His Claim (Alphas of the Rocky Mountains #3)

Prologue

Colorado

One year post Collapse…

Varek Dain

I never used to think about endings.

Not the last breath of a quiet day or the final time someone’s hand touched mine. Not the slow unraveling of peace. Not the way things could go from calm to chaos in the span of a single heartbeat.

But that night? That fucking night? It taught me everything about endings. The kind that scar you for the rest of your life. The kind you never get over.

We were in the kitchen, or what passed for one.

The stove rattled in protest, one of the burners limping to life as the scent of rosemary and roasted potatoes filled the tiny room.

I stirred the pot, elbow-deep in steam, while Elena leaned over the counter, her face flushed with warmth and laughter.

Her laughter. Fuck, that sound could break me even now.

“You’re burning it,” she said, nudging me with her hip.

“I am not,” I shot back. “I’m browning it. There’s a difference.”

She grinned, stealing a piece of potato straight from the pan and popping it into her mouth before I could swat her away. “You season like a wolf. All salt and rage.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“You’re right,” she said, tapping her chin dramatically. “You’re more of a tragic poet with a spoon.”

I laughed because she always had a way of coaxing it out of me, even when the world outside our walls felt like it was coming apart at the seams. And it was.

We both knew that. The radio had been silent for days now.

People had started vanishing from nearby settlements.

For those few hours, though, with her standing beside me in my shirt as the firelight turned her hair into gold, I let myself believe we were still safe.

I turned the burner down, letting the potatoes crisp, and stepped behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. Her breath caught, just like it always did when I got close, like she couldn’t believe it was real.

Her head tilted back against my shoulder, and I buried my nose in her neck, just breathing her in.

“After we eat,” I murmured, “let’s take the old radio out. Maybe we can catch something.”

She nodded, her fingers weaving through mine where they rested on her stomach. “Or maybe we just sit under the stars. Pretend we’re the last ones left.”

I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t want to, but because the air had changed in that instant.

It was like the warmth had been ripped from the room.

The silence outside became too quiet, and the wind shifted.

My instincts prickled, the hair on the back of my neck rising even though I hadn’t been a soldier in quite a long time.

Elena felt it too. She stiffened.

Then came the first sound, a low thump. Muffled. Distant.

“Varek?” she whispered.

I grabbed her arm and moved fast, crossing to the far wall where the shotgun hung in its makeshift rack. I shoved it into her hands, and the terrified look on her face made my heart throb in my chest.

The first howl split the night like a blade across my throat. My blood froze, every instinct screaming at me to do something before my mind could catch up.

“Elena.” My voice somehow sounded composed and calm even though my heart thundered against my ribs. “Run.”

She blinked at me, confusion etched across her face, her hand clutching the wooden spoon like it could ward off what was coming. “What? No—”

“Run.” I grabbed her shoulders and captured her eyes, forcing her to see me, to understand. “Out the back, straight to the ridge. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. I’ll find you.”

Her lips parted, trembling, but she nodded. She trusted me. She kissed me once, quick and desperate, and then she was gone, the fabric of my shirt swishing against her thighs as she slipped out the back door into the night.

The door splintered inward a second later.

They swarmed inside like shadows made flesh, eyes blazing amber, teeth bared, their snarls rattling the walls.

I didn’t think. I just moved. The first wolf lunged, and I drove the butcher’s knife straight into its throat.

Hot blood sprayed, iron-thick and steaming.

The second hit me low, teeth snapping for my leg, and I kicked it off with a loud roar, sending it sprawling into the table.

Bread, dishes, the pan—everything crashed to the floor.

My pulse hammered in my ears. My body was alive with fire, my arms and legs moving on instinct. This wasn’t a fight for survival. This was a fight for her.

“Come on!” I bellowed, dragging a chair into my grip and shoving it into the jaws of the next wolf.

Its teeth splintered the wooden chair leg, snapping through it like kindling, but the opening gave me time to grab and swing the iron poker from the hearth.

The metal rod cracked across its skull with a sickening crunch.

Another one lunged through the window, glass and wood exploding into the room as its claws tore into my shoulder.

I roared, not in fear, but fury. Grabbing the wolf’s fur, I slammed its head into the edge of the stone hearth repeatedly until bone cracked, until its body went limp.

I kicked the corpse aside, chest heaving, the room around me spinning in smoke, blood, and firelight. My arm throbbed at my side, blood pouring down it hot and sticky, but I could still hear Elena’s fleeing footsteps in my mind, still feel her lips pressed against mine.

As the remaining wolves circled me, snarling, their eyes gleaming with the hunger of predators who thought they’d already won, I planted my feet on the blood-soaked floor of my home and raised the poker again.

“Not tonight,” I growled. All I could think of was Elena running through the night, frightened and desperate, the fabric of my shirt catching the wind. If they wanted her, they’d have to go through me.

The first wolf lunged, and I met it halfway. My fist slammed into its jaw with a crunch, the poker in my other hand driving deep into its gut. It howled, thrashing, but I wrenched the bar upward, ripping it free in a spray of blood.

Two more hit me together, one high, one low.

The weight of them drove me back, slamming me into the hearth so hard my lungs emptied in a single burst. Claws tore at my chest, teeth snapping for my throat, but I jammed the poker sideways into the first one’s mouth, holding it back by inches while its fetid breath poured over my face.

The other clawed my legs, dragging me down.

I roared, kicked the lower wolf in the snout, then slammed my forehead into the first one’s muzzle. Bone cracking, it reeled back, and I jammed the jagged end of the poker through its throat. Hot blood gushed down my arm as it staggered, gurgled, and collapsed in a twitching heap.

The one at my legs lunged again. I seized its ears, twisted with everything I had, and drove my knee into the side of its head until it went limp.

That left one.

The last wolf stalked through the broken door, eyes glowing gold in the firelight, claws clicking against the wood as it sized me up. My chest heaved, every muscle burning, my arms shaking from blood loss and exhaustion, but I refused to drop the poker.

It leapt.

I rolled beneath it, grabbed a shard of glass from the shattered window, and jammed it up into its belly as it flew over me. It howled, spun on me, jaws wide. I surged to my feet and met it head-on, driving the poker down into its skull with every ounce of strength I had left.

The beast convulsed once, twice, and then went still, its weight dragging the poker from my grip as it slumped to the floor.

Silence.

The cabin burned around me, the smell of smoke thick in my nose. My breath came ragged, my body a mass of blood and claw marks, but I didn’t stop to count my wounds.

“Elena.”

I tugged the poker free and staggered to the back door, the cold night air slamming into me like a brick wall. The forest loomed dark and endless, branches whipping in the wind, and somewhere out there, she was running. Running because I told her to. Running because she trusted me to protect her.

I tightened my grip on the blood-slick poker, the muscles in my arms screaming, my chest heaving with every breath.

“I’m coming for you,” I swore into the night.

I ran after her.

Branches whipped at my face as I tore through the trees, my lungs on fire, my boots pounding the frozen ground. The night howled with more than wind—snarls, claws raking bark, wolves cutting through the forest like shadows given teeth.

“Elena!” My voice shredded my throat, shaking with panic. “Keep running! I’m coming!”

I followed the path she would have taken, up toward the ridge, my heart hammering in my ears, the scent of her perfume still faint on the cold air.

Then the smell changed.

Blood.

Iron and salt, sharp and heavy.

“No…” My chest caved in as I stumbled into a clearing.

She was there, crumpled at the base of a tree, my shirt torn, the snow beneath her painted red.

Her eyes stared up at the stars, wide and glassy, her lips parted as if she’d tried to call my name.

Her hand still reached outward, fingers curled in desperation, but there was no breath left in her chest.

I fell to my knees, dropping the poker on the ground, the world tilting. “Elena…”

My hands shook as I touched her cheek, still warm. I pulled her into my arms, gathering her broken body against me, rocking her the way you would a child who’d had a bad dream.

But this wasn’t a dream.

This was the end of everything.

“I told you I’d find you,” I whispered, my tears falling hot against her skin. “I’m so sorry, my love. I’m so damn sorry.”

The forest was silent for a moment, just me and her and the sound of my own ragged sobs. Then the silence broke.

A growl rolled low through the dark. Then another, and another, encircling me.

Shadows moved between the trees, yellow eyes catching moonlight, claws dragging through the dirt. A pack. A whole goddamn pack.

I laid Elena down gently, brushing her hair from her face one last time, and then I grabbed my weapon and stood. My fist clenched around the poker still slick with blood, my arms shaking but ready.

“Come on,” I snarled, my voice breaking on the words. “Come and finish it.”

They surged from the trees all at once.

I swung wildly, the poker cracking ribs, shattering jaws, the air exploding with snarls and the screech of metal on bone.

One wolf slammed me into the dirt, claws tearing my back, and I rolled, driving the iron bar straight through its chest. Another leapt for me, teeth snapping, and I grabbed it by the throat, crushing until it stopped thrashing.

But there were too many.

Claws raked across my arms, my chest, opening my flesh in a dozen places. My blood painted the melting snow beneath my feet, hot steam rising in the frigid night. My muscles screamed, every breath tearing fire through my ribs, but I fought until I couldn’t lift the poker anymore.

Then one hit me from the side. He was massive and heavier than all the rest. We crashed to the ground, its jaws snapping. I jammed my forearm between its teeth, trying to hold it off, but my strength was gone. Its fangs sank deep, ripping through flesh and bone.

The scream that tore out of me was ragged and animalistic.

A vicious thing burned in my veins. Not just pain, but a building fire. A poison that spread fast, consuming me, twisting my insides until my vision went white. My heart raced out of control, my breath a desperate rasp as the wolf shook me, tearing me apart, claiming me as one of his own.

When it finally let go, I fell into the snow, clutching my arm as black veins spider-webbed across my skin. My blood boiled, my muscles spasmed, and my body was no longer my own.

Through the haze, my eyes found Elena’s again, lifeless and perfect in the moonlight.

The world went dark, my screams ripping through the night as the merciless fire took me.

That was how it all began.

The night I lost her.

The night I became the very thing I swore to kill.

And I vowed that if I lived, I’d burn every last one of them for it.