This Christmas, I’ll Claim You Again

Chapter#05

ANASTASIA

It was Christmas morning.

Dawn crept through the boarded windows. The storm had quieted to a low moan outside. My thigh ached where his tongue had sealed the gash.

I sat cross-legged by the hearth, feeding logs to the fire, trying not to look at the three rogue corpses we’d dragged into the corner and covered with a tarp.

Zev slumped on the bearskin rug a few feet away, naked and half-conscious, his massive frame streaked with dried gore. Deep slashes crisscrossed his arms and chest from the claws that had caught him when he shielded me. Blood crusted the edges.

The beast had spent itself keeping me alive. I couldn’t leave him like that.

I crawled over with a basin of hot water in one hand, torn strips of sheet in the other. The firelight painted gold across his scars, and I hated how beautiful he looked, even with rough, long hair and that tangled beard.

His eyes cracked open when I knelt beside him, storm-gray again, but exhausted. “Don’t,” he rasped, “I’ll heal.”

“It doesn’t look like you will. The wounds still look almost fresh.”

“I used my healing strength to heal you last night. It will take some time, but I’ll heal.”

“But not fast enough.” I dipped a cloth and pressed it to the deepest gash on his pectoral. He hissed as his muscles jumped under my fingers. “Hold still.”

His hand shot up, clamping my wrist hard enough to bruise. “You shouldn’t be this close. I can smell myself on you, inside you, and it’s driving me insane.”

Heat flared low in my belly despite the warning. I met his gaze, defiant. “Good. Then you’ll feel it when I do this.” I peeled the cloth away and leaned down as my tongue flicked over the wound. His breath stuttered.

“Anastasia…” My name was half-growl, half-plea.

I ignored him, licking another s***h clean, then another. Each touch drew a shudder from him.

When I sat back, his eyes had bled amber. “I’m going to reject the bond,” he suddenly said. “This is the only way to save you from me. I’ll push you away and send you down the mountain the second you’ve healed properly. It’s the only way to keep you alive.”

The words hit like claws to the gut. Fear and fury exploded together. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”

“I do.” He pushed up on an elbow, towering even half-reclined. Blood trickled fresh from a reopened wound. “I’ve watched you die many times because of me. I don’t have the strength left to go over it all again.”

I threw the bloody cloth into the basin. “Then you’re a coward.”

His growl rattled the windows. In a blur, he surged up, grabbing my hips and yanking me into his lap. I straddled him with my knees on the rug, and his hardening beast was trapped between us. Pain flared in my thigh, but I didn’t care.

“Say that again,” he snarled.

“You’re a coward,” I repeated, shoving at his chest. My palms slid over slick muscle.

His hands tightened as claws pricked my skin through my coat. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“I know exactly.” Rage and need crashed together. I took off my coat without thinking. “Look at me, Zev.”

His gaze raked down my body. Old knife scars crossed my ribs, burns dotted my back from childhood I couldn’t forget, and whip marks laced my spine. I’d survived hell long before him.

“I’m not fragile,” My voice shook. “I’ve been broken and rebuilt a dozen times. You don’t get to treat me like glass.”

“f**k, Anastasia…”

I crushed my mouth to his.

His right hand fisted my hair, yanking my head back to expose my throat. His tongue licked my throat up and down. The other hand clawed down my back, pressing me closer. I moaned into his mouth, grinding down on his c**k, slick and already soaking us both.

“Tell me who did this to you.” He groaned against my ear. “I’ll feed their heart to the dogs.”

“I was adopted by a family when I was eight. That man… he was crazy.” I told my side of the story as I dragged my hand in his hair. “He’d get drunk and beat me up.”

“How dare he!” Zev snarled. “Take me to him. He’ll beg me to kill him.”

“He’s already dead.” I slightly smirked. “I was sixteen when his wife ran away. He… he hung himself to death.”

“That’s an easy death for a man like him. Fuckin’ coward.” Zev snarled and then pulled a strand of hair to the back of my ear. “Forgive me, my lady. I wasn’t there to protect you. Where’ve you been living after he died?”

“With my foster parent. She…” I stopped as tears filled my eyes.

“What happened, my love?”

“She’d been f*****g my fiancé.” I awkwardly smiled as I wiped the tears off my cheeks. “I found out yesterday, that’s why I drove all the way here. I… had no idea where I was headed.”

“Don’t cry, my lady.” Zev pressed me closer. “You’re destined to be mine. It’s nobody’s fault. I have to admit, though, I smelled that man on you when I took you out of that car. I wanted to find him and eat him alive.”

“Zev, I wanna be here with you. I have nowhere to go. I can’t go back there. I don’t want to. Please… please don’t make me go away.”

“I have no choice. You aren’t safe here… with me.”

I leaned in and kissed him softly. “f**k me like the monster you are.”

He flipped us in one brutal motion, pinning me beneath him on the rug. “You sure you want this?” he growled against my breast, teeth closing on a n****e hard enough to draw blood. “I’ll give it to you.”

“Do it,” I gasped, arching up. “Do whatever you want to me. I’m staying here!”

He snarled as his claws raked lightly down my sides, leaving thin red lines. His mouth followed, licking each welt, sucking bruises into existence. When he reached my hips, he spread my thighs wide.

“Look at you,” he rasped, breath hot against my core. “Dripping for my c**k even when you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” I moaned. “God help me, I want you.”

His eyes flashed golden. He buried his face between my legs as his tongue thrust deep, and his fangs grazed sensitive flesh. I screamed as I buckled my hips, and my fingers dug into his hair. He devoured me, two thick fingers joining his tongue, stretching me, curling to hit that spot that made stars explode behind my eyes.

“Come,” he commanded, voice muffled against me. “Come on my tongue before I f**k you raw.”

I shattered, back bowing off the rug, walls clenching hard around his fingers. He didn’t stop, licking me through it until I was sobbing with overstimulation.

Then he rose over me. His beast was flushed with the tip already leaking. He gripped my thighs and slammed home in one merciless thrust.

Pain and pleasure detonated. He was bigger than I remembered, splitting me open, bottoming out against my cervix. I raked nails down his back, drawing blood, urging him deeper.

“Harder,” I demanded.

He obliged, pounding into me with punishing force. Each thrust jolted my wounded thigh, but the pain only sharpened the ecstasy. His claws scored my hips, my breasts, leaving possessive trails. I wrapped my legs around his waist, heels digging into his ass, meeting every brutal stroke.

“You're mine,” he snarled. “This body, this cunt, these screams, are all f*****g mine.”

“Yes,” I moaned, teetering on another edge. “I’m yours.”

He shifted angle, grinding against my c**t, and I came again. He roared, hips stuttering, spilling hot and deep inside me, pulse after pulse until I felt it leak out around his c**k.

We collapsed together. His weight crushed me into the rug. His fangs grazed my shoulder, not biting, just resting there.

“I won’t reject you,” he whispered against my skin. “I want you here with me. What if I can break the curse this time?”

I tangled fingers in his damp hair, holding him close. “This is the best Christmas present ever.”

For a long moment, there was only our breathing and the crackle of the fire.

Then a fist pounded on the barred door with three heavy blows that rattled the beam.

“Zev!” a male voice bellowed from outside. “Open this door. I know you’re in there.”

Zev went rigid above me. A growl vibrated through his chest into mine. He pulled out slowly and rose to his full height.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered.

There was another pound.

“By order of the alpha, you’re accused of treason,” the voice continued. “You harbored the sacrifice and consorted with the cursed bloodline. Open up, or I will break it down.”

My heart stopped. I had no idea what that man was talking about. I quickly covered myself with my coat.

Zev’s eyes met mine.

The door shuddered again as multiple bodies threw their weight against it.

Christmas morning had just turned into a death sentence.