War Claim (The Claim: Book 3)

Chapter 48 - Animkii (Part 1)

She was flourishing. She struggled against the fifth strongest female warrior, but Animkii could see Chloe's strength and determination shine through.

Her mate was a lucky male.

He didn't stick around long. He watched for an hour before hurrying to the construction site in the midland.

Everything was coming along nicely. The walls were up for all of the buildings, gorgeous stonework blended with brick and wooden panels, with durable slanted roofs. He was in a rush to get everything enclosed before fall so they could spend the colder months inside, painting, decorating, insulating, installing the electrical wiring, plumbing, and heating and cooling. The plan was to move half the pack in in the spring if everything went smoothly.

He thought of Chloe every day. He knew she would have some reservations about reading his journal but it was easier to give it to her than to try and explain everything without getting distracted by the curve of her lips, her scent, and the effect her mere presence had on him. Plus, she could read the journal at her own pace to think and reflect on everything his words shared with her.

He wanted her to understand. He never meant to hurt her all those years ago, but how could he tell her the truth when wolves were supposed to save their hearts for their mates?

After leaving a note to meet him on her front door, he returned to the pickup truck he borrowed from the pack house garage and drove in silence with the windows down and the wind in his face to their meeting spot. It was half a mile from the construction site, where he would park the truck and bring all of the supplies to the glen.

He didn't know how long she'd be or when she was going to finish up with her relatives, so he laid out a blanket on the small patch of grass in the middle of the glen, set out some clothes for her, and pulled out a book. He tried to focus on the story but found himself having to reread passages. His mind wasn't involved as his heart drummed in his chest.

She sprinted in about an hour later, panting hard, and startling the crap out of him.

He snapped his book closed and set it down as he reached for the clothes he brought for her while she shifted back into human form. "You didn't have to run all the way here."

"Maybe I wanted to?"

He turned to her, holding the clothes out and focusing his eyes on hers instead of her naked body next to him. She was crouched down, squatting on her toes with her arms between her legs and her fingers brushing against the earth. The tips of her hair were still dripping wet from crossing the creek a mile back. Streams of sunlight through the treetops from the west turned the copper highlights in her chestnut-brown hair a fiery red, making the shade of green of her eyes that much brighter as they stared back into his.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears as his eyes held hers. The only eyes aside from his family's to ever hold his gaze since he was nine-years-old. Even Madison couldn't hold his gaze the way Chloe did.

"There was no rush. I could have waited all night for you to join me."

His voice was a whisper over the chirping crickets and the hum of the mosquitoes around them. Why was he whispering? Was it because she crouched so close to him, only two feet away but felt closer?

A blush warmed her sun-kissed cheeks as she accepted the clothes he held out to her and lowered her gaze as she turned around to pull them on. "Maybe I didn't want to keep you waiting?" she uttered a little breathlessly back before tugging the large T-shirt over her head.

He swallowed, his thoughts racing and tumbling over themselves like the flip-flopping of his stomach and the unspoken meaning of her words.

Did she miss him as much as he missed her? Did she ache to see him as much as he ached to see her? He'd been giving her space, time to think and absorb the words he wrote in his journal over the last few years while he distracted himself with the new construction—pack houses that he hoped to fill with wolves who would follow his lead, or Anwaatin's should she take over in his place when she found her mate and finished her training.