The Defiant Claim - The Claim: Book 2 [LGBTQ+]

Mik understood Sam’s curiosity about the life of a rogue—but it wasn’t a pretty life.

Not only had he nearly frozen to death that first winter, but he got wickedly sick as well. Probably pneumonia if they had a doctor to diagnose him.

They had tried to make their way south for the winter but they didn’t set out early enough and winter caught up to them.

His father almost lost his mind that winter. Stress from the elements and stress from trying to keep himself and Mik alive. Food was scarce and hard to get on his own without a pack to work together as a team. Numerous times, he raged when he failed and when Mik couldn’t take any more of his beatings, he left and didn’t come back for days.

He remembered being terrified that first year. Terrified that his father would leave and never return or beat him to death. He knew he didn’t have what it took to survive on his own. He’d been ten at the time and his father hadn’t taught him how to build and light a fire or build a shelter—probably because he didn’t know himself. He relied on his wolf for everything and wolves didn’t need to build shelters or fires.

It was early spring, when he was thirteen, when they came across Mara and her daughter, Jez. Mara, like Mik’s father, lost her mate and left her pack with her daughter, who was four years older than Mik.

Mara and his father were a pair of horn-dogs. Constantly going at it in whichever form the urge arose in.

The first time he saw them going at it in human form, Jez woke him up after falling asleep during the hottest part of the day—when they usually slept in summer.

‘Hey, wanna see something gross?’ she asked.

Naturally, a curious thirteen-year-old wanted to see something gross.

She motioned him to be as silent as possible. He wrapped his tattered rag of a blanket around his hips and followed her out of the makeshift tent and through the forest.

He could hear them before he saw them. The grunts and moans, the slapping of flesh against flesh—Jez stopped him several yards away before they got too close. He craned his head, bending to the left and the right, trying to get a better view of what his father and Mara were doing.

‘What are they doing?’ he asked Jez in as low a whisper as he could muster.

She giggled. ‘Don’t you know? They’re having sex.’

‘Oh,’ he murmured. ‘So that’s what sex looks like in human form. It looks more… interesting… than in wolf form.’

She giggled again. ‘Oh Goddess, I can’t believe you don’t know! I was just trying to gross you out!’

His father and Mara must have reached their climax then as he let out a fierce grunt and Mara cried out in ecstasy.

‘Woah, what just happened?’ he asked, startled.

‘They’re done.’ She turned away, grabbing his hand and leading him back to the tent.

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means we better move before we’re caught.’

‘No, I mean… what happens? Why did they make those noises? They don’t make those noises in wolf-form.’

She turned to him, her face all scrunched up. ‘You really don’t know, huh?’

He shook his head.

She smirked. ‘Well then… I’ll teach you.’

Mik pushed the memories aside with a belch. He could still feel Sam’s eyes, watching him in horror. He hadn’t moved the last two minutes since telling him about Mara throwing herself off a cliff.

“Were… Were you there when she…?” Sam struggled to utter.

“Yup,” Mik answered, popping the damn ‘p’ the way Jez always did and drove him crazy.

“Holy shit.” Sam put his fork down and tangled his fingers in his hair. “I can’t believe… Damn, that must have been terrible! How old were you when that happened?”

Tilting his head in thought, he tried to recall how many summers that had been since they joined them. “Hm… fourteen? Fifteen?”

“That’s really fucked up, man. I’m so sorry you had to witness that.”

Looking over, Mik studied Sam’s face. He looked… remorseful. Like he genuinely meant what he said.

Mik brushed it aside. “It’s fine. She’s with her mate now. She missed him. My father wasn’t enough for her.” She only stayed with him as long as she did because he filled a need she had—and took the beatings she felt she deserved for fucking around with another male while still mourning and yearning for him.

Sam set his half-eaten meal down and scooted closer with his chair. He leaned his head against Mik’s arm in a comforting gesture. Mik let him, figuring the male needed the comfort more than he did.

Mara was dead. Everyone died at some point. Both of his parents were dead too, even if he hadn’t been present for those. What difference did it make?