The Defiant Claim - The Claim: Book 2 [LGBTQ+]
Chapter 38 - Mik

Sam’s heat carried on, building every three hours until Mik put out his fire. They ate when they could. Slept when they could. Showered when they could. They ran out of food Saturday evening and Sam called Luna Aki for assistance.

Dr. Waaban had already informed her of their situation and told them that she’d have Alpha Noodin deliver some food for them.

Oshki’s mate, Curtis, turned out to be guarding their cabin against unmated males picking up Sam’s scent, unable to help themselves from the primal nature to mate anyone in heat—male or female, it seemed.

The last thing Sam wanted was for the rest of the pack to learn of his chromosomal abnormalities, but that was out of his control now.

When Sam wasn’t an exhausted, starving, raving horndog, he was extremely embarrassed for Curtis outside. No doubt he could hear everything...

Apparently, after they sealed the matebond, the unmated males drifted away and stopped coming, but Curtis maintained his post in wolf form just in case.

At the crack of dawn Sunday morning, Mik put out Sam’s fire for the last time. Both of them too exhausted to care about their hunger for nourishment or thirst for water. They fell asleep and didn’t wake up until dinnertime.

Sam’s body ached and he cried when he took his first dump

Mik hung his head, guilt wracking him when he heard Sam crying out in pain. He rubbed him raw, with spots of blood dotting all over their bed, and yet Sam’s heat drove him for more and Mik had to give it.

Mik drew a bath for them and gently scrubbed them both clean before setting Sam back on the bed—on his side, as his asshole ached. Another call for food was placed before informing Luna Aki that Sam’s heat had come to an end. He was advised to open all the windows and air-out the cabin but to save the cleaning for tomorrow. She understood that they had no strength left for that kind of work.

Curtis checked up on them when Alpha Noodin came over with food and a tray of eggs and bacon for breakfast tomorrow. Neither one of them stuck their noses too close to the door, but merely asked how everything was and if they needed anything else. The only thing Mik could think of was a new blanket and pillows and some laundry detergent.

They needed a new bed and mattress too but that could wait. Mik wanted to make the frame, headboard, and baseboard himself as his next project.

Curtis gave Mik a nod of his head before leaving and Noodin cleared his throat once the male was out of hearing range.

“When things have settled down here, I expect a meeting with you on what you plan to do next.”

Swallowing, Mik knew what the older male was referring to.

His place.

His place was beside Sam. Always.

And Sam belonged in this pack. Loved his Alpha and Luna. He would never leave them. He was training to become a nurse for the pack. This was his home.

And Sam was Mik’s home. His place of belonging was with him. He never had a place he could call “home” but he found it with Sam. He just needed to figure out his place in it.

“I understand. I’ll call you in a few days,” Mik told him.

With the food in hand, Mik closed the door. As he warmed it up, he thought about his options and whether or not he could submit to Noodin—his enemy. The one who killed his family. Destroyed his life. But also the one who took care of Sam when no one else would.

He had a choice. A decision to make. One that would last a lifetime.

He wasn’t a leader or a follower.

But he owed this male—this alpha—his gratitude and a chance.

Springtime thaw. A continuous drip-drip-drip from the tips of trees and buildings. Snow melted away, giving birth to purple and yellow crocuses in the warm sunshine. New life. New starts.

The members of the Zhooniyaa Miskwi Pack, young and old, gathered around in their wolf forms (for those who could) with Alpha Noodin and Luna Aki facing them in their human forms in the open valley a hundred feet away from the pack house. Their son stood next to Luna with their newborn pup in her arms, bundled in the softest furs and the pack’s beta couple on the Alpha’s left.

Mik knelt before the Alpha and Luna, his torso uncovered. The sun warmed his scar-laced back—the markings of his retribution for trying to over-throw the alpha, luna, and pack, and for hurting Sam. He wasn’t proud of them, but they were the markings of a new life. Of a second chance. Along with Sam’s claim on his shoulder, he wore it proudly for all to see.

Sam stood a few feet behind him, standing proud with his head high, chest bare, and Mik’s claim visible to all.

Mik knew Sam was anxious to stand before his pack without a shirt on. His physical differences visible to all, but Mik refuted his request to cover himself.

“You’re mine and I want them all to see that. I don’t care what they think about you. If they fuck with you, then they have to face me and my justice.”

It was time for both of them to start again—as a mated pair. For Mik to join the pack and submit to Alpha Noodin and Luna Aki.

He never thought he’d see the day where he’d submit to his enemy, but he learned it was for the best. He was made of Alpha blood but the instinct to lead others—and lead justly—had been beaten out of him. He tried and failed. But he realized that wasn’t his destiny. He wasn’t meant to lead a pack and take care of a pack, he was meant for Sam. To love him, care for him, and fight for him all the days of his life. He needed, more than anything, to be loved unconditionally and not have to prove to anyone his worth. Sam gave him what he needed. He was strong enough to withstand the storms that Mik threw his way and gentle enough to soothe him to sleep with his head on Sam’s lap.

And Sam cherished every moment with him. He grew stronger, overcoming the odds of anyone who ever fell from a cliff and survived.

He had the strongest heart of anyone Mik had known and he was his. Never again would he let his male feel small, defective, or unworthy of love. He wanted to slaughter those retched wolves who raised him—if only Sam and Alpha would let him, but he knew they wouldn’t.

Alpha Noodin demanded the full attention of the wolves gathered around them with a tribal yell and an exertion of energy that thrummed in the air before him.

“Mikwam, mate of Samuel of the Zhooniyaa Miskwi Pack, do you hereby pledge your complete loyalty and submission to me and my mate and Luna, Aki?”

“I do.”

“And do you pledge loyalty, brotherhood, and honor to your fellow packmates in all that you do?”

“I do.”

The beta handed a knife, the blade laced with silver, to Alpha Noodin. Taking it, he pressed the blade into the palm of his hand without flinching and sliced open his flesh before passing it to Luna Aki to do the same. The knife was then handed to him and Mik cut both of his palms and held them up to them. They each clasped a hand and pressed their bloody palms together, binding himself to them in a blood-bond of loyalty.

Their jaws hardened as they glimpsed into the memories of his past while he likewise glimpsed into theirs. He witnessed many happy memories along with all of their trials and tribulations—the greatest being the losses of their first and secondborn males. Taken by his father before his father was shredded.

Pulling away, the beta male and female stepped forward to wrap his palms in gauze lined with a medicinal salve to promote healing since the silver cuts would normally take a week.

Turning Mik around to face the pack, Alpha called to attention all present with another tribal shout to announce their newest member but all Mik saw was Sam grinning. Everything else faded into the background. All that mattered was that male, standing on his own now, not completely back to his full strength but close enough to shift and run at his side during his first run as a member of the pack.

Howling, everyone present in their wolf forms took off after the alpha and luna once they had shifted. Mik stayed at Sam’s side near the back of the pack, neither wanting nor fighting for a higher rank in the stream of wolves running forward through the forest, jostling for position. He knew he was above most of them, but didn’t care. In some ways, he still felt like an outsider, but at least he was an outsider with a home and a mate and that was all that mattered.