Page 105 of Claimed

We’re at the kitchen island. I’m in pajamas, Grey is in sweats, and Luke is wearing some of Grey’s sweats which are about foursizes too big. He’s stuffing his face with the third sandwich I’ve made him. He’s eating like he hasn’t eaten in a week. But he is talking, too. Greyson has been mostly listening, letting me lead with the questions.

Wyatt recruited him and Luke thinks he’s low on potions. He had enough to mask himself and Jessica Young but seems like what he put on them was heavily diluted and augmented by catnip.

They got here tonight not through the traditional entryways to the village because they knew there were patrols. Instead, they’d driven to the resort across the lake, broke into one of the cabins last night to sleep there and kept watch with binoculars from over there. Tonight once they saw excessive activity moving toward one side of the village, they took kayaks across the lake to sneak in.

It's obvious that the party tonight offered the perfect opportunity.

When Luke starts to talk about how Wyatt has been on the absolute warpath since finding out I was taken in by this pack and claimed by one of the alphas, I decide to cut this off.

“Maybe we should sleep,” I say.

I don’t want Luke getting deep into Silver Hills politics tonight. It’s been a hard night. I’m bone-tired. And frankly I can’t handle more bad news about home. I know it’s cowardly, but I need to regroup first.

“We do need some shuteye,” Grey says, but his eyes are on me like he sees through me.

No, I definitely don’t need Luke spewing more information to make Grey angrier. I’m already a bundle of nerves with thesensations and emotions coming off him. I need a breather. So does he.

He turns his gaze to my cousin. “Luke, like I said in the woods, you’re safe here. But I need to know we’re safe, too. You’re being shown trust by being allowed to sleep under this roof instead of in a cell with the other beta from your pack that survived. Don’t mistake this for weakness, pal. Gonna ask you to stay put. Yeah? We’ll talk some more in the morning.”

Luke swallows hard and not making eye contact with Grey, he says, “I will, sir. Thank you.” He stuffs the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and washes it down with the rest of the glass of milk I poured for him.

***

“Seems like a good kid,” Grey says as I get into bed.

He pulls his shirt off and tosses it before dropping his jogging pants and climbing into bed nude.

“Yeah. Thank you for letting him stay tonight.”

“He’s family to you,” he says. “And he’s clearly a good kid so he’s now family to me, too. Erica’s spell was to do with pulling all the bad out. That’s why he didn’t get pulled up into that.”

“Not everyone was bad always. Wyatt destroyed those betas. His treatment of them turned them bad, you know? He turns everything bad. If he’d won here he’d ruin this place, too.”

“He didn’t win, Blossom. Nothing he could do would allow him to win. Believe that.”

“He had machine guns. He sabotaged Tyson’s house. If not for Erica, what else would he have done? What was his full plan?”

“Don’t know, but it’s over for tonight. We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow.”

“But he’s still out there,” I whisper. “I wish this were over. I know it sounds awful, but I can’t help but wish when your pack pulled those betas out of the lake that they got him, too.”

“It doesn’t sound awful. He’s hurt you. Hurt your family, your old pack. He’s repeatedly tried to hurt us. He’ll be stopped.” He presses his mouth to my forehead, then my nose, and now he's kissing my mouth and working my pajamas off.

Now nude together, he gently caresses my face.

“Gotta talk more in the morning, get more information from the kid so we can strategize, but right now… I need you. Then I need sleep.”

We connect and when his knot starts up, I whimper softly into his shoulder through it, trying to be quiet so Luke isn’t disturbed in the room down the hall.

But he makes me look at him. And love shines in his eyes, so does determination. So much happened tonight. And he got us through it. I love him. I love him so, so much.

Tears come as I climax, emotion oozing from my pores for this man.

Grey swallows my whimpers with more kisses and lets out a low groan as he finishes powering into me.

“Try and get some sleep,” he says a few minutes later while I’m snuggled up to him.

I feel gooey and my body now feels ready for slumber, but my mind has other plans. Because how can I sleep when he’s still out there? I don’t know what’ll happen to the beta in custody, don’t even know who it is. I didn’t pick up enough scent to know who was here. I’m not sure what’ll happen long term with Luke, either. Will we send him back to Silver Hills? Will he stay withme and Grey while this is all being sorted? How gruesome will the wake of Wyatt’s path of destruction get before he is stopped?

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