An Alpha's Claim

Time

Logan followed her for weeks. Tracking her movements through the forest. He couldn't stop himself and didn't want to, but knew that he had to deny himself. He'd taken too much from her. Should never have given himself that night with her. It had only made it harder to leave, but the shaking was getting worse, his wolf more uncontrollable as each day went past.

He'd nearly bitten her that night - nearly marked her as his mate forever, but he'd resisted despite the cost of his wolf's sanity.

He'd nearly doomed her to death by his hand.

So instead, he stayed away but spent his time killing those that would try to fight her, watching her to ensure she was safe.

Even if he couldn't be with her, he still owed her that.

*

J didn't see Logan again, but she knew he watched her.

She wasn't sure if he was trying to be subtle, as he followed her across forest, cliff and plains. If she looked for him, he left, so she forced herself to ignore it - to take his lingering scent as the most he could give her.

She didn't know if he didn't want her to know he was there, or if part of him needed her to know that he followed her. That he hadn't left her.

Her wolf grew restless, her mate so near and yet so very, very far. The first few days were the worst. With every mile she put between her and Cassidy's pack, her heart tore a little more but she had to remind herself that she was doing it for the right reasons.

She had to get this pack and the threat of wolves trying to replace Caine away from Cassidy and her cub.

Once she was happy she was far enough away, they stopped moving and settled, readying themselves for the onslaught of challenging alphas. They were coming, she could sense them.

Logan stayed near them for a long time. Sometimes she'd feel his eyes on her, other times it would just be his faint scent on the wind.

She wasn't sure exactly when he'd given up and left. Sometimes, she'd still think she could sense him, other times it felt like there were endless miles between them.

She was relieved when he left, her wolf able to settle back down despite the sadness in her core. It was for the best, she reminded herself, it was for the best that he was gone.

*

Two Years Later:

J stood up, her knees cracking as she did so. She limped across the room to the broken mirror. Her hands gripped the sink, her knuckles going white from the pressure. Her stomach rolled and dizziness washed through her, she tried to swallow it down, tried to avoid the inevitable, but before long she was throwing up.

Washing her mouth she stood up and grabbed a towel, wiping the soft material across her face. Her breath was jagged and the blood had rushed to her head. She leaned gently against the door frame and waited for it to pass, as it always did, eventually.

She hadn't heard her door open, another sign that she was getting worse, so jumped at the flash of eyes in the bathroom mirror. Her beta, Rayna, who she'd met after they'd been settled here for a while,  gave her a cool, calculating gaze. "Do you need the healer?"

J shook her head and dropped the towel onto the radiator. "No, I'll be fine."

Rayna scoffed, a false smile twisting her face.

J rolled her eyes but silenced Rayna with a glare. The tall woman shrugged and backed up, taking a seat on the end of J's bed. She remembered the day she met Rayna. At first she thought it was another alpha wolf come to claim her pack, but in truth Rayna's wolf had been seeking the nameless she-alpha that she'd heard so many stories of. The woman who fought a hundred alphas and bested each one. The woman more myth than legend. The alpha of The Wild Mountains pack.