Claimed (The Caged Wolf #2)

1. Chase

Chase

Rubbing the bump on the back of my head, I press my free hand into the cave wall as I climb back to my feet as water drips down my chest and back.

I quickly look around and see the others doing the same.

All except Bain, who’s still standing in the center of the cave, clutching Cherry to him in her wolf form.

“Fuck,” I hiss, surging through the water toward them as fear and panic roll through me.

Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.

Only a few things in my life have ever truly scared me. Seeing Cherry scream in pain as light exploded from her right after finding out she’s my mate, soars to the top of that list.

I stare at her wolf's limp body held tightly in Bain’s arms. My stomach tightens with fear.

We all close in on them, but I make it first, my hands running over her, looking for signs of life. “Don’t die on me now,” I growl, panic keeping me from finding her pulse.

“Is she dead?” Hunter asks, his voice cracking as his hand tightly grips my shoulder.

“No, she’s breathing,” Maddox says, but I can’t stop searching for signs of her heart beating, needing to see proof that she’s alive with my own two eyes.

“Come on, pretty girl. Don’t do this to me,” I growl, my hands running down her neck in search of a pulse.

“Chase, she’s alive,” Hunter says, giving my shoulder a small shake.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I need to see. I can’t lose her!” My voice catches on the last word, and suddenly Maddox grabs me and forcibly yanks me toward him, his hands tightly gripping my shoulders as he forces me to look at him.

“Chase! Snap out of it. She’s alive. Look.” He lets go of one of my shoulders and points to her side. His bite of alpha command has me calming long enough to take a breath and watch. Then I see it. Her chest is rising and falling. She’s breathing.

All the tension fades out of me at once, and I stumble to the side, Maddox and Hunter quickly steadying me between them.

“She’s alive?” I ask, regaining my stance as I reach out and lay my hand on her side, making sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.

“She is,” Gage confirms as he gently strokes her head, staring at her face.

She’s alive.

Thank the fucking Goddess.

I have never been more scared in my entire life.

I take a few deep breaths, waiting for my heart to stop racing as my mind spins with images of what just happened. The burst of light threw me back so hard I smacked my head on the wall of the cave. Luckily, my accelerated healing means it doesn’t hurt anymore, but still…

“What the fuck was that?” I ask as my stomach tightens again with unease.

The strange light felt different from the one when she regenerated; there was less heat and more power, as if it had merged with something inside me. Even now, I can feel it, humming in my chest. But it’s not the completion of a mate bond. Somehow, I know this is something different.

“I don’t know,” Maddox says as we all stare at her unconscious body.

“What the hell happened?” Bain asks angrily before a look of pain crosses his face. Worriedly, he asks, “Did I do that to her?”

Gage shakes his head as he studies her. “I don’t think so. It’s almost as if her body was overwhelmed.”

“With what? The bonds?” Maddox asks in confusion.

“Or power.”

“What power?” I ask, pushing my hair back from my face in frustration at not understanding what’s going on. Finding your fated mate should be a joyous occasion, followed by bonding and lots of sex. This is nothing like how I expected it would go if I ever met my mate.

But as my eyes find their way back to her, I know I wouldn’t change a thing about her.

“None of us know what the effects of having five mates could do to her body. You each felt it when you confirmed there was a fated mate bond with her, right?” Gage asks as he glances at each of us.

We all nod, and I rub at my chest, a small smile pulling at my lips from the memory.

“Fuck yeah,” Hunter says, stealing the words from my mind. “She’s definitely mine.”

“Imagine that power times five,” Gage explains, and I start to understand what he means. Feeling that bond was like a jolt of electricity running through me. If she felt the same thing with each of us, she felt that times five.

“But why the bright light? I thought she was dying,” Hunter asks.

Gage just shakes his head as he frowns at her. “I’m not sure.” He studies her like she’s a puzzle he’s trying to put together.

“Should we get her to shift?” I ask as I reach out and stroke her head, itching to touch her. “I want to see her again. I didn’t get nearly enough time.”

“She looks tired. Let's not make her shift again just yet,” Maddox says as he watches her. “Besides, she’s unconscious. Let’s save it for when she can give consent and actually talk to us.”

Bain starts to carry her back through the waterfall as we all follow closely, unwilling to let our mate out of our sight.

“How is this even possible?” I ask as we start to step out of the pond. “How can she have five mates?”

“I have no clue,” Gage says, staring at the ground in front of him, deep in thought.

“It’s a miracle,” Hunter says, and when I look at him, he’s smiling at her.

“The five of us don’t have to worry about being separated anymore.

We share a mate now, so we’re brothers for life.

” He looks at each of us with a smile that tells me this had been something that’s been bothering him for some time.

I hadn’t realized he was worried about losing our pack. Before we met Red—Cherry—I assumed if any of us met our fated mate, she’d just move into the house with us. But I now realize that’s pretty unusual; normally, fated mates live on their own.

Sharing her with the four of them has so many added benefits, the biggest being what Hunter has already pointed out, that we get to stay together.

“Can I hold her?” I ask Bain as I hold out a towel to wrap around her wet body. He frowns at me, like he really doesn’t want to let her go, but silently concedes by passing her into my arms. I wrap the fluffy towel around her as I pull her close to my chest.

My wolf surges to the surface, filling me with his happiness at being closer to her, and his smugness at knowing he was right this whole time, that she’s our fated mate.

The best part? Even though she’s in wolf form, I can now picture her face. And what a fucking gorgeous face it is. Big, soulful blue eyes, a cute little nose with pouty lips, and beautiful, long, red hair that matches her wolf’s coat.

And now I have a name to go with that face.

Cherry.

I glance at Bain, who’s walking at my side, and grin. “Remember that bowl of cherries?”

A small frown pinches at his brow, then they rise in realization, and he smirks at her. “She was trying to tell us her name,” he says in amusement as he reaches over and strokes her head.

“Smart girl,” Maddox says from my other side.

“Smarter than us, apparently,” I say with a shake of my head.

I step up onto the back porch as Hunter pulls the back door open for us. He heads straight to the gas fireplace and starts it up as I move to sit down in front of it. Cherry loves this spot for some reason, and I want her to feel as safe and comfortable as possible when she wakes up.

“Do you think she’ll be out for a while?” I ask as I rub the towel along her body.

“Yes,” Gage says as he grabs his laptop and sits in the armchair. “Don’t forget, she’s still recovering from her regeneration yesterday. Last time she slept for several days. Not to mention, we have no idea what shifting and revealing the mate bonds did.”

After I towel-dry her as much as I can, I shift her so she’s closer to the fire and stare down at her tiny wolf form. “How tall do you think she is?”

“I was only looking at her face,” Hunter answers.

“I’m not sure. When her back was to me, I was distracted by her long, red hair,” Maddox tells us. “It covered her entire back.”

“She felt tiny,” Bain says, then frowns. “She’s too small.”

“Hey!” I hiss at him, placing my hands over her ears so she can’t hear him. “She’s perfect! Don’t say that!”

He rolls his eyes at me as he leans back on the couch. “I just meant that she needs some fattening up.”

“Goddess, Bain. Promise you won’t say that to her?” Maddox asks him with exasperation.

He presses his lips together with narrowed eyes before he concedes. “Fine.” But I can see by the glint in his eye that he’s not giving up on this yet.

“I think a few more days and we can leave,” Maddox tells us, changing the subject. “Trevor has already questioned half of Kane’s men.”

“Do you think he can do the job? Run the pack?” I ask. While Cherry had been recovering, Maddox had spoken to several other alphas about who wanted to run it, and Trevor became the obvious favorite.

He nods. “Yes. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He might not have the highest power level, but he’s respected amongst the other alphas and the betas, and he’s quickly becoming a natural leader.”

“Should we start packing up our SUV?” Hunter asks.

“That’s gonna be a tight fit,” I say, realizing that we aren’t coming back here.

“I have a plan,” Gage says, gaining our attention.

“Pack everything you want to have at our new home, but don’t need straight away.

I’ll arrange a moving company to come and get it once we’re settled out there.

I’ve already got a local realtor lined up to put this house on the market as soon as I give the word.

Everyone just pack what you need to survive a couple of weeks. We don’t want to overfill the plane.”

“What plane?” Maddox asks before I can.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Gage asks, looking genuinely surprised.

“Tell me what?”

“We’re taking a private jet to South Carolina.”

A burst of laughter escapes me at how casually he says that. “We’re flying there?” I ask around my chuckles.

He shrugs. “The drive would take days. And even if we wanted to be stuffed into a commercial flight, they aren’t going to let her in the cabin,” he says, pointing at the unconscious wolf in my lap.

“It’s a good plan,” Maddox says with a nod. “We’ll get there much faster. Hopefully, we find Starfall Haven quickly, and someone there can help shed some light on what’s going on with Re—Cherry.” He shakes his head. “It’s gonna be hard to get used to saying her name.”

“I’m dying to hear her voice again,” I admit. “She only said three words, and it wasn’t nearly enough.”

“I want to know what she was running from,” Hunter says. I glance at him and see the anger in his eyes. Remembering how we found her has me wanting the same thing.

“I want to know who did that to her,” Bain adds with a snarl. “I want to know who put that fucking muzzle on her, so I can rip their balls off and shove them down their throat.”

“Vicious,” I say with a nod of approval. “I’m in.”

“I want to know everything about her,” Maddox says quietly.

I let that sink in for a minute. Everything we know has been about her character, the way she acts and reacts to the world around her.

I know she’s kind and sweet, funny and loving.

But how that translates into her human form, I have no idea.

And we know nothing of her past, or her hopes and dreams.

How will things change once she’s able to shift and stay in her human form?

Will she still like to snuggle on the couch and watch TV with us?

Will she still want to play games with Hunter and me?

Will she still let Maddox and Bain hand-feed her?

Will she still keep Gage company when he stays up late doing research?

Will she still let us all in her bed at night?

“You think she won’t want us when she shifts?” Hunter asks in alarm, making me realize I asked that last question through the bond.

“No, I’m just thinking about what Maddox said. I’m wondering how different she’ll be in her human form. I know my wolf wouldn’t enjoy binge-watching TV like I do. How do she and her wolf differ?”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that too much,” Gage says as he glances up from his laptop. “She already displays very humanistic traits in her wolf form. She’ll likely be the same snuggly, sweet girl we’ve come to love.”

I raise my brow at the use of the L word.

But I don’t comment on it. How can I? I already feel like I’m in love with her.

Maybe it’s because she’s my fated mate. Because it seems insane to be in love with a wolf.

But I’ve seen her personality shining through, regardless of what skin she’s wearing. And I already know she’s perfect.