Claimed (Werewolf boyxboy)

Chapter 13

Jax

Without even realizing it, I had accepted him.

If my father knew what I had just done he would probably do a three-sixty kickflip in his grave, but one look at the happy shine in Corey's brown eyes momentarily silenced any doubtful thoughts before I could begin my usual cycle of overthinking them.

The man was pretty much a big teddy bear, confirmed by the way he gathered me up tightly into his arms after realizing what the severing of our tether meant, the giant man hunching over and burying his face into my neck as I tried my best to push away from his Herculean grip.

I hadn't really wanted to get away from him, my actions being more of an effort to save my crumbling ego that felt like it was a hair's breadth away from shattering, rather than a rejection. But I soon found myself crumbling against the man as his demeanor suddenly shifted and a growl that I could only describe as ferocious, rumbled its way through his chest. 

"Mine."

I took a deep breath of humid air, practically withering in Corey's strong arms as he uttered the word, if it could even be classified as that. It sounded more like some kind of feral grumble than anything, so low that I would have missed it if his lips weren't so close to my ear. The sound was borderline terrifying, dripping with assertiveness as waves of dominant pheromones began to roll off of the man.

I began to tremble.

No, no, no.

I wanted so badly to not fuck up this rare moment, given that fucking up things was damn near considered one of my core personality traits. But I wanted this so bad - this one precious moment - one that should be nothing but joyous and happy as we reveled in the huge step forward that my acceptance brought to our budding relationship. So, I tried my best to take slow, deep breaths in an effort keep my rapidly increasing anxiety under control. 

Please, just let me have this.

"It's okay, Jax. We will be okay. He's our mate, he wouldn't hurt us." I heard Luka in my mind, attempting to calm me as wave after wave of dominant pheromones began to scatter my brain, leaving the broken pieces to find their way into the cracks of the high walls that I'd built to keep out my darkest memories. 

Part of me wanted to curse at my wolf, to scream at him at the top of my lungs for being so absent lately. But another part of me knew that he was probably struggling far worse than I was the past few months, seeing as to how he had long accepted his mate - Corey's wolf - the moment that we laid eyes on him.

I both envied and held a certain degree of anger towards for Luka for being able to love our mate so unconditionally, seeing past the vastly superior degree of dominance that his wolf held over us. My wolf and I were technically one and the same, but sometimes it felt as if we were completely different people.

Luka appeared inside of me at age thirteen - as most wolves do - but by the time he appeared, the damage was already done. Sure, Luka had experienced the tail end of my Father's sick 'lessons,' but he would never truly understand the depth of my scars - both emotional and physical.

He would never know what it was like for me as a three year old, my only wish to be loved by my parents, but instead getting beaten as if I was nothing better than some feral rogue as Father proclaimed that I was to be his perfect Beta heir.

He would never know what it was like for me to be six years old, training myself to hold in my tears because I knew that if Father heard them he would whip me bloody with his big, leather belt.