The Defiant Claim - The Claim: Book 2 [LGBTQ+]
Chapter 15 - Mik (Part 2)

Mik hit the gym two weeks after his casts came off and the dumbbells were no longer challenging his healed limbs. At the same time, Sam started going regularly to the infirmary for a couple of hours Monday to Thursday mornings with exams on Friday mornings. He explained that the first week would be answering questions and clarifying his readings with a hands-on approach as he explored the tools of the trade and familiarized himself around the space. Sam would spend the rest of the day studying with his weekends a little more free to do what he wanted.

Sam would walk with Mik to the training center before heading to the infirmary in the next building over. Sam would then pick him up when he was done and they’d return to their cabin.

It was the only time Mik got away from Sam. The only time he got to exhale and breathe fresh air that didn’t hold Sam’s scent. The only time he felt the clenching in his chest as he watched Sam walk away to the infirmary, books underarm with a slight skip in his step.

Fucking matebond.

Asshole Noodin was there, waiting for him on his first day.

Hackles raised, Mik forced himself to lower his head in respect.

“Sam tells me that you’re doing well. Straightening yourself out while he focuses on his studies.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“I trust you’ll be on your best behavior while you use my facilities—for Sam’s sake.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“No funny business, Mikwam,” Noodin warned. “I have eyes on you when Sam’s not around. One slip and my wolves will have their claws around your throat. Their teeth ripping out your jugular.”

Mik’s hands balled into fists at his sides. “Yes, Alpha.”

Noodin nodded. “Good. You’re completely healed now: it is time we discuss your next step. Will you and Sam consummate the matebond, pledge your loyalty to me and the pack, or not.”

“Right now?”

Noodin’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Mik in quiet contemplation for a moment. “If you need more time, that’s fine. I can’t force you to consummate a relationship that you’re not ready for—that is entirely none of my business. But we must discuss soon where you stand in this pack. I cannot have an outsider living among us, hunting on our land, eating from our cafeteria, using our health services, and accessing our exercise facilities for long.”

Fuck!

Mik’s nails bit into his palms as he forced his head to bow lower. “Yes, Alpha. I understand.”

“I will check back with you soon. Come, let me show you around.”

Biting back his tongue, Mik followed him into the building. The first floor had an in-ground heated pool with a sauna, change rooms, and washrooms off to the side. The second floor was for combat training. The third floor had exercise equipment. The fourth floor had a lounge and daycare services for pups of wolves exercising or training.

Entering the workout room on the third floor, Mik was surprised by how huge it was. Dozens of machines of every kind lined up next to each other with mirrors on every wall between the windows to let light in. Fans whirled overhead to blow the stink of sweat out the vents. The longest wall of windows held shelves of dumbbells of all sizes with benches lined up before it.

There were a dozen other wolves in the workout room; mostly males but there were a few females as well. All eyes turned toward them and shifted curiously, cautiously, between him and Noodin.

The hairs on his nape bristled. He suppressed a growl, reminding himself to be on his best behavior.

He knew his scent gave him away. He wasn’t one of their own, but a foreign male invading their space.

“Do you know how to work the machines?” Noodin asked, making eye contact with each member of his pack and nodding his head in greeting. Each wolf turned away once acknowledged to continue his or her training.

“I’ll manage,” Mik muttered and, mentally kicking himself, added, “thank you, Alpha.”

“You’re welcome.” It was polite, but Mik could tell—underneath Noodin’s cool, calm exterior—that he detested and was extremely wary of Mik.

Such a fraud. Fake on all levels.

But then... weren’t all Alphas? Concealing their true emotions behind a wall, maintaining appearances of strength and power, yielding to no one, yet showing enough mercy and compassion to hold the loyalty of a pack...

His father was always deadly silent right before he struck. Mik was never able to anticipate it, even though he knew he should have seen it coming.

When Noodin left, Mik headed toward the free weights and picked up the next size up from the ones he’d been lifting at the cabin.

He kept his eyes to himself as he walked to one of the free benches. Every pair of eyes in the room followed him until he sat down to begin his reps. Only then did they turn away and he heard the various machines move and grunts of physical strain to resume.

No one bothered him and Mik kept to himself, his hackles constantly raised, ready to fight anyone who approached him.

He stuck with the free weights the entire time, not daring to move from his bench. Every day for the next week followed in that manner as he upped the weights to the next level. Everyone who came to work out around that time started to get used to his presence and relaxed, often ignoring him altogether.

During his second week of training at the gym, he went over to explore the other machines, examining the diagrams on how to use them before giving them a try.

“You’re supposed to wipe each machine down after use. Same with the dumbbells,” a female called after him when he moved onto the third machine of the day.

Looking around, he caught her eye at a rowing machine. She was a strong-looking female, a bit older than him. Blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail, battle scars on her arms and peeking out of the shoulder strap of her sports bra.

His kind of female.

He smirked at her. “Sorry. Not used to sharing. Where can I replace these wipes?”

She jutted her chin to a canister on the wall with a disinfecting wipe poking out of the bottom. There were several dispersed around the room. How had he missed that?

He nodded at her. “Thanks.”

Walking to the nearest dispenser, he heard her rise up from her machine and follow him. Sweat clung to her clothing—not an unpleasant smell to him. It was the smell of life, of survival, of strength.

When he tugged a wipe free, she was behind him, waiting to grab one for herself.

“Wouldn’t want to give someone a rash from your sweat, would we?” she smirked.

With her closeness, he tried to discretely sniff her and picked up no male scent on her.

“I have never given anyone a rash.”

“You must have sweat touched by the Goddess.”

“I make it a habit of being clean.”

Her emerald eyes twinkled in mirth at his subtleties.

They returned to their machines to wipe them down.

He didn’t speak with the emerald-eyed she-wolf again that day. He did recognize her from previous visits and knew that he would see her again soon.

Sure enough, she was there in the workout room the next day, and the days that followed, arriving before him or at the same time as him. He didn’t speak with her during that week, but the following week he entered the building the same time she had and he greeted her with a crooked grin.

“Hello, stranger,” she smiled back, those emerald eyes unabashedly taking in his muscled physique with approval.

Mik glanced over his shoulder to make sure Sam was well out of hearing range before he leaned his hand against the door to the building and allowed his eyes to mirror her previous actions.

“Strangers don’t meet on a day-to-day basis.”

“Acquaintances, then,” she smirked. “Besides, my schedule hasn’t changed. I’ve been coming here every day at this time for the last few years. You’re the one encroaching on my time slot and turf.”

She pushed the door open and he almost fell in as she strode past him.

He knew this game, this dance between males and females—sizing each other up, measuring the other’s worth, evaluating the other’s strength and intelligence. He already knew she was unmated, strong and fierce in battle. A female warrior that would produce a strong line of pups. She had the arms and legs of a thoroughbred, strong and lean, a tight little bust that didn’t flop around all over the place—not good for fighting. She had the ass that he liked in females—round and curvaceous.

He followed that ass up the stairs to the third floor. She introduced herself as Nikki and he smirked to himself, thinking about how he couldn’t wait to give her a hickey.

He introduced himself but she was playing hard to get and smiled before brushing him off and going about her exercises as she normally did.

The rest of the week carried on with greetings and uninteresting small-talk. She didn’t budge an inch but he repeatedly caught her eying him as he exercised.

He started taking the machines next to hers during the fourth week, striking up little conversations between reps and water breaks. This carried on into his fifth week of training at the gym, where sexual innuendos entered the conversations and he got to know her better. He knew her favorite food, color, dessert, as well as what she enjoyed doing in her free time. He found out she was twenty-eight, the second daughter of four pups to a family of warriors and the only one without a mate.

“I mean,” she shrugged, “if he shows up, great. If it’s the Goddess’ will that he doesn’t... then She must have something better in mind for me.”

He smirked as he brushed his arm against hers. Yeah, to be my luna.

At the beginning of the sixth week, she caught him peering into the combat training room on the second floor and told him he could go in there and use the equipment.

He flashed her a cheeky grin that usually got him what he wanted. “I need a partner, don’t you think?”

“There’s plenty of males around to train with you—you just have to ask.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

A crooked grin played on his lips. “Yeah, but they’re not you.”

The grin on her face matched his own as she pushed the door open and he followed her in.

Damn, he couldn’t wait to pin her to a mat and tap out.

Sam flashed in his mind. His smile that morning. His lingering blue eyes as they ate breakfast together. The heat of his body, inches away from his as they walked toward the pack houses. Sam asleep on his notebook, snoring lightly with a bit of drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

He looked ahead at Nikki’s voluptuous ass, ignored the pain in his chest, and pushed Sam from his mind.