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Thirty Four
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ALPHA'S CLAIM Thirty Five
Not sure if it was a good idea for them to be alone together right now, Tasha cautiously began, “Onyx—” But he wasn’t listening. He cupped her elbow, gently pulling her to her feet as he rose to his. His eyes were locked on her like a predator watching its prey that it suspected was about to flee…which wasn’t far from the truth. A part of her was thrilled about the effect this had had on him—it showed that he cared, that he considered her to be as important to him as she needed to feel that she was, that it wasn’t just all a “mine” thing and there was more to his actions than a sense of ownership. But a part of her was nervous as hell. Not that she thought he would harm her. No, never that. Still, the guy could be unnerving at the best of the times. Now, it was bad. With his hand caging her wrist, he guided her at a brisk pace out of the restaurant and into the Mercedes. Bracing herself for a typical dominant male explosion, T
ALPHA'S CLAIM Thirty Six
Guilt nibbled even harder at Tasha as she heard the despondency in his voice. She also found that she didn’t like that he’d called her . He abandoned you, remember, a voice inside her snapped. Yes, he had. But he had also apologized to her, had also been gentle with her, and had never once lost his patience with her no matter what she said or did. Even when she’d physically hurt him that first night, he’d never hurt her, never tried to intimidate her, and never tried to suppress her with his dominant vibes. More importantly, he hadn’t left her no matter what she’d done. “It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt you.” “Oh, really?” His voice dripped with skepticism. “Okay, maybe I wanted you to hurt a little. But I needed to know you weren’t going to abandon me again.” “Ah, I see; well I’m so glad I passed your little test,” he said bitterly. At this point, his head was starting to pound so hard that the sound of his own voice hurt. “What you’re
ALPHA'S CLAIM Thirty Seven
As Onyx tossed back a handful of pills and Trevon sat at the dinette frowning in disapproval, Nick was thinking that this was becoming too familiar. Either the headaches were becoming more painful or the pills were becoming less effective, because he now had to take a higher dosage to dim the pain. The bitch of it was that the dosage and the pain thrown together acted as one hell of a sedative. Any minute now, he’d be in the land of the fairies. It wasn’t until Onyx slumped on the sofa, eyes closed, that Trevon spoke. “That’s three headaches you’ve had today.” His voice was quiet, which Onyx appreciated. “Yeah, well, it was a stressful day.” Trevon cursed. “Onyx, you need to go back to Amber for more healing sessions.”“No.” A heavy sigh. “Onyx—” They’re just headaches. Besides, you know as well as I do that if the sessions didn’t work the first time, they aren’t going to work a second time.”
ALPHA'S CLAIM Thirty Eight
The next morning, Tasha was ready to slip on her shoes and jacket when her cell phone rang. Digging it out of her purse, she saw that the caller was Jean. “If you’re calling to check if I’ll be late, the answer’s actually no, so—” A snort. “Well that would be a first. But that’s not why I’m calling. I want you to take the day off.” Surprised, she paused in her movements. “What? Why?” “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you and Onyx have some serious talking to do. He was severely pissed last night, Tasha, and I can’t say I blame him.” She didn’t blame him either. “You told him about the date, didn’t you?” “Yes. But Trevon was following us anyway, and it wouldn’t have taken much thinking on his part to work out what was going on. What happened when you got back home?” Sighing, Tasha fell back onto the sofa and told him everything. “Is he as good with that mouth as I’ve been betting he is?” A half smile surfaced
ALPHA'S CLAIM Thirty Nine
It was only when she neared the vehicle that the door opened. But it wasn’t Onyx who stepped out. It was Trevon. She frowned when he closed the door behind him and stood in front of it like a protective barrier. “I’ll be driving you to work this morning,” he said stiffly as he came forward, making her shuffle backward. “I want to see Onyx.” His expression hardened. “You’ll have to wait until later.” “I want to see him now.” He arched a brow. “Why? So you can hurt him even more than you already have?” She inhaled deeply. “I understand you’re mad at me, I know how protective you are of Onyx—” “Then we don’t need to have this conversation.” What was bugging her more than Trevon’s reprimanding tone was the fact that Onyx hadn’t come outside. He had to know that Trevon was trying to keep her away; he had to hear what was going on, but he wasn’t interfering. That meant one of two things: Onyx genuine
ALPHA'S CLAIM Forty
Suddenly unsteady, she took a seat on the sofa. She’d noticed the occasional tint of pain in his eyes, but she hadn’t prodded him about it, determined to hide her concern for him…like an insensitive bitch—something out of character for her. She’d let the anger she harbored change her behavior in some ways. No more of that. That wasn’t the person she wanted to be. “I didn’t know about the headaches.” “Why would you? I’ll bet you haven’t taken the time to try to know him at all.” “Look, you can take as many potshots at me as you want. But not now, okay. I need to understand what’s happening with Onyx. And if you’re not going to let me wake him up and talk to him”—not that she really would disturb him, but Trevon didn’t need to know that—“then you’re going to have to be the one to tell me.” He snorted. “After what you did last night, I’m not in the mood to tell you shit. I’m guessing part of the reason you went on that dat
ALPHA'S CLAIM Forty One
Too shocked to speak, Tasha just stared at him. As his eyes took on a faraway quality, Tasha knew he was back there, seeing those flames surrounding him all over again. Wanting to bring him to the present again, she said, “Onyx?” His gaze snapped to her. “You’ve heard of shifters whose animals have surfaced early before, right?” She nodded. “I don’t know any. But I’ve heard that it can happen.” “Do you know what happens to them in later life?” At his hard tone, a blast of cold traveled down her spine. “What?” “Healers aren’t sure why it happens, though they speculate that it’s because the body and the mind were forced to deal with changes they weren’t ready for at a young age and that those changes put too much of a strain on them. It causes the cognitive functions to degenerate later on. When I found you, I was having healing sessions to try to fight it. The sessions worked. But I had that fear that the improvement was only temp
ALPHA'S CLAIM Forty Two
The image of a small version of Tasha feeling so lost and empty that she used her friend as a substitute sister almost broke his heart. “I’ll bet Tala was happy to be part of that game.” Tasha's smile widened. “Yeah, she was. She never had any siblings, so we both got a lot of fun out of that little fantasy.” Her smile faded as she continued. “But maybe I would have coped a lot better if it hadn’t been for what happened when I was four.” It was a struggle for Onyx to keep his voice even when anger was riding him at the idea of anything hurting her. “What happened, Tasha?” “For the first four years of my life, my parents and I didn’t live on pack territory. The Alpha—Tala’s dad, Jakob—didn’t approve of my mom mating a human, even though my dad was her true mate. So they lived in a house close by. But my parents…See, my dad was a Navy SEAL, so he went away a lot. My mom wasn’t very good at handling it—not
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