His To Claim

Chapter 4: Running Cold

Her POV — LUNA

I should’ve felt safe in his arms.

After everything we just shared—after he touched me like I was fragile and sacred and belonged only to him—I should’ve felt peace. Closure. Something.

But instead… I felt the cold.

Not around me.

Inside me.

Like a hollow space that used to hold fear had been cracked open, and now I didn’t know how to breathe without it.

Ryan was asleep beside me, his chest rising and falling slow and steady, one arm still wrapped around my waist like even in sleep he couldn’t bear to let me go. His scent—earth and heat and something uniquely Alpha—was all over me. Inside me.

His mark throbbed faintly against the side of my throat. A dull, warm ache that made my pulse skip every time I touched it.

He’d claimed me.

And I’d let him.

No—I wanted him to. Gods help me, I wanted every second of it. I craved his hands, his mouth, the way his voice sounded when he lost control. I needed to be touched, to be wanted like that. Like I was more than broken pieces and scars I didn’t let anyone see.

But now, with the fire dying low and the dark pressing in through the cabin windows, I couldn’t stop shaking.

Not from regret. Not from shame.

From fear.

Because I’d felt this before.

Loved like this before.

Given myself to someone who said I was his.

And he broke me.

I slipped out of Ryan’s arms slowly, careful not to wake him. My body ached, sore in ways that still pulsed with memory. My thighs were damp with him. My skin wore his scent like perfume. And still—I needed to breathe.

The moment my feet hit the wooden floor, I felt like I was falling again. Back into old shadows. Back into chains I’d sworn I’d never let anyone wrap around me again.

I found one of his shirts—the same flannel I’d worn earlier—and pulled it on with trembling hands. It still smelled like him. I hated how much I liked that.

Outside, the forest was silent. The air crisp and cool on my skin. I walked barefoot into the trees, just far enough to feel the weight of the bond loosen slightly. Not gone. Never gone. But distant enough I could breathe again.

And then I broke.

I dropped to my knees in the dirt, pressing both hands to the cold earth like it could hold me together.

Tears came fast. Hard. Ugly.

I sobbed until my throat hurt, until my whole body curled in on itself, until I was nothing but a feral sound echoing in the night.

Because how was I supposed to survive this?

How was I supposed to trust this?

Ryan was kind. Gentle. Fierce. But I’d seen love turn into poison before. I’d seen hands that once worshipped my skin turn into fists. I’d heard “you’re mine” used like a death sentence.

What if I gave in and he changed?

What if the bond was just a beautiful chain, dressed in heat and promises, waiting to tighten around my throat?

I didn’t hear him behind me until I felt his heat at my back.

He didn’t speak. Didn’t touch me. Just knelt behind me in the dirt, silent as the moon.

I stayed still, too raw to face him.

He waited.

“I’m not okay,” I whispered.

“I know.”

“I wanted it… last night… I wanted you. And I still do. But I’m scared.”

His voice came low, like thunder softened by grief. “Of me?”

“No.” I turned my face to the side. “Of what I become when I let someone have me.”

He exhaled, long and quiet. Then he finally moved.

He sat behind me, legs spread, arms gently wrapping around me from behind. I let him. I let him hold me as my tears dried on my cheeks and my breathing settled into something like silence.

He rested his chin on my shoulder, his voice a whisper.

“You don’t belong to me, Luna. You belong to yourself. You always will.”

My throat burned.

“But I want you,” he added. “Not just your body. Not because of the bond. Because you’re you. And that’s something I’ll never take from you. I’ll protect it. Even if that means protecting you from me.”

I let out a soft, shaky breath. Closed my eyes.

“I want to believe you.”

He pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder, tender and slow.

“Then I’ll keep proving it. Every damn day, if that’s what it takes.”

We sat there in the dirt for a long time. Just breathing. Just existing.

The bond between us buzzed quietly, not demanding this time. Just there. Like a steady heartbeat beneath the chaos.

And slowly… I leaned back into him.

Not because I was healed.

Not because I was his.

But because for the first time in a long, long time… I wanted to be.