Page 29 of His Claim

“What happened to her?” I asked and hated how my voice trembled just the slightest bit. “The girl.”

Maelor’s jaw flexed. “She’s sedated. But she’s stable.”

“Alive?” I asked.

“For now.”

The second vial joined the first, and soon after, the third clinked into a case. One of the techs taped gauze to my arm. The other one packed up, darting glances to Varek like she couldn’t believe she was leaving alive.

Then Maelor said, “Now she comes with us.”

Varek drew himself up to his full, intimidating height and became an impenetrable barrier between those men and me. “No.”

A soldier at the front shifted his weight, fingers flexing over his rifle. “Sir?—”

Varek stepped forward with a loud growl.

He didn’t fully shift. It was worse than that. The wolf surged under his skin, a half-change that made the air vibrate and my bones sing with it. Claws slid from his fingers, black and curved.

“She. Stays,” he said, each word layered with a growl that shook dust from the light fixture above us.

Maelor didn’t back down, but he paused, seemingly recalculating. “Stand down, Commander. Don’t make me call Central.”

“You can call God,” Varek snarled, “and I’ll tear his damn throat out, too.”

Half the soldiers took a step back out of instinct alone.

“Restrain him,” Maelor said softly.

They came fast. These weren’t rookie soldiers. These were wolves who’d trained for this, who knew exactly how an alpha moved and where to hit him to keep him from ripping your arm off at the shoulder. Two went low, angling for Varek’s knees. Two came high, grabbing for his arms, and another aimed to ram his shoulder into Varek’s middle. A sixth darted for me, which in retrospect was pretty stupid, and Varek’s snarl rent the air.

He moved like lightning, catching the stupid wolf by the throat and slamming him into the opposite wall so hard the panel dented. As another went for his legs, Varek pivoted and snapped his foot into the man’s throat, as his elbow cracked into the jaw of a third. Blood sprayed as he fought on in a rage.

“Varek!” I shouted, scrambling off the bed, sheet clutched uselessly around me. “Stop—don’t?—”

The soldier who’d made for me staggered up and lunged again. He didn’t reach me. Varek grabbed him mid-rush, one-handed, and flung him out the door like he weighed nothing. Bodies hit tile. Boots skidded. Another wolf tried a chokehold from behind, then Varek slammed him back into the doorframe and the breath whooshed out of him as he crumpled.

Three more soldiers piled onto Varek, hanging from him like anchors. He dragged all three a few feet forward anyway, claws gouging grooves into the concrete as if it were soft clay.

“Hold him!” someone yelled in obvious panic.

I moved without thinking, letting go of the sheet and running fully naked straight into the chaos, straight to Varek’s side. I pressed both palms to his chest. His heartbeat thundered beneath my hands, too fast, too angry.

“Varek,” I said, and didn’t recognize my own voice. “Look at me.”

He did. Silver eyes, feral and full of murder, locked on mine. My mark burned under his mouth’s shadow. For a heartbeat, the world narrowed to the breath between us.

“You’ll kill them,” I spoke with the intensity of the moment. “And then they’ll kill you. And then I’m alone. Don’t leave me alone.”

The wolf snarled inside him, but the claws eased a fraction. He dragged in a breath that sounded like it hurt.

“They take you,” he grated, casting his glare at the gathering of men, “and I burn this place to bedrock.”

“Varek.” I kept my palms on his chest, feeling the heat rolling off him, the tremor of his muscles as his wolf prowled under his skin. “Listen to me.”

His gaze snapped down, wild and desperate.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, voice shaking but steady enough. “I’ll go. If I stay, they’ll keep coming until they kill you. And I won’t let that happen.”