The Claiming (The Pack Claims a Mate)

  Evernight Publishing

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2013 Sam Crescent

  ISBN: 978-1-77130-670-6

  Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE CLAIMING

  The Pack Claims a Mate, 1

  Sam Crescent

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  Tom Snow glanced over at the bus stop. The scent coming off the voluptuous blonde woman was intoxicating. Licking his lips, he felt an answering pulse in his dick as he watched her flick hair off her shoulder. She was the one. The woman he’d been searching for, for over a decade. Feeling euphoric, he headed toward the mystery woman. She hadn’t spotted him yet, which he was thankful for. Roy, Guy, Stuart, Mark, and Joey were all counting on him to find their one mate. Their time was running out, and he was feeling the desperate ache of the full moon. With each passing year and every full moon, Tom felt the calling of the wolf beast within him.

  Her scent was everything he’d been hoping for. She was wild, unique, and utterly beautiful. His heart pounded as he approached. She hadn’t seen him yet. The bus stop wasn’t busy, but the woman in question was clicking away on her cell phone. She didn’t look up even as he approached.

  Standing beside her, Tom watched as she popped some gum as she continued to work on her phone. When he stood beside her, she finally looked up. She gave him a smile and went back to her phone.

  “Is it me or are buses a pain in the ass?” she asked, giggling.

  Fuck, his cock was going to tear through his jeans. Her voice was the thing of sweet, sex dreams.

  Staring at her, he wondered how he could make her part of his pack. She glanced at him and frowned.

  He checked around the street and saw it was practically deserted. Were the fates on his side? Taking a deep breath, he stepped closer to her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “How would you like to spend the night with me?” he asked.

  She laughed. “You’re not serious?”

  “I’m more serious than you can believe.” Stepping up close, he inhaled her scent. Fuck, she was the one! There was no way he could let her go. “You’re the one,” he said.

  “Look, dude, I don’t know what meds you’re on, but you’ve got the wrong girl.” She hitched her bag high on her shoulder and stepped away from him. The beast within him reacted. Before he could control what he was doing, Tom pulled her into the alley. He covered her mouth to stop her from screaming.

  He expected her to be drowning in fear. What surprised him was the fact she wasn’t terrified of him. Her scent was filled only with anger.

  When he felt her stop fighting, Tom picked her up in his arms and carried her over to his truck. Fuck, he’d just kidnapped a human woman.

  Slamming his fists against the steering wheel Tom tried to fight against his wolf. Crap, fuck, shit, crap. He couldn’t believe he’d just kidnapped a woman. What the hell was he doing?

  Not stopping the truck, he kept on driving until he was well on his way to his house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by layers of trees. The forests were deep and rich with deer and plenty of animals for them to hunt. They rarely entered the human world, but there were times it was necessary. Tom usually let Guy deal with everything in town, but for once he’d wanted to check everything out himself.

  When he was on the path toward his home, Tom finally started to calm down. Humans never walked onto his land. They all kept their distance from him and his wolves. Guy and the twins were the only ones from his pack who tried to fit within the human world. He’d long ago stopped caring for easy sex and the connection with others. Tom had learned to accept he was a wolf, and with that came risks.

  He saw his men stood outside the front door waiting for him.

  Guy, Roy, and Stuart had their arms folded while Mark and Joey were fighting each other. They all stopped when he pulled the truck to a stop. Their bodies tensed as if they sensed he fucked up.

  “What have you done?” Roy asked. Out of all of the wolves, Roy was the quietest and the most intelligent.

  “I found her,” Tom said, climbing down from the truck. He walked around to the other side, opened the truck and let her scent assail them.

  Mark and Joey growled as their beasts took over. “She smells fucking beautiful.”

  “Why is she unconscious?” Roy asked, clearly ignoring her scent.

  “I didn’t know what else to do. She wouldn’t have come.” Tom lifted her into his arms and presented their mate to the rest of his pack. They were all his brothers with him being the eldest. Their parents died many years ago, leaving them alone to fend for themselves. Being the eldest had terrified Tom in the early days whereas now, he was well into his role as alpha. Roy was a couple years younger, with Guy, then Stuart coming next, and then the twins.

  “You kidnapped a human woman?” Guy asked, catching onto Roy’s questioning. They were running out of time. The beast within them was slowly taking hold until there would be nothing left. Their father had warned him about their curse. They were bound by the moon and would have until Tom reached thirty-five before the beast within them would become the dominant figure. If they didn’t find the woman meant for them, on Tom’s birthday they would all be bound to be wolves forever. Tom was thirty-five next year. With five brothers to be responsible for, Tom couldn’t wait anymore. This woman was going to be theirs. She was their last option.

  Their father didn’t have any siblings and didn’t have to worry about others turning into a beast once he was old enough. Tom wouldn’t ruin his brothers’ lives.

  “We’re running out of time,” Tom said, gritting his teeth together to try to stop the fear coursing through his veins. Once he started the mating, for every full moon their woman would spend the month with each of them separately, and that would bind her to them.

  “We’ve got a year, Tom. This is insane,” Guy said.

  “No, it’s not insane. It’s fucking time we found our woman.”

  If everything went to plan, Tom would start the binding ceremony that would result in all of them touching her while he was inside her. Most women would love six men completely devoted to them. He hoped the woman he picked was the right one and not just an act of desperation on his part.

  ****

  Kitty Evans groaned and rubbed at her eyes. Memories of being stood at the bus stop and then the hot man with the sinful brown eyes approaching her, rushed through her. Opening her eyes, she jerked up in bed as six men stared at her. All the men in the room were different yet the same. Glancing at each one in turn, Kitty knew they were brothers. Licking her lips, she noticed they followed the action.

  “Okay, erm, what the hell is going on?” Her shoes were missing, and she was on a bed, in a house she didn’t recognize. The guy from the bus stop stepped forward. “I know you.”

  “I’m Tom Snow. These are my brothers, and you’re our mate.”

  Staring at them all, Kitty burst out laughing. “Good one, and now I’m bored and need to get going.” She moved toward the end of the bed ready to start travelling to wherever she wanted to go. When was the last time she’d been asleep in a comfortable bed? She
couldn’t help but compare the bed she was lying on to all the others that had gone before. Having no home, no job, and no way of making a future for herself, Kitty was all alone in the world. Her mother had died from cancer a year ago. Every single penny from her childhood home had been sold to pay for the hospital bills and the funeral. Her father was a waste of time and wouldn’t be helping out any time soon. Penniless, alone, Kitty had grabbed her few items of clothing and gone travelling. When she got a few waitressing jobs she saved up enough money to move on.

  It wasn’t a great existence, but it was one she’d come to accept.

  Tom sat next to her. “No, this is not a joke. This is real life.” He took hold of her hand, and she couldn’t stop the thrill that charged through her from his touch. Why wasn’t she terrified? Six men she didn’t know and she was more turned on than afraid. It was weird and strange, and none of it made sense.

  “Mate? What the hell are you talking about?” she asked.

  Run, Kitty, run.

  The other large man who’d been stood beside Tom cleared his throat. “Maybe you should tell her our names before you dive into that.”

  Tom growled.

  “Look, you guys seem nice and all that for not doing stuff to me while I was sleeping, but I really don’t know what you’re on and you’re making me very uncomfortable.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Tom said.

  She frowned at him. For many years she’d been living her life without anyone telling her what to do. There was no way she was going to let this gorgeous, controlling man tell her what to do. Looks were not everything.

  “I’m Roy.” The quiet man with the hazel hair and matching eyes spoke up. His voice was soft, and she couldn’t help but shiver from the intensity of his voice.

  “Hi,” she said. His gaze didn’t fall from her eyes. There was something hypnotic about him. She got the sense he was in control no matter what was occurring. For some strange reason Kitty felt safe in knowing that about him.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “It’s Kitty.”

  “Really?” Tom asked, interrupting their moment. She frowned and turned her attention back to the man beside her. He’d kidnapped her, and she wasn’t freaking out. What was wrong with her?

  “Kitty Evans is my name, and it’ll be all over the news when they hear you’ve taken me,” she said, lying.

  Tom scented the air. Out of all the men, he was the oldest, strongest, and darkest in coloring. His hair looked almost black, and there was an edge in his eyes. None of this made any sense to her at all.

  “You’re not claimed by another man. You’re all alone in this world,” Tom said, obviously seeing right through her lie.

  Biting her lip she looked down at her hands, which were clasped together in her lap.

  “Damn, he’s going to fuck this up like he does everything.” One of the men knelt in front of her. He didn’t touch her but caught her eye by the charming smile on his face. “Hi, I’m Guy Snow. Forgive my alpha here. He’s a bit of an ass when it comes to women. His age makes him a little impatient.”

  She chuckled and heard a growl come from beside her. The sound made her pussy pulse in awareness. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

  Kitty gasped as she felt all of them approach and inhale. Opening her eyes, she wasn’t wrong. All six men were watching her, sniffing the air around her.

  “I’ve really woken up in a fantasy land,” she said, rubbing her throbbing temple.

  “No, you haven’t.” Tom took hold of her hands. He was so warm, and his scent surrounded her, making her feel comforted by his presence alone. She whimpered, not understanding what the hell was going on. Waiting for a bus shouldn’t lead to this much confusion. “I’m Tom and you’ve met Roy and Guy. The guy with the glasses is Stuart. He’s always got his head in a book. Then there are the twins. It’s hard to tell them apart, but I can by scent. Mark and Joey.”

  She watched each man step forward. Kitty saw the difference in the two twins immediately. Mark was the serious one. His arms were folded, and there was a frown on his face whereas Joey looked happy. She figured Mark could never really pull offs that happiness if his life depended on it.

  Why was she even thinking about these men?

  “Why did you take me? None of this makes any sense to me.”

  Tom stroked her cheek. She wanted to pull away, but instead she stayed seated, watching him.

  “You’re our woman, Kitty. I can’t let you go. You’re our mate.”

  She laughed. “You see, every time you say ‘mate’ I think of werewolves and vampires, which is crazy. None of them exist.”

  “Joey, change.”

  Turning toward the indicated twin, Kitty watched in rapt amazement as the man started to strip. He removed his shirt, and she covered her eyes.

  Tom pulled at her hands. “Watch.”

  Giving Joey her full attention, she watched as slowly his body changed. Where there was once skin fur remained. Bones were broken, but she didn’t hear them break. They seemed to mold into something she didn’t recognize, and then she saw the wolf standing before her.

  Everything went blank.

  Chapter Two

  Tom caught her before she hit the floor. Kitty had passed out at the sight of the wolf. Joey changed back, completely naked with a new pair of jeans shredded around him.

  “Great, these cost me over fifty bucks to get,” Joey said.

  “How are we supposed to mate to a woman who can’t even stay conscious for us?” Mark asked.

  Rubbing his eyes, Tom eased her back under the covers. This was their mate. He sensed it and felt his wolf beneath the surface. His wolf scented her skin and knew the truth like him. Kitty was their woman, and no matter what his brothers said, he wasn’t letting her go.

  “This is our mate,” he said, facing his brothers.

  “Tom, she doesn’t even know about our kind,” Roy said.

  “So? It doesn’t matter. We’ll make her aware of them.”

  “Is this because of your age?” Guy asked. “There are plenty of women in the world to fuck and mate with.”

  “I don’t have time!” He yelled the words, glancing down at Kitty to make sure he hadn’t woken her up.

  Motioning for them to move out of the room, he closed the door, locking it behind him. He didn’t want to risk her escaping or hurting herself in any way.

  “This is insane. You can’t steal a girl and expect her to mate with you just because you think you’re out of time.”

  Tom growled, shoving Guy up against the wall. They were brothers, but he was the alpha and for that reason he demanded some respect even from them. “Don’t even start trying to tell me what to do.” He snarled, getting up close in Guy’s personal space before he took a step back. “If all of you were to access your wolf and get a good sniff of her, you’d all realize that the woman passed out in bed is our destined mate. I didn’t pick a woman out of desperation. I picked the woman meant for us.”

  He’d gone out hunting for a woman in desperation, but he wasn’t about to tell them the truth. Desperation had been his motivation, but he’d succeeded in finding the right woman for him.

  Letting out a breath, he stared at each of them in turn.

  “Tom, she has to agree,” Mark said.

  “I know what the claiming is all about. Didn’t any of you scent her interest in us? I smelled her desire, and she wants us.” Tom would argue for the rest of the day if it meant convincing his brothers of his decision.

  “Her body wants us. Her mind is not sure,” Roy said, cutting through his argument.

  “I don’t care. She’d our mate, and we’re going through with this. By the end of the month I’ll be initiating the claiming, and from that moon for the next six we all have to bond with her.” It was their mating rule as a pack and as brothers. “Please, don’t try and tell me what we need as a pack. I know what we need.”

  He left them alone and headed downstairs out of
the kitchen door and into the cold air. Tom needed the cold in order to deal with the thoughts running around his head. Nothing was safe, and he felt on edge. With every day that passed his wolf grew closer and closer to the surface, begging to be released. He knew he couldn’t let his wolf come out even though the fight to stay human was harder each passing moon.

  This is it. Kitty is our mate, and we’ll all be fine. Everything will be fine so long as my brothers do as I bid and mate with her.

  Staring up at the sky, he saw the clear blue and felt the crisp cold edge against his skin.

  “I can do this.”

  “We won’t hate you if we all turn into wolves,” Roy said, invading his quiet.

  Turning around, he looked at his brother. There were only a few years separating them, and there were times Roy felt more like his twin than anything else. Roy knew what he was thinking, feeling, and knew how to handle him.

  “Really? What about in twenty years when we can’t be around humans anymore because the scent of flesh and blood would be too hard to control?” Tom asked. It was so easy for all of his brothers to assure him of their feelings. None of them knew what it was like to live with their beast so close every day. He did. Being alpha meant he needed to be at one with his beast in order to protect and serve the pack. Unlike his brothers, he couldn’t just decide to not be in charge. This was his destiny. This was the path his father had warned him about time and again.

  Closing his eyes, he stared back up at the sky, which held the only calm he was interested in.

  “Are you really sure?”

  “The others are doubting me?” he asked.

  “They’re not sure if you’ve made the right decision or the desperate decision.” Tom wouldn’t get angry. They all thought he was hanging on by a thread, and none of them were wrong. He was hanging on by a thread, but he’d been doing his damn hardest not to show any of them how bad it was getting.