Claiming My Wolf
Chapter 35

~~Aaron’s PoV~~

Sadie comes in just as we’re all sitting down to dinner. She’s in a good mood, just like she has been most of the week, but she’s the only one in the house who is. It’s like a complete role reversal from the week before, when she was still feeling down and uncomfortable about being new here and we were all trying to cheer her up. Now she’s the one that’s trying to lift our spirits.

“Did you hear anything at the pack house?” Ava asks her when we’re all settled at the table. “Have they figured out what’s going on yet?”

Ava’s wolf is still bugging her every day, hounding her to go and claim her mate. It’s wearing my sister down, and I feel bad for her, and for Laurel too, of course. She’s hardly wanted to see me all week, she says she can’t handle her wolf arguing with her either.

Sadie shakes her head apologetically. “No, they haven’t heard anything.”

As promised, the Alpha made his announcement on Sunday to the whole pack that something had gone wrong with the mate bonds, not only here but in the neighboring packs as well, and that until they were sure it was fixed, all mating claims should be put on hold. Of course it was our classmates that were most upset about it, the ones, like us, who were just turning 18 and were eager to replace their mates. Someone asked how long the Alpha expected the hold to last, but he couldn’t say.

So now we’re just in limbo. At least my wolf hadn’t recognized the wrong mate, or any mate at all, so I don’t have to deal with what Ava and Laurel are going through, but it’s still hard for me.

I miss my girlfriend. It feels like half of me is missing.

When we finish eating, Sadie asks me to walk her back to the pack house. She’s been spending an awful lot of time there this week, but it seems to be making her happy, so no one’s saying too much about it.

“You could come in too,” she offers after she tells me she’s just watching a movie tonight with Logan and Micah. “A little mindless distraction might be good for you.”

I appreciate the offer, but I know I’m not good company right now. “No, it’s okay. Thanks, but I’m just going to spend the night at home.”

Sadie sighs with frustration. “Aaron, you’ve got to stop moping about this. Who cares whether some goddess made a mistake, or who she wanted you to be with in the first place? You know who you want to be with. You’ve always known. So just go be with her!”

I shake my head sadly. “It doesn’t work that way, Sadie.”

“It can,” she argues. “You have a brain and a heart of your own, Aaron. You don’t need anyone telling you what’s right for you.”

She gives me a slightly pitying look before she goes into the house, greeting the man on duty at the door by name.

I don’t like her pity. And maybe she’s got a point. Laurel and I love each other. We’re both adults now. What’s stopping us from being together if that’s really what we want?

Before I know it, my feet are taking me to Laurel’s house, and her face shows her surprise when she opens the door to replace me there.

“Aaron, I thought we agreed that we would wait for the Alpha to…”

I don’t let her finish. My arms go around her and I k**s her harder than I’ve ever kissed her before. I want to make any doubts she’s feeling disappear.

She clings to me with a quiet desperation, like I’m the only thing keeping her afloat in a sea of uncertainty.

“Are your parents home?” I whisper, praying with every part of me that the answer’s no, and when she shakes her head, I could almost cry with relief.

“They’ve gone to the city for the weekend,” she says. “They wanted me to come too, but I was too upset.”

Of course she was, but that ends now. I want to make her feel a million different things, but upset isn’t one of them.

Before she can object, I pick her up, kick off my shoes, and carry her upstairs to her room. Her cheeks flush red as she realizes where we are and I place her down on her bed gently. “I don’t care if you’re my mate or not,” I tell her, kissing her nose and her eyelids gently. “I love you, Laurel.”

“I love you, too,” she says, her eyes brimming with tears. I brush them away before kissing her eyelids again, making her laugh.

“I want to make love to you,” I tell her. I’ve never wanted anything more. “If you want me to.”

She nods, laughing and crying at the same time. “I want to, Aaron. I want to be with you.”

Thank the goddess. Or screw the goddess, in this case. Right now, I couldn’t care less about her. All that matters to me is the beautiful goddess in front of me.

I help her take all her clothes off, and then we take mine off together too. I’ve never seen her naked before and she’s just as stunning as I could have imagined. She stares at me too, her eyes and her hands running across my body as I k**s her again, my need for her growing with every second.

“Is your wolf freaking out at you?” I ask. I don’t want to kill the mood, but I want to know everything about how she’s feeling.

And to my relief, she shakes her head. “She knows this is what I want. She’s not fighting me.”

Good. I k**s her lips again, then her neck and down her body to her beautiful breasts. When I take her stiff n****e into my mouth, she gasps and the sound sends a wave of pleasure through me too.

“Aaron,” she m***s as her body writhes beneath me. “I need you. Please.”

I was trying to take things slower, but the longing in her voice is more than I can take. I pull out the condom from the pocket of my jeans, the one I’ve been carrying around in anticipation of this very moment for weeks, and roll it on my hard c**k without too much trouble. I’d practiced a few times at home to make sure I could do it, though I wasn’t planning on telling her that.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” I tell Laurel honestly as she spreads her legs for me and I settle my hot and heavy c**k at her entrance. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t care,” she promises. “I just want to be yours, Aaron.”

That’s what I want too. So I push into her, as gently as I can, and it feels so good I almost come right then and there. She’s tight and wet and warm and perfect.

“Deeper,” she encourages me, so I obey, pushing into her harder until she cries out in pain and I immediately freeze.

“f**k, Laurel, I’m sorry.”

She just shakes her head at me. “Don’t be. I’m fine. Keep going.”

So I do. Eventually I’m all the way in and it’s the best feeling in the whole damn world. I’ve never felt as connected to anyone as I do right now, and I know from the way she looks at me that she’s feeling the same.

“You’re mine, Laurel,” I tell her, feeling a strange possessiveness inside me that I’ve never had before. “No one else’s.”

She nods. “Always.”

Then I begin to move in her and it’s a bit awkward until suddenly it’s not, and then we’re both crying out for each other and the world explodes around me as Laurel shudders in my arms.

Who needs the moon goddess, I wonder as I gradually drift back down to earth and into the arms of my lover. I have everything I need right here.