Page 19 of His Claim

“I don’t expect you to,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to like it, but it kept you alive.”

I sighed, half a pout, half an admission. “Yeah. It did.”

The silence stretched again, but it wasn’t suffocating this time. It settled over us like a fragile thing.

“With you, maybe finally, we can make a difference. The Council thinks they hold all the cards. They think they can drug and breed and kill until the world bends to them, but I know better and if you’ll let me, Mariah… we’ll show them together,” he offered, cocking his head a bit in my direction.

My heart gave a painful, traitorous lurch. His voice was so confident, so sure, like there was no doubt in his mind that I could matter. Thatwecould matter.

I stared at him, my lips pressed tight, fighting the quiver in my chest. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that one girl and one wolf couldn’t stop an empire.

But a flicker of hope lit anyway.

And for the first time, I didn’t shove it down.

“Kendra, Lia… how are they?” I managed to ask.

A flicker of warmth shifted across his face. “They’re stronger than when you last saw them,” he said, his voice soft and reassuring.

Relief flooded me so fast my eyes filled. I gripped the edge of the counter, my breath catching. “Stronger?”

He nodded. “They’ve both been marked and claimed. They’re wolf shifters now, mated to good men who would burn the world down before they let harm come to them. Men who love them.” His gaze softened.

My chest squeezed so hard I thought it might crack. I could picture them—my friends, my sisters in everything but blood—alive, and stubbornly defiant.

The bite at my neck throbbed again, heat radiating through my veins. My stomach twisted as I realized something else.

I wasn’t just a girl anymore. I wasn’t just human.

His mark would change me too. It already had.

I pressed a hand against the mark, the skin tender under my fingertips. It pulsed faintly, like it had a heartbeat of its own, echoing mine.

I’m not human anymore.

The thought landed like a stone in my chest, heavy and unmovable.

I was a wolf now too.

And no matter how much I hated him for it, no matter how much part of me wanted to shove him away and scream, another part of me knew this truth would never be undone.

I was his mate and there was nothing I could do to change that.

CHAPTER 4

Varek

She stood at my counter, her fingers still brushing at the mark I’d left on her shoulder, her green eyes distant and shadowed.

I turned away before she could catch me staring and moved to the corner where I kept my supplies. It wasn’t much of a kitchen, just scavenged pans, a hot plate, and a few tins stacked on a rusted shelf, but it was enough to keep a man alive. Enough for two, if she’d let me take care of her.

I pulled out a pan and set it on the plate, pouring in a little oil. The faint sizzle filled the silence. From another tin, I fished out strips of dried venison. The smell was smoky, but good. I glanced over my shoulder.

“You’ll eat better tonight, I promise,” I told her. “Not just jerky.”

She blinked, eyes narrowing slightly, like she wasn’t sure if she should thank me or bite my head off. I let it slide. She’d come around in her own time.

The venison hissed as it hit the pan. I stirred it with a battered wooden spoon, watching the edges brown. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like I was preparing just another meal for another day of war. I was cooking… for her.