “I want to
sleep alone. You’ve done nothing but upset me all day and you’ve
brought me into insect territory, the least you could do is let me
have this one thing. Go over there and leave me alone.”

“
The claiming
Chloe,” he groaned.

“
How many times
do I have to tell you?” she screamed. “I don’t care about your
fucking claiming.” The last of her energy reserves depleted, she
crumpled, falling to lie on the bed of furs. “Please, Ryan,” she
began, her voice small. “Just go away.”

It was the
desperation in her last request that made Ryan move. His mate was
hurting deeply and he had a feeling that maybe it was somehow, in
some small part, his fault. Standing, he walked to the cave’s
entrance and sat down watching with relief as a small smile
appeared on Chloe’s face before she succumbed to sleep. He waited
until her breath had evened out, telling him that she was sleeping
deeply, before moving back to her side. Lying down beside her, he
pulled her smaller body against his, breathing deeply and taking
her intoxicating smell into his lungs. He didn’t sleep as time
ticked away and dawn edged ever closer. Instead he spent the entire
night simply watching over Chloe, occasionally running the tips of
his fingers over her soft cheeks and placing gentle kisses to the
back of her neck. He was careful to keep the contact to a minimum,
as her body seemed to stir at the slightest meeting of bare skin.
While it was a good sign for his plans for the claiming, Chloe
needed her rest at the moment.

When the sun
eventually began to rise, the instinct began to gnaw at Ryan,
demanding that he change, that his mate know and understand what he
truly was. He placed a final soft kiss to her brow and reluctantly
pulled away from the haven of soft curves her body presented. The
change washed over him and as he looked at Chloe’s sleeping body
once again, he contemplated resisting it for the first time in his
life. As a wolf he would have no arms to hold her in and calm her
fears, he would have no voice to tell her that all was well, no
lips to kiss her with…

Ryan,
his wolf assured.
It will
only be for a few hours. The days are shorter now, the sun will set
soon enough and then we will be able to claim her, to take that
glorious body and make it ours. We’re already over half way there,
if we don’t do this now we’ll only have to do it from the beginning
another time. We do this now.

Now,
Ryan murmured.

Yes
now!

His eyes closed
and his body transformed, contorting from his human to his lupine
form. His senses were even sharper as a wolf and as he breathed,
Chloe’s strawberry smell was even stronger, the aromatic fragrance
permeating every inch of their surroundings. He drooled and once
again cursed his lack of human ligaments before settling down to
wait for her to wake up.
It’s very
peaceful, watching her,
he decided.
I would suggest that more people do it, but then
I’d have to rip out their eyes for looking at her. No, seeing her
vulnerable like this is a pleasure that’s reserved for my eyes
alone.
Time continued to pass and the sun
was well established in the sky by the time Chloe finally began to
rouse.

Her eyes
fluttered open and she looked at him with sleep heavy eyes before
suddenly jolting into awareness. Her unusual violet eyes locked
with his and she stared intensely at him for a few minutes before
gathering the courage to speak. “Ryan?” she called uncertainly. He
barked in response, trotting to her side and running his tail up
the length of her arm. Her body trembled in response and a scowl
instantly appeared on her face. “Of course it’s you. Can we go home
now?” He barked again and her scowl deepened. “I don’t speak wolf,
so change back now.”

He cocked his
head at her, confused by her request. Didn’t she know that to
change back into his human form would be to ruin the
claiming?
Whoever explained the claiming
to her did a poor job of it. They told her the importance of the
chase but didn’t properly explain what would happen after that. Why
would anyone do that?

“
Ryan, stop
being an idiot. Change back now.”

“
I can’t,” he
barked but of course she didn’t understand a word he had spoken,
the yips and barks unintelligible to her ears.

“
For a minute I
thought I’d just dreamed that you were an insufferable ass, now I
see that I’m still living the nightmare. You’re not helping your
case. I’m already pissed beyond belief at you and your refusal to
speak to me isn’t helping matters. Now either you stop with the
games and change back into your human form so I can have the
satisfaction of seeing the expressions on your face change as I
insult you or I leave.”

His heart
skipped a beat. If she left, the instinct wouldn’t let the claiming
go ahead, she had to accept him in this form, she had to spend the
day with him as a wolf. He couldn’t stop her from leaving; the
instinct wouldn’t allow it. He couldn’t force her to want him, to
stay. She either accepted him or she didn’t. It was, unfortunately,
that simple. For her to walk away would be interpreted by the
instinct as a rejection of his true form and the instinct was law.
Whatever it wanted, it got. The consequences for trying to go
against it weren’t pleasant. “Chloe,” he barked
pleadingly.