☽☾ ☽☾ ☽☾
I was running.
This couldn't be real. I could barely mentally digest the levity of this situation, the only reminders of reality was the icy wind braiding through my fur and stinging my eyes. Each time my claws met the ground, there was a resounding crunch as my paws broke the iced dew crusted forest floor.
I was running.
Through the haze of my disbelief, I was running, swerving around trees and logs, listening to the stud huff and puff of my lungs, and the distant trampling of the male wolves chasing.
When I stopped it was only to sniff at the air, getting the scent of the new area before breaking out in a dead sprint once again, angling my body like a needle shooting through the winter woods.
"Whose woods these are? I think I know!" I could feel a distant memory pushing past the threshold of my focus as the familiar burn in my legs began.
"His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow," Between the sting of the icy wind and the bleeding memory of my mother oozing through, I could feel hot tears pooling into my eyes, blurring my sight.
I lurched over another fallen tree, my lung aching as I felt the memory crackle like static on a bad radio station. Her face wasn't all there, but I could see her pale lips, cracked and weak as she mouthed the words of the poem.
"Mom, stop you don't have to finish, you're just making yourself weaker!" My voice rang through and I gritted my teeth pushing myself faster.
"No, I'm fine," She feebly argued, her lungs rattling as she spoke. "One more story for my bitty pup."
I stopped in my tracks suddenly, hacking as I could feel the sobs building up in my massive chest, my wolf form not knowing what to do with this emotion. The memory was more static over a grainy film.
I had buried the memory of my mother's final days so very deep I had forgotten them, leaving them to stale in the vault of my past.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep," I looked up as I heard the yips and howls growing closer and I shot forward, determined to reach the end of the territory. It couldn't be much farther, could it?
"And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep..." Those words took the wind from my sails as I could feel the impending exhaustion leaking through. But I could not stop. I forced my legs to keep moving, my breaths dissolving into steam in the air as the tears leaked down my furry cheeks.
I could no longer hear the trampling of the male wolves. I was limping, my wolf weak from exhaustion and black-edged into my vision. I continued a slow, shaky pace, trying to calm my heart and avoid blacking out. My breathing was like violent hacking, dwindling on the edge of hyperventilating.
I had been running for almost an hour.
I yelped when my body hit the ground and I began to ungracefully shift back into my human form. My wolf was far too exhausted and was choosing to regress before she became far too injured or worse.
My body was covered in a thick layer of sweat, dry tears sticking to my bare cheeks and fresh, warm tears still sprouting. I forced myself to stand, my entire body wobbly as I tried to walk and I hissed, feeling the wintry wind hit my wet skin. I looked down at my calf where the thin pouch had been secretly secured and I quickly pulled it off, my body shivering violently from the cold.
It was nothing more than a padless sports bra and a pair of spandex shorts. I gritted my teeth, tugging them on as I continued to shakily climb deeper into the forest.
I kept an attentive ear listening for any snapping branches or crunching leaves that weren't forested wildlife as I ventured deeper toward the end of the territory. It was eerily silent though. The bleaching mooning peaked through the canopy of the woods, casting beams on the icy forest floor, causing shadows to dance at me in the darkness.
My teeth were viciously chattering, my muscles seizing from the frigid temperature.
Although I couldn't hear anyone, the sounds of the wolves long since faded off into nothing, I felt a great sense of unease. Something wasn't right. It was the sensation of being watched like I was being stalked. My nerves were on high alert and I flinched at every sound.
I saw a break in the thick woods ahead and I quickened my pace, chills crawling down my spine as I tried to run from this unknown entity. At last, I broke through into the moonlit, round clearing. My body was damn near seizing from the cold, and every gasp of air I drew in felt covered in ice.
I clenched my eyes shut, forcing a calmness over myself as I looked up and noticed something on the far side of the clearing.
It was a neon orange ribbon, attached to a wooden stake in the ground.
On the trees above the stake was the faint telltale signs of neon spray paint that had decayed of the bark over the years.
My heart stopped.
It was the property line.
The edge of Central Point Neutral Territory.
Hot tears pooled into my cold, wind-battered eyes as I choked on a sob. The sound of a car passing on the highway just beyond made my heart thump back into action. The cold was no longer a competitor in this race as I blindly took my first step forward toward freedom.
My foot fell over a delicate, frail stick, that gave a clear, crisp snap as my weight rolled off of it.
My euphoria, the taste of victory, the contentment was sapped away with a parasitic noise a few short meters behind me. A predatory growl.
Reality plummeted back to me once again and I balked, feeling the wind brush against me from behind. On that cold breeze was his scent. The clean linen, the refreshing tea tree, buried in his natural earthy musk with a warm side of Joe.
Warm...
I took a millisecond, as time suddenly began to move slower in the next few moments, and cast a horrified glance over my shoulder.
There, among the shadows of the trees, was his burning amber gaze, trained solely on me.
My feet felt like they were filled with cement as I gritted my teeth and forced my sore, muscles to move. It was sluggish and I tripped twice, clambering toward the neon ribbon which now looked much farther away than before.
I lurched forward, my body clumsy from exhaustion and weakly stumbling like a newborn mare. I could hear his footsteps, each crunch against the ground made me wince and I cried out, scrambling to move faster toward the property marker.
My energy seemed all but gone.
I reached out, arm extended, the ribbon mere feet away and heard the tell-tale signs of a shift.
I gasped, feeling a hot hand grab around the frostbitten skin of my ankle. At that touch, I screamed. The lurch in my heartbeat, the tingles in my body from his touch only reaffirmed that this deity was my mate. And he wasn't going to let me go.
I fell forward, fingers grazing the line and I reached, my fingertips grasping at the ribbon. With the weak neon ribbon, I tried to pull my body forward, and only uprooted the stake.
Suddenly, my body was being drugged backward, and the freedom beyond the line began to fade away as I screamed out in protest.
"No!" I screeched, kicking his hand off quickly and scrambling forward through the leaves and brush toward the line again.
But this time I felt his long and warm arms lace around my waist, hoisting me into the air as I cried, tears bubbling down my cheeks while I kicked and reached, fighting to escape his hold. My feet grazed the ground and I dove forward, hearing him grunt as I slipped out of his arms.
Yet his hand attached to my wrist, and just as soon as I ran forward, I was like a dog being snapped back my a leash and he spun me into his chest. I rammed into him with as much strength I had left.
"No! Let me go!" I shouted at him, hearing the air leave his diaphragm as we tumbled to the ground. I spun off of him, clawing my way on all fours back toward the line.
But he was stronger. He was faster. He wasn't exhausted like me.
His large, warm and bare body plowed into me, flattening me to the forest floor as I yelled and squirmed beneath him.
"Bastard! You fucking monster!" I sobbed, the salty tears spilling into my mouth as I cried, my fingers digging into the dirt as he trapped me underneath his body. I was suddenly flipped over amid my crying and shivering mess.
He was warm, just like a fluffy blanket, wrapped in his touch. His warmth was overwhelming and damn near soothing. I peered up at him through the blurring tears in my eyes and glared at him with such hate.
It had to be my imagination, the tears blurring my vision, but I could have sworn that his liquid gold eyes were...sympathetic? It was like they were twisted with regret as he watched me writhe and cry beneath him.
But even as I lay there, officially claimed by this man, I heard him utter three words I never expected to come from a monster like him.
"I'm so sorry..."
(A/N) #2 IN CLAIMING?! OH MY GOD
welcome back hoes, it's Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed reading this spicy chapter. Also, if you didn't play it while reading, give the video above a listen. I based this chapter off of it.
Big thanks to everyone who has been continuing to vote and comment! If this reception continues, then a sequel may be in the works. ;) Don't forget! Every vote and comment get's a virtual hug! (>'_')> Don't stay quiet, let me hear your thoughts! They always make my day.
WATTY AWARDS ARE COMING UP! unfortunately, The Mating Season will not be completed by the end of September, but is projected to be finished by end of October. If you would like to support me as an author, check out Another F***ing Werewolf Story. It should be completed before the deadline and is 100% a roller coaster ride.
**To my new readers: How did you like the way this chapter ended? Are we holding any hostility toward Donovan? Any frustrations to Marcel? What do you think will happen when she goes back to the Claiming Ceremony?**
**To my re-readers: Did you prefer the previous version which took place during the day time? It was warm, there were flowers, and doves and other cringe shit. Whereas this version it is dark, cold, and scary...Donovan almost seems to be like a beacon of warmth to me?**
15 COMMENTS AND 20 VOTES and I will update before Saturday!