Claimed by the Pack

I love you…

I wanted so very badly to say it. The words were right there! And I felt that she wanted to say it too, or at least hear it from my end. In theory it was foolish. An impossibility. But considering the uniqueness of our bond, considering all that had happened, it also felt like the most natural thing in the world.

I rolled off of her, enjoying the way her dark hair fell over one side of her beautiful face. Serena lay there breathless, legs open, come trickling down the inside of one porcelain thigh.

“That… That was…”

“That was necessary,” I breathed, collapsing beside her. I moved one hand gently to the side of her face and turned her to face me. “But still amazing.”

For a while we just laid there, silently pressed up against one another, sharing the same pillow. The pull was gone. The Call had finally been sated. We basked not only in the glory of sexual release, but in our mutual relief from the relentless longing and desire.

She snuggled closer, into me. Our faces were just inches apart.

“Is Damien going to be mad?”

I smiled, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, there was nothing else behind it. “No. In fact, he’ll actually be

relieved.”

She didn’t look puzzled. I thought she would.

“So this is how it is with you two? How it was with… Karessa?”

The word no longer phased me. So much of the pain was already gone. “Yes. We shared her together, as our mate.”

Serena’s skin was slick, and a tiny pool of perspiration had formed in the hollow of her throat. I watched it go up and down as she swallowed.

“Together together?”

I sighed contentedly. “Sometimes.”

Her eyes flared. I could see that the idea excited her.

“Okay, often.”

She placed a hand on my chest. Lazily she began tracing the lines there with one fingernail. Minutes went by and I let her go on, saying absolutely nothing.

Maybe this wasn’t a mistake…

It was possible. But still unlikely.

I spooned her for a long time as we marinated in the silence. We were safe here. Safe to rest and recover, to enjoy the welcome warmth of the kerosene heater as it soaked into our naked bodies.

Eventually she turned around, and her eyes met mine. I saw the same look there again — the same connection — as when I’d spent myself inside her.

“When I was eleven,” Serena said, “I fell and hit my head. Hard.”

I let her go on. She could tell me anything.

“And when I woke up two days later, I found I could move things with my mind…”

21

SERENA

It all happened in the fifth grade.

We’d been watching the Red Badge of Courage. English class, Mr. Reilly. As usual, I was in the front of the class — put there because I’d probably been caught goofing off with my friends. I was sitting a little too close to the screen, and leaning back in my chair to see better… and that’s when everything changed for me.