This Christmas, I’ll Claim You Again

ANASTASIA Everything was blurred as I slowly opened my eyes. I could hear fire crackling. I could smell food. I was on the floor, wrapped in a rough wool blanket. My head throbbed with ache. I moved my hand to where I had the wound and found that it was stitched up. I let out a long sigh of relief because I was saved. Every muscle in my body screamed as I pushed up slowly. And then I saw him again. He stood across the room, back to me, shirtless despite the cold seeping through the log walls. There were scars crisscrossed on his broad back. His arms were corded with muscle, veins standing out as he worked thick iron chains around his wrists. The links clinked as he locked them to a massive ring bolted into the log wall. “What the f**k are you doing?” My voice came out hoarse. He froze. Slowly, he turned. His eyes weren’t gray anymore. They were glowing golden. Without thinking, I scrambled back in fear till the cold wall hit my back. The pupils were narrowed to slits. A low growl rumbled in his chest. “Don’t come closer,” His voice was rough. It felt like he was fighting with something he didn’t want to do but was forced to do. “The beast wants your blood. I won’t let him take it this time. I have to protect you.” My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I felt it in my throat. He yanked against the chains. His muscles bulged, and veins corded in his forearms. The iron chains seemed barely to hold him. “Please...” I managed to speak, but my voice came out as a weak plea, “Let me go.” “I don’t hold you captive. You can leave whenever you want, but you won’t make it ten steps.” His lips curled, revealing teeth that were too sharp. “Storm’s buried the pass, and rogue wolves are circling. And you—” His gaze dropped to my chest, right where that burning pain still simmered. “Your wounds are still fresh. It’s something they can smell from miles.” I looked down. My coat was open, and my shirt was soaked dark at the collar from my head wound. He wasn’t so bad. He was not human, I could tell that, but he saved me, he stitched up my wound, and gave me shelter. He was the reason I was alive. And a part of me was glad he wasn’t human. If he were, he would’ve taken advantage of me and left me out in the cold to die. “What’s your name?” I asked, forcing strength into my voice even as fear coiled tight in my gut. “I’m… Anastasia.” “Zev.” He rasped and then looked right into my eyes. “And you’re the curse I’ve been running from for centuries.” “Centuries?” I asked as I managed to get up. “I… I don’t know you. I’ve never seen you before in my life.” “You don’t have to.” He strained against the chains again. “The bond knows you. It’s in your blood. It’s in my blood.” His voice dropped to something of a plea. “I can smell how sweet you’d taste when I tear into you.” Heat flashed through me. I was terrified, but something darker twisted beneath it. A throb low in my belly that had no business being there. “The f**k are you saying?” I snapped. “I’m not your anything.” “You are.” He stepped forward as far as the chains allowed, towering even from across the room. “And it’s going to you.” I didn’t have anything to say. We just stood there. He looked at me, and I looked at him. Outside, the wind howled louder, and those distant wolf cries rose again… closer this time. Zev’s head snapped toward the door, and his nostrils flared. A shudder ran through his massive frame. “They’re coming,” he growled as his head snapped toward me again. “Are they… are they able to get inside?” My pulse spiked. Yes, they were able to get inside. The cabin was weak, made of logs, and barely holding upright. “Unchain yourself and do something.” “I’m chained because of you.” His eyes into me. “If I let the beast out now, it won’t stop at them. It’ll take you. Rip you open. f**k you in the blood until there’s nothing left.” The words hit me like a physical blow. Crude, violent, and so vividly real I could almost feel his teeth on my throat, his body crushing mine into the floorboards. My breath hitched. I should have been revolted. Instead, that cursed heat flared again between my thighs. I took a step toward him before I could stop myself. His growl deepened. “Don’t.” I took another step. I didn’t know what possessed me… anger, defiance, or the pull I felt every time he looked at me like I was both salvation and damnation. “Tell me what kind of fantasy you’ve been building in your head?” My voice shook. “Why do I… why do I feel like I know?” He bitterly laughed. “You want the truth? Fine.” The chains rattled as he leaned forward. His face was inches from mine despite the distance. “You’re my mate, and our bond is cursed. Half a century ago, I killed you for the sixth time. I tore your heart out with these hands. I won’t let it happen again. Every fifty years, you die because of me, and then you’re reborn.” One thing I knew was that he wasn’t lying. I could see tears filling his eyes. I held his giant face with my palms. “You won’t kill me. If you wanted to, you’d have done it when you weren’t chained. Instead, you gave me shelter, a warm blanket, and stitched up my wound, so that I could live.” “You don’t understand. I have to keep myself in chains till the Red Moon. When it finishes, the curse will finally break.” I stared at him as my heart pounded. “And now?” I whispered. “Now?” I could see his fangs lengthening as his lips pulled back. “Now I want to bury myself inside you until you scream my name. I want to mark every inch of your skin so no other wolf ever dares touch what’s mine.” My body reacted before my brain could catch up. I hated how much I wanted to kiss that mouth. I hated how the thought of his hands gripping me hard enough to bruise made me wet. I took a few steps away from him. “You won’t hurt me,” I said, crossing my arms. “Keep telling yourself that, my lady. When these chains break, and I know they will, you’ll beg me not to hurt you.” Before I could say anything, a howl split the night right outside the cabin walls. Then, the door rattled in its frame as something massive slammed against it. Zev’s body convulsed. Bones cracked audibly, and muscles rippled under scarred skin as fur began to sprout along his arms. “Hide!” he snarled through lengthening fangs. Another impact shook the door, and the wood splintered. I backed toward the hearth, grabbing a poker from the fireplace stand. Zev threw his head back and roared as the first claw tore through the door. And in that moment, staring at the monster fighting to break free for me, I realized the storm outside was nothing compared to the one he’d unleashed inside me. I was already cursed. And God help me, part of me wanted to burn.