Claimed (Werewolf boyxboy)

Chapter 14

Play the song above when I indicate within the chapter. It will repeat until you finish the chapter.

Also, this was basically a double update so if you haven't read the last chapter make sure you do so before reading this!

Third Person POV

Jax couldn't breathe.

Jax couldn't feel.

Jax couldn't think.

So, he did the only thing that he knew he could do.

He ran.

The Beta ducked out of the shower stall so fast that he found himself surprised that he didn't slip and break his neck. But when he cleared the danger zone, he wasted not one second before shifting and running out of the Pack House as fast as his paws could take him. He took in huge gulps of fresh air as he ran, desperate to get away from the pheromones that triggered the darkest memories to burst from their hiding spots within his troubled psyche.

Luka howled to be let out in his natural form as they neared the dense line of trees that marked the beginning of the forest, but his human counterpart forced him back. Jax knew that his wolf's agenda would only consist of running right back into his mate's arms, and in his mind that was not an option, not when he was teetering on the edge of falling into a full-blown panic attack.

Tyrus was right.

Jax hated himself.

He hated himself for hurting his mate.

He hated himself for running.

He hated himself for not being able to just say that Dashiell's dominant pheromones were triggering for him.

But most of all, he hated himself for not staying in the darkness all of those years ago.

The Beta - for the second time in the past two days - felt tears well up in his eyes at the all too familiar helpless feeling that encapsulated him in a cocoon of fear.

Fear.

Jax always felt fear.

He tried to bury that one emotion that haunted him for years, the one emotion that his Father quite literally tried to beat out of him. But his mate was like a torrential pouring of rain, revealing the skeletons of his past that he realized he'd dug much too shallow of a grave for.

Jax barely heard the heavy footfalls of large paws behind him, or the loud crashes of furniture as the large Alpha wolf ran, hot on the heels of his mate and desperate to get the smaller male back into his arms.

Dashiell felt shocked, confused and most of all hurt. He didn't understanding what he'd done to make his mate run from him when he had waited so long, so patiently for him to finally accept the bond. He loved his mate with every fiber of his being and just wanted to hold him close after months of agony, so why did he run?

Dashiell wanted to ask his mate this question, but his primal instincts made him see tunnel vision, zeroing in on one thing, and one thing only.

Chase.

Jax darted through the dense trees, wind ruffling through his dark fur as he pushed his muscles to the max. He forced himself to go faster despite the soreness that still lingered throughout his entire body, needing to distance himself from the Alpha who he knew was gaining on him with every passing moment. Salty tears blurred his vision, making the trees and foliage fly by in a messy blur of hazy green shapes as he began to feel himself lose the momentum he initially had.