Page 16 of Claimed

My eyes travel the length of her body as she exhales slowly. Her fingers tremble as she tries to adjust the t-shirt I gave her, either because she’s hiding her legs or because she’s cold.

I catch Linc’s scent just before my doorbell rings three short rings. She jolts so hard her body bounces off the bed, but I catch her before she falls to the rug.

She stiffens in my embrace as I guide her back to sitting on the end of the bed, explaining, “That’s just Lincoln.” I tap my nose. “Linc’s probably just dropped off your bag. Everyone knows to stay away when an alpha takes his mate home to claim her. We shouldn’t be interrupted again.”

My phone dings with a text message. “Or we shouldn’t be,” I amend distractedly as I fetch my phone from my pocket. “Chances are, the only other interruption will be tomorrow sometime, when my family drops off food, but they’ll just ring the bell and leave it.”

“Food?” she asks.

My eyes scan the text message Linc just sent. He wants my attention otherwise he wouldn’t have texted and rang the bell.

“Pack tradition. When an alpha claims his mate, they don’t typically surface for a week or so, so their family cooks a bunch of meals and drops them off. Where were you staying in The Hollow?” I ask. “Linc’s offering to pick up the rest of your gear. Says there’s a set of keys clipped to your backpack. One of them a key to your place?”

“Uh…”

“You got more gear? You’ve been here a bit?”

Linc’s text said he’s got the gun and a dead phone, too.

“I… a bit.”

“Where’d you stay?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t tell you.”

I lean in. “We might not be able to catch your scent trail since you masked it, but we’ll figure it out the regular way. Not a big town and you work at the diner, so it won’t be difficult. Either you rented a place or stayed at the motel. Sooner you start telling me everything, the faster we can put it all behind us.”

She takes this as a threat and shrinks back. “I… if you let me go, I’ll talk to h-him and ask him to leave you guys be. I’ll try my best to convince him.”

I cock my head to the side. “Who?”

“But if he wants to meet, be careful. He lies.” She frowns, and begins speaking faster. “Please don’t say I told you that. I don’t know why I just told you that.” She squeezes her eyes shut tight and then shakes her head. “I don’t know why I’m even suggesting this. Talking to him is pointless. He won’t listen to anybody; thinks he knows everything. He just gets people to do his bidding. Like me. I… I could’ve killed someone today. I actually tried to hurt someone.”

She starts shaking hard, staring at her trembling hands. “I could’ve. It would’ve changed me forever. Just pulling that trigger feels like it changed me, changed everything about who I am. That’s not me. Poisoning, shooting? N-not m-me.”

A sob bursts from her mouth, and I realize the adrenalin from everything that happened today is now ebbing. Now that she’s here, sitting down in a room on a soft bed with soft lighting, she’s crashing.

I gather her close, rearrange some covers over us and position her on her side, facing me.

She stares at her hands, which are pressed against my chest. Her eyes pan up to mine. The instant they do, an avalanche of emotion surges from her expression and I know if we were already mated, I’d feel it. It’s hard enough to watch, I can’t imagine how it’d feel if I felt all that I see from her. Tears trickle and though I’m sure she’s trying to hold back the flood of emotions, it’s wracking her body.

Her eyes dart away. I pull her closer to me.

“It’s okay, Blossom,” I say into her soft hair, taking in her scent as she fuses with me, my arms tight around her. “Don’t try to stop it. All those big feelings need to go somewhere. I can handle them. I’m here, I’m your mate, and it’s my job to take all your burdens. Go ahead, give ‘em to me.”

I kiss the top of her head, and she hesitates for a split second before she melts into me, clutching my back with her hands.

“Go ahead, babe,” I say. “You’re safe with me. I fuckin’ swear it.”

She begins to bawl her heart out.

Her submitting this way, letting go and giving this to me feels incredibly important.

Three or four minutes in, my phone chimes with another text, but the phone is no longer in my hand. It’s somewhere in this bed, so I ignore it. I’m holding my mate, stroking her hair, my lips to the soft skin of her forehead. My body heat has notched itself up and she’s melted into me.

“Someone made you do it,” I whisper.

She nods and buries her face in my throat.

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