The Claiming - 18+ (Sample)

3. Marked

A soft murmuring hit Brie's ears. She was being held close to a warm, hard body whose mouth was breathing evenly. Through the slits in her eyes she could tell that there was a light up ahead. The scent of pine needles faded as it was taken over by the light scent of smoke in the air. They had left the thick of the woods behind them and were now back at the circle where The Claiming had commenced.

Brie was weary, so weary. She knew she was claimed, but she felt she must have dreamt it. She couldn't be claimed by her own father. She was flesh of his flesh. It was-wrong.

She nestled further into the strong arms around her, hoping it would bring her further away from the strange, lucid dream she had had near the pack border.

The movement of her body stopped as she realized the person holding her had come to the edge of the circle and had halted his steps. A voice spoke and Brie's eyes shot open at the sound.

"I have claimed my Luna." Roland's voice spoke out in his Alpha timbre. There were gasps from the crowd as the magnitude of what had happened slowly began to sink into the crowd.

Roland was a man of little words and he moved forward a step, bare as the day he was born, towards the murmuring voices. Brie closed her eyes again and stifled a whimper. She found she could not face the crowd of onlookers as her father proclaimed her as his Luna and future mate.

One brave soul spoke out in the crowd. "But Alpha," the male voice said. "She is your daughter. It is not-done to have offspring as your mate."

Roland growled and the crowd hushed. "It is done if I say it is done." He spat the words out. "I am Alpha and what I say, goes. If it does not please you, Lawrence, you may leave this pack and become a rogue."

Roland hefted Brie a bit higher, cradling her face in his neck in the process. He spoke his next words a little louder.

"That goes for all of my pack! If you do not wish my daughter as Luna of this pack, leave before the sun rises. She has acted as Luna these past eight years with no complaint. And If I should hear one word of disrespect against me or my Luna, I will know." Roland's voice had risen at the end and Brie could practically feel the trembling of the crowd as they took in his words.

"It will be as you say, Alpha." An older male voice spoke out. Brie struggled to place the man's voice. She had heard it before somewhere. It spoke clearly and with aged wisdom.

"Wolves of the Diamond Falls pack, friends and honored guests," the same wizened voice spoke again. "In these times when we are hunted, our numbers diminish faster than we realize. It is a rare thing to take kin to mate, but not an anomaly of any sort. With the two joined, their bloodline will be stronger and their pups will be unblemished and inviolable of any possibly tainted blood. Werewolf genetics, as we all should know, are different from any other creature and we are not spoiled by the inbreeding that occurs in so many of nature's children. Please do not be alarmed but rejoice. Our pack will finally have a Luna again."

There is a silence and Roland says, "Thank you Elder White. Your loyalty does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. You will be rewarded accordingly." He turns to the crowd en masse and says, "I will take my leave so the rest of you can make preparations-if there are any."

Brie feels the ground moving beneath her again and can tell from the silence that none have moved from their places. She can hear the distant howls as many of the unmated find themselves being claimed or doing the claiming.

The sounds of the forest grow dimmer and Brie struggles to remain calm as she feels herself nearing her home.

This was never the way she thought things would turn out when she was to be claimed. She played at Luna these past 8 years, never imagining it would become a reality in such a fashion. With that thought, she closes her eyes and tries to fall asleep, hoping that somehow this was just one very brilliant dream that she could wake from.

******

Brie wakes from a shallow slumber as soon as her naked bottom hits the cool sheets in a dark room. Her eyes flutter open and firm hands place her gently upon clean linens. She tries to mind-link with her wolf but all is silent on that front.

There is rustling before a dim light at the bedside table flicks on. Her eyes wander up to find her father's face, looking stormy and ambivalent at her.

She pinches her inner thigh and scrambles to cover her nakedness as she realizes this has really happened. It was no dream she could wake from.

Claimed by her father. Fated to be marked and mated with him within a week.

Brie is silent as her father, still naked from his shift, walks slowly over to his dresser where he pulls out the top center drawer. He grabs a few items from it and places them upon the top of the drawer.

Shifting to the right, he pulls out another drawer and grabs a pair of boxers from them and slips them on. Roland turns and grabs the items from the top of the dresser and walks over to the bed.

He drops them softly next to Brie. "Here, put these on, Angel." He says this quietly, as if not to disturb her further.

She looks down and sees that he has given her a pair of his boxers and a long t-shirt. Without slipping out of the covers, she first slips on the boxers, then the white tee.

She feels slightly better to be covered to decency but her silence vanishes like a soft wind on the branch of a tree.

"Father, what have you done?" she asks, voice low but firm.

Roland stands still. "I couldn't let that wolf have you. There was no Luna for me here and if I had not done what I had, you would be marked by him and taken away." He sighs. "If he had been worthy of you-" He shakes his head as if not suffering the thought. "It's no matter now. What is done is done and now I will do what I have to do to ensure your safety and the safety of our pack."

Our pack. Brie thinks about that. She liked the idea of our pack and her wolf raises its muzzle from its paws at the words.

With her wolf coming back to the fore a bit, Brie's head clears from its hazy retreat and she realizes where she is. Her father's bed-the bed she herself may have been conceived in. This is where she is to sleep night after night for the rest of her days. The idea of it is strange.

She remembers having nightmares when she was still a pup and coming into her parent's room to be comforted. Now it was her turn to comfort her father, same as it was her wolf's job to calm Roland's wolf.

Roland sits down on the edge of the bed and looks at Brie. He sighs and says, "I'm sorry, Angel but I have to mark you-and you shall mark me. It cannot be avoided at this juncture. I do not know where that other wolf is or if he is near, but once you are marked, he cannot touch you."

"My wolf could hear his." Brie says softly. "He-he wanted to claim me."

"I'm so sorry, princess."

"Daddy-" Brie starts to say and is cut off with a low growl.

"Do not call me that, Angel." Roland says lowly. "I am no longer your father. We are to be mated soon and it doesn't sit well with me to be called that anymore."

He pauses.

"Call me Alpha, or Roland."

Brie had never called her father by his given name. She didn't think she could call him Roland-at least no yet-so she felt it was safer to stick with Alpha at this point. Roland seemed too-intimate for her to say.

"Will is hurt?" she asks Roland.

"Only for a moment, dear one." He says.

"What will happen afterward?" she asks, curious. She had heard being marked by someone other than your mate was a much different process than being marked by your true mate, if you had one.

"I will mark you and you will mark me and-a sort of tether is created between us. It pulls the two of us-and our wolves together."

"Can the tether...ever snap?" Brie asks.

"The tether that holds us together can only be severed if one of us were to find our true mate and have them mark you instead. Since my mate is already gone, I cannot break it. It can only be broken if you were to find your true mate."

Brie sighs. "I don't think I have one-or one that lives." Talk of her father's former mate, her mother, makes Brie blush and she shakes her head. She could not think of mother at a time like this. It shamed her.

"How-how long before we must mate?" Brie asks, blushing furiously in the dim light.

"Well, with other wolves who have been marked, they either mate right away or they wait until their heat comes upon them." Roland is taciturn as he says this and his expression is unreadable.

"When does one's heat come upon them? And what does it feel like?" Brie asks and she wonders if her inquisitive mind is subconsciously putting off the inevitable.

"As I've never been in heat I can only speak from what I have heard. Most females have said they were in heat anywhere from 3-5 days after being marked. As for your second question-I don't know what it feels like, but from what I have heard, it is very uncomfortable and will only go away when you mate with your intended." Roland sighs.

Brie's mind scrambled for another question. Anything to delay the intimacy it requires of marking someone.

"Do you know anyone who has gone into heat I can ask? A female of course-" she rattled off the first thing that came to mind.

"Brie," Roland says firmly. He only used her first name when he was impatient with her and she was cowed into silence. "You are postponing this joining and it must stop."

Brie choked back a whimper and Roland sighed.

"Angel, I need to do this before I lose my nerve." He admitted softly.

She nodded, looking down at her hands in her lap. "Yes, Fa-Alpha."

Roland lay on the bed and leaned over Brie, pushing her back against the mattress, but gently. He pulled the covers over her, just up to under her chest and leaned into her neck.

He sat there breathing in and out a few times.

"I'm sorry, Angel." He says and immediately sinks his incisors into the tender flesh of her neck.